A Canberra man has failed in his bid to sue two magistrates and the ACT courts over claims of wrongful imprisonment.
That triggered what is known as a Special Interim Family Violence Order, which was put in place in April 2019. But when police found the man at his former partner's home in October, he was arrested for breaching the now expired order.When he was denied bail and remanded in custody by one magistrate and later, after pleading not guilty to the breach, sent back to jail by a second magistrate.
"As the primary judge pointed out, it is not uncommon for persons who are detained as a result of an allegation of offending and a refusal of bail to be ultimately acquitted of the charge which they faced or for the prosecution to be terminated prior to the trial as a result of the discovery of new information." the Court of Appeal said in its judgement.
"The entire premise of the system for granting and refusing bail is that people who are charged, but are innocent at law until proven guilty, may have their liberty curtailed pending trial." the Court of Appeal said."Mistakes within a system do not necessarily mean that the system itself fails, even when the consequence is that a person's liberty is affected."