R v Coghill - [1995] 3 NZLR 651

Criminal law — Practice and procedure — Stay of proceedings — Delay — Whether undue delay when period of three years between police inquiries and sentence — Whether undue delay where history showed steady progress — Observation on need for counsel to avoid raising objections based on alleged delay where there was negligible prospect of success — No duty to raise such objections in every case — New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, s 25(b).

Criminal law — Practice and procedure — Stay of proceedings — Prejudice arising from pretrial publicity — Importance of time between publicity and trial — Whether change of venue application is usual remedy — Observations on the wrongfulness of police disclosures to the media, and the need to avoid any disclosures which could interfere with the administration of justice — Effect of failure to pursue application for change of venue — Whether a subsequent appeal based on prejudicial publicity will be unlikely to succeed — New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, s 25(a) and (c).