Pubdate: Fri, 31 Mar 2006
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2006 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Fergus Shiel

OMBUDSMAN BACKS TOP COP

VICTORIA'S highest ranking detective has the backing of the Ombudsman
for a debate on scrapping committal hearings in serious criminal
cases, but lawyers fiercely oppose the idea.

Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland said Magistrates Court committal
hearings were obsolete and unnecessarily delayed big jury trials.

His call for reform came a day after millionaire drug dealer Tony
Mokbel was convicted over a cocaine importation.

Mokbel, who had been on bail for more than three years, disappeared
last week days before the jury retired to consider its verdict.

Ombudsman George Brouwer said last year that he wanted the right of
people charged with serious criminal offences to a committal hearing
to be reviewed, as pre-trial hearings were of questionable value in
certain cases.

Director of Public Prosecutions Paul Coghlan, QC, ordered in 2004 that
three underworld figures should be presented directly to the Supreme
Court, but they won the right to committal hearings.

They were later sent to trial.

Attorney-General Rob Hulls views committal hearings as important for
the accused to understand the case against them and a cost-effective
way of flushing out issues in dispute and narrowing legal questions.

But Mr Hulls said he was prepared to consider reforms to speed up the
process.

"These include compulsory conferences between the parties before the
first committal hearing."

Chief Magistrate Ian Gray said yesterday that his court had done
everything it could to reduce delays in criminal prosecutions,
including fast-tracking committal hearings in major criminal trials.

He said committal hearings remained a valuable part of the court
process, especially in very serious and complex criminal charges.

Office of Public Prosecutions figures for 2003-04 show there were 1290
contested committals and 80 direct presentments to the County and
Supreme courts.

Both the Law Institute and the Criminal Bar Association are opposed to
abolishing committal hearings, which they say play an important role
in refining legal questions and weeding out cases that should not go
to trial or should become pleas.

"If you didn't have committal hearings, you would have much longer
trials," Criminal Bar Association head Lex Lasry, QC, said.

"Any proper analysis of committals demonstrates that they are useful,
not obsolete. We are totally opposed to abolishing
committals."

In Victoria, a magistrate only has to find there is sufficient
evidence to support a conviction before committing a person to trial.

But in NSW, the magistrate had to show there is a reasonable prospect
of conviction.

WHAT IS A COMMITTAL HEARING?

THIS is the hearing where a magistrate decides if there is enough
evidence for the case to go to trial. Committal hearings take place in
the Magistrates' Court. The case against the accused person is
presented at the committal hearing by counsel on behalf of the
Director of Public Prosecutions. At the end of the hearing, if the
accused is committed, they can enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.
Or they can reserve their plea. The accused is then remanded or bailed
before their trial or plea hearing.
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