![]() ![]() In the event description organisers claim the “presumption of guilt” is a “dangerous new doctrine on the rise … in an era where public policy is frequently influenced by the latest frenzy on social media”. In May the Rule of Law Education Centre incorrectly billed Porter as a speaker at the conference, which promises to “examine recent challenges to this doctrine and the threat this poses to the Australian concept of a ‘fair go’”.Ī spokesman for Porter told Guardian Australia that he “hadn’t actually accepted” an invitation and organisers had “got ahead of themselves”. “They are presumed innocent, it doesn’t mean they are innocent.” ![]() Walker said “presumption of innocence” should be “banished from discourse concerning people who are the objects of criminal process”. “Guilt of a crime … is only ever of conduct which was criminal at the time it was committed – and you’ve been guilty, as a matter of English law, since you’ve committed the offence.” “In short, the presumption of innocence involves an open mind about the outcome of a trial but not the magical thinking that says until a person is convicted they were innocent, they should never have been tried. I hope the police who investigate and put the brief together … don’t think so either, that would be appalling. “The prosecutor mustn’t – that would be appalling. Walker said when prosecutors signed indictments they were declaring they believed there was enough evidence to allege the commission of an offence, notwithstanding the accused’s presumption of innocence.īut Walker said it would be a “terrible thing if we thought that everybody was thereby compelled to regard them as innocent”. “If that simply means he or she hasn’t yet had pronounced a verdict of guilty and thereafter a conviction entered – so much is true but trivial.” On Tuesday Walker said that “unfortunately both politically and socially in everyday language people – many of them lawyers … speak of the presumption of innocence as if it means somehow, that at the time of speaking – that is before an accused has been convicted – the person actually is innocent or, if you like … that the person is not guilty”. Police had begun an investigation but concluded there was “insufficient admissible evidence” to continue after the complainant withdrew from the process, then took her life. In March the prime minister declared that Porter was an “innocent man under our law” because he had never been charged with or convicted of sexual assault.
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