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Two HCA judgements handed down

HCA hands down Xerri and Lesianawai, solicitor handed 30 day prison sentence for contempt, Hamill J gives tips for advocates

March 06, 2024

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Daily wrap  

  • Victorian Legal Services Board v Bowers-Taylor (No 4) [2024] VSC 72 (29 February 2024)
     

    • solicitor handed 30 day prison sentence for contempt (suspended for two years on conditions)
       

  • Application by Serge Zhura pursuant to s 78 of the Crimes (Appeal and Review) Act 2001 (NSW) - NSW Caselaw
     

    • [54] The solicitor made some ambitious – perhaps misguided and inappropriate – submissions as to the reasonableness of Mr Zhura’s “reckless” conduct in committing the sexual touching offences. These submissions were based on the place and circumstances in which the offences occurred. While the solicitor, who is not a beginner, said he would not want to be “misheard” on the issue and emphasised the obvious fact that any “young lady” has “a right to be out in these clubs and do what they want to do and behave as they wish”, he went on to submit that such venues are “sexually charged arenas”. He said they were places where “people go to meet other people”. He sought to draw a contrast between a man groping a woman on a dancefloor and doing so on a train or at the Woolworth on a Sunday morning. The lawyer argued, while he “struggle[d] with the choice of words to describe this”, that “[i]t is the sort of contact people do make in those clubs and in many other circumstances would have been consented to.” This led to a submission that Mr Zhura’s recklessness as to consent was “less unreasonable” in the context of him being on a dancefloor in a nightclub.

    • [55] It must be emphasised that the facts were that Mr Zhura laid his hands on women with whom he had no previous conduct. He had not spoken to any of the three women he chose to grope and had not been dancing with them. Their first contact was when he touched them from behind. It is probably unnecessary to say this, but I will add that where an advocate struggles to find the words to make a submission such as this, it may be a strong indication that the submission ought not to be made at all. I also emphasise that nothing in the submissions made by Mr Zhura orally to the Magistrate, or in writing to this Court, even hinted that the venue in which these incidents occurred provided any justification or mitigation whatsoever.
       

  • Let’s talk about confidentiality: NDA use in sexual harassment settlements since the Respect@Work Report | Redfern Legal Centre
     

  • Wayne Astill Special Commission of Inquiry - Final Report
     

  • ICC issues arrest warrants for top Russian commanders - BBC News
     

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