Court appeal ‘groupthink’ addressed
THE Chief Justice has defended Tasmania’s Court of Criminal Appeal after criticisms from a former director of public prosecutions that the court’s structure could lead to judges protecting each other’s judgments.
Tim Ellis, SC, now a barrister, made the claims during an appeal hearing in May. At the time he said he was not suggesting the court had acted inappropriately but he questioned its structure which does not separate sentencing judges and appeal judges.
Mr Ellis said the structure could lead to judges being “prone to group think” and “protecting each others’ judgments”.
Yesterday, Chief Justice Alan Blow said Mr Ellis did not refer to any individual cases, but relied on statistics, comparing the number of successful appeals against sentences in Tasmania with those in Victoria and NSW.
Justice Blow said a great majority of appeals by defendants against their sentences were unsuccessful.
He said that was not surprising because every convicted person in Tasmania was entitled to an appeal and had “nothing to lose”. In NSW and Victoria appeals are heard if the appellant is granted leave.
Chief Justice Blow said one reason for a lower success rate in Tasmania could be because there were so few judges in Tasmania and because they all sat on sentencing appeals as well as sentencing offenders.
He said that may have led to a greater degree of consistency in sentencing.
“If so, that … should be regarded as a positive type of ‘groupthink’,” he said.
Mr Ellis raised the issue during an appeal hearing where he was representing Andrew Neville Hodgetts, who was seeking a six-month reduction in his non-parole period.
His appeal was dismissed yesterday.
Hodgetts pleaded guilty to nine counts of computer-related fraud, that he committed while the finance and insurance business manager at Launceston Motor Group.
From November 2011 to February 2016, Hodgetts fraudulently obtained a personal benefit of $700,000.
Hodgetts was sentenced to five years’ jail, with a non-parole period of three years.