| K was convicted of several infractions of the Penitentiary Service Regulations by the independent chairperson conducting the disciplinary court at the medium security Warkworth Institution. During the hearing the independent chairperson denied K’s request to be represented by counsel, temporarily excluded K from the hearing room while consultations occurred between the chairperson and institutional staff – the content of which was withheld from K, and accorded to K no opportunity to make any oral or written representations. Primarily as a result of these convictions, K was involuntarily transferred to a maximum-security institution. K made an application to the Court for certiorari to quash the convictions imposed by the independent chairperson of the disciplinary court and for mandamus to return him to Warkworth Institution. |
| After considering past case authority, Muldoon J. held that the independent chairperson erred in not allowing K to be represented by a lawyer. Furthermore, the independent chairperson was wrong to deny K the opportunity to make submissions with regard to his punishment and incorrectly withheld from K the substance of the evidence given by staff. As a consequence, Muldoon J. quashed the convictions for the disciplinary infractions. Since the transfer appeared on a balance of probabilities to be based on the invalid disciplinary convictions, the transfer itself must be quashed. Muldoon J. ordered that K be returned to Warkworth and awarded him costs on a solicitor-client basis. |
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