False imprisonment of young people class action
On 8 June 2011, Maurice Blackburn together with the Public Interest
Advocacy Centre launched a class action in the Supreme Court of
New South Wales seeking compensation for children and young people
who have been wrongfully arrested and detained by NSW police for
breach of bail.
It is thought that over 200 children and young people have been
wrongfully arrested in NSW because of a long-standing problem with
the police computer system containing out-of-date or incorrect bail
information. Sometimes a person's bail status will change
either when their case is finalised in the Children's Court or
their bail conditions are varied: often these changes in a person's
bail status are not being added to the police computer system.
The consequence of this problem with the police computer system
is a devastating loss of freedom for the children and young people
who were wrongfully arrested by police officers acting on the basis
of wrong information.
The lead applicant in the class action is 19 year old Musa
Konneh, who was arrested and unlawfully detained in southwest
Sydney in August 2010. Acting on the basis of incorrect bail
information, police detained Mr Konneh overnight. The next day the
Children's Court corrected the police mistake and ordered Mr
Konneh's immediate release.
The class action is open to children and young people who were
arrested by NSW police for breach of bail conditions which were no
longer current. The class action is only open to people whose
bail related to a case being heard in the Children's Court.
To find out more about this class action, please read the
brochure, contact the Public Interest Advocacy Centre on (02) 8898
6517 or sign up for the
class action.