Colleen Gwynne: Court to hear arguments on ‘guts’ of case against Children’s Commissioner

 Lawyers have taken to the court to argue about whether “the guts of the Crown case” will go before a jury.

UPDATE: CHILDREN’S Commissioner Colleen Gwynne will likely not face trial this year as lawyers scramble to find time to argue about whether “the guts of the Crown case” will go before a jury.

Gwynne has indicated she will plead not guilty to a charge of abusing her office to help a friend secure a plum job as her 2IC in the late 2010s.

In a pre-trial hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Stephen Southwood said the trial, which is expected to run for up to six weeks, could not be accommodated this year.

“And as for next year, unfortunately, that calendar will not be set until July, so that’s the state of play,” he said.

Justice Southwood asked Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Engel, whether the “actual (alleged) wrongdoing itself” was confined to the second time the position was advertised.

But Ms Engel said a range of alleged conduct spanning many months was all “part of the substantive conduct”, sticking by her estimate for the likely length of the trial.

“With the greatest respect, all of these matters were canvassed at length before a Local Court judge, who found there was a case to answer,” she said.

Justice Southwood replied: “So what?”

“I’m simply trying to endeavour to find out what are the real nitty gritty particulars of what is said to be the substance of the offending, because the next step will then be to look at how we can shorten this process,” he said.

“It seems to me that the first thing that the parties need to look at is, what can be agreed so far as any agreed facts are concerned and whether that then reduces the number of witnesses.”

Ms Engel countered that the question would have to be the subject of argument in advance of any trial commencing.

“My learned friend, as your honour will have seen from the Local Court transcript, will be ultimately inviting the jury to dismiss the charge … as being trivial, but is in fact seeking now to exclude all of the evidence the Crown would point to, to in fact show it wasn’t trivial,” she said.

“So it’s really the guts of the case”.

As Justice Southwood adjourned the hearing until next week to try to find a date for the pre-trial arguments, defence barrister, Phillip Boulten SC, asked the court to “pencil in a question mark against” tentative dates in August.

“I will be under very substantial pressure to take trial dates in the next few weeks and maybe even tomorrow but I’m seriously committed to this case,” he said.

“A lot of work has been done and I would like to remain in it if it’s humanly possible.”

EARLIER, MAY 4: Gwynne was committed to stand trial earlier this year for allegedly using her position to appoint a mate into a plum job within the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2017.

On Wednesday, Crown prosecutor, Victoria Engel, said the large number of witnesses to be called at the trial would explore whether Gwynne’s alleged conduct “warrants criminal sanction” or “falls short of that”.

“The factual matrix spans a significant period of time, given the nature of the charge, and the requirement, or the ability, of the tribunal of fact, to consider other conduct,” she said.

“There’s not just the one particular incident that will be placed before the jury, so there is a number of different acts relied on as part of the context to the allegation.”

Gwynne’s barrister, Phillip Boulten SC, said unless prosecutors took “a different approach”, the trial would run for “at least four weeks and could easily be six weeks”.

Mr Boulten said the electronic witness statements often ran to up to “50 pages or more”.

“The witness statements that have been prepared in this case are unusual in many instances,” he said.

“There are some witnesses that have given a more traditional police statement and there are some that do both, but the brief is voluminous in part because of the way in which the police took the statements.”

In adjourning the case until later this month, Justice Stephen Southwood said it was unlikely a four to six week block could be found before the end of the year and it was “very difficult to say at this stage” when the trial might be accommodated next year.

The committal proceedings in the Darwin Local Court were presided over by Queensland magistrate, Anthony Gett, and Mr Boulten flagged the possibility an interstate trial judge would also need to be found.

But Justice Southwood said “we can really only cross that bridge once I’ve seen who’s on the witness list”, which he ordered to be produced before the case returns to court on May 17.

Gwynne is accused of making a “captain’s call” to improperly appoint her friend, Laura Dewson, to the role of assistant commissioner.

Gwynne has indicated she will plead not guilty to the charge.

Originally published as Colleen Gwynne: Court to hear arguments on ‘guts’ of case against Children’s Commissioner