In Victoria Judges hide behind a wall of secrecy without accountability

In January 2017, Victoria’s broken bail system reached its most catastrophic failure. James Dimitrious Gargasoulas, a career criminal with a long history of violence, bail breaches, and car theft, was arrested after a string of serious offences.

Police strongly opposed his release. They knew he was dangerous, volatile, and spiralling out of control.

Yet a pro-crime judge decided to give him another chance. Despite the overwhelming risk to the community, despite police objections, he was granted bail to appear later in the magistrates court.

Six days later, Gargasoulas showed, in blood and carnage, the catastrophic cost of the rotten, pro-crime judge’s decision. High on ice and out of control, he stole a car, sped into a busy Melbourne street during peak hour, and ploughed through a crowd of innocent pedestrians, deliberately mowing people down.

Six lives were brutally cut short including a three-month-old baby and a ten-year-old girl (pictured) while more than thirty others were maimed and traumatised.

This was the predictable, preventable consequence of a judiciary that prioritises offenders over public safety. To this day, we can’t know who the judge was. He or she remains unnamed.

The Victorian justice system hides behind secrecy, protecting its own from the consequences of their infinite sympathy for hardcore criminals, while families grieve their dead.

In America, judges are accountable. Their names are public, hearings are filmed and posted online, and the public can see exactly who made what decision and why. However in Australia, it’s the opposite.

The public is left in the dark. The identity of the judge responsible for unleashing Gargasoulas on the community is shielded. This secrecy only serves to protect judges from scrutiny, insulating them from the consequences of their catastrophic decisions.

Six people are dead because an unnamed judge felt sorry for a dangerous junkie. And although Gargasoulas is now rotting in prison, the judge remains unaccountable, protected by a system that puts the comfort of the woke decision makers above the lives of ordinary people.

Something has to change, we shouldn’t have to live like this.