R v Hamzy

[2015] NSWSC 1428

Supreme Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

R v Hamzy [2015] NSWSC 1428

Hearing dates:

29 September 2015

Date of orders:

29 September 2015

Decision date:

29 September 2015

Jurisdiction:

Common Law

Before:

RS Hulme AJ

Decision:

1. The trial date commencing Monday, 6 October 2015 is vacated.

 

2. The matter is stood over to the Arraignments List on Friday, 2 October 2015.

 3. Mr Hamzy is remanded in custody.

Category:

Procedural and other rulings

Parties:

Mohammed Hamzy (Applicant/Accused)

Representation:

Counsel:
M McKay (Crown/Respondent)
S Buchen (Applicant/Accused)

  Solicitors:
Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown/Respondent)
Galbally Rolfe (Applicant/Accused)

File Number(s):

2013/336106

Publication restriction:

Nil

EX TEMPORE Judgment

1. HIS HONOUR: Mr Mohammed Hamzy stands charged with a number of offences, including murder. He was arrested in November 2013. He was committed for trial in March of 2015. The matter first appeared in this Court on 8 May 2015. On 5 June 2015 a trial date for Monday next was fixed. During the course of appearances before Justice Johnson in the Arraignments List it was indicated that there were no pretrial issues.

2. Within the last two weeks the Crown has served a number of further statements which are obviously of potential substantial materiality. One of those statements was calculated, perhaps inevitably, to embarrass the solicitor for Mr Hamzy who, in consequence, has taken the view that he can no longer appear. Fresh solicitors have been engaged, but it is claimed that the matter cannot be ready to proceed next Monday. Some detail of the reasons for that claim have been provided to me and in the circumstances I have no difficulty in accepting what I have been told.

3. Accordingly, there seems to me no option but to vacate the hearing commencing next Monday and the most convenient additional order to make is to have the matter relisted in the Arraignments List on Friday next. I will make those orders in the context that there is no available date for the matter to proceed this year, if, indeed, the legal advisers for Mr Hamzy could be ready earlier than they suggest. In practical terms it seems that the trial of Mr Hamzy will now not commence until at the earliest mid-February and possibly March of next year, something of the order of two and a quarter years since he was arrested. It is, in my view, a disgrace to the criminal justice system that people are incarcerated for that length of time prior to their trial.

4. It is notorious that the Courts of this State, because of the pressure of work, are unable to provide accused persons with a reasonably expeditious trial. In this case it appears clear that the problem has arisen because the relevant persons in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions concerned with this trial were not aware of a deal of information which is clearly relevant and which should have been disclosed long ago.

5. I have now been or acted as a Judge of this Court for over 20 years and I never cease to be surprised at the extent of the incompetence or the inefficiency within the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. It seems to me clear that the arraignment judge in the future can have no confidence whatsoever in any statements by the Crown that a case is ready for trial. Such statements might be correct, but if so it will be purely a matter of chance.

6. The orders that I make are:

1.   I vacate the trial date commencing next Monday.

2.   I stand the matter over to the Arraignments List on Friday 2 October 2015.

3.   Mr Hamzy is remanded in custody meanwhile.

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