Criminal law - Procedure - Appeal against conviction - Abandonment by counsel - Accused subsequently representing himself - Application to reinstate appeal - Criteria - Unsupported denial of provision of instructions to abandon appeal - Leave to reinstate appeal refused.

Criminal law - Appeal against conviction - Contingent consideration of appeal - Contempt of court - Unrepresented plaintiff in civil action - Disruptive and abusive behaviour in court - Allegations of impropriety and corruption made against court and presiding judge - Threat to presiding judge - Natural justice - Whether ostensible bias - Accused seeking to obtain legal representation - Refusal of adjournment - Trial judge not in error - Grounds of appeal against appeal would not have been made out.

Human rights - Charter - Applicability - Fair trial - Criminal trial - Refusal of adjournment application - Court not acting in administrative capacity - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) ss 4(1)(j) 7(2) 24 38(1)

Sentencing - Contempt of court - Disruptive and abusive behaviour in court - Allegations of impropriety and corruption made against court and presiding judge - Threat to presiding judge - Sentence of two months' imprisonment with further one month's imprisonment in default of payment of costs - No error in factors taken into account by judge - Sentence not manifestly excessive - Imprisonment in default of payment of costs erroneous - Appeal allowed in part - Accused resentenced to two months' imprisonment - Indemnity costs order.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Totality - Offences committed whilst on interstate parole - Multiple counts of burglary, theft and drug possession - Sentence of five years' imprisonment with non-parole period of three years and six months - Unexpired South Australian parole not cancelled at time of sentence for Victorian offending - Offender potentially to serve eight years and 11 months' imprisonment with non-parole period of five years - Failure to take totality into account - Whether Victorian offending connected in time and character to South Australian offending - Such connection not necessary to invoke totality - Specific error established - Whether lesser sentence should be imposed - Appeal dismissed - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) s 5(2AA)(a).

Accident compensation - Workers compensation - Impairment benefits - Assessment - Medical panel - American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment - Relationship between statute and Guides - Cervicothoracic spine - Aggravation of pre-existing anchylosing spondylitis - Total restriction of neck mobility - Assessment of nil impairment - Panel approach precluded by statute - Guides (4th Ed) s 3.3e, 3.3f(5), 3.3f(9) - Accident Compensation Act 1985 (No 10191) ss 91(1) 91(7)(c)

Administrative law - Judicial review - Certiorari - Jurisdictional error - Error of law on face of record - Whether leave to appeal from refusal of order required - Competing authorities - Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 O 56

Criminal law - Conviction - Trial extending over 11 months - Interruptions - Guilty verdict said to involve miscarriage of justice - Commonwealth offences - Defrauding the Commonwealth - Evasion of income and group tax liabilities - Lengthy presentation of Crown case - Adjournments - Absence of defence counsel due to illness and other reasons - Trial judge needing to interrupt trial to undergo surgery - Defence counsel's closing address lasting more than 15 days - Trial judge's charge occupying 16 days - Whether risk that jury failed to deliver verdict according to evidence - Trial judge inviting counsel to seek discharge of jury - Defence counsel declining to seek discharge - Considered submission, on instructions, that trial proceed - No showing of flagrant incompetence by counsel - Interests of justice - No miscarriage of justice - Convictions not unsafe and unsatisfactory - Ample evidence to support guilty verdicts - Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s 29D

Criminal law - Conviction - Trial - Severance - Co-accused charged with obtaining unauthorised access to computerised data - Judge declining to order severance - Counts subsequently severed after evidence led in respect of counts - Evidence led in respect of those counts ruled inadmissible and jury directed to disregard it - Whether trial judge erred in failing to discharge jury at that time - Relevance of deliberate decision by counsel not to seek discharge - Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s 76B(2)

Criminal law - Sentence - Defrauding the Commonwealth - Sentence of five years and four months' imprisonment manifestly excessive - Delay - Eight years from execution of search warrants until conclusion of case - Accused resentenced to four years' imprisonment with non-parole period of 27 months.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Consistency - Range - Current sentencing practices - Plea of guilty - Sentencing judge mischaracterising plea as late - Immaterial error - Intentionally causing serious injury - Assessment of gravity - Degree of variation in sentencing - Offender kicked and punched female victim in face - Serious permanent impairment of hearing - Driving while disqualified - Total effective sentence of seven years and six months with non-parole period of five years and three months' imprisonment not manifestly excessive.

