The Brisbane Magistrates Court today heard the Crown intended to present an ex officio indictment, which would see the matter bypass committal in the lower court, and an indictment presented in a higher court sooner than expected.
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“It obviously speeds up the system, it saves the court considerable time and money, and obviates the necessity of victims to give lengthy statements or indeed give any evidence at all.”
Sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately requires the consent of the defendant.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The case against a former daycare worker, accused of sexually abusing 91 children under his care, has been heard in court.
Police allege the 45-year-old committed the offences between 2007 and 2022 while working in 10 childcare centres in Brisbane, one in Sydney and one overseas.
“Ex officio is Latin, it literally means without the body or without the office,” former president of the Queensland Law Society, Bill Potts, said.
"What it means is that a person has been charged … they can elect, and it has to be by consent — that is that the prosecution and the defence have to agree — instead of going through the process of putting the matter before a magistrate [for committal], they can jump those entire proceedings and go straight to the district court.
“So, [if convicted] the person will then argue that, by way of an ex officio indictment, that they are entitled to a discount … of sentences, because of the massive saving of time or money,” he said.
Mr Griffith’s new lawyer, Calvin Gnech, told the court he was expecting to receive the indictment by the end of the year.
The original article contains 373 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 50%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
