That escalated quickly PDF

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That escalated quickly...

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‘That escalated quickly’ Your day at the office just got more interesting… You have been working as a solicitor for a Sydney criminal law firm for a few months and your paralegal has just resigned to pursue his own dream of attending law school. While you are pleased for him, you wish that he had been better at keeping notes on open files… In a folder labelled ‘R v James Carr’ you find two word documents: ‘Facts’ and ‘Relevant Law’. ‘Facts’ outlines the sequence of events leading to the arrest of your client, and ‘Relevant Law’ contains a list of provisions that your paralegal flagged as potentially applicable. Your task...should you choose to accept it... 1. read through the ‘Facts’ and write down all the legal issues that may impact on your client (remembering that we are exclusively looking at criminal law issues) 2. Select two of the issues (any two will do) to research and respond to using the IRAC method. 3. To locate the Relevant Law, use the LibGuide (NSW) and run down the list of sections identified by your paralegal. File labelled ‘Facts’ On Saturday, 6 February 2016, 21 year old James Carr was arrested near State Parliament in Sydney following a series of very poor decisions. Yesterday, he and his 24 year old friend Reggie D Hunter were travelling on a train from Macquarie Park to Town Hall when a fellow passenger commented that they were listening to their music too loud (despite using headphones to listen to their favourite James Blunt tracks on loop). They obliged, but Reggie was visibly frustrated. Upon reaching their destination, Reggie told James that he was ‘sick and tired of living in a Nanny State’ and commented that ‘the government need a reality check. There’s much bigger things to be afraid of and if they make my life more difficult, why shouldn’t I theirs?’ The following morning, the two were on the same train when Reggie handed James a black laptop bag and instructed him to leave it in the middle of the carriage ‘for a laugh’ while he placed an strange looking contraption under one of the seats. James chuckled and went along with this request. As they alighted the train James snickered ‘I guess that will give those wankers something else to do. Nobody’s checking Opal Card concessions today.’ Reggie replied, ‘Yup. That was an alarm clock wired up to a

container of green jelly. I printed off a copy of that bio hazardous material symbol and stuck it on the front too.’ As they sat eating their lunch in Hyde Park, Reggie suggested that they ‘add a bit more flair to the train thing.’ After devising various stories, James asked to borrow a stranger’s phone saying that his was out of charge. He selected the ‘hide caller ID’ setting before ringing a number from the NSW Department of Justice directory and informed the receiver that he was ‘part of a group of young men who despise Australia’ and ended the call with ‘given we can’t drink alcohol where we bloody well want to, we’re going to pour buckets and buckets of noxious material into the water supply. Now we’re all thirsty.’ James deleted the call history and returned the phone to its owner. The pair then walked over to Rushcutters Bay where they sat and spent the afternoon in a park creating fake online media accounts and made similar threats online to NSW Police. At around 4:30pm, James took a break when he thought he smelled something akin to smoke. He followed the scent and saw that someone had tossed a lit cigarette into some shrubs in a more secluded part of the park. The flames were small so he started to stamp it out. Just before the fire was extinguished he stopped. He called Reggie over and told him to ‘keep the fire going’ while he collected dry leaves and twigs to add to it. The flames got larger and larger and the pair decided to leave before anybody spotted them, but not before James took out his hip flask and added some absinthe to the fire, causing it to ignite further. At around 5:30pm they were joined by seven of Reggie’s friends who he had contacted throughout the day and were sympathetic to their cause. One of new arrivals, John, began passing around foldable ‘butterfly knives’ to everyone. As the men placed the knives in their pockets, James asked why these were necessary. John replied: ‘when you’re in a group you can attract unwanted attention. Just in case, bruv.’ James nodded and accepted. At 11pm the group, now wearing masks to conceal their identities, then made their way to State Parliament where a couple of them scaled the fences and spray painted ‘Take Back Australia’ onto the building. James made it over and showed his disdain by urinating of the steps of Parliament while Reggie filmed and posted it online to the NSW Premier’s Facebook page with the caption ‘piss on my liberties and you can piss right off.’ As the group began to chant ‘Take Back Australia!’ they were joined by ten more people armed with axes and bags of bricks. The group began to smash the windshields of parked cars and throw bricks through the glass of storefronts and bus shelters.

The police arrive and the group scatters. When cornered by police, James shouts out ‘If you come any closer I will cut you!’ and takes out his knife. He was swiftly disarmed and taken into custody. File labelled 'Relevant Law' (with doodle on the side as shown) Note to self --- I probably haven’t identified all the issues and law yet, but here’s what I’ve got so far: NSW Law Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW) s 11A Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW) s 5. Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW) ss 11C, 11E. Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 93R. Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 195. Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 547B. Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) ss 93J,93L-M. Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) ss 203D-E. Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 93FB. Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) ss 93A-D. Commonwealth Law Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s 29. Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) s 474.17. Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) s 474.16....