Magistrate finds guilty climate activists to have ‘muscular good character due to their strong records of community service ’

 

Echo, 30 January 2024:

More than thirty climate activists controversially charged under NSW laws are free to continue life without penalty after their matters were heard in the Newcastle Local Court last week.

Police arrested 109 activists at the 12th Rising Tide anti-coal blockade of Newcastle Port late last year when the protest continued past the officially permitted time.

Officers said afterward they would allege in court some protesters deliberately entered the harbour channel after the permitted end time for the protest at 4pm on the Sunday, after three days of protests, despite police warnings and directions.

Protestors this week said police had subsequently charged 99 people with s14a of the Maritime Safety Act, Unreasonable interference by operation or use of vessel.

Twenty-one activists reportedly received convictions in the first related court hearing on 11 January while no convictions were recorded for another 40.

Last Friday, charges against 36 protestors were heard in the Newcastle Local Court, with the case against one, who was pleading not guilty, adjourned until 15 February.

Magistrate finds guilty climate activists to have ‘muscular good character’

Byron Shire climate and housing advocate Chels Hood-Withey on Monday said the other 35 protestors pleaded guilty, with five receiving convictions.

Many had their charges handled under a ‘Section 10A’ in NSW law effectively allowing for groups of people facing similar or the same minor charges to receive the one judicial finding.

Ms Hood-Withey said neither she, nor many of the other protestors pleading guilty in Newcastle Local Court, received a penalty or recording of the offence.

Magistrate John Chicken told the court protestors had ‘noble intentions, albeit they ended up in an infraction of the law,’ Ms Hood-Withey told The Echo.

‘They were motivated by selflessness and a genuine concern for the climate and the future of the earth,’ Magistrate Chicken was quoted as saying.

He characterised the defendants, aged 24 and 71, as being of ‘muscular good character due to their strong records of community service’......

Returning to the matters heard in Newcastle last week that protestors said included five Northern Rivers residents, Ms Hood-Withey said many represented themselves.

Some had the support of the Environmental Defenders Office, she said.

Several opted to enter their guilty pleas through the court’s online system and didn’t have to face court in person.

There were no conditions placed on their release from the court matters......

Read the full article here.

Note:

John Chicken was appointed to the bench of the NSW Local Court by NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos in 2009, after practicing law in New South Wales for 21 years with a strong background in criminal law having appeared extensively as a criminal advocate in the Local, District and Supreme Court of NSW.

Ballina man charged with 40 counts of sexually and indecently assaulting boys in Lismore area between 1960 and 1991

NSW Police, News, 30 September 2021:

A man will appear in court today charged over the alleged historical sexual abuse and indecent assault of seven children in the state’s north.

Last year, detectives from Richmond Police District established Strike Force Erldunda to investigate reports a man had been sexually and indecently assaulted as a child by a man who was known to him.

During the investigation, police identified a further six men who were allegedly sexually and indecently assaulted by the same man.

Following extensive inquiries, an 82-year-old man was arrested at a home in Ballina about 1.30pm yesterday (Wednesday 29 September 2021).

He was taken to Ballina Police Station and charged with 40 offences including 31 counts of indecent assault on male, four counts of indecent assault where victim under the age of 10 years and five counts of sexual intercourse with person under the age of 10 years.

Police will allege in court that the man sexually and indecently assaulted the boys – then aged between five and 12 – on several occasions between 1960 and 1991 in the Lismore area, while performing duties as a scout volunteer and a boys’ brigade volunteer.

The man was refused bail and is due to appear at Lismore Local Court today (Thursday 30 September 2021).

Investigations under Strike Force Erldunda are ongoing.

NSW O'Farrell Government and Metgasco Limited - implications regarding possible political interference and unethical or corrupt behaviour

The Northern Star 6 November 2013

The Northern Star 6 November 2013:

A magistrate has questioned whether charges brought against a group of anti-CSG protesters were politically motivated and accused the police of being vexatious in pursuing them.

Magistrate David Heilpern has dismissed charges against Alan Roberts and Bradley Rankin and written a scathing judgment, accusing the police of "an abuse of the processes of the court".

The case was in relation to a protest against Metgasco drilling at Glenugie in January. Up to 30 people were charged with obstructing a driver. To save time, a deal was done between the prosecution, defence and the court to make the case against Roberts and Rankin a test case.

