The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 3

SATURDAY 20 FEBRUARY 1993 TK1 kll in legal aid row thatcould- ILegal fears over Mi to BO i' I Higjh CoMt 4 By MARTIN DALY wawawMBnBawwawBwawwawwawBBWHwawU4l4K. Three homeless girt five in this drain in Sunshine when they are desperate as demands for shelter are not met. cost millions By MAftTtN DALY F. The -'Legal Aid Commison haa moved to avert wrangle that threatened to cost taxpayers million of dollars. The move comes after the commission decided not to fund four defendants who 'are facing 2500 charges relating to the -collapse last year of Melbourne travel The defendants were refused legal atd partly because their trial was -expected to cost more than the $200,000 limit applied because of a shortage of But the defendants argued that even--a payment of $3000 to $10,000 to pay for Initial legal adytee- could avert lengthy proceedings at the committal stage and a possible bill to the taxpayer' for millions of dollars.

The wrangle involved the Glra-mondo Travel Agency that operated from Keilor Road, Nlddrie. The Mr Lulgl Glra-mondo, bis wife Maria and their children Agostino and Concetta, face charges ranging from obtaining property by deception to theft. The family's solicitor, Mr John Preat, said yesterday that the committal alone could go for two years because the family, appearing unrepresented, could not even obtain sufficient funds to pay for advice on how they should handle the hearing. They would have to prolong the proceedings through no fault of their own and the state would be faced with the huge bills for the prosecution and court time, he said. Mr Preat said that without proper legal advice, which his clients could not afford, they would be forced to question each of the 230 witnesses listed in the case If they were to properly protect themselves.

He said that even Initial legal advice could help speed up the process because only a limited number of witnesses might then have to be called during the hearing. Last night, the Legal Aid Commission said it was prepared to consider a limited grant but required further information from the applicants before doing so. The. case is presented by the shadow attorney-general, Mr Cole, and by Mr Preat as an example of the chaos threatened by the shortage in legal aid funds and a High Court ruling in November that said the trials of defendants who were unrepresented in court could, under certain circumstances, be deemed to be unfair. Mr Preat said it would be cheaper forthe' state If the Legal Aid Commission agreed to ''provide funds for the hearing and for any subsequent trial.

Sleepless nights near a sewer called home The Law Institute said yesterday that it opposed a system that threatened jail for an Innocent person because he could not properly defend himself In court "I would be totally against it and so would my association," said Mr Brind Wolnarskl, QC. chairman of the Criminal Bar Association of Victoria. The president of the Law Institute, Mr Gordon Hughes, who chaired the meeting at which Mrs Wade made the statement, said the Dietrich decision highlighted the broader problem of legal aid funding in Victoria and the cost of justice generally. Mr Hughes said that while the Dietrich decision might require legislative action In Victoria and it was appropriate for the Attorney-General to be looking at the matter, greater legal aid funding was also required. "It would be an unsatisfactory scenario to simply proclaim that any criminal trial could proceed against an accused regardless of whether a person had representation," Mr Hughes said.

"It is a totally unsatisfactory situation that anyone would be faced with loss of liberty because of being unable to adequately defend (against) a prosecution." The chairman of the Victorian Bar Council, Dr Chris Jessup, said legislation to reverse the Dietrich case In view of the High Court decision would amount to a denial of a person's right to a fair trial. The Legal Aid Commission, which is facing a cash crisis, will not fund any case that costs more than $200,000 unless special Government aid is available. It will not provide representation where a not guilty plea is entered and there is clearly no chance of acquittal. However, one possible solution to the problem is causing even more concern among some members of the legal profession because the innocent, they say, i could be jailed if state legislation forces defendants to conduct their own defence against barristers in complicated legal matters. Legal changes recommended to the state Attorney-General, Mrs Wade, could lead to judicial chaos and innocent people being sent to Jail In trials deemed unfair by the High Court, senior lawyers fear.

Advice from the solicitor-, general to Mrs Wade, that she could exempt Victoria from a controversial High Court ruling, was a cause -for concern, leading Victorian lawyers said. The ruling links the right to legal representation with the right to a fair trial. The High Court decided that defendants who, through no fault of their own, were denied legal representation In serious criminal cases could be faced with an unfair trial if they were forced to conduct their own defence. The landmark ruling concerned -Mr Olaf Dietrich, who had appealed against his conviction and sentence on a charge of smuggling heroin concealed in his body. He claimed he bad suffered a miscarriage of Justice because he was denied legal representation in his Victorian County Court trial in 1988.

