Australian Defence Force: defence magistrate rejects guilty plea

A magistrate has rejected a guilty plea at the Defence Magistrates Court. Find out why

A defence force magistrate has rejected a guilty plea from an ADF member stating if he were to convict the man he could risk a miscarriage of justice.

On Thursday the accused pleaded guilty to a charge of an act of indecency without consent.

However documents tended to the court detailed the defendant gave a version of events that contradicted the prosecution’s case to which he had pleaded guilty to.

The document referred to statements the defendant made only three weeks prior to the court date.

Due to the recentness of the document the magistrate said this was fundamentally different to situations where defendants were “less than candid” in the early stages of the investigation but then accepted guilt.

He also said if he were to proceed in convicting the man he would need to interrogate why the defendant said what he said.

The magistrate raised concerns the defendant could be at risk of being charged with further offences if he proceeded to convict him over the charge.

A defence force magistrate has rejected a guilty plea. Picture: Alix Sweeney

In submissions both the prosecutor and the defending officer suggested removing the tendered document.

The magistrate rejected the suggestion and said it was best to record a not guilty plea and move to a contested trial.

“It would be unjust and unfair to hold (the defendant to) his guilty plea,” the magistrate said.

“There is a real risk his account of events is completely false.”

Additionally the magistrate told the court he did not feel comfortable in continuing to judge the case because he had read the document in the context of a guilty plea.

Noting the defendant had additional charges before him which originally were to be dealt with separately, the magistrate moved to enter not guilty pleas to those charges and have them all dealt with in the same trial.

The magistrate said it was regrettable the matters had to go to trial, but stated the “requirement for a fair trial overrides everything”.

The case will return to the defence magistrates court for a pre-trial hearing.

It is anticipated charges against the service member may change.