Zachary Rolfe jury discharged before trial begins

Zachary Rolfe’s murder trial will be delayed at least until November after the High Court sided with prosecutors.

Zachary Rolfe at Darwin’s Supreme Court. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Zachary Rolfe’s murder trial will be delayed at least until November after the High Court sided with prosecutors arguing that if the trial went ahead as planned, there was a risk the policeman could be ­acquitted on false grounds.

High Court judge Jacqueline Gleeson on Monday granted the prosecution’s request for a stay of proceedings pending a further hearing about the defences Constable Rolfe can use.

Her ruling came an hour ­before the officer was due to face a jury for the first time and forced the Northern Territory Supreme Court trial judge to dismiss the entire jury panel.

It is rare for the High Court to intervene in criminal matters, ­especially those involving interlocutory applications in cases ­already on foot. Justice Gleeson said the possibility of a police officer charged with murder being acquitted “on the basis of an incorrect ruling on a question of law” was an injustice of a “different magnitude.”

Constable Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 19-year-old Aboriginal man Kumanjayi Walker during a botched attempted arrest in the outback community of Yuendumu in 2019.

He could claim he was acting in self-defence or that he acted reasonably in the course of his ­duties. The prosecution last week sought special leave from the High Court to appeal a decision made by the NT Supreme Court’s full bench about whether Constable Rolfe could also claim immunity from civil and criminal liability under police administration laws. That broad defence ­requires only that a jury be reasonably persuaded he could have been acting in good faith when he shot Walker for them to find him not guilty.

“The trial of a member of the police force, whose functions included the protection of life, in connection with the death of the deceased, is a matter of the gravest community concern,” Justice Gleeson said on Monday.

“The scope of the respondent’s available defences is of central importance in the trial.”

Prosecutors view whether Constable Rolfe can use the immunity defence as a critical point in the case, and asked Justice Gleeson to delay the trial after trial judge Acting Justice Dean Mildren declined. Her ruling forced Acting Justice Mildren’s hand.

“We have no idea when this trial will be able to proceed,” he told jurors on Monday. “It can’t go on, and because I don’t know when it can go on, I can do nothing more than to discharge you.”

Acting Justice Mildren hoped the trial could be rescheduled for November but thought next year more likely. Assembling another jury panel would take at least three weeks.

Constable Rolfe sat silently in the dock throughout the hearing, watched by his parents and a small band of supporters. Several of Walker’s relatives and other community members from Yuendumu also looked on.

Outside court, Samara Fernandez-Brown, one of Walker’s cousins, told waiting media she and others were “happy with the outcome … happy to let the ­judicial system play out”.

As Constable Rolfe left flanked by two fellow officers, he was approached by an Aboriginal activist who shoved a phone camera in his face and called him a “white dog”.

The High Court will hear the prosecution’s special leave application on September 10. If it grants that application then there will be a further hearing for the actual appeal.

Listen to gripping daily updates with Yuendumu: The Trial now, wherever you get your podcasts.

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