Stanley v. Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) & Anor

Lower Court Judgment

21/12/2021 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Appeal) (Bell P, Basten, Leeming, McCallum and Beech-Jones JJA)

[2021] NSWCA 337

Catchwords

Administrative law – Judicial review – Jurisdictional error – Where District Court's exercise of sentencing discretion governed by Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) ("CSP") – Where s 7 of CSP provides court that sentenced offender to imprisonment may make intensive correction order ("ICO") – Where, when considering making ICO, Part 5 of CSP applies, including s 66 which provides "[c]ommunity safety must be paramount consideration" when sentencing court is deciding whether to make ICO – Where s 66(2) requires sentencing court to assess whether making order or serving sentence more likely to address offender's risk of reoffending – Whether failure to comply with s 66(2) of CSP constitutes jurisdictional error – Whether statutory requirement that matter be considered is jurisdictional/mandatory if power being exercised is part of sentencing process undertaken by court – Whether statutory requirement that matter be considered is not jurisdictional if failure to comply cannot be characterised as fundamentally misconceiving sentencing function – Whether "complex" consequences of finding criminal sentence invalid weigh significantly against finding statutory requirement intended to be jurisdictional/mandatory.