R v Waring

[1996] QCA 134

[1996] QCA 134

COURT OF APPEAL
FITZGERALD P
DAVIES JA

BYRNE J

CA No 69 of 1996
THE QUEEN
v.

ROBERT WILLIAM WARING

BRISBANE
..DATE 02/05/96
020596 D.1 T2/JAP M/T COA 82/96
THE PRESIDENT: In the very special circumstances of this kind,
which it is not proposed to set out in detail, the Court
proposes to allow Mr Waring's appeal in relation to offences to
which he pleaded guilty on 16 October 1995, namely, that on a
date unknown between 4 March 1995 and 6 March 1995 at Brisbane
in the State of Queensland he attempted unlawfully to set fire
to a vessel the property of one Alan Cameron and further that on
a date unknown between 4 March 1995 and
6 March 1995 at Brisbane in the State of Queensland he damaged a
motor vehicle the property of one Alan Cameron and also offences
to which he pleaded guilty on the following day which I do not
propose to read but should be taken as incorporated in the
record and they are set out at pages 128 to 130 of the appeal
record placed before the Court today.

The Court is taking this course shortly stated for the reason that it is impossible to be sure that there is not a real possibility that an innocent person has been convicted wrongly of those offences, not because of any material placed before the Court which cast doubt on Mr Cameron's guilt in the sense of the substance of the matters, but because the proceedings both below and now in this Court, on two separate occasions, have been attended by such confusion that it is impossible to be satisfied that there is not a risk in the convictions. At least, they are my reasons for doing so.

020596 D.1 T2/JAP M/T COA 82/96
THE PRESIDENT: The orders of the Court will be as I have
indicated. The Court further orders that in respect of each of
the offences there be a retrial.