Earlier today
By Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Daily Telegraph
June 30, 2011 6:07PM
A JUDGE has decided to release the signatures at the heart of a decision to overturn the six month jail sentence of Carnita Matthews for making a false complaint to police.
Judge Jeffreys said last week he could not be satisfied that Matthews had made the statement claiming a highway police officer was racist and had moved to rip the full face niqab off her head - because the woman who handed it to police was wearing a full face niqab, which is similar to a burqa.
He could not be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that it was the Muslim's woman's signature on a statutory declaration handed to police.
But earlier today Ms Matthews' lawyer Stephen Hopper had stated in court that it was her signature on the disputed document.
The amazing statement came in the District Court while The Daily Telegraph was seeking permission to publish the signature at the heart of the case on the statutory declaration.
In the original case the prosecution argued the signature matched one on her driver's licence but the judge said there were a number of differences.
The Daily Telegraph had been refused permission by the registrar of the District Court to reproduce the signatures but this afternoon Judge Jeffreys overturned the registrar's ruling.
The case began in June last year when Ms Matthews, 47, had been stopped for a random breath test and was booked by Sen-Constable Paul Fogarty for not properly displaying the rear P-plate on her black Honda Odyssey.
She claimed through her lawyer it could not be proven it was her who made the false complaint to police that the officer had been racist, a complaint shown not to be true by the police in-car video of the traffic stop.
Magistrate Robert Rabbidge, who convicted her last year and sentenced her to jail, said the two signatures were "almost identical.''
In court this morning, counsel for The Daily Telegraph James Hmelnitsky said the newspaper had been denied permission to publish the signature by the court registrar.
He said that was effectively a suppression order and the judge had the discretion to allow the publication in the administration of open justice.
Ms Matthews was not in court and Mr Hopper opposed The Daily Telegraph's application to publish the signature saying it would be an invasion of her privacy.
"They are not just seeking the documents. They are seeking the signature of my client," he told the court.
Counsel for The Daily Telegraph James Hmelnitsky said this went to the heart of open justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment