Robertson O’Gorman Senior Criminal Defense Lawyer, Terry O’Gorman, writes about pretrial publication of criminal sentencing, post recent publication of Courier Mail and airing of Channel 9 News
It has long been a requirement of Police that a person’s criminal history is not to be revealed by the Police in post arrest media comments.
The reason for this rule is to protect the integrity of the Trial process and the rule is directed to two aspects of the Court process.
The first is to ensure the fair Trial of an accused which can be adversely affected by the publication of an accused’s criminal history, particularly by Police in the immediate aftermath of an accused’s arrest.
The second is a corollary of the first, namely to protect the integrity of the Prosecution case against a challenge by the Defence for exclusion of evidence or other Trial related steps such as a temporary or permanent stay of proceedings.
In today’s Courier Mail and in last night’s news there was reference to the criminal history of the accused person arrested in relation to the incredibly tragic event where a 69 year old woman was killed at Murrumba Downs allegedly by a 16 year old driving a stolen Audi.
Police attributed or background comments about the criminal history of the accused are:-
- Chief Superintendent Adam Guild said the teen was known to Police and confirmed he had matters before the Court (Courier Mail, Friday 8 November 2024, page 4);
- Channel 9 News 6:00pm Thursday 7 November 2024 where a comment was made that “(The suspect) has a 16 page rap sheet and is on bail”.
While the event is extremely tragic, the protection of the integrity of the Court process requires that the increasing practice of Queensland Police making media comments on a person’s criminal history at the time of the arrest must cease.
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