Nurses to help fight ice crisis in Cape

Retrial ordered for road fatality accused after court mistake

TWO extra clinical nurses will be seconded to Cooktown and Weipa in a bid to address ongoing drug issues, including ice, in Cape York.

Cooktown was one of five Queensland communities labelled the worst-affected by the State Government following the announcement of a $6 million cash splash on rehabilitation services across Queensland.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Cameron Dick said yesterday the two nurses would be used to address ice and other substance use within the Cape, particularly among indigenous people.

She said the Far North’s funding share would amount to more than $450,000, with the nurses working with existing health teams and local agencies, including police.

Cooktown mayor Peter Scott said he was surprised his town was named among the worst, but said its affects in the community were clearly visible.

“We identified this problem probably about 14 months ago in Cooktown,” he said. “We’ve only got about 2500 people in town, but we are a catchment area for a lot of people.”

He said he had personally witnessed the scourge, describing one man in particular he had coached in rugby league.

“He was a nice young bloke, a good footy player and a bright future in front of him,” he said. “He just walks around like a zombie these days.”

Far North drug squad Senior Sergeant Kevin Goan said the area had well-known problems with illicit substances.

“Historically it has had a drug culture emanating back many years, particularly in terms of large-scale cannabis crop productions,” he said.

“Those within the industry have dabbled in other drugs such as heroin. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that they are also dabbling in ice.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the statewide funding on Sunday and has called for public submissions into a discussion paper called Ways to Combat Ice Addiction in Queensland. TRUCKIE Carlos Martinez will be retried after his conviction for dangerous driving causing the death of a British tourist on the Captain Cook Highway was successfully appealed.

A judgment handed down by the Queensland Court of Appeal ruled Mr Martinez was potentially prejudiced in his March District Court trial, when comments made in the absence of jurors were accidentally shared with them during verdict deliberations.

Mr Martinez, 50, was found guilty of driving dangerously when his truck slammed into a sedan driven by British tourist Simon Wilkinson on the Captain Cook Highway at Oak Beach in October 2011.

Mr Wilkinson was killed in the collision, which Mr Martinez told the court occurred because a strong gust of wind pushed the tail of his truck on to bitumen, causing him to lose control.

After four days of evidence, the jury was instructed to leave the courtroom while legal counsels made submissions to Judge Brian Harrison about how the jury should be directed in their deliberations. Judge Harrison said he would not “say anything about the wind” to jurors so that it would be left open for them to decide whether Mr Martinez’s version of events were valid.

The matter was also described as a “traditional, classical dangerous operation case” in which the jury must decide whether or not the accused was guilty. The Court of Appeal found a “miscarriage of justice” occurred when eight pages of transcript from the discussion was erroneously included in materials provided to the jury to assist their verdict.

“The content of some statements could have been interpreted by the jury, or some of them, in a way that was highly prejudicial to him (Mr Martinez),” the judgment said. “The appellant’s concern is that the lay juror might have understood his Honour to mean that … the appellant’s driving was a classic example of the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.”

The court therefore ordered Mr Martinez’s conviction to be set aside for him to be retried at a date yet to be scheduled.