The former University of New England vice-chancellor Prof Brigid Heywood’s legal team have applied for the magistrate hearing her assault case to recuse himself, claiming he displayed a “lack of calmness and objectivity”.
Heywood, a British-Australian biological scientist, is alleged to have wiped her saliva on a teenager’s face and commented on her skin colour at a council-run International Women’s Day event in March 2022. She was a panellist at the event.
She pleaded not guilty in September to charges of common assault and offensive behaviour near a public place or school.
In his application for recusal at Armidale local court, Heywood’s senior counsel Jack Pappas asserted that magistrate Mark Richardson displayed a “lack of calmness and objectivity expected of a magistrate” towards the defence team this week and during a series of mentions in 2022 and earlier this year.
Pappas put it to Richardson that the magistrate had “unfairly cut short examination of the complainant”, adding that the “cumulative effect might divert you from proper determination”.
Richardson considered the recusal application, before denying it.
“I don’t think there is any reason why I should recuse myself, I have demonstrated no bias towards the defendant,” he said, before asking for the defence’s cross-examination to continue.
Pappas asked for a brief adjournment. After returning to the courtroom, he told Richardson that Heywood had instructed her defence team to seek an appeal of the magistrate’s decision to not recuse himself, and to adjourn the case pending the results of that appeal.
Richardson ordered that the appeal summons be lodged by midday Thursday.
During her testimony on Tuesday, the complainant told the court that as a result of the alleged incident – in which she claimed Heywood had licked her finger and twice wiped the complainant’s face – her cheek was “wet with her [Heywood’s] spit”.
The complainant told the court that she had informed two fellow school students who were also attending the IWD event about the alleged incident.
“I then left my friends and I went to the bathroom and I scrubbed my cheek,” she said.
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The court also heard that it took days for the complainant to tell her parents of the alleged incident.
“I felt just troubled, I couldn’t concentrate or focus … it was harder to attend school. I fell into a really bad depression,” she said.
The complainant told the court that she subsequently undertook counselling, and that her school attendance became “spotty”.
Before cross-examination was delayed on Tuesday, Pappas attempted to ascertain the sequence of events at the IWD event.
He also sought to identify who was standing where during the alleged incident, which the complainant said took place as guests and speakers were milling around in an upstairs function room while photographs were taken and food was served.
Under Pappas’s cross-examination on Tuesday, the complainant agreed Heywood was standing to her right within arm’s reach. Directly in front was Dr Brooke Kennedy, who, like Heywood, was a guest speaker at the event.
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