Christie’s Law

The Herald reports:

Mr King said he supported parts of Christie’s Law, the proposed amendments to the bail Act campaigned for by Christie’s parents after her death in November last year. …

Mr King said parts of Christie’s Law were “sophisticated” and “thought-through” but he said a suggested risk assessment tool to judge judges was “costly gobbledegook”.

He backed changes to the law that currently give a strong presumption of bail for those who are under 20, saying it would have made a difference in Christie’s case.

Rare for a defence lawyer to support a law change which will make it harder for defendants (under 20) to get bail, so good to see this. I think the key point is that the current law made it very hard for a Judge to refuse bail, and removing the presumption of bail may have meant Chand would not have got bail, and hence killed Christie Marceau.