Pat O'Shame Does It Again!

Here she is letting a Muslim Rioter and Police-Car-Windscreen-Smasher off the hook with a 12 month good behaviour bond.  I hope this – er – impartial decision is appealed, as it should be. 

What kind of message is this magistrate trying to convey to the Muslim community?  That’s it’s perfectly acceptable to be caught on camera destroying public property and creating mayhem?    Afterall, this is only Australia and we don’t really give a rat’s about anti-social behaviour?

Pat O’Shane has gathered some history whilst occupying one of the highest positions in the land – that of a Sydney magistrate, a role she’s held since around 1986.

As recently as last December 18th, Ms O’Shane had to front the NSW Judicial Commission’s conduct division to face yet more allegations she forgets all about impartiality and the law when hearing some cases.

Ms O’Shane has form in this regard and why the woman is still drawing a salary as a magistrate is simply beyond comprehension. 

She is due for retirement in June of this year.  However, she has been running loose within the NSW judicial system for over 23 years.  Why was she not  dismissed years ago?  NSW Premier, Barry O'Farrell has been more than aware of the incompetence of this particular magistrate, yet he has failed to right such an obvious wrong.

Australian National University College of Law lawyers and academics, Ruth Townsend and Michael Eburn conducted a study in 2012 into Pat O’Shane’s sublime efforts in the role of magistrate.  In one famous case, O’Shane went right ahead and dismissed a case regardless of the fact the accused had entered a guilty plea.  You can’t get much more incompetent than that.

Townsend and Eburn found that out of 16 criminal cases, this genius of a magistrate managed to get 14 wrong  and as a result, Supreme Court appeals were upheld.  They also found after examining 56 Supreme Court appeals between 1999 and 2012, 35 of those were upheld.  That gives O’Shane around a 62% failure rate!

Who was the gormless soul who thought it was a good idea (if not on the money to win a few “politically correct” brownie points) to appoint O’Shane, who happens to be aboriginal, to the bloody Bench in the first place?

Pat O’Shane has been accused by Supreme Court Judges in the past for all kinds of misconduct such as denying procedural fairness to the prosecution; failure to understand the evidence as presented by the prosecution which has been laid before her.  She has also been accused of making a number of errors of law and using intemperate language.

The legal fraternity have called for O’Shane’s resignation yet she blunders on, hearing the case of the Muslim rioter just the other day.

This is pathetic.