Mum Laura Hinks fails in last ditch bid to have kidnap charges declared ‘abuse of process’

Laura Hinks’ lawyer argued the charges did not apply to her as a mother could not be guilty of removing a child against the other parent’s will as long as she consented herself.

Laura Hinks is fighting charges of abduction and attempted abduction. Picture: Floss Adams.

A Darwin woman who allegedly kidnapped her own 5-year-old daughter has lost a last ditch bid for a permanent stay of the charges after accusing prosecutors of an “abuse of process”.

Laura Hinks is fighting charges of abducting the girl and attempting to abduct her 11-year-old brother from a supervised visit in August 2022.

Prosecutors allege Hinks then “kept the female child in a number of different locations with a number of different co-offenders over the following 12 days” before turning herself in to police.

Her lawyer, Glenn Mohammed, applied for the permanent stay ahead of her Supreme Court trial which is due to commence on November 11.

On Monday, Mr Mohammed argued the charges did not apply to Ms Hinks as a mother could not be guilty of removing a child against the other parent’s will as long as she consented herself.

He also said she had “suffered incurable prejudice” after the Crown withdrew its consent for the charges to be heard summarily in the Local Court rather than before a Supreme Court jury.

But in knocking back the application on Monday, Chief Justice Michael Grant said criminal proceedings should only be permanently stayed “in an extreme or exceptional case”.

“The court must be satisfied that there is a fundamental defect which goes to the root of the trial of such a nature that there’s nothing the court could do to relieve against its unfair consequence,” he said.

“It is a step which has been described as exceptional and rarely justified.”

In rejecting the first argument, Chief Justice Grant said the offence provision stated that it “may be committed by any person, which on a plain reading, would include a mother or father of the child”.

“Its proper construction is plainly that the offence can be committed by a parent who does not have the right of care and custody by taking a child from the parent or other person who does,” he said.

Chief Justice Grant said the prosecution’s decision to withdraw its consent for a summary trial came after two of Hinks’ co-accused withdrew their own consent and “delay does not of itself constitute an abuse of process”.

“Even were that not so, the delay in this case cannot be characterised as so excessive as to cause what is described in submissions as incurable prejudice to the accused,” he said.

“In circumstances where the witnesses and factual matrix are common for all five accused, it cannot be said that the prosecution’s withdrawal of consent constituted an illegitimate or oppressive use of the court processes so as to warrant the stay of proceedings.”

Originally published as Mum Laura Hinks fails in last ditch bid to have kidnap charges declared ‘abuse of process’