Qld: Attorney says three-month wait for evidence 'not normal'

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2008
Qld: Attorney says three-month wait for evidence 'not normal'

BRISBANE, Feb 15 AAP - Queensland's Attorney-General Kerry Shine says it's "not normal"

for a judge to allow a self-confessed criminal three months to gather evidence to secure
a lesser sentence.

A north Queensland judge, who last year allowed nine child rapists to go free, has
given a teacher, who has admitted forcing an 11-year-old indigenous boy to perform oral
sex on him, time to gather evidence that he was educating his victim in "men's business".

The Australian newspaper reported today that teacher James Last pleaded guilty in Cairns
before District Court judge Sarah Bradley last week to seven counts of indecently dealing
with an 11-year-old boy over a four-month period in 1983.

Judge Bradley has granted a three month adjournment to allow Last, who claims he received
no sexual gratification from the assaults, and his lawyers to find an anthropologist to
support his claim that he had been trying to introduce the Torres Strait boy to "traditional"

islander sexual practices.

Judge Bradley granted the adjournment despite the prosecution saying it had two witnesses
ready to debunk the claim that such practices were part of indigenous "men's business".

Mr Shine said today he had sought a briefing on the case from the Director of Public
Prosecutions.

He said the defendant had a right to provide a legal argument which could mitigate
any sentence that might be imposed by the judge.

And Mr Shine said it was "quite open" for a judge to allow expert evidence to be gathered
and decide what weight it should be given.

But Mr Shine said three months was not normal.

"In the normal case most people who tend to plead guilty have their case prepared for
that event," Mr Shine told ABC Radio.

"That is, they have their submissions ready to be placed before the court for the court
to make that determination (of a sentence).

"What's happening here is not totally abnormal, it's not as if it's not heard of before
... but it's not normal."

Asked whether he would be watching the result closely, he said: "Of course. Absolutely."

Mr Shine this week sought an extension of time to appeal sentences given by Judge Bradley
to nine child rapists.

AAP pjo/cjh/mn

KEYWORD: LAST

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