New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CHILDREN (CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS) ACT 1987 - SECT 31

31 Hearing of charges in the Children’s Court

(1) If a person is charged before the Children’s Court with an offence (whether indictable or otherwise) other than a serious children’s indictable offence, the proceedings for the offence shall be dealt with summarily.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1):

(a) if a person is charged before the Children’s Court with an indictable offence (other than an offence that is punishable summarily without the consent of the accused), and

(b) if the person informs the Children’s Court (at any time during, or at the close of, the case for the prosecution) that the person wishes to take his or her trial according to law,

the proceedings for the offence shall not be dealt with summarily but shall be dealt with in accordance with Divisions 2-4 (other than sections 60 and 61) of Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 in the same way as if a court attendance notice had been issued in accordance with that Act.

(3) Notwithstanding subsection (1):

(a) if a person is charged before the Children’s Court with an indictable offence, and

(b) if the Children’s Court states that it is of the opinion, after all the evidence for the prosecution has been taken:

(i) that, having regard to all the evidence before the Children’s Court, the evidence is capable of satisfying a jury beyond reasonable doubt that the person has committed an indictable offence, and

(ii) that the charge may not properly be disposed of in a summary manner,

the proceedings for the offence shall not be dealt with summarily but shall be dealt with in accordance with Divisions 2-4 (other than sections 60 and 61) of Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 in the same way as if a court attendance notice had been issued in accordance with that Act and as if the Children’s Court had formed the opinion referred to in section 62 of that Act.

(4) If, in the circumstances referred to in subsection (3), the Children’s Court commits a person for trial, the Children’s Court shall forthwith furnish to the person a statement of the reasons for its decision to commit the person for trial instead of dealing with the matter summarily.

(5) Notwithstanding subsection (1):

(a) if a person is charged before the Children’s Court with an indictable offence, and

(b) if, at any stage of the proceedings, the person pleads guilty to the charge, and

(c) if the Children’s Court states that it is of the opinion that, having regard to all the evidence before it (including any background report of a kind referred to in section 25), the charge may not properly be disposed of in a summary manner,

the proceedings for the offence shall not be dealt with summarily but shall be dealt with in accordance with Division 5 of Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 as if the offence were a serious children’s indictable offence in respect of which the person had pleaded guilty as referred to in that section.