Hi All,
I attended the trial this morning at courthouse no.2 in Darlinghurst. The courthouse is of a depressing 1960s design with a loud air conditioner that makes hearing difficult when sitting upstairs. The two teams and the judge have folders and paperwork spread out in a very chaotic fashion over large tables and on trolleys. All in all, it seems very amateurish for a Supreme Court of NSW (what happened to law and "order"?).
Some press wait outside and primarily focus on SG's girlfriend. Other press are inside, taking notes. SG meanwhile is escorted into court via an underground stairway and stands in a semi-enclosed perspex box, divorced from the rest of the court. From here he can communicate with the defence team and can make eye contact with his family but he cannot leave the box. Throughout the morning he seemed very relaxed, smilingly at his family, making hand signals for them to call him and taking notes.
The judge is very impressive in my opinion. She corrected Mr Strickland on several occasions because some of his closing arguments were not supported by the submitted evidence. At one point Mr Strickland had to adjourn because the judge kept correcting him and he needed to get his facts straight. An interesting point he did make was that Mr Rathwell's statement was not submitted until 5 days after the incident. This was argued to be a long time for the police to take for evidence from a murder witness. Apart from that, it was mostly bickering over text messages and which ones should be submitted and which should be discarded.
I left at morning tea and had a look at the Hyde Apartment block from the street.
As I said, I have great confidence in the judge. If SG is not convicted then it will be because there is insufficient evidence.
