R v Goodwin

[2015] NSWSC 2107

Supreme Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Goodwin [2015] NSWSC 2107
Hearing dates:	11 March 2015
Date of orders:	11 March 2015
Decision date:	11 March 2015
Before:	Harrison J
Decision:	Bail refused
Catchwords:	BAIL – show cause requirement – throwing explosive with intent to maim – young man – first time in custody – show cause requirement met – concern applicant may commit serious offence and/or endanger the safety of victims or the community – limited but indicative criminal history – bail refused
Category:	Procedural and other rulings
Parties:	Regina (Crown) Blake John Goodwin (Applicant)
File Number(s):	2015/00052478
Publication restriction:	Nil

EX-TEMPORE Judgment

1. HIS HONOUR: Blake Goodwin applies for bail. He was born in June 1993 and is some weeks short of his 22nd birthday.

2. He was arrested on 23 December last year and charged with a series of offences including larceny, supplying a prohibited firearm to an unauthorised person, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and for present purposes significantly throwing explosive with intent to maim a named victim.

3. These matters are listed for mention in the Central Local Court on 9 April this year when it is anticipated that the balance of the brief will be served. Mr Goodwin has been in custody bail refused since the date of his arrest. The Crown opposes bail.

4. The applicant is charged with a show cause offence and needs initially to demonstrate that there are reasons why his continued custody should not be continued. He is a young man and is in gaol for the first time. Those matters appear to me to demonstrate a sufficient indication that he has shown cause why his continued custody is not justified.

5. The Crown has indicated that it is concerned about a number of matters described in the Act as bail concerns. It is sufficient for present purposes to deal only with two. The first is that there is a concern that the applicant may commit a serious offence and/or endanger the safety of victims or the community.

6. Although I am not called upon to determine the truth or otherwise of the allegations which found the charges facing the applicant, the brief facts include the proposition that the applicant, armed with a container of petrol, followed or chased the victim some distance spreading petrol on the ground and ultimately to some extent upon her, which he attempted unsuccessfully in the events that occurred to ignite.

7. That behaviour in the context of the applicant’s limited but to some degree indicative criminal history, seems to me seriously to inform the proposition that bail conditions of the sort I am able to impose cannot operate sufficiently to mitigate the bail concerns that the Crown has identified.

8. I am troubled that a refusal of bail will lead to a considerable period on remand for a young man in custody for the first time. Bearing in mind that the activity upon which I am presently engaged is definitively a balancing activity, it seems to me that on balance, for the reasons I have identified, bail should be refused.

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