New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES (APPEAL AND REVIEW) ACT 2001 - SECT 109

109 Authorisation of police investigations

(1) This section applies to any police investigation of the commission of an offence by an acquitted person in connection with the possible retrial of the person for the offence under Division 2.

(2) For the purposes of this section, a police investigation is an investigation that involves--

(a) any arrest, questioning or search of the acquitted person (or the issue of a warrant for the arrest of the person), or

(b) any forensic procedure carried out on the person or any search or seizure of premises or property of or occupied by the person,

whether with or without his or her consent.

(3) A police officer is not to carry out or authorise a police investigation to which this section applies unless the Director of Public Prosecutions--

(a) has advised that in his or her opinion the acquittal would not be a bar to the trial of the acquitted person in this State for the offence, or

(b) has given his or her written consent to the police investigation on the application in writing of the Commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner of Police.

(4) The Commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner of Police may make an application for the police investigation only if satisfied that relevant evidence for the purposes of an application for a retrial under Division 2 has been obtained or is likely to be obtained as a result of the investigation.

(5) The Director of Public Prosecutions may not give his or her consent to the police investigation unless satisfied that--

(a) there is, or there is likely as a result of the investigation to be, sufficient new evidence to warrant the conduct of the investigation, and

(b) it is in the public interest for the investigation to proceed.