Criminal law - Sexual offences against children - Sexual penetration of child under 16 - Evidence - Accused's record of interview - Jury question - Misdirection - Undermining evidential value of record of interview - Failure to give Azzopardi direction - Direction on effect of delay in terms of complainant's credibility - Failure to distinguish between directions of law and comments upon facts - Aggregation of defects - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 61 - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) s 20

Criminal law - Murder - Evidence - Admissibility - Circumstantial evidence - Identification - Exclusion of prejudicial evidence - Probative value - Unfairness - Reliability - Christie discretion - Verdict not unsafe and unsatisfactory - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) s 137

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Expert evidence - Whether based on specialist knowledge - Dangers of identification evidence - General expert evidence as to dangers admissible - Specific evidence as to reliability of individual identifications not admissible - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 79 108C

Criminal law - Evidence - Corroboration - Alleged admissions - Prison informer - Pollitt direction - Weight - Verdict not unsafe and unsatisfactory - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 164 165

Courts and judges - Precedent - Court of Appeal - Intermediate courts of appeal - Comity - Uniform legislation - Uniform Evidence Acts - Construction by other intermediate courts - Departure - Only where Court of Appeal convinced other court's construction plainly wrong.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Manifest inadequacy - Director's appeal - Multiple sexual offences by father against step-children and de facto spouse - Incest - Rape - Committing indecent act with child under care - Procuring sexual penetration of a child - Intentionally causing injury - Producing child pornography - Persistent violence, cruelty and depravity - Worst case category - Representative and rolled-up counts - Total effective sentence of 13 years' imprisonment with non-parole period of 10 years - No challenge to individual sentences - Proportionality - Totality - Cumulation orders inadequate - Sentence increased to 16 years' imprisonment with non-parole period of 12 years.

Criminal law - Sentence - Director's appeal - Competency - Director can appeal against total effective sentence - Manifest inadequacy constituting error - "Sentence" - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 287

Criminal law - Sentencing - Manifest excess - Current sentencing practices - Sexual offences against children - Maintaining sexual relationship with child under 16 - Indecent assault - Non-penetrative offending - Sentence of nine years' imprisonment for maintaining sexual relationship with child under 16 - Total effective sentence of 13 years and six months' imprisonment with non-parole period of 11 years and six months - Such stern sentences reserved for cases involving multiple acts of sexual penetration - Appeal allowed - Offender resentenced.

Criminal law - Murder - Defences - Mental impairment - Test - Accused suffered from paranoid schizophrenia - Accused's perception of legal and moral wrongness of his actions - Defence rejected by jury - "Wrong" - Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (No 65) s 20

Criminal law - Evidence - Expert psychiatric evidence - Two psychiatrists agreed as to accused's mental state at time of offending - Crown submission to jury that expert evidence would not assist them - Trial judge declining to direct jury that expert evidence should not be disregarded without logical foundation - Danger that jury would replace expert evidence with lay reasoning - Direction desirable alerting jury to dangers of applying standards of common sense and rationality used by sane rather than mentally ill person.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Murder - Two execution-style murders in public place - Twenty years' imprisonment with non-parole period of 20 years within range.

Criminal law - Attempted murder - Trial - Court's duty to ensure fair trial - Legally aided accused - Stay - Public interest - Risk that accused could not be assured of receiving fair trial - Instructing solicitor - Role - Legal aid for instructor for two half days of trial only - Contrast with Crown's resources - Trial judge not in error in finding lack of instructing solicitor likely to make trial unfair - Conditional stay granted until aid provided for instructor for duration of trial - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 197

Human rights - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities - Whether appropriate to entertain Charter points on interlocutory criminal appeal - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43)

Legal practitioners - Criminal trial - Indictable offence - Instructing solicitor - Role - Workload of counsel - Necessary assistance for counsel.

Practice and procedure - Application for leave to appear as amicus curiae - Whether court would be assisted by submissions of amicus.

Criminal law - Trial - Legal representation - Power to order Victoria Legal Aid ("VLA") to provide representation to accused person - VLA providing only limited assistance for instructing solicitor for trial - No jurisdiction to order VLA to provide for instructing solicitor for duration of trial - Jurisdiction limited to case of indigent accused refused funding and forced to proceed self-represented - "Legal representation" - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 197(2) (3)

Criminal law - Trial - Fair trial - Temporary stay - Criteria - Necessity for instructing solicitor - Equality of arms - Circumstances of case relevant - Power to order stay not precluded by statutory power to order provision of legal representation - Conditional stay granted - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 197(2)

Legal practitioners - Criminal trial - Role of instructing solicitor.

Criminal law - Sexual offences - Child under 16 years - Committing indecent act in presence of child - Elements of offence - Intention - Whether absolute or strict liability - Whether honest and reasonable mistake as to age a defence - Conviction in Magistrates' Court - Unsuccessful appeal to County Court - Application for judicial review of conviction and sentence - Jurisdictional error - Error of law on face of record - Public recreational facility - Area reserved for persons aged 16 years or older - Three girls aged 15, 14 and 14 years admitted to area - Two complainants observing indecent act through doorway - Sufficient physical proximity - No basis for setting aside conviction - Third complainant in different room - Conviction quashed - "Presence" - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 47

Criminal law - Sentencing - Aggravating circumstances - Purpose of offending - Using carriage service to cause offence - Communicating sexually explicit material - Offensive messages and pictures sent to undercover police officer - Offender's belief that recipient was 14 year old girl - Early offer of guilty plea rejected by Crown - Insufficient weight - Significant delay - Appeal allowed - Recognisance release order - Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) s 474.17.

