Tim Ellis (lawyer)
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Timothy James Ellis | |
|---|---|
| Director of Public Prosecutions for the State of Tasmania | |
| In office 25 August 1999 – 15 January 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Damian Bugg QC |
| Succeeded by | Daryl Coates SC |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1955 (age 70–71) |
| Spouse | Anita Smith |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Tasmania |
| Occupation | Barrister |
Timothy James Ellis SC is a Tasmanian barrister and former Tasmanian Director of Public Prosecutions.
Ellis was born in 1955 and raised in Longford, Tasmania.[1] He graduated LLB from the University of Tasmania in 1977.[2] He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania in 1979, and practised from the Launceston firm of Clarke & Gee.[3]
He was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions in 1999,[4] and was dismissed in 2015 following his conviction for negligent driving causing the death of Natalia Pearn in 2013.[5][6]
Notable cases
In 2007, Ellis charged then Labor Minister for Infrastructure, Bryan Green, with conspiracy and interfering with an executive officer. The charges related to an alleged deal between Green and the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation, a privately owned building accreditation company with two former Labor ministers on its board, which saw a monopoly granted to the Corporation for builder accreditation worth up to $2,600,000.[7] Green was tried twice, on each occasion with a hung jury as a result. He was discharged by the Supreme Court.[8]
In 2008, Ellis controversially decided to charge Jack Johnston, Commissioner of Tasmania Police with divulging State Secrets, igniting a political stoush with Premier David Bartlett.[9] After Johnston successfully applied to stay the prosecution permanently, Ellis sought to appeal against the permanent stay first before the Court of Criminal Appeal,[10] and then before the High Court of Australia by way of a special leave application, unsuccessfully in both cases.
Ellis was later criticised by Duncan Kerr, Member of the House of Representatives, in Federal Parliament for both the prosecution of Bryan Green and Jack Johnston. Kerr said:
''In each instance the DPP has pursued prosecutions against high-profile office holders for crimes not involving any element of dishonesty, corruption or intrinsic criminality and so it was entirely predictable, in my opinion, that the harms unleashed and the disruption to our community, would exceed any good that a successful prosecution might achieve...Unlike in Tasmania, Mr Ellis' Commonwealth counterpart has no role in general civil litigation. These balances in the Commonwealth law are sound and Mr Ellis is not subject to them and he has the responsibility for his own self restraint.[11]
— Duncan Kerr, MHR, Speech in House of Representatives, 28 May 2010
In 2010, Ellis conducted the trial of Susan Neill-Fraser for the murder of Bob Chappell on Australia Day, 2009. The result was that Neill-Fraser was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 years. Ellis later defended the verdict and sentence before the Court of Criminal Appeal, with the result that the verdict was undisturbed, but the sentence was reduced to 23 years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 13 years.[12] Ellis again successfully defended the verdict before the High Court of Australia on a special leave application.[13]
Ellis was the subject of personal litigation against him and his former partners of the firm of Clarke & Gee, by a former client who alleged that one of the partners had given negligent advice in relation to the Launceston Tudor Motor Inn.[14]