19-year-old NT man charged for ‘posting and boasting’ granted bail

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A 19-year-old man charged with serious criminal offences has been granted bail in the Darwin local court today, the judge citing a year-long wait for the matter to progress to trial as a reason for his release.

Transcript

00:00Walking free from court charged with several serious criminal offences.

00:07Darcy Skeen charged with acts intended to cause serious harm

00:11and publishing material related to offending conduct,

00:14making him the first person to face court

00:17under the government's new Post and Boast legislation.

00:20Appearing in Darwin local court today,

00:22the 19-year-old's lawyer indicating his client would be fighting the charges.

00:27In making an application for Mr Skeen to be released on bail,

00:30his lawyer said his client would be able to comply with reporting conditions

00:34and was not at risk of leaving the jurisdiction.

00:37The prosecution telling the court Mr Skeen was facing a presumption

00:41against bail, describing his alleged offending as

00:44extremely serious and involving an edged weapon.

00:48We are opposed to bail on the basis that police are concerned

00:51he will commit further offending.

00:53At this stage it looks to be a strong prosecution case

00:56and if found guilty on the charges currently laid,

00:58he would be serving a term of imprisonment.

01:01Despite that, the judge released Mr Skeen,

01:04citing a 12-month wait time for matters to progress to trial.

01:08Darcy Skeen, I'm giving you bail today because of the amount of time

01:11it's going to take for this matter to get to the Supreme Court

01:14for you to stand trial.

01:16You won't get another chance from me, so for goodness sake,

01:19follow the rules and don't break them.

01:21It comes just two weeks after the government passed Declan's law

01:25designed to tighten bail laws for violent and repeat offenders.

01:29The case will return to court in January.

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