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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-29 Daily Xml
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CRIMINAL APPEALS

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:55): My question is to the Attorney-General. Given that a police officer advised the victim in the Malcolm Fox case that over the last 40 years they had never seen a teacher receive a suspended sentence for child sex offences, can the minister confirm that police requested that the DPP appeal the sentence in that case?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Urban Development, Planning and the City of Adelaide, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Food Marketing) (14:56): I thought we dealt with this earlier in the week, but I think perhaps the deputy leader, in asking the question, is saying more about himself than the people he is asking about. Anyway, let me go back to the point I made previously.

We have in South Australia a person called the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Director of Public Prosecutions is an independent statutory officer. The director's job, amongst other things, is to consider whether or not there is sufficient evidence in a particular case to warrant prosecution and, if so, to launch that prosecution. In the case of a decision of the court which needs to be reviewed as to whether or not an appeal should be lodged, it is the director's discretion that is exercised in relation to that decision. I understand the particular case which the deputy leader keeps wanting to refer to, and I think I'm not puzzled as to why, and the wisdom of this I question but, anyway, I will keep going.

The situation is this: the Director of Public Prosecutions has considered this matter. The Director of Public Prosecutions has spoken, as I understand it, to the individual concerned (the complainant), and, I believe, the complainant's mother or other members of the complainant's family, although I was not present and therefore can't say exactly who was there. A full explanation, I believe, was given to those people. That is where my involvement in this matter begins and ends. Requests in relation to these matters do not come to me.

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