Brian Martin | |
---|---|
4th Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions | |
In office 1997 –February 1999 | |
Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia | |
In office 23 February 1999 –27 January 2004 | |
Chief Justice of the Northern Territory | |
In office 27 January 2004 –2010 | |
Preceded by | Brian Frank Martin |
Succeeded by | Trevor Riley |
Acting Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia | |
In office February 2012 –November 2012 | |
Royal Commissioner for the Royal Commission into Juvenile Detention in the Northern Territory | |
Assumed office 28 July 2016 | |
Nominated by | Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull MP |
Appointed by | Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove |
Personal details | |
Born | Brian Ross Martin 2 September 1947 Adelaide,South Australia |
Citizenship | Australian |
Alma mater | University of Adelaide |
Profession | Lawyer;Jurist |
Brian Ross Martin AO KC (born 2 September 1947) is an Australian jurist. He was a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia before being appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 2004. He served in the Northern Territory between 2004 and 2010. He served as an acting Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 2012. [1] In legal texts,he is referred to as "Martin (BR) CJ" to avoid confusion with his predecessor.
Martin was born in Adelaide and was educated at the Oakbank Area School and the Adelaide High School before studying at the University of Adelaide.
Brian Ross Martin was admitted to practise law in 1970,becoming an assistant Crown Prosecutor in Adelaide in 1974 and eventually the Senior Crown Prosecutor in 1982. He was appointed as a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1984 and in 1991 was appointed Senior Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into WA Inc. Martin was appointed as the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in 1997 a position he held until taking up his appointment as a Judge of the South Australian Supreme Court. He was sworn in as the Northern Territory's fifth Chief Justice on 27 January 2004 following the retirement of Brian Frank Martin;and held the position until 2010. [2]
Justice Martin was the trial judge for the trial of R v Murdoch,which commenced with a voir dire in April 2005 and the trial proper began on 17 October 2005,and was completed with a verdict of guilty on 13 December 2005. He also presided over the Snowtown murder cases involving the conviction of John Bunting,Robert Wagner,and James Vlassakis for murder,and Mark Haydon for helping to dispose of the bodies. The trial was one of the longest and most publicised in Australian legal history. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
In February 2012,Brian Martin was sworn in as an Acting Judge of the Western Australian Supreme Court,to preside over the trial of Lloyd Rayney who was charged with the August 2007 murder of his wife,Corryn Rayney. [8] Martin delivered his judgment,finding Rayney not guilty of his wife’s murder,in November 2012. [9]
In July 2016,he was appointed as the Royal Commissioner for the Royal Commission into Juvenile Detention in the Northern Territory,after the ABC Four Corners program "Australia's Shame" was broadcast. [10] [2] Martin resigned four days later,saying that "rightly or wrongly,in this role I would not have the full confidence of sections of the Indigenous community which has a vital interest in this inquiry." [11]
Martin played 63 games,kicking 68 goals for Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He played in two SANFL premierships for the Double Blues. [12] He was a Director of the Adelaide Crows Football Club from 1994 to 1998 and was Chairman of the Westminster School Council from 1988 to 1996.
John Jeremy Doyle,,Australian jurist,was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia,the highest ranking court in the Australian State of South Australia,between 1995 and 2012.
The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre is a facility for juvenile detention in the Northern Territory,Australia,located in Berrimah,east of Darwin. It is a detention centre for male and female juvenile delinquents. The facility is named after Don Dale,a former Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1983 to 1989 and one-time Minister for Correctional Services.
The Snowtown murders were a series of murders committed by John Justin Bunting,Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis between August 1992 and May 1999,in and around Adelaide,South Australia. A fourth person,Mark Haydon,was convicted for helping to dispose of the bodies. The trial was one of the longest and most publicised in Australian legal history.
The Supreme Court of the Northern Territory is the superior court for the Australian Territory of the Northern Territory. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters,and hears the most serious criminal matters. It is around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy.
Johan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician. He is a former member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the Country Liberal Party.
Crime in the Northern Territory is managed by the Northern Territory Police,the territory government's Department of the Attorney-General and Justice and Territory Families.
Sir William Edward Stanley Forster was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory holding that position from 1979 to 1985. Before that he was the first Chief Judge from 1977 to 1979 and Senior Judge from 1971 to 1977,all positions which were effectively the same.
Dean Mildren,is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. He was appointed to the Court on 27 June 1991,and retired February 2013. He is sworn in as an Acting Judge of the Court,so from time to time still adjudicates on cases in the Northern Territory.
James Henry Muirhead AC KStJ QC was an Administrator of the Northern Territory and a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.
Trevor John Riley was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Australia. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court on 1 February 1999,Chief Justice on 27 September 2010 and retired on 4 July 2016.
Sir Richard Arthur Blackburn,was an Australian judge,prominent legal academic and military officer. He became a judge of three courts in Australia,and eventually became chief justice of the Australian Capital Territory. In the 1970s he decided one of Australia's earliest Aboriginal Land rights cases. His service to the Australian legal community is commemorated by the annual Sir Richard Blackburn Memorial lectures in Canberra.
Jenny May Blokland is a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.
Corryn Veronica Ann Rayney,née Da Silva,migrated to Australia with her Indian family in 1973 as refugees from Idi Amin's Uganda. Her death occurred on or about 7 August 2007,her body being discovered a week later in a clandestine grave in Kings Park,Perth,with no clearly established cause of death. Her husband Lloyd Rayney,a prominent barrister specialising in criminal prosecution,was charged with her murder,but found not guilty after a trial before a judge only. The acquittal was unanimously upheld by a court of appeal in August 2013. The state's police commissioner and attorney general declined to acknowledge documented procedural mistakes,and refused to instigate a fresh search for the killers,leading to calls for a federal investigation into the matter.
The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory is a Royal Commission established in 2016 by the Australian Government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report upon failings in the child protection and youth detention systems of the Government of the Northern Territory. The establishment of the commission followed revelations broadcast on 25 July 2016 by the ABC TV Four Corners program which showed abuse of juveniles held in the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre in Darwin.
Lloyd Patrick Rayney is a former Western Australian barrister and Crown prosecutor who came to prominence when he was charged and acquitted in 2012 of the murder or manslaughter of his wife Corryn Rayney. In 2017,he succeeded in a defamation action against the State of Western Australia over police behaviour and was awarded a record sum of $A2.62 million. In a long-running action,the WA Legal Professional Complaints Committee and the State Administrative Tribunal had his practising certificate cancelled for "professional misconduct" and "knowingly giving false evidence".
Thomas Alexander Wells was a judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin,Australia. He was known for having misdirected the jury in a high-profile case in 1934,which was later overturned in an appeal in the High Court of Australia known as Tuckiar v The King.
Charles Arnold Walker,for cultural reasons known as Kumanjayi Walker since his death,was a Warlpiri man who was shot and killed by police while resisting arrest in the remote Aboriginal Australian community of Yuendumu,Northern Territory in November 2019. Walker stabbed Constable Zachary Rolfe with a pair of scissors. Rolfe subsequently fatally shot him and was charged with murder three days later,but was acquitted in March 2022. Thousands of people rallied in Alice Springs in the days following the attempted arrest,and further protests followed in capital cities around Australia. After the acquittal of Rolfe a campaign entitled "Justice for Walker" has continued.