Rook v State of New South Wales

Background

1. The plaintiff, Mr David Duncan Rook, was born on 11 November 1970. At the time of the matters now in question he was aged 40 years. At the time of the matters now in question he was a project manager employed by Serco. He appears to have worked as a project manager both prior to the events now in question and, subsequently, for another company. The plaintiff is clearly an intelligent man and relatively articulate. However, he does suffer from a stammer.
2. At all relevant times the plaintiff was in a long term, committed, and intimate relationship with Mr John Tanner, to whom the plaintiff referred as his "partner", a term which I dislike using as the word "partner" is a term of art in the law. If it be necessary for me to refer to the plaintiff's relationship with Mr Tanner by something other than using Mr Tanner's name, I shall refer to Mr Tanner as the plaintiff's "life partner".
3. At the time of matters now in question the plaintiff and Mr Tanner were living in Unit 2, 2B Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill. I shall have much more to say about those premises later in these reasons for judgment.
4. The plaintiff put himself forward as a man of prior good character. When asked whether he had any previous criminal record the plaintiff told me that he had none. He then made this voluntary statement: "Except for like a speeding fine. When I was 21 I had a speeding fine. It wasn't a bad one. It was like 80 k in a 60 k zone." I then pointed out to the plaintiff that paying a traffic infringement notice did not constitute the start of a criminal record. This was not a good start to the plaintiff's evidence. Eventually the plaintiff's traffic record was tendered. Initially it was marked for identification "2" and became eventually exhibit 10. On 26 November 1988 and also 23 December 1988 the plaintiff exceeded the speed limit by more than 30 kph. That led to the cancellation of his provisional driver's licence on 28 January 1989. On 12 March 1991, when the plaintiff was aged 20, he exceeded the speed limit by more than 15 kph which was the subject of a further traffic infringement notice. On 15 July 2000 he exceeded the speed limit by more than 15 kph but not more than 30 kph for which a further traffic infringement notice issued. Again, his licence was suspended on 18 June 2001, because of fine defaults. On 14 August 2009 when the plaintiff was 38 years old, he exceeded the speed limit by more than 10 kph but by less than 20 kph. That matter went to court. He appeared before the Local Court at Mullumbimby on 17 December 2009 and was fined $197. That constitutes the imposition of a criminal record. The plaintiff's recollection of his driving history was clearly inaccurate and his statement that he was a man of prior good character was somewhat gilded.