Judge finds Queensland magistrate talked over defence lawyer’s questions and did not approach task ‘with a sufficient degree of impartiality’
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An Indigenous man from a remote Cape York community was wrongly convicted of a traffic offence by a magistrate who repeatedly talked over the defence lawyer’s questions and made a series of “inappropriate” and “intemperate” remarks, an appeal has found.
The magistrate, sitting in a circuit court in Aurukun, took about 10 minutes after the hearing to find Rex Austin Ngakyunkwokka guilty of an evasion offence.