The Assignment Brief
Case facts
Frank is 24 years old and unemployed. Frank has a long history of theft, mainly stealing handbags from unsuspecting shoppers and some pickpocketing. He is well known to the police. Frank recently headed down to a music festival for a couple of days with friends. His plan was to steal as much as he could from the festival visitors, take some festival drugs, and listen to some good music. Soon after his arrival, Frank was sitting in a bar when a sniffer dog approached him. As he had just lifted a patron's wallet, Frank looked a bit edgy when the police asked him to come to their tent to be searched. Frank nervously agreed. As it happened, he had just removed the cards from the wallet he had stolen before the police dog came near him and he surreptitiously dropped those in a cavity at the side of his table. At the police tent, Constable Bob patted Frank down and asked Frank to empty out his pockets. Frank produced his own wallet, and the wallet he had stolen, which no longer had any of the identity details of its owner. The wallet did however contain a bag of pills. Constable Bob then conducted a strip search and located several other pills. Frank was arrested and charged with possession.
But a few days later, Frank was at a bush music festival with the same ambitions. Much more cautious this time, Frank dumped the purses and bags that he stole almost immediately after removing the money and credit cards. He stashed them in a hollow tree log. After a very fruitful day, Frank decided to leave the festival early. He had been feeling as if he had been watched over the last hour so that was a good signal to leave. That was when he realised he must have mistakenly stashed his house keys in the hollow tree with one of the stolen bags. Rather than risk being seen searching in the tree, he waited until dusk and quickly threw all of the bags into his backpack to search through later. He was lucky enough to get a lift to the nearest train station where he took the next train back to the city. When he disembarked, he started walking through the station to head to the nearest park where he could search through the bags in peace. Halfway across the station however, an explosive detection dog on a routine patrol showed a great deal of interest in his backpack. Before the dog's handlers arrived, Frank started to run towards the exit. One of the police, Constable Dan, gave chase and tackled Frank to the ground.
As Frank struggled, Constable Dan placed his knees on Frank's chest to restrain him until the other police arrived. The police dog became very excited in response to Frank's backpack. Frank was escorted to the station where he was searched for the second time that week. Frank's bag was taken away for testing. Unfortunately for Frank, one of the bags he had stolen contained a small explosive device and terrorist literature. Frank was questioned for 10 hours and eventually admitted that he had stolen the bags and the wallet at the earlier festival. He said the explosive device and literature must have been in one of the bags he had stolen. Frank asked for a lawyer but the police said it was too late at night and he did not need one anyway as they didn't believe his story and he had been caught red handed with the device. The police then cautioned Frank, turned on the recorder and began to question him again. He was charged with planning a terrorist attack and refused bail.
At trial, Constable Bob from the first music festival gave evidence that the drug detection dog's interest in Frank made them suspicious but they were also suspicious of Frank because he looked so nervous. The bomb detection dog's handler, Constable Dan, gave evidence that police interest was aroused by the dog sniffing Frank's bag but they were also very suspicious of Frank when he ran away.
Instructions
Using materials from the course, answer the following questions.
Question 1. Bail: What are Frank's prospects of obtaining bail in relation to the terrorism offence? You should refer to the provisions of the Bail Act in your answer (200 words)
Question 2. Arrest: Was the arrest at the station valid? What is required for a valid arrest? (150 words)
Question 3. Search: (a) Did the police have power to search Frank at the first music festival? Under what legislation? What needs to be considered? (b) Did the police have power to search Frank at the station? (you do not have to consider any powers under Terrorism (Community Protection) Act 2003) (350 words)
Question 4. Procedures: Did the police breach any procedures in questioning Frank? You should consider s464 Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) (You do not have to consider any powers under Terrorism (Community Protection) Act 2003 (150 words)
Question 5. Surveillance: Assume that the prosecution later withdrew the terrorist offences after Frank finally remembered the identity cards of all the bags were stashed in the tree. These were matched to the bags and the real offender was subsequently arrested. Frank was charged and convicted of 25 counts of theft and one count of drug possession. The police remained very suspicious of Frank however. Several days later, they arrived at Frank's house to return his backpack and undetected by Frank, install an optical surveillance device in his smoke detector before leaving. Discuss the lawfulness of the installation (150 words)
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