The NSW Judicial Commission said District Court Judge Robert Newlinds should not hear criminal cases for the “foreseeable future” after his conduct in a sexual assault trial.
The NSW judicial watchdog has recommended a District Court judge be removed from hearing criminal cases after it found he abused his power in making “swingeing criticisms” of the office of the state’s top prosecutor, bullied a prosecutor, and vilified a complainant in a sexual assault case.
Newlinds’ criticisms of the DPP, made in a judgment in the sexual assault case in December last year, attracted significant publicity and led the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Sally Dowling, SC, to make a complaint to the Judicial Commission. The conduct division’s report said the “adverse commentary was propounded by a recently appointed judge who, in his own words spoken during the trial, doesn’t ‘do criminal law’.”The conduct division referred to portions of the transcript where the judge bullied the prosecutor, including by describing the case as “hopeless” and saying the Crown was “gutless” and “too scared to never run a case of sexual assault”.
In a letter on July 4 to the conduct division, extracted in the report, Newlinds said he immediately recognised he had behaved inappropriately after the exchange and apologised.“It represents conduct that I have experienced myself that I dislike and strongly disapprove of.”The conduct division also found the judge had engaged in “quite unjustified criticism of the complainant” which could be characterised as vilification.
The conduct division said the comments were “far more serious than a matter of inapposite, over strong or imperfect language”. It recommended he receive formal mentoring by more experienced judges and meet with former NSW chief justice Tom Bathurst, KC, after reading texts on judicial conduct.
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Judge vilified sexual assault complainant, bullied prosecutor, watchdog findsThe NSW Judicial Commission said District Court Judge Robert Newlinds should not hear criminal cases for the “foreseeable future” after his conduct in a sexual assault trial.
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