‘Rubbish warrior’ declared the Northern Territory’s first vexatious litigant

RUBBISH warrior and serial pest Trevor Jenkins has been declared the Northern Territory’s first vexatious litigant

Trevor Jenkins outside the Supreme Court ... he has been declared the Northern Territory’s first vexatious litigant by the Supreme Court

“RUBBISH warrior” and serial pest Trevor Jenkins has been declared the Northern Territory’s first vexatious litigant by the Supreme Court.

In banning Jenkins from bringing virtually any further proceedings in Territory courts, Acting Chief Justice Stephen Southwood said his defence of the latest proceeding epitomised “the angry man syndrome” amounting to “an admission of the allegations made against him”.

In a scathing decision, Justice Southwood said Jenkins had “told a number lies” and “behaved in a contemptuous and scandalous manner” throughout the hearing.

“His oral submissions were frequently nothing more than very loud, agitated and abusive gabbling,” he said.

“The written materials which comprised the written evidence which he has tendered and his written submissions are largely incoherent or indecipherable.

“Much of the material does not contain properly constructed sentences or paragraphs, and a significant amount of the material is unreadable. Virtually all of it is irrelevant.”

Justice Southwood said Jenkins had “even behaved in a violent manner” at times during the proceeding, including throwing books onto the bar table, breaking opposing lawyer Ruth Brebner’s glasses.

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Justice Southwood said “false” charges Jenkins laid against court registry staff were made “out of spite” and to “punish them” for not doing what he wanted in what was “a gross abuse of process”.

“The proper administration of justice, which is a very important value of our community, requires that he should be prevented from continuing to bring proceedings in this court and the Local Court of the Northern Territory without leave,” he said.

“His conduct has significantly interfered with the administration of the courts, potentially caused harm to the reputation of the courts and to a number of people who were perfectly innocent of his allegations, and cost the community a very significant amount of money.”