Guest Speaker Report
by
Rotarian Peter Douglas
Thursday 15th February 2007
The guest speaker was Alan Viney, President of the Strathfield Golf Club. He was introduced by President Rod McDougall.
Alan started his address by stating he was neither a sportsman or a celebrity and went on to describe his 53 year ‘life of crime’.
Alan started his life in the law in the Petty Sessions of the Justice Department. His first appointment was as Clerk of the Petty Sessions at Gunning where in addition he was Clerk of the Court, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and also collected court imposed fines. In his spare time he studied law.
In March 1966 he was appointed Clerk of Petty Sessions at Warialda. From here Alan became Clerk of the Peace at the Central Criminal Court in Sydney. In 1969 his law studies came to fruition and he was admitted as a Solicitor. He set up practice in Macquarie Street working for the defence of clients. In 1978 Alan took the next step and was admitted as a Barrister. In 1979 Alan became a Crown Prosecutor.
In 1984 Alan was the Crown Prosector for the committal procedure in the infamous Milperra massacre which occurred on Father’s Day when 2 bikie gangs came together. 7 people died many others were injured and 42 people were arrested. The trial began in April 1986. 8000 jury notices were sent out and after 3 days 12 good men and women were empanelled Of the 42 who was arrested 31 stood trial. Alan, through circumstance, was appointed as Senior Crown Prosecutor for the trial but as he was only a Junior Barrister he was appointed a Queens Counsel. The trial lasted from April 1986 to June 1987 and resulted in 8 being found guilty of murder, 2 were acquitted and the balance were found guilty of manslaughter.
At the conclusion of the trial Alan joined the office of the Department of Public Prosecutions as Senior Deputy Director where his position was supervising Crown Prosecutors.
Alan’s final step was to be appointed as a Judge of the District Court where he served for 10 years until he retired from the law.
Alan passed some telling observations after his career in the law. He learnt that the vast majority of citizens are honest people. He also commented that in his opinion jail is not necessarily the answer to people found guilty of a crime.
Alan was thanked by PP Joe Saad.