The Northern Star 6 November 2013
The Northern Star 6 November 2013:
A magistrate has questioned whether charges brought against a group of anti-CSG protesters were politically motivated and accused the police of being vexatious in pursuing them.
Magistrate David Heilpern has dismissed charges against Alan Roberts and Bradley Rankin and written a scathing judgment, accusing the police of "an abuse of the processes of the court".
The case was in relation to a protest against Metgasco drilling at Glenugie in January. Up to 30 people were charged with obstructing a driver. To save time, a deal was done between the prosecution, defence and the court to make the case against Roberts and Rankin a test case.
But according to Alan Roberts, police withdrew the charges of "unreasonably obstruct a vehicle" just hours before the six-month limitation expired, without informing the defendants or the court.
"Presumably because there were no vehicles anywhere close (by) to obstruct," he said.
A new charge "attempt to obstruct a vehicle" was laid instead.
Mr Heilpern said it was the first time he had seen a charge of "attempting to commit a traffic offence" and likened it to attempting to not wear a seat belt.
"In this case I find myself asking what could possibly be the reason for continuing on with such an innocuous charge in these circumstances? Why else would police risk cost orders against them, drive a prosecutor up from Sydney to run the matters, arrange police witnesses to travel from Sydney, all for an innocuous minor traffic matter.
"It is in that context that the realistic suspicion of political interference arises," he said.....
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