Judge aims spray at criminal defence lawyers’ ‘permissive attitude’

A judge said a man’s actions were ‘unlike anything that I’ve ever come across in my 54 years in the Northern Territory’, laying blame with the NT’s criminal defence lawyers.

Judge Therese Austin said the ‘permissive attitude’ was ‘infiltrating the defence lawyers’ submissions’. Picture: Jason Walls

A Local Court judge has blasted a “permissive” attitude “pervading” the Territory’s court system in an extraordinary spray aimed at criminal defence lawyers, who she says give their clients “permission” to commit crimes.

A fired up Therese Austin delivered the lecture while sentencing a 25-year-old Gunbalanya man to five months in prison for unlawful entry and stealing more than $600 worth of alcohol from Monsoons nightclub.

The court heard the man and his co-offender had entered the closed venue in the early hours of the morning and were confronted by a manager who did not try to stop them for fear of his safety.

“He and his co-offender — they’re not young teenagers, they’re men — attend on a closed premises at 4.25am in the morning, they approach the manager and they confront him in the upstairs office,” she said.

“It’s entitled, confrontational, criminal behaviour by young men in a business premises in the (early) morning because they think they’re allowed to come in uninvited to get grog without paying for it.

“It’s unconscionable, it’s prevalent and it beggars belief.”

Ms Austin said the men’s actions were “unlike anything that I’ve ever come across in my 54 years in the Northern Territory”.

Judge Therese Austin said ‘this permissiveness will not be tolerated’.

“I don’t get it, it’s not OK, it’s unbelievable behaviour — what is going through the mind of these young men?” she said.

“And when somebody’s there, right in front of him, he doesn’t turn on his heels and flee like people used to, and say ‘Oh my God, we got caught, let’s run’, he stands right there and he stands his ground and challenges it, so there’s something really wrong here.”

The man’s legal aid lawyer had argued the theft was “opportunistic, unsophisticated offending that occurred while (her client) was dealing with the death of his grandfather”.

But Ms Austin instructed her to “try again”, railing against “the permissive attitude” she said was “pervading the court system with the submissions from the bar table”.

“Don’t tell me that this is OK and don’t give your client, this young man … permission in my court,” she said.

“This permissive attitude is infiltrating the defence lawyers’ submissions and this young man, who has an opportunity for intervention, is being given permission by you people standing up there to do it, so try it again,” she said.

“I’m not going to punish him any more than anybody else, but I’ll be saying loud and clear, this permissiveness will not be tolerated up here, by anyone — I don’t care who you are or where you come from — the message is quite clear: This is not OK.”