McBride’s Crucifixion Highlights the Need for Whistleblower Protections in Australia
David McBride, a former Australian soldier and military lawyer, had little choice but to plead guilty to criminal charges including theft of property from a Commonwealth entity and unlawfully giving away defence information after his planned public interest defence - that he...
The Offence of Reckless Foreign Interference in Australia
A Sydney businessman accused of unlawfully selling information to Chinese spies has vehemently denied the allegations and is vowing to defend the charges. 55-year old Bondi marketing director, Alexander Csergo, was charged earlier this year with one count of reckless...
‘Stealthing’ Amounts to Sexual Assault in New South Wales
Perhaps needless to say, it is not a crime to have unprotected sexual intercourse with a consenting partner – provided of course they have reached the age of consent, have the mental capacity to provide consent and have in fact...
Sextortion Laws In Australia
There have been a rise of attempts in Australia of ‘sexual extortion’, abbreviated to ‘sextortion’, with social media sites being used to target and blackmail victims, many of whom are young men concerned about compromising images being distributed to friend,...
Do Courts Have to Use Preferred Pronouns for Transgender Defendants in Criminal Cases?
Earlier this month, children’s book author JK Rowling tweeted the following in regard to a new practice note that applies to South Australian courts regarding preferred pronouns: Asking a woman to refer to her male rapist or violent assaulter as...
Court Suppresses Name of NSW Police Inspector Charged with High-Range Drink Driving
A New South Wales Local Court Magistrate has granted a suppression order in favour of a high-ranking police officer who is alleged to have driven his police-issued vehicle while driving with a high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol, collided into a...
Changing a Criminal Plea from Guilty to Not Guilty: The ‘Interests of Justice’ Test
In December 1988, American mathematician Scott Johnson’s body was found lying at the base of a cliff at north Headland on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. In 2017, a coronial inquest concluded that his death was caused by actual or threatened violence...
Expanding the Offence of Hate Speech Will Unjustifiably Impede Free Speech
The NSW government announced this week it is contemplating redrafting hate speech laws, as the criminal offence of hate speech enacted in 2018 has not resulted in a single conviction. So, rather than seeing the absence of convictions as evidence the...
How Much Will My Sentence Be Reduced If I Plead Guilty?
A 64-year old man facing 23 allegations of historical child sexual offences, including having sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16-years, has changed his plea from not guilty to guilty just hours after his trial started. The...
Do I Have to Testify in Court? Explaining Witness Competence and Compellability
Being called to ‘give evidence’ – also known as as testify – in a criminal trial can be a daunting experience; something you may not want to do for any of several reasons – you may be worried about saying...
