NSW judge faces ban after scathing report criticises his handling of sexual assault trial

Report finds that during trial Judge Robert Newlinds repeatedly called crown case ‘hopeless’ and vilified the alleged sexual assault victim

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

A judge could be pulled from hearing criminal cases after a watchdog found he abused his power when criticising New South Wales’s top prosecutor and vilifying a sexual assault complainant.

A report found that district court Judge Robert Newlinds publicly criticised the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in his judgment on a sexual assault case in 2023, suggesting the trial had been run in a way unfair to the accused.

Throughout the trial, the report stated Newlinds lambasted the crown’s case and repeatedly called it “hopeless”, while he said of the alleged sexual assault victim: “She wrongly thinks that if you have sex with someone and you can’t remember, that’s sexual assault.”

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

The accused in the matter was acquitted after a jury trial.

The Judicial Commission – NSW’s watchdog for judges – said Newlinds’ actions were almost worthy of being referred to parliament so it could consider removing him from his position.

But instead it referred the matter back to the chief judge of the district court, while recommending it was inappropriate for him to sit in state criminal matters for the foreseeable future.

The initial complaint, made by the NSW director of public prosecutions, Sally Dowling, covered four allegations, including Newlinds’ “incompetence”, a failure to be judicially impartial, unreasonable criticism and vilification of sexual assault complainant and baseless criticism of the DPP.

The commission’s three-person panel found all four of those complaints were substantiated, finding he had a “generalised prejudice” against the crown that would make it inappropriate for him to sit in criminal trials.

“The judge’s hot-headed, impulsive and undisciplined intervention in the course of argument and critical statement in various places of his judgement about the director … raise serious concerns about the judge’s capacity to adhere to appropriate standards of judicial conduct,” the report read.

“We are concerned about an apparent lack of proper appreciation by the judge of the need to conduct himself in court in an important, even-handed and respectful way.”

Newlinds accepted a number of the allegations against him were warranted and admitted he “ought not to have said” some of the things.

But the report’s writers said they were “concerned” about his “dismissal as trivial” a number of aspects of the complaint.

He has been contacted for comment.

Newlinds was appointed to the NSW district court in 2023, having predominantly served in commercial law.

The report noted at one point in the trial he said: “I don’t do criminal law, you know that, don’t you?”

The NSW district court has been contacted for comment.

• Law (Australia)
• New South Wales
• news