AAP General News (Australia)
12-24-2004
NSW: Interesting court cases of 2004
SYDNEY, AAP - From a young mass murderer to a political figure running child prostitutes,
NSW courts have ruled on some shocking cases this year.
AAP court reporters Kylie Williams and Kim Arlington look at some notable legal cases
of the year.
GONZALES
Sydney student Sef Gonzales received three concurrent life sentences earlier this year
for the brutal murders of his parents and teenaged sister.
In May, a NSW Supreme Court jury found Gonzales guilty of murdering his parents Teddy
and Mary Loiva and 18-year old sister Clodine in their North Ryde home in Sydney's north-west
on July 10, 2001.
Gonzales brutally killed them, one by one, over two-and-a-half hours as they arrived home.
His parents were both stabbed to death while his sister was bludgeoned with a baseball
bat, stabbed and strangled.
The Crown maintained Gonzales killed his family to get his hands on their $1.5 million
estate and stop his parents restricting his lifestyle.
Justice Bruce James, who presided over the trial, said during sentencing that the 24-year-old
was not suffering from any mental condition at the time of the murders and had shown no
remorse.
Gonzales maintained his innocence throughout his trial, and even tried to shift the
focus to his own suffering during his sentencing submissions.
"I consider that the murders showed features of very great heinousness and that there
are no facts mitigating the objective seriousness of the murders, and hence the murders
fall within the worst category of cases of murder at common law," Justice James said.
DAWES
Daniela Dawes escaped a jail sentence twice this year for killing her autistic son.
Dawes pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her 10-year-old son Jason in their Kings
Langley home, in western Sydney, on August 4 last year on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
She claimed she was suffering from a mental illness when she suffocated the boy.
Dawes received a five-year good behaviour bond which was unsuccessfully appealed by
the Crown on the grounds it was too lenient.
During sentencing, NSW District Court Judge Roy Ellis said Dawes had already suffered
enough and the circumstances of the case were so exceptional as to warrant a non-custodial
sentence.
"It is little wonder this offender was unable to cope on the morning of the 4th of
August 2003," Judge Ellis told the court.
HILL
A man already serving 40 years in jail for gang raping a teenager during a home invasion
was sentenced to life for the murder of a Sydney chemist.
The man, who can only be referred to as Dudley Hill, went on a three-month crime spree
during which he was involved in two gang rapes, a carjacking, and the murder, along with
a string of other crimes.
NSW Supreme Court Justice James Wood sentenced Hill to life for the shooting murder
of Emad Youssef outside his Canley Vale pharmacy on August 1 last year.
The 33-year-old was trying to rob Mr Youssef of his day's takings when he shot him in the chest.
In November, NSW District Court Judge Michael Finnane sentenced Hill to 40 years' jail
with a non parole period of 30 years for six charges of gang rape, one of inciting a person
to commit an indecent act and one of break and enter in company with wounding.
The two-week trial was told Hill, his two nephews and a friend broke into a Newington
home in Sydney's west on July 17 last year, where Hill raped a then 16-year-old girl in
her bedroom.
Judge Finnane said the injuries suffered by the girl - who was a virgin - at the hands
of Hill, his nephew and a friend were the worst he had seen in his 35-year legal career.
"In the space of about two hours, they plundered, pillaged and raped," Justice Finnane
said during sentencing.
The judge also suggested the attack was racially motivated.
HILTON
Former ALP official Neville Hilton was sentenced to four years behind bars for child
prostitution offences.
Hilton, 66, was found guilty in September of 11 counts of obtaining benefit from child
prostitution and eight of permitting premises to be used for child prostitution.
He resigned his position as president of the ALP's Albion Park branch last year after
he was charged when two girls, aged 13 and 14, were found to be working in his Southern
Belles Escort Agency at Port Kembla.
Last month, NSW District Court Judge Megan Latham sentenced Hilton to four years jail
with a non parole period of two years for the offences.
She said Hilton's ignorance of the girls' ages was insufficient grounds not to impose
a custodial sentence.
"Their general demeanour during the course of their trial indicated a degree of immaturity
which according to the jury verdict must have been apparent to anyone who came across
them," she said.
Hilton is appealing against the severity of his sentence.
PATTON
When Janelle Patton was brutally murdered on Norfolk Island on March 31, 2002, it was
thought whoever killed her would be swiftly brought to justice.
After all, she was abducted from a main road in broad daylight and police knew the
names of all 2,771 people on the island that day.
But an inquest in May this year failed to uncover any suspects for the murder, the
first on Norfolk in almost 150 years.
Her family hopes for a breakthrough, but faces the devastating prospect that the mystery
may never be solved.
Patton, a petite 29-year-old from Sydney, was savagely beaten and stabbed to death
before her body was left in a picnic spot on Easter Sunday.
No witnesses to the abduction, murder or dumping have come forward and a freak rainstorm
washed potentially vital evidence from the body.
The inquest named 16 persons of interest to the investigation - including Patton's
parents and ex-boyfriends - whose links with the victim brought them under police scrutiny.
But Coroner Ron Cahill delivered an open finding, with the place of Patton's murder
and her killer's identity still unknown.
Gossip about the murder was already rife on the island before it was further fuelled
by the inquest.
Secrets are hard to keep on Norfolk, where many members of the tight-knit community
are descended from Bounty mutineers.
But the very closeness of island ties could explain why, despite the offer of a $300,000
reward, this particular secret has been kept so well.
HICKEY
The NSW Coroner found police were not responsible for the death of Thomas "TJ" Hickey
despite saying a police car followed him shortly before he was impaled on a fence in Sydney's
inner-city Redfern.
The 17-year-old died in hospital a day after he was impaled on a fence after coming
off his bicycle on February 14.
His death sparked riots in the suburb which resulted in injuries to 40 police officers
and more than 25 people charged.
TJ's family believe police chased him to his death but officers continually denied
they had pursued the teenager.
In his findings delivered in August, NSW Coroner John Abernethy said Constable Michael
Hollingsworth followed TJ down a pathway in Redfern.
"On the evidence before me I am satisfied that the driver of (the police car) Redfern
16 did follow TJ Hickey down Renwick Street causing his vehicle to traverse most of the
length of the pathway," Mr Abernethy told the court.
But he said Const Hollingsworth was not responsible for the teenager's death.
"I am unable however to find as a probability the actions of Redfern 16 in following
TJ Hickey contributed in any way to his death," the Coroner said.
TJ's mother Gail Hickey wept uncontrollably as Mr Abernethy gave his findings.
Mr Abernethy described the incident as a "freak accident" and urged the Aboriginal
community in Redfern to put the matter behind them.
CRANE
A widely-used acne drug was this year linked to the suicide of a Sydney schoolgirl.
NSW Deputy State Coroner Dorelle Pinch found in October that the acne drug Roaccutane
may have contributed to the suicide of 15-year-old Vivian Crane in her family home at
Gordon on Sydney's north shore on June 8, 2000.
Ms Pinch said the drug, combined with the anti-depressant Zoloft, may have aggravated
Vivian's depression, causing her to commit suicide.
"Depression has been listed as an adverse effect of the drug label since its release
internationally in 1982," she told Glebe Coroner's Court.
She said the drug Zoloft had never been recommended for children or adolescents and
may also have worsened Vivian's depression.
Ms Pinch also criticised Hornsby Hospital after it told the Cranes there were no available
beds when they took the teenager there 12 days before her death because she had been self-harming
and threatening to commit suicide.
She also criticised hospital staff for failing to contact Vivian's psychiatrist.
AAP klw/ka/nf/it/sd
KEYWORD: YEARENDER COURT NSW
2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
