Bureaucrats blamed for medical record delay in Dimitrious Gargasoulas’ Bourke St case
BUNGLING bureaucrats are delaying justice for survivors of the Bourke St rampage, refusing to hand over key documents needed for alleged killer Dimitrious Gargasoulas’s court date in a situation labelled “absurd” by Justice Lex Lasry.
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BUNGLING bureaucrats are delaying justice for survivors of the Bourke St rampage by refusing to hand over the alleged killer’s medical records.
Dimitrious Gargasoulas, 27, is charged with six counts of murder and 28 of attempted murder over the January 20 incident in the city.
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His matter returned to the Supreme Court today where a frustrated Justice Lex Lasry heard the matter may soon grind to a legal halt.
The potential delay sits on the lap of the Department of Justice, who has still failed to cough up the alleged killer’s medical records to Gargasoulas’ defence.
Doctors assessing Gargasoulas refuse to tick off on their mental assessments of the alleged killer until they see all of his records.
His barrister, Dr Theo Alexander, said the department’s FOI officer had advised that due to their workload they could only “process” 150 pages per request.
The court was told there are about 1100 pages of records required.
The department, which has had the request since October 6, advised on November 9 that those first 150 pages were still two weeks away.
“They still haven’t provided the material,” Dr Alexander said.
“It’s not apparent to me why not, this is not an FOI request … can you not just download onto a USB and provide it?”
Justice Lasry described the situation as “absurd”.
“What I’ve been concerned of what was (going to happen), is happening,” he said.
Justice Lasry was equally annoyed at the size of the police brief, which comes in at a whopping 6500 pages.
The brief of evidence was served on Gargasoulas’ defence on October 20 and includes statements from 900 witnesses.
The Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion, SC said the criminal brief doubled as the brief for the Coronial inquest.
“It’s ridiculous,” Justice Lasry said. “There won’t be 900 witnesses, I can tell you that.”
It’s alleged Gargasoulas mowed down dozens of pedestrians in the busy retail strip, killing a baby boy, a schoolgirl and four other people as shoppers ran for cover.
Dr Alexander said the witnesses would add little to what was already known about the case.
He said if he did not receive his client’s medical records before next month’s court date in the Magistrates’ Court, he would ask for an adjournment.
Justice Lasry said he would too adjourn the matter for a week to allow the department to co-operate.
“Let them know the Supreme Court is interested,” he said.