R v Young

The Applicant 3 The applicant is twenty-two years of age. Until the time of his arrest, he lived with his parents, his sister and his brother at Eleebana, near Newcastle. 4 The applicant is employed as an electrical apprentice by Eraring Energy, and has worked in that capacity since January 2003. He is in the fourth year of his apprenticeship. The applicant has no prior criminal history and there is evidence before the Court that he is otherwise a person of good character. Documentary evidence has been tendered for the applicant (and not challenged by the Crown) from Vincent Fallins, a person with a close and longstanding association with the Applicant's family. Mr Fallins speaks highly of him and expresses some shock at the present circumstances surrounding the applicant. 5 The police statement of facts states that the applicant appears to be part of a law abiding and respectable family. The applicant's father gave evidence before me and all the evidence on the application supports the conclusion expressed by the police themselves with respect to the applicant's family.

The Alleged Offences 6 The events that bring this application before the Court and which have placed the applicant in prison since mid March this year arise from the tragic, indeed disastrous, events of the evening of 17 March 2006. On that night, the applicant and a number of his friends attended the Cambridge Hotel at Newcastle West to listen to bands that were playing there. The applicant drove to the premises. He consumed a quantity of alcohol whilst there. It is apparent that the quantity was substantial, because his blood alcohol concentration later that evening was .185. 7 During the course of the evening, an argument developed between the applicant and his group of friends on the one hand, and another group of persons at the hotel. The second group of persons included the deceased, Darren McWhinney. It is not suggested that the deceased and the applicant had any prior history of association. Indeed, it appears that the two men were, until this night, complete strangers. 8 The material placed before me on the application includes a statement of facts and statements of two persons who were witnesses to the events of that night, Matthew David Nicol and Nathan Jones. They were friends of the applicant who had accompanied him to the Cambridge Hotel on this night. 9 Detailed submissions have been made by both Mr Byrne SC, for the applicant, and by the Crown with respect to the factual matters emerging from the documents in evidence before me. This, of course, is a bail application. The complete Crown brief has not been served. I am informed that it will be served by 12 May 2006. The function which I am exercising, of course, is not one of a Magistrate presiding at committal proceedings, let alone a trial judge at trial. 10 It is not necessary for the purpose of this application to recite the detailed and, to some extent, varying accounts of what occurred. It appears that the deceased, Mr McWhinney, was removed from the hotel by security staff. It seems that there was at the time when the applicant left the hotel, continuing hostility between the applicant and the deceased. The statement of facts placed before me by the Crown contains a number of factual matters which are not directly supported by the statements of Mr Nicol and Mr Jones. No doubt the source for some of the factual matters referred to in the statement of facts is other persons who were able to cast light on what occurred. 11 The Crown case alleges that the applicant entered the driving seat of his vehicle and accelerated quickly and loudly. His friends, Mr Nicol and Mr Jones, were expecting to travel away with him but were left in the street. Having entered the vehicle and gone behind the driver's wheel and started it, the applicant moved it forward in the direction of the persons with whom there had been an altercation inside the hotel. The Crown alleges that the applicant accelerated the vehicle swerving at a person named McDonald, who jumped out of the way, and that the applicant then swerved the vehicle in the direction of the deceased and drove straight at him and that the front of the four wheel drive vehicle (which was fitted with a metal bull bar) struck the deceased who was standing on the footpath. It is alleged that the vehicle skidded across the bitumen footpath with the deceased underneath and that the vehicle continued across the footpath until it struck the front of small business premises, causing the large front window to shatter and some of the brick border to smash. It is alleged that the applicant attempted to reverse the vehicle, however initially was unable to do so, due to the wheels spinning with the deceased still caught underneath the vehicle. Eventually, the applicant managed to reverse the vehicle off the victim and the footpath and drove off north along Denison Street before turning into Hunter Street. 12 A police vehicle was in the vicinity and observed the applicant driving his vehicle. According to the police statement of facts, the applicant's vehicle was stopped a short distance down Hunter Street. Police asked him if his vehicle had been involved in an accident, which he initially denied. The applicant stated his friends were back in Denison Street involved in a fight, and police should see to that matter. He was subjected to a roadside breath test and in due course was arrested, taken to the police station, and produced a reading of .185. After a period of time during which he was allowed to sober up, he sought legal advice and declined to participate in an interview. He was then charged with these matters.