BendigoWeekly Weekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 731 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2011
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Daylight Saving starts 2am Sunday: Clocks forward one hour ■ Data use soars Page 5
We need your support
WOMEN, it’s time to get something off your chest, for those less fortunate. The Professionals and Fernwood Fitness Bendigo are launching Octobra, where Bendigo women can donate their
pre-loved bras to those in developing nations. If enough bras are collected to link around the Queen Elizabeth Oval on October 31, Fernwood Fitness will donate $2000 to the National
HIGH FLYERS: The Octobra girls kick off the appeal. Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
Breast Cancer Foundation. Donate at The Professionals, Fernwood Fitness, Bendigo Weekly and the Bendigo Media Centre. More information on 0418 592 228.
NO JUSTICE OUT OF ORDER
BY ANTHONY RADFORD
BENDIGO’S outdated courthouse is causing delays of up to three years in processing major crimes. The Bendigo County Court
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Courthouse inaction delays cases
hears serious indictable crimes, such as rape, burglary with a weapon and intentionally causing serious injury. Both Court Five, a modern courtroom in the Old Post Office building, and Court One, on top of the Law Courts building next door, hear County Court matters. However, only civil County Court matters are heard in Court
One because of a lack of modern facilities, meaning serious crime matters can only be held in one courtroom. High-profile Bendigo lawyer and former Bendigo Law Association president Megan Aumair said a lack of modern technology, poor acoustics and the unwillingness of police to take prisoners up and down the narrow stairway at the
back of the court made Court One unsuitable for modern law. “Police will only transport prisoners to Court Two and Court Five above the old post office from the laneway at the back of the court due to safety concerns associated with escorting prisoners to any of the other three courts in the building,” she said. “Today, the County Court in
Bendigo continues to hear criminal trials where the original charge was laid in 2008. “This is due to the lack of space available to run more than one criminal circuit at a time.” The Bendigo Weekly first raised the issue of the poor courts facility in 2006, when it highlighted concerns about security, overcrowding, poor disabled access and a lack of privacy in the main courthouse.
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