NSW conviction and jail rates still on rise

THE number of people sentenced to jail in NSW continues to rise, as does the conviction rate.

The latest figures show that 87 per cent of people who appear before the local courts plead guilty or are found guilty.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research's criminal court statistics, which were released yesterday, show that the proportion of people found guilty in the District and Supreme courts and sentenced to jail rose from 66.7 per cent to 69.9 per cent last year.

There was also a small rise in the number of people jailed after being sentenced in the local court system, but the bureau's director, Don Weatherburn, said there was a slight decrease in the number of Aborignal people given a jail sentence.

The figures also show there was a significant rise in the number of committals to the Supreme Court that ended with a guilty plea rather than going to trial - 46 per cent in 2007 compared to 31 per cent the previous year.

In the Children's Court, the proportion of young offenders sentenced to juvenile detention rose to more than 10 per cent.

Dr Weatherburn said 83 per cent of people appearing before District or Supreme courts pleaded guilty or were found guilty.

"As in past years, the conviction rate remains high," he said.

Dr Weatherburn said the statistics also revealed that people were spending less time in custody from the time they were committed to stand trial in the District Court until their case was finished. He said the median time spent in custody was 188 days, down from 207 days the previous year.

The most common offence before local courts was non-aggravated assault, followed by traffic offences, including drink- driving and driving with a cancelled or suspended licence.

In the higher courts, the most common offences were sexual assault, break and enter, robbery and extortion. The average age of men found guilty in those courts was 32; for women it was 33.5.

Brothel-owner's murder: man charged

Detectives have charged a man over the shooting death of a radiographer who moonlighted as a brothel owner.

Victor Elliot, 50, was gunned down leaving a new brothel he was building in Morton Street, Chinderah, near Tweed Heads in May 2000.

Mr Elliot had parked his black Mercedes Benz on the footpath and was going to lock the wire gate, when two ex-soldiers pulled up in a 4-wheel drive and blocked Mr Elliot's exit, the NSW Supreme Court heard last year.

The men were trying to kidnap Mr Elliot, but after he resisted and tried to flee he was shot a number of times with a number of guns, including at least two shots from a .22 pistol and twelve from an AK-47 rifle, the court heard.

Last November, the NSW Supreme Court sentenced former soldier Mike Grupe to 14 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to the killing. The other ex-soldier, Dayal Utz, had already been shot dead in 2003 by Grupe in self-defence, the court said.

The two men had been hired by a third man to kidnap Mr Elliot and extort money from him, Acting Justice Peter Berman said in court last year.

Police last night arrested a 34-year-old Banora Point man at Tweed Heads police station.

He was charged with accessory before the fact to murder, accessory before the fact to detain for advantage, and accessory before the fact to armed robbery.

He was refused bail and will face Murwillumbah Local Court today.

Mr Elliot was chief radiographer at Tweed Heads Hospital. At the trial of Grupe, Acting Justice Berman described his death as "truly appalling".

"Two men, only interested in financial reward, and prepared for violence of a most extreme kind, reacted when their plan went awry by shooting either in the direction of, or directly into, Mr Elliot," Acting Justice Berman said.

"He was helpless on the ground having already been shot twice with a .22 pistol at the time Mr Utz fired twelve 7.62 mm bullets into his body."