Seasoned Sydney criminal barrister Sally Dowling, SC, will become NSW’s first female Director of Public Prosecutions, ending months of speculation about who would be appointed to the top job.
Former DPP Lloyd Babb, SC, finished his statutory 10-year term as the state’s top prosecutor on July 17 and deputy Peter McGrath, SC, had been acting in the role since then.
Sally Dowling, SC, has been appointed NSW’s first female Director of Public Prosecutions.
Attorney-General Mark Speakman said Ms Dowling “has a distinguished background in criminal law and has shown outstanding leadership and legal skills while arguing cases both as a prosecutor and as defence counsel”.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was created in 1987 and Ms Dowling will be the fourth occupant of the role, following Reg Blanch, QC, a former chief judge of the NSW District Court, Nicholas Cowdery, QC, and Mr Babb.
Ms Dowling was senior counsel assisting the state government’s Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug ‘Ice’, which recommended the government decriminalise the personal use and possession of illicit drugs, while increasing funding for specialist drug assessment and treatment services.
Mr Speakman subsequently ruled out decriminalisation, but the government has endorsed a separate recommendation to extend the geographical reach of the specialist NSW Drug Court, which offers eligible offenders intensive health and social support in a bid to break the cycle of drug dependency and imprisonment.
Mr Speakman said Ms Dowling “is very well positioned to continue the dedicated work of Lloyd Babb, SC” and NSW had benefited from his “expertise, professionalism and integrity” over the past decade.
In a 25-year legal career, Ms Dowling has practised not only in criminal law but in commercial cases, including intellectual property matters, and served as a Crown prosecutor for 16 years. In 2016, she was appointed Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor and head of the DPP’s appeals unit before she returned to the private bar last year.
In an article in the Herald in 2012, Ms Dowling assured HSC students they ought not feel “the die is cast by what they have and haven’t achieved when they’re 15 and 16 and even 17”.
“There are many, many second chances,” said the top silk, who left North Sydney Girls High School at the beginning of year 11 before completing her HSC at TAFE three years later.
She told the NSW Bar Association’s Bar News in 2004 that life in Crown Prosecutors Chambers was “very similar” to her work as a barrister in private chambers, “although now I work with more women barristers and without the views”. The DPP had been an “exemplary employer” of a barrister with young children, she said at the time.
Ms Dowling takes the reins of the DPP at a time when criminal trials are facing lengthy delays in NSW owing to the growing outbreak of COVID-19 in Greater Sydney. Some trials are expected to proceed without a jury to minimise numbers in the courtroom.
“COVID -19 continues to place unprecedented pressure on the criminal justice system”, Ms Dowling told the Herald on Wednesday, but she was “looking forward to working with all stakeholders to help avoid undue delay and ensure that accused persons are brought to trial or sentence as expeditiously as possible”.
“There is currently legislation that permits a judge to direct a judge alone trial if it is determined to be in the interests in justice,” she said.
“However, it is very important to recognise the time-honoured role of juries as representatives of the community in the administration of criminal justice and to aim for the resumption of jury trials as soon as practicable.”
Asked whether she would like to see the government revisit the ice inquiry’s recommendations about decriminalisation of personal drug use, Ms Dowling said “the role of the DPP is to implement the legislative will of Parliament”.
“Any question of decriminalisation of personal use of illicit drugs is a matter for the legislature.”
Ms Dowling begins her 10-year term on August 16.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.