Magistrates Court Act 1930
95Depositions of dead or absent people
Start here
Get a plain-English read of 95
Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Magistrates Court Act 1930.
95 Depositions of dead or absent people If, on the trial of a person who has previously been charged before the court with an indictable offence and committed for trial, it is proved— (a) that a witness whose depositions were taken at the hearing of the charge before the magistrate is dead or so ill as not to be able to travel or to give evidence, or is absent from Australia; and (b) that the depositions of the witness were taken in the presence of the accused person; and
Indictable offences—costs Division 3.5.4 (c) that the accused person or a lawyer representing the accused person had a full opportunity of cross-examining the witness; the depositions are admissible as evidence— (d) if taken in the way specified in section 316 (3)—be read as evidence at the trial of the accused person without further proof unless it is proved that the magistrate by whom the depositions purport to have been signed did not in fact sign them; or (e) if recorded by 1 of the ways specified in section 316 (2)—be read as evidence at the trial of the accused person if it is proved that the record is a correct record of the depositions and that the transcript is a correct transcript of that record.