The Attorney-General is trying to stop a convicted sex offender from starting any more court actions in his attempts to overturn the verdicts.
Paremoremo prisoner Graham Ashley Robert Palmer has mounted 25 court cases plus appeals and has also made wide-ranging allegations of bias against JPs and District Court and High Court judges.
In a rare action at the High Court in Auckland, Margaret Wilson's office is seeking to have Palmer declared a vexatious litigant. That would mean that he would have to get permission from a High Court judge before starting any new actions or continuing any already under way.
Most of the people or organisations Palmer has targeted are connected with one of his two sex convictions.
They include the courts; two prosecutors and his defence lawyer; Crown witnesses, including a woman he was convicted of raping; his own witness; court registrars; employers of witnesses: the manufacturer of an automated toilet where some of the offending occurred; police officers involved in the investigations; a man he said was the real rapist; people he said should have given evidence; the prison service; and the Attorney-General.
The Crown, represented by Karen Clark, Wendy Aldred and Philip Hamlin, told Justice David Baragwanath and Justice Hugh Williams that Palmer's actions were a collateral attack on the verdicts and witnesses.
Palmer claims the convictions were the result of Crown incompetence and fraud.
Ms Clark said Palmer had begun a large number of proceedings challenging the validity of his convictions, despite being told by the courts that his actions were an abuse of process.
"The respondent's claims have been and are increasingly extravagant, tenuous at best in terms of any legal merit, and scandalous in their allegations of bias, dishonesty and criminal conduct.
"The widening range of defendants ... indicates his determination to use the court's processes to attack his convictions using every available judicial avenue and discredit all those involved."
She said the grounds were becoming increasingly spurious and it was clear that Palmer had no prospect of success.
A number of courts had awarded costs against Palmer, who almost invariably represented himself, but he had failed to pay, leaving the defendants to bear the whole cost.
Without an order, Palmer would continue to harass those he perceived as opposing his interests and continue to impose unacceptable strain on the legal system.
In his statement of defence Palmer accused the Attorney-General of a self-serving act of oppression designed to suppress acts of fraud, perjury, malfeasance in a public office, breach of statutory duty, breach of confidence and malicious prosecution.
"The respondent has been wrongly convicted and falsely imprisoned due to the incompetence and fraud of the applicant and the applicant's servants," he said.
Palmer claimed he was denied a fair trial at his 1999 High Court trial because he suffered a major heart attack and was unable to prepare for the case.
He said the failure to abandon the trial was in breach of the Torture Act and contrary to natural justice.
He also claimed the Crown withheld a "demonstrably false and untrue" spreadsheet based on false Telecom records and then used those records to destroy the credibility of a defence alibi witness.
Palmer also claimed a DNA report was withheld with the intent of misleading and deceiving the jury. He further claimed that a tape recording with a complainant had been deliberately shortened.
Vexatious litigants
* Under section 88A of the Judicature Act the Attorney-General can apply to the High Court for any person who "persistently and without reasonable ground institutes vexatious legal proceedings" to be declared a vexatious litigant.
* Vexatious or bothersome litigants are barred from starting any new civil proceedings against any particular person or persons, without leave of the court.
* Before such an order is made, the person must have the opportunity to be heard.
* There is no appeal against the granting or refusing of such an order.
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