During The Coronial Inquest into the circumstances surrounding Man Monis’ successful bail application on 12 December 2013 for the charges of accessory to murder and 37 sexual assaults, it has been revealed that the solicitor who appeared at Penrith Local Court for the bail application was described by Homicide Detectives as “terrible” and “not across the brief”. The senior police officer is said to have communicated his disappointment to his boss in an email: “Dicko [Detective Inspector Jason Dickinson] advises me that the DPP solicitor was terrible and clearly not across the brief”.
The Daily Telegraph reported on the story following the bail hearing:
The comments were revealed during the Coronial Inquest where the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions sought to have excluded from the Inquest numerous communications between its solicitors and Police before and after the bail hearing. The DPP argue that the documents are subject to legal professional privilege, akin to communications between a solicitor and his/her client.
Counsel assisting the inquiry have opposed the move, arguing that the move would damage the progress of the inquest and hinder the Coronor in finding out what really happened.
It follows that the Coronor has largely upheld the DPP’s application for 62 of the 74 disputed documents. These emails are said to include emails concerning why the DPP chose not to oppose the continuation of Monis’ bail.
Opposition legal spokesman Paul Lynch has said “I’m not convinced that the rules about legal professional privilege were ever intended for situations like this…Im not sure that they’ve ever been intended to protect communications between government agencies”.