By Aynesch

The many principles of justice in Australia’s legal system are Equality before the law, Right to fair hearing, Right to appeal, Right to silence, Presumption of innocence and High Quality Evidence. These principles are necessary, as they provide a predictable and ordered society. These concepts also treats all citizens in a society with equity and lawfulness. For example, if there was no principle regarding the Right to a fair hearing, then the accused sentence’ can be lengthened, shortened or not even given at all, depending on the judges’ or juries decision. These principles demonstrate the most fundamental principle of justice which is that they are designed to help protect the right of all Australian citizens. The case that I chose was the Lloyd Rayney case. Through an investigation undergone in the Lloyd Rayney case, it will be shown that the two principles which are, but not limited to: “Presumption of Innocence” and “High Quality Evidence” is not conveyed at all when the Western Australian took the case under their jurisdiction.

On the 7th of August, 2007, Corryn Veronica Ann Rayney disappears after failing to return from her boot-scooting class that she attended to, in the suburb of Bentley in Perth. Police then find traces of oil from Mrs. Rayney’s abandoned car, (a 2005 Ford Fairmont) which had been left at a curbside on Kershaw Street, Subiaco. The remains of the car oil led police to find Mrs. Rayney head-first in a dug-up grave. When the news reached the Rayney family, they were all very shocked and disturbed to hear this. But prosecutors argued that Lloyd killed Corryn Rayney because their marriage was started to deteriorate and she was threatening him to ruin his career. All the hate and despise that the WA State government had brought on Lloyd, forced him to sign a defamation charge against them. He eventually ended up winning $2.62m worth of damages which consisted of general damages, aggravated damages, economic loss and interest.

All people charged with a serious crime (such as serious assault, selling illegal drugs and murder) also have the right to a presumption of innocence, meaning that they must be treated as innocent until proven guilty, from the moment they are charged with a crime to their court hearing or trial. In the Lloyd Rayney Case, this Principle of Justice was compromised. When police received further information on the case, they decided to make Lloyd Rayney their ‘prime suspect’. This was then announced live on a television broadcast by the Chief Police Commissioner of the time, Detective Jack Lees. Lloyd was also charged with bugging the house to trace his wife’s phone calls. This was against Lloyd’s rights in the legal system, as law enforcement had named Lloyd a suspect not even a month after Corryn Rayney’s body was found. They also named him the ‘prime and ‘only’ suspect without any hesitation, as him and his wife Corryn were heard of having arguments because of Corryn having been in an intimate relationship with a colleague while Lloyd was on a business trip to Bermuda. This case has compromised the principle which is the Presumption of Innocence, which led to Lloyd charging a defamation charge against the State of WA. It is important that all individuals who are thought to be related to a crime, are thought of to be innocent no matter their race, gender, ethnicity, work status or mental capacity.

High Quality Evidence involves using evidence of a high quality in a court trial. The rules of evidence govern what information is able to be placed before a court for determination of an issue. These rules influence how a party goes about proving its case. In this case, this Principle of Justice was not supported and in other words, compromised. Police used traces of oil from Corryn Rayney’s abandoned car to locate her body which was situated in a dug-up grave, 50m from the main road at Kings Park. Other than this key piece of information, detectives only discovered a few Sweet Gum balls which matched the DNA of Mrs. Rayney from the night of when she disappeared. This was actually against Lloyd Rayney by the State government who stated that after Mr. Rayney had finished killing his wife, he had dragged her across the brick driveway of their Como home, where a Liquidambar tree grew. Also, there were stains of blood found inside of Mrs. Rayney’s car which matched the blood located near the gravesite, where forensic officers had compared them both. Even with all these clues and evidence, detectives still could not identify who or what had committed the crime, or what the intent was. This principle was very critical in deciding if Lloyd Rayney would be guilty or not for the murder/manslaughter of his wife. Its extremely paramount that all the evidence in a case should be fully reviewed, so there can be some conclusion to a certain case.

In an attempt for cases to be resolved in a fair and unbiased manner, the Australian court system allows people who are dissatisfied with the outcome of their case to appeal or have their case reviewed by a higher court – providing reasonable grounds for appeal exist. For example, a person who has been found guilty of a crime may be able to lodge an appeal against the guilty verdict of the severity of the sentence if they can provide reasonable grounds. There were multiple principles that were supported in the Lloyd Rayney Case, but this is the most important one, as this was the way that the accused (Mr. Rayney) was quashed of all of the charges which were laid against him. When Lloyd was called out by the WA Police for being the “prime” suspect in the murder/manslaughter of Corryn Rayney, he immediately decided to implement a defamation charge against the Western Australian government. This principle has been correctly supported in the Lloyd Rayney case, which allowed him to file an appeal for the charges that had been laid against him by the prosecutors (WA State government).

Many principles of justice in the Lloyd Rayney case were both supported and compromised, some of which include High Quality Evidence, Presumption of Innocence and Right to Appeal. All the Principles of Justice help to keep our society equal and to prevent any unjustness in our country. If these principles did not exist, then people like Lloyd Rayney would not have to face a society that hated him for something that he did not carry out.