The Queensland Court of Appeal refused an extension of time to appeal against sentence, holding that the proposed ground — that the sentencing judge made a mathematical error in setting the parole eligibility date two months beyond the one-third mark of a seven-year head sentence — had no merit. The Court confirmed that the conventional one-third parole eligibility date is not a binding proposition, and that the absence of any evidence of error by the sentencing judge or counsel was fatal to the application. The Court held that the complete lack of merit in the proposed appeal was sufficient to refuse the extension without needing to consider the adequacy of the explanation for the eleven-month delay.
The full text is available to signed-in members.