Slow denouement to Rapid affair

The Ron Cahill affair had Canberra spellbound ... Chief Magistrate in strife over suggestions he meddled in a case involving a friend ... DPP drops the investigation ... Relief that Rapid Ron is in the clear and that he's off the bench

The Rapid Ron Cahill affair has ground to an exhausted halt.

On September 1 the ACT DPP Jon White called off the bloodhounds and Rapid Ron could relax for the first time in a year.

For Canberrans this was the juiciest judicial story since Lionel Murphy's "my little mate" saga.

Cahill and Mrs Cahill: pic Canberra TimesCahill resigned as the ACT's chief magistrate 11 months ago - from his hospital bed - one month before his official retirement was due to commence.

Ill-health was the ostensible reason, but storm clouds were brewing over Rapid's fiddling at the edges of a notorious criminal case in Canberra.

Two other magistrates, John Burns (now the chief magistrate) and Karen Fryar, complained to the attorney general of the mini-principality, Simon Corbell - alleging that Cahill had behaved improperly in an assault case against a prominent ACT citizen and pal of the then Chief Madge.

The high-profile and well connected accused cannot be named, because in the finest traditions his name has been suppressed.

Everyone who is not semi-comatose in Canberra knows who it is and what has been at stake here.

This unidentifiable person went to the police station to retrieve his daughter who had got herself into a spot of bother after a night out. He became distraught and angry and hit the young girl - in front of the cops.

The original suppression order was not given on the basis of protecting the young victim. That seemed to emerge later as a justification for keeping his name out of the headlines.

The Canberra Times failed to get the no-publication order lifted, arguing that the name of the accused could still be published without identifying the person who had been assaulted.

Ron Cahill urged the accused not the plead guilty - to fight the charge - an exciting change from the criminal justice system's usual strategy of inducing defendants to plead guilty as smartly as possible.

Cahill asked his counterpart in Victoria to provide a magistrate to try the case against the prominent unmentionable citizen.

Senior beak Peter Lauritsen was provided and it is here that trouble started.

Cahill sent Madge Lauritsen a brief outline of the allegations. This was followed-up by Cahill forwarding a list of possibly relevant cases that had been prepared by his associate.

Lauritsen arrived at the impression he was being "got at".

The Victorian Madge went to Canberra where he expressed his concerns to Burns and Fryar who then referred the matter to the AG. Corbell sent the problem to the government solicitor who referred it to the DPP who gave it to the police for investigation.

Cahill's chambers were raided by the coppers nine days before he resigned.

Quite apart from the police investigation a Judicial Commission had been established to look into Cahill's conduct. It comprised James Wood, Jerrold Cripps and from SA, Ted Mulligan.

Upon his hospital bed resignation the commission was disbanded. Plod continued to work on the case, but 10 months later there was not enough evidence to satisfy the DPP that he could get a conviction.

The ACT DPP also ran the allegations past the NSW DPP for a second opinion.

Cahill was never charged and the prominent, well-connected person had no conviction recorded in his assault case.

By putting his nose into a case that had been delegated to an outside magistrate specifically to avoid suggestions of home town intimacy and bias, Cahill was treading dangerously.

There was enough of an inference that the missives to Lauritsen appeared to be supporting the defendant in the assault matter.

This could have been reinforced because of Cahill's friendship with Mr Unmentionable.

Ron said he was just keen to make sure the prosecution ran "appropriately". However, it's easy to see how people might get a confused impression in a small judicial pond.

One Canberra lawyer observed in a comment contribution to an earlier article in Justinian that ...

"The full story of this sad episode will now never be known, which is unfortunate because it is a matter that should have been subject to a rigorous and public examination.

The issue of how judicial officers prepare for cases, what information they access and how this impacts on the way they administer the law goes to the heart of the judicial system...

The well-known Canberra public figure continues to suckle the public mammaries to the tune of $240k per year while engaged on light duties."

There was another unusual twist to the story when Bernard Colleary (aka Bernie The Attorney), the solicitor for the suppressed identity, wrote to Lauritsen urging him not to disqualify himself from the case.

The ACT DPP complained to the local Law Society that Bernie's intervention was inappropriate.

Jack Waterford in The Canberra Times of September 4 had a rather glowing report of Cahill, saying that he was a good man who just took on too much work and that he deserves an apology.

Many practitioners, while personally quite liking Rapid Ron, have had to put up with decades of frustration with him.

The Winchester inquest conducted by Cahill took years and cost a motza. Ron was also attending important conferences while leaving a string of part-heard cases in his wake. Decisions were frequently well behind the clock.

Rapid told The Canberra Times after the DPP's announcement:

"I am delighted to have my name cleared with my reputation intact."