Assignment Task:
Task:
Your task: You have been asked to provide an advice on evidence about the information and potential evidence, which is available to your client, Mr Greg Gregson (“Mr G”) in his upcoming trial. Mr G has been charged with the murder of his colleague, Ms Meredith Cotton.
You are provided below with a list of the Crown’s intended witnesses and evidence. Based on that information, you must advise Mr G what items or information could become evidence in his trial and any relevant evidentiary rules, law, practices and procedures which relate to the potential evidence. Please include careful explanations of the relevant law relating to evidence in your advice.
As to format, you have been provided with an article by Kylie Downes on giving an advice. It may assist you to write your assignment. There is no one correct format for an advice on evidence. You may use Kylie Downes’ article as a guide, but should change your format if needed for the assessment.
Memo to: Counsel (You)
Memo from: Brisbane Criminal Defence Lawyers
Subject: General instructions – Advice on Evidence
Client – Mr Greg Gregson
Counsel is instructed to advise on evidence in relation to this matter.
We anticipate that the matter will proceed to trial. To assist in preparation for trial, please advise us regarding:
Any problems or challenges that could arise with the evidence (i.e., what issues could each side raise about the evidence)? This should include a consideration of relevancy.
What items, including any documentary evidence or real evidence, may be inadmissible?
Whether there are any issues with the taking of evidence from the potential witnesses? For each witness, identify likely topics/lines of questioning by the Crown. You do not need to list individual questions (although you may, if you wish).
Whether, based on your assessment of the evidence, there is adequate information for a jury to convict Mr G, if the evidence was accepted.
Your advice about whether Mr G should (or should not) give evidence at his own trial, and what the risks are; and any other evidential issues raised by your instructions.
Instructions to Counsel (You)
You are instructed by the leading Brisbane Criminal Defence Firm, aptly named Brisbane Criminal Defence Lawyers (“BCDL”). BCDL acts for Mr Greg Gregson, who has been charged with the murder of Ms Meredith Cotton.
Mr G says that he is innocent. BCDL has, at this stage, advised Mr G to exercise his right to silence.
In early-2020, Mr G, who was the self-appointed “Director of Performing Arts” at the prestigious elite school, Summer Heights High, located in Brisbane, became determined to persuade the school Principal, Mrs Margaret Murray, to construct a new “Performing Arts Centre”. The Performing Arts Centre, as envisaged by Mr G, was to be a 10,000-seat theatre complex that would be utilised for a range of productions.
Mrs Murray would not discuss the Performing Arts Centre further, which Mr G says was disappointing and visionless. Nevertheless, he was determined to see the Performing Arts Centre be constructed and devised a plan to raise the revenue.
Mr G believed that he could raise funds through the production of “Annabelle Dickson: The Musical” and other productions, by charging attendees (mostly parents of students performing), and then diverting the ticket sale proceeds to a fund. The plan was then for Mr G’s long-time friend, Mr Rodney Parsons, a science teacher at the school, to “grow” the fund through aggressive financial strategies. Although Mr G had been told that the school would not support this decision, he was determined to see his vision come to life.
Mr G knew that Principal Murray would not allow him to establish a school account for these purposes, so he established a CommSec Online Share Trading & Investment Account in his personal name.
Mr G tells you that the Head of Drama, “useless” Meredith Cotton, was also visionless, and did not want to charge parents to attend drama productions, because they “were already paying very high school fees”. Meredith thought parents might complain, and that this could lead to community disharmony.
Nevertheless, Mr G proceeded, and set up a TryBooking link, which required parents to register to attend, via social media. The TryBooking link forwarded payments received to the CommSec account that had been established by Mr G in his name. Approximately $50,000 was raised following ticket sales, none of which has been expended, but has, with Mr Parsons’ assistance, been grown into a fund of $78,000.
Meredith became aware of this, and raised the issue with the Principal, Mrs Murray.
Mr G tells you that he was asked to attend a meeting with Mrs Murray on 1 November 2020. He was advised that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss “financial delegations” and to discuss “irregularities with school accounting processes”. As Mr G’s dog, Celine, had been involved in an accident where she was run over reasonably recently, Mr G declined to attend the meeting, as he was caring for Celine.
On the last day of the school year, 9 December 2020, Mr G returned for a staff Christmas break-up morning tea, which was also attended by Meredith, Mrs Murray, and the preponderance of staff. Meredith became unwell toward the end of the festivities, and excused herself early, to go to her office.
