McGrane v Queensland State Parole Board

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

McGrane v Queensland State Parole Board [2014] QSC 17

PARTIES:

JAMES McGRANE

(Applicant)

v

QUEENSLAND STATE PAROLE BOARD

(Respondent)

FILE NO/S:

BS 7255 of 2013

DIVISION:

Trial Division

PROCEEDING:

Originating application

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court of Queensland

DELIVERED ON:

24 February 2014

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

15 October 2013

JUDGE:

Philip McMurdo J

ORDER:

The decision of the respondent made on 24 May 2013, to refuse to grant parole to the applicant, be set aside and the matter be remitted to the respondent to be reconsidered according to this judgment.

CATCHWORDS:

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – JUDICIAL REVIEW – GROUNDS OF REVIEW – PROCEDURAL FAIRNESS – GENERALLY – where the applicant seeks a statutory order of review of the Parole Board’s decision to refuse parole – whether the respondent was obliged to consider possible conditions of parole when determining relevant risk – whether the Board failed to take a relevant consideration into account – whether the Board’s decision was an improper exercise of power.

Corrective Services Act 2006 (Qld) s 200(1), s 200(2), s 201(1), s 201(2)
Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld) s13
Judicial Review Act 1991 (Qld) s20(2)(e), s23(b), s23(d), s 23(f)

McQuire v Southern Queensland Regional Community Corrections Board [2003] QSC 414

COUNSEL:

J McGrane in person

S O McLeod for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

Crown Law for the respondent

1. This is yet another challenge by the applicant to a refusal by the respondent to grant him parole.  The decision which is now challenged was made on 24 May 2013. 

1. The applicant was born in July 1968.  He has been in prison since April 1986, when he was charged with the rape and murder of a woman a few weeks earlier.  He pleaded guilty to the offence of rape and went to trial on the charge of murder, unsuccessfully arguing diminished responsibility.  In June 1986, he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for the offence of rape and, of course, life imprisonment for the offence of murder.

1. He has served the whole of the term imposed for the offence of rape, 15 years of his life sentence and the full terms of sentences imposed for offences which he committed in prison in a period from 1988 to 1992.

1. At aged 45, the applicant thereby has no experience as an adult in the community and no employment experience.  But he has undertaken tertiary studies and been awarded by the University of Southern Queensland a Degree of Bachelor of Information Technology, an Associate Degree of General Studies and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Personal Financial Planning. 

1. It is unnecessary to relate the history of his many applications for parole and several unsuccessful applications for judicial review upon being refused parole, the most recent of which appears to be a judgment in November 2012.[1]  For present purposes it is sufficient to say that the respondent has consistently concluded that at the time of its decision to refuse parole, it considered that there was an unacceptable risk that…