Stropin v The Queen

The applicant, Stropin, appealed to the Court against a decision made by a Judge concerning his plea of guilty to offences related to child exploitation material. The central dispute revolved around Stropin's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea after being committed for sentence.

The Court was required to determine whether the Judge had applied the correct legal test when assessing whether Stropin had an arguable defence to the charges, which would be a prerequisite for allowing the withdrawal of his guilty plea. Furthermore, the Court had to consider whether the Judge's exercise of discretion in refusing to allow the withdrawal of the plea was affected by any material error of fact or law.

The Court held that the Judge had correctly applied the relevant test for determining an arguable defence. It found that the Judge's decision was an exercise of a wide discretion and that Stropin had failed to demonstrate any material error, either in fact or law, that would indicate the discretion had miscarried. Consequently, permission to appeal was granted, but the appeal itself was dismissed.