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COMMUNITY PROTECTION (OFFENDER REPORTING) ACT 2004 - SECT 85G

COMMUNITY PROTECTION (OFFENDER REPORTING) ACT 2004 - SECT 85G

85G .         Commissioner may publish photograph and locality of certain persons

        (1)         In this section —

        Department of Corrective Services means the department of the Public Service principally assisting the Minister in the administration of the Prisons Act 1981 ;

        photograph includes a digital image;

        prescribed offence means a Class 1 offence, a Class 2 offence or a sexual offence, as defined in the Evidence Act 1906 section 36A.

        (2)         Subject to this section, the Commissioner may publish a photograph and the locality of a person, other than a person who is a child —

            (a)         if —

                  (i)         the person has been convicted of a serious sexual offence; and

                  (ii)         the person is subject to a HRO supervision order; and

                  (iii)         that order does not provide that the person’s photograph and locality are not to be published under this section;

                or

            (b)         if —

                  (i)         the person, after becoming a reportable offender, commits and is found guilty of a prescribed offence; and

                  (ii)         any offence committed by the person, including the prescribed offence, is a Class 1 offence or an offence committed against a child under The Criminal Code section 323 or 324;

                or

            (c)         if —

                  (i)         the person has been found guilty of an offence punishable by imprisonment for 5 years or more; and

                  (ii)         on application by the Commissioner, that publication is authorised by the Minister on being satisfied that the person poses a risk to the lives or sexual safety of one or more persons, or persons generally.

        (3)         If the Commissioner proposes to publish the photograph and locality of a person under subsection (2), the Commissioner —

            (a)         must give the person written notice of the proposal and the reasons for it; and

            (b)         must inform the person in that notice that he or she has a specified period (of not less than 21 days) to make submissions or be heard in relation to the proposal; and

            (c)         if subsection (2)(a) applies in relation to the person, must give written notice of the proposal to the chief executive officer of the Department of Corrective Services.

        (4)         Before publishing the photograph and locality of the person, the Commissioner must have regard to —

            (a)         any submission made, or information or document provided, by the person within the period referred to in subsection (3)(b); and

            (b)         if notice is given under subsection (3)(c), any submission made by the chief executive officer of the Department of Corrective Services within the period of 21 days after that notice is given.

        (5)         For the purposes of subsection (2)(c), it is not necessary that the Minister be able to identify a risk to a particular person or particular persons or a particular class of persons.

        (6)         In determining whether to authorise publication under subsection (2)(c), the Minister may take into account the following —

            (a)         any medical, psychiatric, psychological or other assessment relating to the person;

            (b)         any information indicating whether or not the person is likely to commit a prescribed offence in the future;

            (c)         whether or not there is any pattern of offending behaviour on the part of the person;

            (d)         the person’s antecedents and the seriousness of his or her total criminal record;

            (e)         the person’s age and the age of any victims of any offences committed by the person at the time those offences were committed;

            (f)         the difference in age between the person and any victims of those offences;

            (g)         any other matter the Minister considers relevant.

        (7)         The Commissioner must provide with an application under subsection (2)(c) any information available to the Commissioner that is relevant to the Minister’s determination whether to authorise publication.

        (8)         The fact that an offence in respect of which a person has been found guilty becomes spent does not affect the consideration of the offence as part of the person’s total criminal record for the purposes of subsection (6)(d).

        [Section 85G inserted: No. 1 of 2012 s. 5; amended: No. 29 of 2020 s. 94.]