The Victorian Legal Aid Commission refused Mr Dietrich legal aid under guidelines designed to ration limited funds to the most deserving. His trial in 1988 lasted 40 days and would have cost more than $200,000. He was convicted and spent four years in Jail. Victorian lawyers feared that following the High Court's 5-2 Judgment, defendants In Victoria would plead not guilty, apply for legal aid with the knowledge they would be refused under current terms, then seek to get off by citing the Dietrich ruling. Mrs Wade's office confirmed she was concerned that alleged criminals might now walk free because of the Dietrich decision.

She was seeking an avenue to overcome the problem. A spokesman said Mrs Wade would not discuss her response to the High Court case. But the spokesman confirmed that Mrs Wade said she had received advice 'that she could legislate to negate the High Court decision. Mr Twentyman, who with the businessman Mr David Smorgon yesterday unveiled a plan to ease the crisis, said the lack of emergency accommodation was forcing children on to the streets. He said the rise In family breakdowns meant that many children from the western suburbs were sleeping la council tips, car boots and, occasionally, in caves.

"People have the image that they are running away from loving and caring families. They have no idea I had a four- Smorgon Consolidated Industries, said he and a group of western-suburbs businessmen hoped to raise for two new youth homeless refuges through a lunch. He said the guest speaker at the lunch on 18 March would be the commissioner for human rights and the author of a l8t report on homeless children, Mr Brian Burdekin. "I thought II was time we got up off our arses and did something The shelters are a drop in the ocean, but it's a start" year-old boy come to me once with gonorrhoea," he said. "It Is very bard to get the kids Into the shelter but because we are not tripping over them In the street people are ready to believe there tint a problem." The problems, however, continue for the girl who tries to sleep near the sewer.

Mr Twentyman said the system that paid her a homeless allowance would keep her homeless as long as youth unemployment stayed at present levels. Mr Smorgon, a director of from suburban Braybrook to the streets of the west There she found no room la a shelter for the homeless. According to a local youth worker, Mr Les Twentyman, the eight-bed shelter that serves the western suburbs had requests from young people last year. Fewer than 258 could be accommodated. There Is a crisis going on which few seem to be noticing.

I sometimes get four kids a day who come to me looking for a bed," he said. By GERARD RYLE She Is IS years old and home is a place by a sewer In Sunshine. Her face bears the marks of itinerant life, but her story Is not unique In a part of Melboiirae unable to cope with the demand for shelter. Eaeh night for the past three nights she has drawn her knees to her chest for comfort so a grassy strip near the sewer, afraid to sleep and ready to bolt at the slightest disturbance. It has been 12 months since the fists of her stepfather drove her Judge rejects retraining on crimes against women was "no reflection of personal opinion.

I refuse, if called upon, to attend any retraining camps on this sort of matter. I am talking about matters of law and not personal Myers and Ward went to a "dingy brothel" in West Melbourne, where Myers' girlfriend had begun working the day before. While the girlfriend was robbing the brothel, Myers and Ward both raped a woman in one of the bedrooms. Judge Hanlon said. months' jail, with 14 months of it to be suspended for two years.

Myers was found guilty of one count each of aggravated rape, rape and robbery. Ward was found guilty of one count of aggravated rape and pleaded guilty to one count of robbery. Outside the court the national secretary of the Women's Action Alliance, Ms Pauline Smlt, said that two years for rape "seems to me But she said she did not necessarily blame Judge Hanlon for the light penalties; if what he said in relation to the law was true, then he bad acted appropriately. Judge Hanlon said he took into account that the offences occurred in August 1984 and that the men had changed significantly since then. However, the "cry for justice" for the victim and for the community could not be ignored, and anything but a jail sentence would be inappropriate.

Judge Hanlon said the sentence By PHILIP JOHNSON A judge handing down sentence In a rape case said yesterday that he would refuse to attend any retraining program on sentencing for crimes against women because he sentenced on matters of law, not personal opinion. Judge Hanlon said in the County -Court that some- may regard the. experience of the rape victim a brothel worker "as less traumatic than for a woman who did not offer her body for sexual purposes in return for payment I do not have the wisdom to generalise about that But he said that he had heard the victim's evidence and was satisfied that she was "severely trau-matised" by the crimes against her. Judge Hanlon sentenced Paul Rlgby Myers, 39, 'of two years' jail, with a minimum of one year, and Mathew Ralph Ward. 26.