But according to Alan Roberts, police withdrew the charges of "unreasonably obstruct a vehicle" just hours before the six-month limitation expired, without informing the defendants or the court.

"Presumably because there were no vehicles anywhere close (by) to obstruct," he said.

A new charge "attempt to obstruct a vehicle" was laid instead.

Mr Heilpern said it was the first time he had seen a charge of "attempting to commit a traffic offence" and likened it to attempting to not wear a seat belt.

"In this case I find myself asking what could possibly be the reason for continuing on with such an innocuous charge in these circumstances? Why else would police risk cost orders against them, drive a prosecutor up from Sydney to run the matters, arrange police witnesses to travel from Sydney, all for an innocuous minor traffic matter.

"It is in that context that the realistic suspicion of political interference arises," he said.....

When a newspaper sets itself up as a quasi-court meting out punishment

Every so often the Clarence Valley’s largest newspaper catches a bout of righteous indignation and does this:

The Daily Examiner will resume publishing the details of drink drivers who front Grafton and Maclean local courts.

The paper will collate the names, age and town of residence of the offenders, the location, time and date of the offence, the PCA reading and the penalty handed down.

This list will appear in the paper after local court hearings at Grafton or Maclean.*

Obviously ignoring the fact that NSW courts have rightly imposed specific legal penalties (which cannot include further public 'naming and shaming'), it wants to punish drink drivers a second time by further stigmatising the offender and, in the Clarence Valley’s small communities also potentially penalising or socially isolating the now easily identifiable innocent parents, partners, siblings or children of these offenders.

If as suggested His Honour Magistrate David M. Heilpern supports this secondary victimisation of persons not before the court (who quite rightly have an expectation of privacy) then I am seriously disappointed in both the man and his office.

That any community interest in naming and shaming has a less than noble side is shown by this remark by a NSW North Coast resident last year when the Coffs Coast Advocate broached the subject of drink driving:

Who knows we might see some local identities and characters that are our neighbours.

Neither The Daily Examiner nor the magistrate appear to have considered that the newspaper’s actual print edition containing these name and shame reports is replicated on the Internet in perpetuity.

Additionally, I have yet to find any reputable study which demonstrates that naming and shaming drink drivers lowers the NSW drink driving rate or affects which convicted drivers reoffend, so there is no excuse for The Daily Examiner’s latest effort to boost newspaper sales.

I am not alone in believing that a return to primitive responses is no solution. Here is Dr Lauren Rosewarne from the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne:

Drunk drivers, of course, is a much more complicated problem. But to suggest that naming an offender in the paper is the answer is laughable. If a person is stupid enough to drink and drive at any time, let alone repeatedly, they are not someone who makes decisions with any clarity. If the thought of killing oneself or others was not enough to prevent them sticking their key in the ignition in the first place, their name in the paper will hardly guide them better next time.

Rather than serving as a deterrent, the name and shame will simply embarrass those people around the drunk. Humiliating children and parents and spouses. 

* 10 April 2013 issue

Daily Examiner's leading opinion piece contains errors of fact

Without commenting on the merit or otherwise of the damages claims a number of persons have launched against the State of NSW in relation to the so-called 2010 Valentines Day Yamba riot, it needs to be pointed out that the local newspaper, The Daily Examiner, has started things off rather poorly with an opinion piece in today's paper. Written by Tim Howard, the piece contains errors that should be corrected.

According to Howard, the criminal trials were conducted "last year".
Wrong - the trials commenced in 2010 and concluded in 2011.

Also, according to Howard, the trials involved "a judge and his associate, the police prosecutors, eight barristers and two solicitors".
Again, wrong - the trials were conducted in the local court before a magistrate who did not have assistance of an associate. The adult defendants were represented directly by seven barristers and three solicitors. A fourth solicitor appeared as an instructing solicitor for two of the barristers.

Elsewhere in today's paper, Howard has a piece "Damages claims over riot arrests" where he wrote:

"Coffs Clarence patrol commander Superintendent Mark Holahan said he was aware a number of people were taking action against the police force.

He said, as the matters were the subject of legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate for him to comment on them.

He said court was the best place for these matters to be dealt with."

Perhaps Howard should take the Superintendent's advice. Otherwise, Howard and the paper may have to answer to a case or two of their own.

Source: The Daily Examiner, 24/5/12