Recently, Carmen Currie appeared before the Full Court of the High Court in
Edmund Hodges (a pseudonym) and Ors v Commonwealth Director of Public
Prosecutions [2018] HCA 53.
The appellants sought to appeal a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme
Court of Victoria, which allowed appeals from the orders of the primary judge
permanently staying prosecutions of the appellants for offences contrary to the
Criminal Code (Cth) and contrary to s.83(1)(a) of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). Prior
to being charged with those offences, each of the appellants had been
compulsorily examined by the Australian Crime Commission (“the ACC”).
The principal issue on appeal was whether the ACC acted so much in disregard of
the requirements of Div 2 of Pt II of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002
(Cth), and therefore in unlawful violation of each appellant’s common law right
to silence, that the prosecutions should be stayed.
On 8 November 2018, Kiefel CJ, Bell and Nettle JJ delivered a joint judgment
(with Keane, Gageler, Gordon and Edelman JJ delivering separate judgments)
allowing the appeals, setting aside the orders of the Court of Appeal of Supreme
Court of Victoria and ordered that the appeal to that Court be dismissed.
See the full report here:
