Australia, Aug. 13 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on July 14:

1. THE COURT: The applicant, AK, seeks leave to appeal out of time under r 3.5(5) of the Supreme Court (Criminal Appeal) Rules 2021 (NSW) (the Criminal Appeal Rules).

Background

2. The background to this application can be summarised as follows. The applicant was charged with one count of maintaining, between 1 January 2007 and 17 May 2008, an unlawful sexual relationship with a child under the age of 16 years, contrary to s 66EA of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). He pleaded not guilty to this charge.

3. A trial before Culver DCJ and a jury took place between 1 and 23 February 2022. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on 23 February 2022.

4. Sentence proceedings were heard on 6 May and 22 July 2022.

5. On 4 November 2022, Culver DCJ sentenced the applicant to imprisonment for 18 years, commencing on 23 February 2022 and expiring on 22 February 2040, with a non-parole period of 11 years expiring on 22 February 2033.

The appeal

6. A notice of intention to appeal was filed on 25 November 2022 but that notice ceased to have effect after 25 November 2023 by virtue of r 3.1(3) of the Criminal Appeal Rules. [1]

7. Thereafter what occurred is confused. It is not easy to ascertain when documents were filed from the material in the form presented to the Court by way of the Application Book (AB). What follows is derived from the court file and the documents filed according to the Court's electronic filing and recording system, JusticeLink, as well as the Application Book and the parties' submissions.

8. On 4 December 2024, approximately one year and one week after the notice of intention to appeal ceased to have effect, the applicant filed:

1) a notice of appeal together with annexures A and B, all dated 3 December 2024. Annexure B was an "Application for Leave to File a Notice of Appeal after Expiry of the Filing Period" under r 3.5(5), as required by r 3.5(1)(b) of the Criminal Appeal Rules, since the notice of appeal was filed after the applicable periods for filing in r 3.5(2)(a) and (b) of the Criminal Appeal Rules had expired. In annexure B, the reason why the notice of appeal was filed out of time was said to be:

"The appellant's legal representatives did not order the summing-up in time, which had caused delay in preparing appeal documents."

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/197f2e48f4b5aaa1cc5724eb)

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