An interesting admission was made by the prosecution today in the Craig Thomson trial, but the media didn’t hang around long enough to hear it. Umberto Ledfooti was at the court reporting for IA.
An interesting admission was made by the prosecution today in the Craig Thomson trial — but those jaw-dropping mainstream media journalists didn’t bother sticking around in court long enough to hear it.
Lesley Taylor, SC, appearing for the Crown, conceded that those movies Mr Thomson is alleged to have charged to his HSU credit card while staying in hotels
“… may not have been pornographic.”
She conceded that any of these videos
“… could have been The Sound Of Music.”
And there was a question not only if those moves were pornographic, but if they were ever even watched.
Did you see that being reported in the old media? No? I thought not.
This startling admission arose while Greg James, AM QC conducted a brilliant analysis relating to wording of the charges, how they related to the wording of the statute, and why at least one charge should have been thrown out.
One of Mr James’ other concerns was that, in this type of hearing, it is difficult for the defense to decide what is prejudicial to his client’s case before the matter is put before the court and the concern was that the admissibility or otherwise of a given witness’ testimony may only be determined once that witness is on the stand.
This type of trial is different from trials held in the higher courts, where voir dire proceedings sort these matters of admissibility out before the trial actually begins.
The establishment media has taken the line that the defense has argued that the charges not be heard in Victoria, but there was a lot more to that argument than the MSM is letting on.
Mr James (pictured right) argued that many of the charges related to actions alleged to have taken place in Sydney, Queensland, and other places, but the statute required that the actual harm done, or intended to be done, must take place in Victoria in order for the charges to be prosecuted in Victoria.
In particular this one, under section 321M of Victoria’s Criminal Code Act:
[charge number] 59. Craig THOMSON at Sydney on 19 September 2007 did attempt to commit an indictable offence namely dishonestly obtain from the Commonweath Bank of Australia property namely cash in the amount of $500.00 with the intention of permanently depriving the said Commonweath Bank of Australia of the sum of $500.00 by deception namely by falsely representing that the said Craig THOMSON was authorised to use Health Services Union Australia Commonwealth Bank of Australia Mastercard Number [redacted] to withdraw cash.
Section 321M of the Code states:
A person who attempts to commit an indictable offence is guilty of the indictable offence of attempting to commit that offence.
The crux of Mr James’ arguments were severalfold.
Firstly, that since Craig Thomson is alleged to have attempted to withdraw the $500 in Sydney, then the alleged deception (or alleged deprivation of the $500) took place outside the jurisdiction (or venue) and therefore not in Victoria.
Secondly, he argued that, if the alleged attempt took place in Sydney, then the charge lacked the follow-though required by the Code to make this attempt at an indictable offence in Victoria, as no harm had occurred in Victoria — and since only an attempt has been alleged, there is no “territorial nexus” between the place where the alleged attempted offense took place, and the place he’s being charged. Had the attempt been successful in this instance, then the territorial nexus would have been met.
Throughout this morning’s hearing, Craig Thomson appeared relaxed and attentive. He did not appear to be unduly concerned. And why should he be? Greg James QC, his counsel, is a distinguished former judge and has even presided over the Kapunda Road Royal Commission.
However, Ms Taylor SC (pictured right) despite her youthful appearance, is not to be underestimated. She has an extensive track record in pursuing human rights cases, most notably as Senior Trial Counsel at the Office of The Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown, where she was in charge of two of the three trials then before the court.
After examining Mr James’ well-prepared and extensive documentation, Magistrate Rozencwajg conceded that the venue issue is “one I need to think about”, before he adjourned the court to consider the issue over the afternoon, and the matter will resume hearings tomorrow morning.
As was reported elsewhere, witnesses may be called tomorrow.
What wasn’t reported elsewhere was how a media scrum awaited Craig Thomson as he left the court.
“He’s coming!” shrieked one female ‘journalist, as Craig was pursued by an entourage of cameras and microphones.
A shame they didn’t stick around longer to see the real issues at work going on inside.
You can follow Umberto on Twitter @ULedfooti.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
