Geraldton courtroom slammed by District Court Judge Carmel Barbagallo as “hopelessly inadequate”, “disgusting”

The Department of Justice is working on a proposal to upgrade a courtroom in the heritage-listed Geraldton Courthouse after a high-profile judge criticised “totally inadequate” jury facilities this month. During a jury trial inside the Geraldton Courthouse, technology issues held up proceedings and defence counsel, State prosecution and the judge raised concerns that justice was not being served. One of the three courtrooms is set up to hold jury trials, but the technology and seating arrangements are not satisfactory, according to District Court Judge Carmel Barbagallo. Ms Barbagallo described the courtroom as “totally inappropriate” for jury trials and said the seats were “disgusting” and the technology was “hopelessly inadequate”. In Perth courtrooms, each of the jury members have a device to view the evidence with. In Geraldton jury trials, there are two television screens positioned awkwardly, which jury members must either squint to view evidence from across the room or twist their neck to view another screen located behind the jury bench. A department spokesperson confirmed it was working on a proposal for an upgrade of jury facilities at the heritage-listed court house. “These works include improved access for jurors, replacing the seating in the jury box and consideration of options to improve the visibility of screens for the jury,” the spokesperson said. Defence counsel George Giudice said it wasn’t only the jury room that was substandard, rather the whole building was unfit for purpose. He said a new building should be built and the heritage-listed courthouse be transformed into a museum. “It’s a beautiful building but it’s not fit for court,” he said. “Something needs to be done ... jurors are not given the facilities to do their job properly, it’s frustrating.” Mr Giudice said jurors were expected to walk up steep stairs to the second floor, the furniture was past its used by date, the building needed a paint job and the air conditioning — which is only available inside the rooms — was hopeless. “It gets to 45C in Geraldton and people are already stressed when they come to court and they’re sitting there sweating,” he said. “Some people have the responsibility to monitor these things, to check up and improve them ... anyone can see the issues in relation to just the technology alone.” The department spokesperson confirmed there were no plans to build a new court facility in Geraldton.