Full description
On 17 October 1989, the Governor of New South Wales, Rear-Admiral Sir David James Martin, appointed his Honour, Mr Justice Lee, Chief Judge of the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, to inquire into:
1. The circumstances of and surrounding the investigations of the offences of rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, forcible abduction of a woman, assault, and armed robbery with which Harold James Blackburn was charged on 24 July 1989, and of and surrounding the arrest, charging, prosecution and discontinuance of the prosecution of him for those offences, including, but not limited to:
(a) the inquiries made by the Police Force into the circumstances of those offences, and the gathering and marshalling of the evidence sought to be relied on for the prosecution of Harold James Blackburn;
(b) the taking of advice from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions or any other person, in relation to the charges or the evidence to be adduced in support of them;
(c) the provision to the media of information concerning the investigations, the arrest, the bringing of charges, the prosecution or the discontinuance of prosecution of Harold James Blackburn;
(d) any events affecting persons involved in such investigations, arrest, charging, prosecution and discontinuance of prosecution of Harold James Blackburn which may have influenced the conduct of such activities.
2. Whether any person who was involved in such investigations, arrest, charging, prosecution, discontinuance of prosecution or provision of information to the media, acted out of any improper motive.
3. Whether any person who was involved in the investigations, arrest, charging, prosecution and discontinuance of the prosecution, should be charged with any criminal or disciplinary offence in connection therewith and, if so, with what offences.
The inquiry formally opened on 2 November 1989.
The report was originally to be completed on or before 30 April 1990, but the Letters Patent were amended on 18 April, and the report was delivered to the Premier on 29 June 1990. (1)
The records of the Commission consist of transcripts, exhibits, records of the media coverage of the Blackburn arrest and trial (including videos, film, sound recordings and newspaper clippings), correspondence of the Commission, 5.25 inch floppy disks of transcripts produced on a word processor, and a copy of the Department of Public Prosecutions file relating to the Blackburn Prosecution.
Endnotes
1. Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Arrest, Charging and Withdrawal of Charges against Harold James Blackburn and Matters Associated Therewith : June 1990 / the Honourable Mr Justice J.A. Lee; NSW Government Gazette No.102, 20 October 1989, pp.8579-8580.
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