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Outspoken judge Garry Neilson faces ban from hearing sex cases
SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 12:00AM
NSW District Court judge Garry Neilson. Source: Supplied
A NSW District Court judge who compared incest and pedophilia to homosexuality and suggested juries may no longer think sexual relations with a child were unnatural or “taboo” faces a ban from hearing further sex cases.
Finding the remarks brought NSW courts into disrepute, the NSW Judicial Commission has recommended judge Garry Neilson “not sit on cases involving sexual offences”.
The judge’s comments caused a public outcry when they were revealed and politicians of all sides demanded action be taken against him.
The NSW government filed a complaint with the Judicial Commission that he had brought the NSW court system into disrepute and NSW Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, who is pushing for the judiciary to be included in the royal commission into child sex abuse, also filed a complaint.
The commission did not find Judge Neilson should be referred to parliament for dismissal but recommended the Chief Judge of the District Court ban him from sitting on sexual cases.
For most of his career, Judge Neilson heard civil cases, not criminal matters.
The commission, acting on complaints from then NSW attorney-general Brad Hazzard, and Senator Heffernan, found Judge Neilson’s remarks would undermine faith in the system and diminish the significance of criminal conduct against victims.
“They were also said at a time of increasing public awareness of the blight of sexual abuse of children brought to prominence by the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and other inquiries,” the commission found.
“We find that the words used by the judge, whatever he meant by them, did have a tendency to, and did in fact, undermine the confidence of the judiciary.”
The comments, the finding said, would lead the public to think a judge of the District Court hearing allegations of significant sexual misconduct “does not regard the offences as significant crimes”.
In its 37-page finding, the commission said Judge Neilson had conceded that a reasonable person would consider he held the views expressed but denied they were his views and apologised for “completely inapt” language.
The finding said his evidence was both “confused and confusing” and the public conclusions drawn by politicians and mainstream media about his comments were justified.
It also found his comments made it appear that he was not applying the law and existing legislation.
Judge Neilson made the remarks during a 2014 case of a 58-year-old man known as MRM, who was charged with raping his younger sister in the family’s western Sydney home in 1981.
The judge said during legal argument that “this is the second decade of the 21st century, not the 1950s or 60s when jurors might believe any homosexual connection was ‘unnatural’, and any sexual connection with a child was ‘unnatural” and any incestuous connection was ‘unnatural’.”
He also said a jury might now find “nothing untoward” in the sexual advances of a brother to a sister who was sexually mature.
“Juries now regularly hear cases of sexual conduct which was once considered ‘unnatural’ or taboo,” Judge Neilson said.
“We find that the expression of those opinions did have the tendency to undermine confidence in the judiciary and the District Court and caused alarm within the community,” the commission said.
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