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A DISTRICT court judge will be permanently based in the New England in a major announcement to be made in Armidale today.
The Leader can reveal the Attorney-General, Gabrielle Upton, will make a flying visit to Armidale, where she is expected to announce a district court judge will be allocated to Armidale or Tamworth.
The position is expected to preside over the Tamworth, Armidale or Moree circuits, after funding was allocated in last month’s state budget.
The announcement is a win for the New England following a campaign by local MP Adam Marshall for judges for the bush, to stop what he called “fly-in, fly-out justice”.
The Northern Tablelands member launched the fight after outrage from the community following the sentencing of a gang of offenders who attacked police.
The Leader revealed the group had escaped a jail sentence in January and captured the convicted offenders high-fiving and celebrating outside Armidale District Court.
The story prompted Ms Upton to ask the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to review the sentence, and also saw calls by police and the community for tougher sentences.
Mr Marshall said judges needed to be based permanently in the areas and said the full workload of Armidale and Tamworth district more than supplemented the need for a full-time judge.
In Tamworth and Armidale, trials have already been scheduled as far as April next year, with some accused set to spend more than a year in custody as they wait to have their cases heard.
In the June state budget, $39 million was allocated to fix the district court backlog and saw three new district court judge positions created, including one in Wagga Wagga.
Mr Marshall met with the Attorney-General in June and called for one of the remaining positions to be based in either Armidale or Tamworth.