Convicted pony club paedophile Neil Duncan released again on bail due to medical conditions
NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman has lashed out at the state’s top prosecutor for not challenging the decision to release notorious pony club paedophile Neil Duncan on bail yet again.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Attorney-General has taken the extraordinary step of criticising the office of the state’s top prosecutor for not challenging the decision to release notorious paedophile Neil Duncan on bail.
Mark Speakman said he was “surprised” that the Crown prosecutor accepted what the court was told about Duncan’s alleged cancer diagnosis, did not cross-examine him and did not point out that Duncan could get all the medical treatment he needed behind bars.
Duncan, 67, left the Supreme Court on Monday to return to his 300 acre farm outside Tamworth with his 75 head of cattle and 22 horses, two in foal, as he awaits his sentencing in August on eight counts of child sex abuse.
The Crown, which had lodged a detention application to lock Duncan up, “conceded” that his medical conditions of prostate cancer and possible bowel cancer were “extraordinary” circumstances under the government’s tough new bail laws to justify him remaining out of jail.
Duncan’s release on bail was one of the three cases of convicted paedophiles being granted bail pending sentences that led the government to rush through new laws designed to allow bail only in exceptional circumstances.
Mr Speakman said Duncan’s case set no precedent for future bail cases.
“The decision (not to revoke bail) followed from a concession by the Crown Prosecutor, to my surprise, that the medical circumstance put forward by the offender constituted ‘special or exceptional circumstances’”, Mr Speakman said on Tuesday.
“This concession was made without the Crown Prosecutor challenging the affidavit evidence or undertaking cross-examination,and without referring to the ability of Justice Health to provide extensive medical services (including major surgery) toinmates.”
The last Justice Health annual report said it employed up to 1600 people and had facilities at Tamworth and Kempsey, which are close to Duncan’s farm were he lives with his wife.
The court was told he had been diagnosed after seeing a doctor at Tamworth and needed to be free to attend for two MRI scans and a colonoscopy next week,
Victims’ advocate Howard Brown said those tests were standard for Justice Health which could organise them and transport prisoners to hospital to undergo them.
“Justice Health’s brief is to ensure the best medical care for all prisoners,” Mr Brown said.
Justice Health’s last annual report said it had been received glowing praise from its incarcerated clients with “more than 84 per cent of participants (feeling) they were spoken to about their health needs by health care staff in a way they couldunderstand and over 87 per cent felt they were treated with respect and dignity.”
Documents released by the Supreme Court revealed Duncan has lodged an intention to appeal his convictions arguing among other things that what one of the victims said was “physically impossible”.
The jury found the sexual touching happened ona remote camping trip.
“She said that (Duncan) touched her breasts and vagina whist the pair were lying in adjacent separate swags with the complainant’s swag zipped up to one side,” Duncan’s submission to the Supreme Court said.
The Office of the DPP declined to comment.
AG Mr Speakman first stepped in after Duncan’s case and another two similar cases of convicted paedophiles on bail pending their sentences were revealed by The Daily Telegraph and asked the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions to review the bail decisions.
On Monday the DPP’s first detention application failed – after they did not oppose Duncan’s continuing bail.
Instead Duncan, who is due to be sentenced on August 5, walked out of the Supreme Court after his high-profile barrister Richard Pontello SC said his client had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and had two MRI scans and a colonoscopy booked for next week to see if he also had bowel cancer.
The new bail laws, which are retrospective, state that bail must be refused following conviction or a guilty plea and prior to sentencing where the offender will be jailed unless special or exceptional circumstances can be established.
Crown prosecutor David Morters SC conceded that Duncan’s medical conditions constituted “special and exceptional” circumstances. Mr Morters said Duncan was already on strenuous bail conditions and there was no evidence that he would reoffend.
“The Crown would have to accept that we would come to the conclusion that the balance is in his favour,” Mr Morters said.
Mr Pontello said Duncan may get no treatment before his August 5 sentence date if he was locked up.
He may not even face sentencing in August after Mr Pontello said they were considering seeking an adjournment as Duncan is booked in for surgery on September 20 to have his prostate gland removed.
Judge Robyn Tupman in the District Court at Queanbeyan on June 2 gave bail to Duncan. He was rearrested just 12 days later after he attended a two-day kids’ gymkhana at Narrabri showgrounds.
Duncan has been living at his family’s horse stud at Timbumburi near Tamworth where his bail conditions include not to attend pony club events across two regions of NSW and not to leave the property without being accompanied by a family member.
The prosecution conceded on Monday that he had not breached his bail. The reasons were not discussed.
Justice Geoffrey Bellew, who allowed Duncan to remain on bail, later cancelled the bail of a second convicted paedophile also under the new laws. The uncle, who raped his neice, was led away to the cells after a second prosecutor, Mitchell Paish, said that the four-month delay in sentencing the man “called the administration of justice in to question.”
The girl, now aged 17, is estranged from her father who has taken his brother’s side. A third brother mouthed “F..k off” to the girl in court as the man was taken away.
“He has destroyed my daughter’s life,” her mother, who has since divorced the father, said before she hugged Mr Paish.
The western Sydney uncle, who cannot be named because it would identify his victim, was granted bail by Judge Chris Hoy pending sentence, after being convicted on March 29 of four offences including having sex with the girl.
Ticking clock for star agent’s costs before fraud retrial
The state government has until close of business to pay back Guy Sebastian’s former manager’s enormous legal costs after a judge intervened in a bitter battle over the cost of his fraud trial.
Teen allegedly used car as ‘weapon’ to escape arrest
A teen’s alleged attempt to escape police detention on the NSW South Coast by using his car as an “offensive weapon”, has seen him wind up in court facing a litany of offences.