Senior Queensland judge criticises ‘glacial’ years-long delays in serious criminal trials | Queensland

A supreme court judge in Queensland has said serious criminal cases are taking “excruciatingly long” to conclude due to “glacial” delays in the state magistrates’ court, with some matters dragging on for several years with procedural uncertainty.

Judge Jim Henry, sitting at the high court in Cairns, released data showing that each of the 31 new criminal cases from his court disposed of between November and February took an average of more than a year (370 days) before being decided in lower courts.

One case – one man Jailed for sharing child abuse material and other related offenses – if more than three years have passed between the offender being charged and the magistrates court hearing the matter. Another drug trafficking case lasted two years and 10 months.

In comments to lawyers at an event last month and now Published as an article in the Supreme Court libraryAfter working in the criminal justice system for 40 years, Henry said, “these days [it] “It is taking longer than before to dispose of charges relating to allegations of serious crimes.”

“We seem to have become desensitized to how problematic the daily reality of delay is.

“From the perspective of those outside the system, the pace of proceedings through the magistrates’ court is too rapid.”

In the Queensland court system – as in many other courts in Australia – serious criminal charges are first heard in the magistrates’ court. After the hearing in the lower court, the matter will be sent to the higher court for trial or sentencing.

Henry said trial proceedings have historically served two purposes: to ensure that the evidence is sufficient to prosecute the defendant and to allow the defendant to discover the nature of the prosecution case.

In 2010 Queensland passed reforms designed to help streamline the criminal process. These reforms meant that defendants had to get permission from the court to cross-examine witnesses during the trial. Of more than 6,223 hearings in Queensland last year, only 117 (1.9%) were given the right to cross-examine.

Henry said the changes slowed down the justice process rather than made it easier because police were no longer under pressure to finalize a summary of evidence for a listed committal hearing.

“[This] This predictably led police to place less priority on finalizing the police summary of evidence immediately after an arrest, Henry said.

“Some defense practitioners have further compounded this trend by requesting full summaries of evidence when it is clear that their cases will result in conviction.

“It appears that much time was wasted at the trial stage due to repeated adjournments waiting for the police to provide full, sometimes unnecessary, summaries of the evidence sought by the defence.”

One of the problems, according to Henry, is that hearings are being postponed to wait for “unimportant” evidence so the case can proceed otherwise.

Another is where the police “incriminate the accused but fail to present evidence of a prima facie case.”

“Why do the courts give the police months to gather the evidence they should have before charging the majority, while the accused citizen’s freedom is violated by bail conditions or detention?” Henry said.

“The police’s choice to accuse a citizen carries with it the responsibility of being able to prove the accusation. To expect the court, which is the judicial branch of the government, to be its agent in continually delaying the disposition of the case in the hope that the police will produce the evidence they need is an abuse of the prosecutorial processes of the court – which is part of the executive branch of the government.”