Later that afternoon, Meredith was found dead in her office, slumped in her chair, by the school janitor. A note was left on Meredith’s desk, purportedly by her, which read:
“Dear friends and family – As many of you know, I have been depressed since the production of Anything Goes was a flop. I should have listed to Mr G at the time and given him greater creative control. I am sorry for the pain my failure has caused to the school, and while it is goodbye from me, I know that Mr G will step capably into my place. Thank you for your friendship and support, and don’t be sad, as I am going to a better place. Fondly, Meredith”
Police were called, and an autopsy was conducted, which revealed that Meredith had died of an overdose of the drug Metacam, which is a pain medication used for canines following surgery.
Following an investigation, Mr G has been charged with murder under s302 of the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld).
The Crown intends to call the following evidence:
Witness, Margaret Murray, Principal
Mrs Murray will give evidence about both Meredith and Mr G’s employment at Summer Heights High. She will testify that while Meredith was on a period of extended eave following the “Anything Goes” Musical production in late-2019, Mr G was allowed to “act up” in Meredith’s role as the next (well, only) most senior drama employee. He insisted on using the title, “Director of Performing Arts”. Although Mrs Murray tried to make it clear to Mr G that the acting up role was temporary, and only until Meredith returned, he made a few changes without consultation. These including clearing out Meredith’s desk, moving himself in, and requiring support staff to take over the teaching of some of his classes. When Meredith did return, Mr G refused to give up his self-declared title, and refused to relocate his office. Eventually, Meredith just moved to a different office in order to “keep the peace”.
Mrs Murray says that Mr G was difficult to manage. She said that Mr G would repeatedly say to her, “You’ve got yourself an entertainment industry professional for the price of a teacher, so where’s my pay raise?””
Mrs Murray will testify that shortly after taking on the acting up role, Mr G unveiled plans to construct a new “Performing Arts Centre,” a 10,000-seat theatre complex that would have required the demolition of the demountable classrooms being utilised by the special education students. She will testify that, in her opinion, Mr G was aggravated when she told him that drama is a “small department” and she could not afford the arena seating he planned for the musical.
Mrs Murray was reluctant to discuss the matter for two key reasons. Firstly, she was concerned that it would attract negative press as construction would require the demolition of the demountable classrooms currently being utilised by the special education students. Mrs Murray was also concerned that the school simply did not have the financial means to support such large expenditure, at a time when parents were already struggling with recent school fee increases.
In August of 2020, Mrs Murray says there was conflict, as the musical that Mr G had been preparing, “Annabelle Dickson: The Musical” needed to be adjusted significantly following complaints by Annabelle’s parents about the way that their daughter (a student who the musical was based on) was portrayed. There were also concerns about whether the musical could proceed at all, given Covid-19 constraints with public events.
Mrs Murray became impatient with Mr G’s irrationality, and refers to a temper tantrum he had, where he threatened to resign following disagreement about whether the musical could proceed, as planned by him. Mrs Murray made it clear to Mr G that the musical, adjusted appropriately to reflect parental concerns, would go on with, or without, him. She says he was irritated when she told him that at the end of September 2020, Meredith would return to the school and could step in to direct it, and make certain it was tactful.
Also in August of 2020, Mrs Murray says that Mr G perceived he was being undervalued by the school, and he stormed out of her office, and handed in a letter of resignation. He then used the PA system to announce that was unhappy about the way the school musical was being handled and proceeded to organise his own farewell card. Mrs Murray will testify that Mr G required the drama students perform an honour guard as he left school for the final time. He began driving in circles around the school, stopping to ask students if his resignation was beginning to impact the school. Mrs Murray says that she left her office, approached Mr G in his car, and asked him to reconsider his resignation. She offered him the title of “Creative Coordinator of the Drama Department,” which he told her was insulting. She says that she was keen to avoid a complaint by the Union, as she perceived that Mr G was litigious and “rights focussed”.
Following Meredith’s return to Summer Heights High at the end of September 2020, there were various points of conflict in relation to the musical. Ultimately, the school decided that because of Covid-19, the musical could not proceed with a live audience, but would instead be performed via Zoom, with parents sent a link to attend.
Following the announcement that the musical would not proceed, Mrs Murray says that Meredith attended her office, as she had received complaints from parents that they wanted a refund on their ticket purchase. Meredith said that Mr G was dragging the chain on providing refunds. Meredith then decided that she would process the refunds herself, but when she went to do so, discovered that there were no funds in the school drama account. She then become aware that the account details listed on the TryBooking link did not belong to the school.
Mrs Murray will also give evidence that she asked the school Business Manager to conduct an audit of the accounts, and she can confirm that the funds from ticket sales were not deposited to a school account. She then made the arrangements for Mr G to attend the 1 November 2020 meeting, which he ultimately did not attend because he was on carer’s leave to care for Celine.
Witness, Rodney Parsons, Science Teacher
The Crown seeks to establish that Mr Parsons was assisting Mr G with the CommSec account, particularly in relation to growing the funds. Mr Parsons has not been charged with anything, and he has not yet been interviewed by the school, but has been stood down on full-pay pending an investigation into the ticket sale and CommSec fund issues.
