New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES (FORENSIC PROCEDURES) ACT 2000 - SECT 55

55 Presence of interview friend or legal representative--Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders

(1) This section applies if the suspect (not being a child or an incapable person) identifies as an Aboriginal person or Torres Strait Islander.

(1A) For the purpose of determining whether this section applies to a suspect, the investigating police officer must ask the suspect if the suspect identifies as an Aboriginal person or Torres Strait Islander.

(2) Either an interview friend or a legal representative (if he or she is not the interview friend) of the suspect must, if reasonably practicable, be present while the forensic procedure is carried out. Both an interview friend and a legal representative may be present.

(3) Subsection (2) does not apply if the suspect expressly and voluntarily waives his or her right to have an interview friend present. If a suspect so waives his or her right to have an interview friend present, a legal representative of the suspect may still be present.

Note : Section 106 relates to proving a waiver.

(4) An interview friend (other than a legal representative) of the suspect may be excluded from the place where the forensic procedure is being carried out if--

(a) the interview friend unreasonably interferes with or obstructs the carrying out of the procedure, or

(b) the investigating police officer forms a belief based on reasonable grounds that the presence of the interview friend could be prejudicial to the investigation of an offence because the interview friend may be a co-offender of the suspect or may be involved in some other way, with the suspect, in the commission of the offence.

(5) If an interview friend is excluded under subsection (4), a suspect may choose another person to act as his or her interview friend. If the suspect does not waive his or her right to have an interview friend present and does not choose another person as an interview friend, the police officer may arrange for any person who may act as an interview friend under section 4 to be present as an interview friend.