Aust, judge to head Thomas case inquiry

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 1

Aust, judge to head Thomas case inquiry

. .• . . • * ; NZPA Sydney A retired Australian judge has been appointed to chair the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Arthur Allan Thomas case. He will be assisted by two prominent New Zealanders.

Mr Justice Robert Lindsay Taylor served 17 years on the Supreme Court Bench in New South ’Wales before retiring in 1978 as Chief Judge at Common Law. He was regarded by the legal profession as conservative in outlook, although at his retirement the president of the New South Wales Bar Association, Mr T. R. Morling, Q.C., said that Mr Justice Taylor had developed a reputation as a fair and skilful judge. The other members of the commission will be a former Minister of Labour, Mr. J. B. Gordon, and the Most Rev. Allen Howard Johnston, who will retire soon as Anglican Archbishop of New Zealand. Mr Gordon, who retired from politics at the last General Election, is a member of the Privy Council. Mr Justice Taylor, who is 71, was also noted as

one who never hesitated to speak out. One of the big trials he presided over was in 1974, in which two men were found guilty of having conspired to murder the wife of a grazier. He told the two convicted men that they had outraged the accepted standards of men, and in passing life imprisonment sentences on each, said: “This .is a clear case where you two should spend the rest of your lives in jail, and there you should die.” In interviews on his retirement he expressed concern about the increase in violent crime. “I think a lot of people would see the death penalty as an answer, if not the only answer,” he said. He also .believed that the right of an accused person to make an unsworn statement from the dock in criminal trials should be abolished, and that it was necessary to

review the right of an accused person to remain silent. He also said at' the time that he disagreed with proposed Federal legislation requiring a lawyer to be present when a person was interrogated by the police. His Honour grew up in the Riverina district in southern New South Wales, and on his retirement said that he would be able to spend more time on his 800 ha property there and grow trees. He also said emphatically that he would have nothing more to do with the law. “Once you have finished, you have finished,” he said. Mr Justice Taylor was admitted as a solicitor in 1933 and to the Bar in 1935, becoming a Queen’s Counsel in 1953. He was appointed to the Bench of the New South Wales Supreme Court in 1961, and became Chief Judge at

Common Law in January, 1975. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), who announced the members of the commission after the Cabinet met yesterday, said that its terms of reference had not yet been established. He said that the Government was still waiting for submissions from Mr Thomas’s legal representatives on the terms of reference. Once they were received they would be considered by an ad hoc Cabinet committee, chaired by himself. The time for the Royal Commission to make its report will be set out in its terms or reference. Hearings will be held at Auckland.

Among matters the Royal Commission will have to consider will be the question of the payment of compensation to Mr Thomas. The ' Attorney-General (Mr McLay), who flew to Sydney to interview Mr Justice Taylor, said in Wellington yesterday that he believed the composition of the commission, with a distinguished retired judge from outside New Zealand and two prominent: citizens whose integrity was beyond reproach, was an indication of the Government’s determination to ensure that any inquiry into the , Thomas case was impartial and independent.