Arthur Stanley Brown - Trial and Aftermath

Trial and Aftermath

The trial of Arthur Stanley Brown for the murders of Judith and Susan Mackay, began on 18 October 1999.

Although evidence regarding Brown’s pedophilia had been given at the committal hearing it had been ruled prejudicial at trial and therefore could not be put before the Supreme Court jury, the jury were unable to reach a decision on the strong but circumstantial evidence.

Trial was set for 25 July 2000 where the defense argued Brown was unfit to plead and a new trial was set for 31 July but before it could start newspapers reported "the case did not proceed for legal reasons which cannot be published". The court suppressed release of the legal reasons until July 2001.

In 2001 it was revealed that Brown's lawyer had applied for a section 613 verdict (unfit to be tried) from the jury. The jury had rejected the application, but in the meantime Brown's wife Charlotte had referred the case to the Queensland Mental Health Tribunal who ruled that Brown had progressive dementia and was also suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and was thus unfit to stand trial. The Attorney-General lodged an appeal and the court concluded that the Mental Health Tribunal did not have the jurisdiction to overrule the jury and commissioned an independent psychiatric report. In July 2001 the report concluded that Brown was unfit to stand trial because he was suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Although the psychiatric report could not overrule the courts finding that the trial could proceed, Queensland's Director of Public Prosecutions, Leanne Clare, announced on 3 July that her office had decided not to proceed with the retrial and all charges against Brown were dropped.