In R v Kumar [2011] NSWCCA 139 the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal allowed Rajendra Kumar's appeal application. The applicant was found guilty of accessing and possessing child pornography, receiving 5 years jail with a 3 year non-parole period for accessing child pornography, and 3 years jail with a 2 year non-parole period …
Continue reading Sentencing not to deter claims of innocence
The jurisprudence on this complex topic continues to grow, suggesting perhaps appellate courts are not entirely settled on the approach to sentencing for child pornography offences — or perhaps 'just' their proper application.In DPP (Cth) v Ison [2010] VSCA 286, the Court of Appeal considered again an appeal against a non-immediate custodial sentence. I suspect …
Continue reading More on child pornography sentencing principles
Section 70 of the Crimes Act creates an offence for possession of child pornography.Under sub-s (4) law enforcement officials and people authorised by the Chief Commissioner of Police don't commit an offence by possessing child pornography if they possess it to perform a lawful power or duty.What about an accused person's lawyers? Section 70(2)(b) provides …
Markovic pled guilty to 11 counts of deception in the County Court. In a separate hearing, Pantelic pled guilty to three charges relating to child pornography. Both men were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, and sought leave to appeal their sentences. In Markovic v The Queen; Pantelic v The Queen [2010] VSCA 105, the Court …
Australian law is still not entirely certain if a Court can review the grounds for the issue of a search warrant.In Victoria, magistrates issue the bulk of search warrants under s 75 of the Magistrates' Court Act 1989.It's pretty settled now that a magistrate or justice's decision to issue a search warrant is an administrative, …
Continue reading Charter restrictions on validity of search warrants?