Delay call angers judge
Drug syndicate trial to keep planned date
LAWYERS for an accused Cairns drug kingpin have been grilled by the city’s most senior judge for requesting to delay his trial due to a clash despite it being scheduled for “yonks”.
Ryan Hill, 25, has pleaded guilty to trafficking ice, cocaine and MDMA in Sydney and Cairns between March 2016 and January last year, but is fighting the allegation this was done as part of an organised crime syndicate.
Under new legislation, if found guilty this would add a further seven years to his sentence. His co-accused Matthew Hilton, 31, has pleaded guilty to the same offences, while also fighting the syndicate allegation, and also yesterday pleaded guilty to a further charge of trafficking steroids.
Speaking in the Cairns Supreme Court yesterday, Mr
Hilton’s defence barrister Michael Dalton said while his client was pleading guilty to the charge, there was a dispute over some of the facts and the alleged trafficking period between March 2015 and November 2017.
The pair’s trials are scheduled to begin on February 5 next year and could run up to two weeks.
Mr Hill’s solicitor Andrew Stewart asked the court for the trial to be moved two weeks later because the barrister who was being briefed for the trial had another matter on.
“The difficulty for Mr Hill is that it is a voluminous matter. (The barrister) has read the brief, he’s gone over it,” he said.
But Justice Jim Henry refused and said they would need to appoint another barrister if he wasn’t available.
“Can you provide the court with any explanation as to why your counsel accepted a brief and now has work that conflicts with the date … that the trial was listed for?” Justice Henry said.
“How did it happen? I had this trial listed yonks ago. Why is it you’re doing this to me now. Why, why, why?”
Justice Henry questioned why Mr Hill’s representative requested to file a no case submission regarding the organised crime syndicate feature now when issues around legal argument were due more than a month ago.
“A lawyer doesn’t need to get to post graduate level of study of law to realise the big ticket issue is the organised crime issue,” he said.
Mr Hill is scheduled to be arraigned on a fresh charge on November 27 ahead of next year’s trial.