Judge aborts 'derailed' trial

The trial of a high-profile Northland man facing sexual violation and assault charges was aborted yesterday, as the judge criticised the news media for constantly testing the limits of court orders.

The man denies 11 charges including threatening to kill, assaulting a female and sexual violation, and has interim name suppression.

Crown prosecutor Peter Magee opened the case to the jury of four men and eight women on Monday morning.

They were expected to visit the man's home yesterday morning, to see where the assaults allegedly happened.

Instead, they were discharged by Judge Michael Lance, QC, who told them the whole trial had been "derailed."

He said Mr Magee and defence counsel John Haigh, QC, had seen him on Monday afternoon and raised issues in chambers.

Judge Lance said even if the lawyers had not raised the issue, he would still have aborted the trial.

"The strain and the stress of re-assigning this trial at some time in the future is considerable on everybody," he said.

Judge Lance was short with waiting reporters, questioning whether everyone understood previous suppression orders he had made, including banning publication of the names of the accused man and the complainant.

"I am sick and tired of having to spell out the fine print when it's fairly obvious the reasons these orders are made, to stop the media pushing the boundaries of the envelope and getting as close as it can to not breaching an order but going so close that in fact sometimes in effect it may be," Judge Lance said.

"I wish the media would observe the spirit in which these orders are made as much as observing the strict lettering of them and it would save everybody a lot of time and trouble."

He said that to go into the reason the trial had to be aborted would only exacerbate the situation.

"The case is of real concern that will be examined by the highest level," he said.

Trials have been aborted in the past because of media involvement.

In July 2000 a rape trial in the High Court at Hamilton was aborted because of what Justice Grant Hammond said was inadvertent media disclosure.

Trials can be aborted for various reasons, including jurors becoming sick or suffering a bereavement, the accused or others speaking or interfering with jurors, breaching of court orders and problems with evidence.

A major drugs trial in the High Court at Auckland was aborted three times - in 2004 when it was postponed because of a lack of jurors, in May last year because two jurors chatted with one of the accused, and the third time in September because defence counsel had concerns with a search warrant. It was estimated the case had cost taxpayers $2 million.

Yesterday, Mr Haigh said it was with great reluctance that the application to abort the trial had to be made, because the process had been emotionally and financially draining and his client had been awaiting trial for more than a year.

The man has been remanded, with his bail extended to March 20.

Mr Haigh will argue in the Auckland District Court for a change of venue out of Whangarei for any further trial. That application is opposed by the Crown.