The Crown asserts that Mr Parsons was seen entering Meredith’s office just after the staff Christmas morning tea. The Crown alleges that another teacher, Ms Wheatley, saw Mr Parsons enter the office, and it is believed that he was carrying a note.
In his interview with police during the investigation, Mr Parsons told police that he did not read the note, but just placed it on Meredith’s desk, along with the rest of her mail, which Mr G had asked him to deliver from the staff room on his way back to his own office. He did not read Meredith’s mail, and cannot confirm whether the note is the same note that was found with Meredith following her passing. At the time he entered Meredith’s office, she appeared to be resting, and Mr Parsons said he just ducked out quickly so as to not disturb her.
He is a reluctant witness, and has not spoken to anyone further about the matters.
The note allegedly from Meredith
The Crown will tender the note that was discovered on Meredith’s desk by the janitor.
Witness, Expert Toxicologist, Dr Poyson
The Crown will call Dr Poyson, who will give evidence that Meredith’s death was caused by ingestion of an overdose of Metacam, a drug that is generally prescribed for canine pain management.
Dr Poyson is a Clinical Pharmacist and is registered as a member with “ACTRA” – the Australasian College of Toxicology and Risk Assessment – https://actra.org.au/registration/.
Dr Poyson does not have any professional experience with veterinary toxicology, but has given evidence on multiple occasions in relation to other human poisoning matters.
CommSec and TryBooking records
The Crown seeks to tender records that establish that the CommSec account into which TryBooking funds were established belonged to Mr G. Additionally, the Crown seeks to tender TryBooking records that reveal payments and dates made to the account.
Bottle of Metacam, prescribed to “Celine”
This item was found in the Summer Heights High rubbish bin, following a search by the police for evidence relating to Meredith’s death, which they classed as “suspicious” from the start.
The bottle is empty but has traces of Metacam in it. The label on the bottle indicates that it was prescribed to “Celine”. It is well known that Mr G has a chihuahua, who often attends school with him, named Celine. It is further widely known that Celine was recently in a car accident, and therefore potentially on pain relieving medication.
Witness, Miley Maclang, Journalist
Miley is a journalist who works the “elite schools” beat for the Queenslander Newspaper. As Summer Heights High is an “elite school”, Miley had the opportunity to interview Mr G in relation to his plans for the Performing Arts Centre, for a feature piece about drama programs and expenditure in elite schools.
She interviewed Mr G over lunch in November of 2020. Miley says that during the interview, Mr G implied that Meredith would not be involved in any future productions, despite being the Head of Drama. She says this because Mr G told her that, “Meredith is totally irrelevant, Miley, and I am now running the drama program. I’m the one you want to be talking to here.”
Miley also tells you that, around the time of Meredith’s death, she was about to “blow the lid off” the issues at the school in relation to (1) demolishing the demountable buildings used for special education; (2) the scandal of charging parents $500 per ticket to attend a school musical, where they were already paying $35,000 a year in tuition; and (3) concerns raised with her by anonymous parent sources that they were struggling to obtain a refund. She believes that Mr G may have heard through the parent community that she was “investigating”, and this might have been a motive for him to kill Meredith.
Witness, Ms Wheatley, Teacher
Ms Wheatley will give evidence that she saw Mr Parsons entering Meredith’s office shortly after the staff Christmas morning-tea. Ms Wheatley is the school Union delegate. She had several discussions with Mr Parsons shortly before he was suspended from duties on full-pay, in relation to his involvement in the ticket sales and CommSec accounts. She gave Mr Parsons some industrial advice. Ms Wheatly is not a lawyer.
Witness, Toby, Year 10 Summer Heights High
Toby is a 15-year-old boy with Downs Syndrome. Toby likes to help faculty and his fellow students. Toby was assisting with the set-up of the faculty Christmas morning tea, and was asked to make coffee for Mr G, and Meredith. Toby says that Mr G always says, “Coffee, coffee, coffee before we teachy, teachy!”, and on that morning, Mr G said, “Coffee, coffee, coffee before we party, party!”.
Toby says that he thought the mug given to him by Mr G for Meredith was “wet” on the inside, but Toby assumed it was just wet from the dishwasher. The Crown believes that Meredith ingested the Metacam in coffee, but the police did not ever locate the specific coffee cup used by Meredith, as it was put in the faculty dishwasher following her drinking the coffee and then returned to the shelf.
The Crown theory is that Mr G placed the Metacam in the bottom of Meredith’s mug, before getting Toby to make the coffee for her.
As you have been told above, Mr G has not offered any information to the police.
END OF INSTRUCTIONS
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