New judge for appeal panel after acting justice resigns from court

The appeal of a man convicted of attempted murder by setting his girlfriend on fire will continue with a replacement judge, after Acting Justice Shane Marshall resigned from the Supreme Court.

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The active appeal of a man convicted of attempted murder by setting his girlfriend on fire will continue with a replacement judge, after Acting Justice Shane Marshall tendered his resignation from the Supreme Court.

In the Court of Criminal Appeal in Hobart on Thursday, Chief Justice Allan Blow told Matthew John Davey that with the appeal’s three-judge panel now down to two, the court proposed to replace Acting Justice Marshall with Acting Justice Brian Martin.

The appellant was told that another option was for the case to continue with just the two remaining judges who heard the appeal – Chief Justice Blow and Justice Tamara Jago.

Mr Davey, who was appearing in court unrepresented, said he did not oppose the court’s suggestion that Acting Justice Martin join the appeal.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Daryl Coates SC, told the court that he was also unopposed to a reconstituted court.

Mr Davey, 41, was found guilty by a jury in December 2021 of dousing his girlfriend in petrol and then setting her ablaze with a cigarette lighter in 2017.

Matthew John Davey. Picture supplied

Since being sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail, Mr Davey has lodged a series of appeals against both his conviction and his term of incarceration.

Chief Justice Blow told the court that transcripts and audiovisual recordings from hearings heard by Acting Justice Marshall would be made available to Acting Justice Martin. 

Chief Justice Blow told Mr Davey that he had the right to make further oral submissions when the case returned to court.

“The court will reconstitute as proposed,” Chief Justice Blow said.

“I adjourn this appeal for hearing by the new court in the next appeal term.”

The woman, then 20, suffered life-threatening burns and was placed in an induced coma, after she was engulfed in flames in April 2017.

Mr Davey was subsequently found guilty of attempted murder by a Supreme Court jury after a nearly seven-week trial.