RUSH TO JUDGEMENT
 
It’s bizarre. It’s disgusting. It’s outrageous. They are the words of my old friend Noel McNamara on the appointment of a convicted drink driver as Victoria’s newest magistrate. It follows the Page One headline in the Herald Sun screeching ‘Drink Drive Judge’  and ‘Judge Shame’.‘Fury over new magistrate’s booze-fuelled shame’. I too think it is outrageous.  It’s outrageous the way lawyer John O’Callaghan has had his reputation trashed before he even gets to the Bench.

And if my reaction surprises and disappoints some of you, think this through.
 
Seven years ago O’Callaghan failed a breath test. He was .07. He broke the law. He paid for it. On the spot fine and lost his licence for six months. Don’t argue with that.
 
But he was .07. That’s .02 over the limit. Maybe misjudged by  half a glass. At .06 police sometimes use their discretion and waive the charge.
 
This is not condoning drink driving. I feel for Penny Martin whose son Josh died at the hands of a drink driver. We have appeared on the same platform at victims of crime rallies.
 
But surely this man is more aware than most of the folly of drinking and driving. If he committed the same offence as a magistrate it would be different.
 
And how many of the stone throwers have misjudged and driven their car when not guaranteed they were under the limit? I know, in the old days, I did.
 
I agree with Michael Brett-Young from the Law Institute who says: ‘If we just appoint people who have just absolutely no pasts at all, then I think it's almost appointing from the ivory tower.’
 
And that’s the truth. What I find disgusting, outrageous and bizarre, to use McNamara’s words again, are the ivory tower magistrates and judges  who give child molesters good behaviour bonds and think a suspended sentence is adequate punishment for a thug who kicks a man unconscious in the street.
 
Personally, I’ll wait and judge Magistrate O’Callaghan on what he does from the Bench.
 
Thursday, February 11, 2010

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2010