The Queensland Court of Appeal has found there’s inadequate protection in the state’s magistrates courts for people with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities who have been charged with minor offences. It’s expunged the criminal record of a 41-year-old intellectually disabled woman from Toowoomba and recommended that the Queensland government address the hiatus that predispose people with disabilities suffering significant injustice.
The Advocacy & Support Centre (TASC) who instigated Australia’s first criminal law service for disabled defendants brought the matter to the attention of the Queensland Attorney General who brought the application before the Queensland Court of Appeal.
TASC in association with the Queensland Criminal Justice Centre, the statewide systemic legal advocacy organisation consider the decision as seminal.
“The Queensland Court of Appeal has rightly identified that the system as it presently stands provides no protection for people with disabilities who have been charged with summary offences in the state’s Magistrates Courts,” Director of the Queensland Criminal Justice Centre Dan Toombs said.
“The real problem is, if the charges are indictable they can be referred to the Mental Health Court for appropriate intervention, but when they’re not indictable, there is nowhere you can go which in the cut and run of our criminal justice system, encourages pleas of guilty.”
Melisa Avery, the subject of the Queensland Court of Appeal decision had appeared on numerous occasions before the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, being introduced to the Court as a person with an acute disability, yet despite that, pleas of guilty were entered and accepted by the Court. The Court of Appeal, in acknowledgement of the Mental Health Court’s determination of Melisa as “permanently unfit for trial,” opined that those pleas should have never been entered or accepted by the Magistrates Court.
Sue Gordon, the recipient of the 2009 Commonwealth Minister’s Lifelong Achievement Award in recognition of her role in disability reform, considers the judgement as ‘groundbreaking.”
“The Court of Appeal clearly states that there is a need for both legislative and administrative reform in Queensland to ensure our most vulnerable are protected from significant injustice. We are confident that the judgement will be the necessary catalyst for change,” Sue said.
See associated media here:
http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2010/11/11/ruling-may-spark-reforms-legal-system/