Criminal law - Sexual offences - Evidence - Cross-admissibility of evidence of two complainants - Tendency - Coincidence - Concoction, collusion and contamination - Judge erred by admitting tendency and coincidence evidence - Judge failed to give adequate directions - Appeal allowed - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 97 98 101

Criminal law - Sentencing - Retrial - Judge erred in imposing higher sentence on retrial than that imposed following previous trial.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Double punishment - Conspiracy to cause serious injury intentionally - Possessing an unregistered firearm - Judge sentencing offender for firearm charge and treating possession of firearm as aggravating circumstance of conspiracy - Error - No different sentence imposed.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Victim impact statement - Admissibility - Injury - Conspiracy - Proposed "home invasion" - Conspirators apprehended prior to entry - Home occupants not intended targets of planned assault - "Direct result" - "Injury" - "Victim" - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) ss 3 5(2)(aa) 5(2)(db)

Criminal law - Sentencing - Parity - Totality - Offender's prospects for rehabilitation - Sentences not manifestly excessive.

Administrative law - Judicial review - Coroner - Obligations - Inquest - Reportable death - Cause and circumstances of death - Possible findings - Relevant considerations - Disappearance and death of small child in 1968 - Contemporaneous abductions and deaths of four other children - Evidence - Admissibility - Relevance - Coroner excluding statements concerning circumstances of deaths of other children - Person found not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering one of those other children - Coroner's finding that same person was in vicinity of last sighting of missing child on day she disappeared - Excluded statements not relevant as evidence of striking similarities between murders - Relevant as evidence of propensity to violent crime - Relevant as going to identity of person - "Must find, if possible" - Coroners Act 2008 (No 77) s 67(1)(b) (c)

Coroners - Inquest - Characteristics - Inquisitorial court with duty to investigate - Evidence - Admissibility - Witness - Compellability - Incrimination - Propensity evidence - Reliability of evidence relevant to objection - Distinction between salient facts and mere pieces of evidence - Whether coroner obliged to inform witness that certificate of immunity would issue if witness gave evidence - "Interests of justice" - Coroners Act 2008 (No 77) s 57(3) (4)

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Expert - Specialist knowledge - Sexual offences against children - Expert evidence as to general behaviour of child victims - Relevance - Credibility - Weight - Counter-intuitive behaviour - Basis of opinion properly established - Probative value not outweighed by danger of unfair prejudice - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 55 79 108C 135 137 - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 388.

Legal practitioners - Litigation - Duty of candour - Elements - Solicitor's conduct in resisting application for appointment of receiver to practice - Misrepresentation of nature of document exhibited to affidavit/evidence by legal practitioner party to proceedings - Failure to disclose to court known facts inconsistent with positive assertions made by practitioner's own counsel - Legal Profession Act 2004 (No 99) ss 1.2.6 2.4.4(1) 2.4.7(2)(b) 3.3.21(3) 5.2.2(2)(c) 5.5.1

Legal practitioners - Solicitor - Practising certificate - Refusal of renewal application - Fitness to practise - Review by Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) - Firm - Trust account deficiencies - Receivership - Judicial findings as to solicitor's conduct - VCAT ruling that issue estoppel arose out of judicial findings - Requirements of same parties and issues and finality - Error of law affecting VCAT decision - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (No 53) s 143(1)

Criminal law - Fair trial - Extradition - Drug offences - Accused absconded during previous trial - Convicted and sentenced in absence - Accused extradited from Greece to serve sentence and to answer further charges - Challenge to legality of surrender by Greece - Unsuccessful resort to Greek courts - Application to European Court of Human Rights prior to surrender - Unsuccessful applications to stay trial following return to Australia - Surrender by Greece not in violation of European Convention on Human Rights - No improper conduct by Australian officials - Accused presented on fresh drug charges - No abuse of process.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Drug trafficking - Incitement to import - Many multiples of large commercial quantity of ecstasy, methylamphetamine - Thirty years' imprisonment, non-parole period 22 years - Applicant head of trafficking organisation - Worst category of offending - Sentencing range - Agreement between Crown and defence not binding sentencing judge - Sentencing judge mistaken about Crown submission on range - Whether error material - Whether different sentence should be imposed - Sentence not manifestly excessive.

Evidence - Foreign law - Proof - European Convention on Human Rights - "Foreign law" - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) s 174

International law - European Convention on Human Rights - Extradition jurisprudence - Interim measures - Reliance by Australian authorities on assurances given by surrendering contracting party - European Convention on Human Rights Art 34

Criminal law - Sentencing - Murder - Brutality - Worst case category - Life imprisonment without parole - Appropriateness - Nature of the offence - Offender aged 47 at time of murder - Past history of offender - Murder conviction 26 years earlier - Similar aggravating circumstances - Concealment and destruction of body - Violent offending on parole - Risk of future offending - No sentencing error - Sentence not manifestly excessive - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 47) s 11(1)