Part 15 - Criminal Disclosure Flashcards
Principles of the disclosure regime
Disclosure Managers should be guided by these principles:
- governing principle of disclosure is relevance. All relevant material on a file is discoverable, unless witholding is justified under s16, 17, 19 of CDA2008
- no obligation to acquire, for purpose of satisfying disclosure obligations, material not already in Police possession or not held in recorded form, S15 CDA
- disclosure is on-going process and if no longer justification for withholding then should provide to defence counsel
- disclosure process must be auditable, accountable, and disclosure decisions recorded
- effective file management is critical to success of disclosure process
Role of the Disclosure Manager - Initial actions
On appointment the Disclosure Manager must:
- read the Disclosure Managers desk file
- access the current Serious Crime Template downloaded to the local district shared drive
- report to the 2IC to recieve a briefing, tasking, establishing what info is and is not discoverable
Role of the Disclosure Manager - Key responsibilities
Disclosure Manager must:
- ensure all relevant and discoverable material is provided to defence
- ensure all relevant and non-discoverable material is identified, listed, and defence advised
- continually assess the risk to ensure non-discoverable material is identified and not disclosed
- continually reivew to ensure ongoing lawful justification to withold exists
- ensure that robust auditable systems are emplyed to record disclosure decisions and actions
- manage disclosure timeframes within the provisions of the CDA2008 or as otherwise directed by the Courts
- retain and file all correspodence with defence coulsel, both incoming and outgoing, in the 50000 series document category
- create a record in NIA of the fact of disclosure against the charge(s) and make a brief record of delivery of initial disclosure in NIA. Record in NIA the Dislcosure Index held in operation file and location
Format of disclosure material
Formats used to disclose documents are hard copy, electronic, or a combination
Disclosure method selected will depend on:
- actual and anticipated scale of investigation
- resources available to the Disclosure Manager
- technical ability of the DIsclosure Manager
- investigation file being stored in electronic or hard copy
- number of persons charged
- scale of the file/amount of material to be disclosed
- sensitivity of material
- defence counsel involved and any agreement reached for them to receive material in a particular format
CDA2008 S10(4) provides that disclosure may be supplied in whatever form that the person disclosing holds it in at the time, provided it will be readily accessible to the defendant.
Record keeping
Disclosure material copy
An exact copy must be produced and retained of all material provided to defence.
Crown disclosure
Crown should be provided with an identical copy of all material that is disclosed to defence counsel. They should also review an un-edited copy of the material.
10000 series documents
10000 series documents are those where no justification for withholding them exists in accordance with CDA2008 s16, 17, or 18.
- FWS/briefs of evidence
- Visually Recorded Interview transcripts
- convictions of witnesses relevant to credibility
- summaries of facts
- notebook entries
- job sheets
- specialists reports
- expert evidence
Other discoverable material which has not been assigned a document number must still be accounted for within the Disclosure Index.
- chain of custody sheets
- documentary exhibits
- area canvass documents
- photographs
- DVDs, CDs and CCTV material
50000 series documents
50000 series documents are those that may be withheld purusant to CDA2008 s16, 17, or 18.
- SW applications
- CHIS Information Reports
- analytical material (charts, schedules etc.)
- Ops Orders / briefing material
- conference notes
- notes in relation to covert investigative techniques
- survfeillance devide warrant applications
- material that is commercially sensitive
0 material regarding alibi enquiries
- internal Police reports and instructions
Alibi enquiries
Police are not obliged to provide disclosure regarding alibi enquiries.
Electronic disclosure of 50000 series documents
Generally documents that have been edited, such as search warrant affadivits, CHIS material and covert investigative material, must never be disclosed in electronic format.
Extreme care must be taken when editing documents that contain sensitive information. In particular, disclosure of documents containint CHIS information must only be undertaken in accordance with the CHIS Criminal Disclosure Practice Note.