of Blairgowrie, to 16 Medical board fiQds McBride at fault 1 Eem a-j- ''ir The tribunal found that Dr MjpBride had "mb)descrieo' expert- -ments relating to Debendoc and In other cases. In two cases, the tribunal said, the misdescription was significant, dealt with a material matter and was caused by either reckless indifference about whether the description was true or inexcusable carelessness. The tribunal said that In July 1987, Dr McBride had treated a patient who was about to give birth and had left the hospital without making proper arrangements for her further care. The tribunal will consider costs and other matters arising from Its findings at a date to be fixed. PAGE 15: Tha fai and fall of William McBride, link between Thalidomide and kirth -defects.

i J' I The most of which were not proven. Involved allegations of scientific fraud and other profes-' sional misconduct The tribunal said Dr McBride's evidence demonstrated Internal contradictions. Inconsistencies, inventions, evasions and false-' hoods. "The tribunal found him to be an unreliable witness whenever his interests were at stake on a disputed issue." It said Its ultimate findings ing Dr McBride's character, as raised in the complaints, had not yet been considered. Parties had agreed to consider the findings "with leave address the tribunal on the approprt-' ate determinations and By SONYA VOUMARO, vSydney.

l.jj. The obstetrician Dr William McBridm sa yesterday found to bave dhv played reckless Indifference or inexcusable carelessness In scientific experiments relating to the morning- sickness drug Debendox. Dr McBride was also found to have shown professional misconduct meriting disciplinary action towards a pregnant patient by not making proper arrangements for her impending labor. The findings were made by the NSW Medical Tribunal, which released the results of its 20-month hearing Into IS complaints against Dr McBride, famous for his work on the Outstanding Career Opportunities Dr': McBride: i most complaints against him not proven. In Brief iTr7 ILIIWIBld MELBOURNE A APARTMENTS 1 1 -1 fl 1 -20 1 FRANKLIN STREET A NEW CITY BUILDING BY PROMINENT ARCHITECT NONDA KATSALIDIS.

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Greenpeace said the coastal whaling plan put to the. IWC regulated numbers of whales. It would mark the end of the current moratorium on whaling and permit return to the animals' wholesale slaughter, Greenpeace said. Coastal whaling, which Is believed to have been suggested by Norway, could also be offered as a trade-off for a ban on all high-seas whaling and could halt the controversial Japanese Antarctic whale kill, some sources said. Up to 1 1 of the 38-member nations of the IWC are at the meeting being held at Spain's General Secretariat for Maritime Fisheries.

Greenpeace International's whaling coordinator, Mr John'Frizell, said from London yesterday that he was certain the coastal whaling plan was under discussion. Australia's IWC commissioner, Dr Peter Bridge-water, said from Madrid last night that he was unable to comment on any matter before the meeting. He rejected suggestions by Greenpeace that the meeting was secretive and said II had neither the membership nor the mandate to make any decision. "The role of this meeting Is simply to Inform each other of our various positions," he said. Dr Bridge water said he was trying to push the case for an Antarctic whale sanctuary "as far and as fast as Australia Is a key player In attempts to hold together a consensus at the IWC when Its future Is under threat.

One pro-whaling nation, Iceland, quit the commission last year and Norway and Japan are mounting strenuous campaigns to resume a commercial kill of minxes, the smallest and most numerous of the baleen whales. 1 The Norwegian Prime Minister, Mrs Gre Harlem Brandtland, last year rocked the IWC when she said Norway Intended to begin a commercial kill of mlnkes In Its coastal waters this year, with or without IWC approval The anU-wbaiing nations, led by France and Including Australia, are pressing for a huge whale sanctuary to be created In waters south of to degrees south the latitude of Bass Strait. A Council appeals to Governor over report The Williamstown council has appealed to the Governor, Mr McGarvie, to intervene on Its behalf to obtain the release of a State Government report on the hazards and risks of oil berthing and storage facilities at Point Gelllbrand. A council official said yesterday that the council had been trying for 18 months to obtain the report Moths end concert Troublesome moths brought a premature end to Elton John's concert at the National Tennis Centre last night The singer was about 90 minutes Into his show when he left the stege. An announcment over the PA system said John had swallowed a moth and would not resume his performance.

Heseltine to visit Britain's Trade Secretary, Mr Heseltlne, would lead a trade and Investment mission to Melbourne early next year, the Premier, Mr -Kennett, confirmed yesterday In Singapore. Public servants vote on claims State public servants yesterday endorsed a six per cent wage claim and provisions that would in effect circumvent new laws that allow sackings and pay cuts In the public sector. Advance Australia awards Advance Australia Awards were given to 14 people and organisations yesterday for outstanding contributions in their fields. Recipients Included the Lort Smith Hospital of the Animal Welfare League, for animal welfare; Mr Bernard O'Brien, for achievements In medicine; and Ms Marina Prior, for achievements In the performing arts. Lotteries KENO 1,2.4.

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