CLA campaigner Brian Tennant welcomes the decision in WA to presume innocence, and so allow bail, under a charge of wilful murder in the Rayney case. His comments echo CLA’s call for a review of bail law in Tasmania also, where bail was not granted in 2010 in a case based very largely on circumstantial evidence.
Bail law should presume innocence
Editor, The West Australian: Sir, I respond to your report by Kate Campbell ‘Judge explains Rayney’s bail’ 07/01/11 TWA.
Auxiliary justice Robert Anderson, who was brought out of retirement to hear Mr Lloyd Rayney’s bail application, published the reasons for his decision to grant bail to the former state prosecutor who is charged with wilfully murdering his wife, Corryn Rayney*. The judge explains that there must be exceptional reasons to grant bail to anyone who is charged with wilful murder. One of the reasons given was that his two daughters (Caitlyn, 16, and Sarah, 13) were dependent on their father with whom they shared a “close and supportive relationship.”
The judge went on to say, “special regard” had to be given to the girls’ welfare, considering the strain and insecurity they must be under. Justice Anderson was satisfied that the case was “wholly circumstantial”, and that there was the likelihood of a long wait for trial. The judge explained that Mr Rayney would have spent an “exceedingly” long time in custody, if bail was not to be granted.
I agree with his decision to grant bail in this case, or in the case of anyone else in the same circumstances. My prime concern is to support the principle of the “presumption of innocence” until proven otherwise.
Looking back over my 40 years as a watchdog, I can only vaguely remember 1 or 2 cases where bail was granted on a homicide offence. I call on all lawyers defending their clients right to bail to study carefully the full judgment of justice Robert Anderson granting Mr Rayney’s bail.
With new technology available not only in the courts but also in surveillance, I only hope that granting bail in homicide offences becomes more general, particularly when the prosecution is relying totally on circumstantial evidence.
Brian G Tennant
Human Rights and Law Reform Campaigner
Member of Civil Liberties Australia
8 Jan 2011
- Mrs Rayney, a Supreme Court registrar, was found buried in a makeshift grave in Kings Park, Perth, in August 2007, nine days after she disappeared after attending her regular bootscooting class in suburban Bentley. Mr Rayney was arrested and charged with wilful murder on 8 December 2010 and spent two weeks in Hakea Prison before being granted bail on 23 December 2010.
NOTE: CLA has formally asked the Tasmanian Attorney-General, Lara Giddings, to refer that State’s bail laws to the Tasmanian Law Reform Commission for review. In Tasmania, as in WA, it is exceedingly rare for something charged with murder to be granted bail, even when evidence is at its most circumstantial. We await her reply.