The applicant was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice, in DPP v Sacco (Unreported, County Court of Victoria, Judge Murphy, 10 August 2018) and appealed the conviction on the ground that a ‘substantial miscarriage of justice’ had occurred in Sacco v The Queen [2018] VSCA 353. In her submissions was an eight page document headed ‘Treason and Misprison of Treason’, signed by Brian Shaw. The argument — which was plainly untenable — included the following elements.
First, in 1855 the Imperial Parliament passed The Constitution Act, which established the Colony of Victoria as a self-governing colony with responsible government. Secondly, the Constitution Act 1975 (Vic) was ineffective to ‘repeal’ the Act of 1855. Thirdly, the Australia Act 1986 (Cth) and Australia Act 1986 (UK) — which removed, first, any possibility for the United Kingdom to enact legislation with effect in Australia; secondly, for the United Kingdom to be involved in Australian government; and thirdly, for an appeal from any Australian court to be heard by a court of the United Kingdom — were enacted in breach of s 128 of the Commonwealth Constitution, and were therefore void. Fourthly, the removal of the necessity in s 6(1) of the (since repealed) Legal Practice Act 1996 for a legal practitioner to take an oath of allegiance (effected by s 3 of the Courts and Tribunals Legislation (Further Amendment) Act 2000), was unlawful. Fifthly, as a result, ‘any legal practitioner purporting to derive their authority from such Act therefore has no valid standing in any court’. Sixthly, the removal of references to the Crown and Queen from Victorian law (including the Public Prosecutions Act 1994) means that no valid indictment exists, so that the trial ‘cannot proceed’. Seventhly, the abrogation of the oath of allegiance means that the Office of Public Prosecutions ‘and its representatives are therefore devoid of proper legal standing’, so that any proceedings brought by them ‘are therefore null and void ab anitio [sic]‘.
Click to access sacco-v-the-queen-2018-vsca-353.pdf
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