With less than three weeks until the latest attempt to run a Northern Territory policeman’s murder trial after it was twice cancelled due to COVID-19, the Supreme Court does not have a virus management plan.
Constable Zachary Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker in November 2019 in the remote community of Yuendumu, about 290km northwest of Alice Springs.
Walker was shot three times after stabbing Rolfe with a pair of surgical scissors while being arrested.
Rolfe’s trial has been postponed three times, twice due to the pandemic.
It is scheduled to start on February 7 and run for three weeks with 50 witnesses and experts through the period NT Chief Health Office Hugh Heggie says will be the territory’s Omicron peak.
It was left up to NSW-based crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC at a pre-trial hearing on Thursday to raise concerns about the virus potentially impacting proceedings.
“Would Your Honour consider having a jury panel of more than 12 jurors in the event that one of more jurors contracts COVID during the course of the trial to enable as far as possible 12 jurors to be able to deliberate?” he asked while coughing via an audiovisual link from virus-ravaged Sydney.
Justice John Burns said it was a difficult question to answer because having extra jurors increased the risk of the virus being brought into the courtroom.
He said the court was still considering how it would handle the risk and wondered aloud if the jury could be spread across the courtroom so they were not sitting close together.
Mr Strickland also asked if the entire jury would be considered close contacts and ordered to isolate if one juror tested positive for the virus.
“I think that is something I will need to at least attempt to get some advice on from the chief medical officer,” Justice Burns replied.
There was also confusion about when the trial was due to start, with Justice Burns initially telling the court it was February 14 before Rolfe’s defence lawyer, David Edwardson QC, corrected him.
Rolfe is charged with murder and the alternative counts of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death
His trial has been postponed three times.
The first time was in July when the Crown’s interstate prosecution team was unable to travel to the NT from Sydney due to the territory’s COVID-19 border restrictions.
Then again in mid-August when parts of the Top End were ordered to a lockdown after a virus outbreak in Darwin.
The most recent delay was in late-August for a High Court challenge over Rolfe’s proposed defence.
The case will return to court on January 31 for another pre-trial mention to discuss how the court will manage the COVID-19 risk during the trial.
AAP
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