Lawyers for Rohan Dennis say judge may be ‘personally affronted’ by reoffending

Lawyers for disgraced Olympian Rohan Dennis say an experienced judge may be “personally affronted” by his reoffending and urged him to step down from the case.

Dennis previously pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and in the process breaching a suspended sentence handed to him following the death of his wife Melissa Hoskins.

However, he is yet to be sentenced over his reoffending after earlier this month his legal team launched a bid for Judge Ian Press to recuse himself from dealing with the case.

At a hearing at South Australia’s District Court on Tuesday, Dennis’s lawyer set out why the application had been lodged.

The bid centres on Judge Press, who is allocated to the case, being the same judge who handed Dennis a suspended jail sentence after he was convicted of an aggravated charge of creating likelihood of harm in relation to his wife’s death.

During this sentencing, Judge Press issued a warning to Dennis that a jail term would be “inevitable” should he breach his bond or get behind the wheel while disqualified.

Dennis’ lawyer David Edwardson told the court it was “extraordinary” that Dennis ended up in front of the same judge again, although he acknowledged it was coincidental.

“This is certainly not a case where we are even remotely suggesting actual bias, but it is the fair-minded lay observer,” he said.

“We have qualified the caution you gave to Dennis in a fairly orthodox way about the potential consequences for a breach.

“Nonetheless, it is framed in fairly emphatic terms – in the sense that the ‘inevitable outcome will be’.

“In addition to that, there is the element of the perception that Your Honour might be personally affronted at the fact that having given an opportunity to a man by way of a suspended sentence and giving the cautionable warning of the potential consequences that that itself carries with it almost the inevitable outcome.”

Mr Edwardson argued it would be “inappropriate” for Judge Press to deal with the matter, although a prosecutor argued to the contrary.

Judge Press said the application “troubled” him due to Dennis’ legal team not disputing that he was incorrect to issue the warning.

“Would this mean that if I give a similar warning in all such matters that I should never hear a breach of bond application where there is a driver disqualified because I’ve given similar warnings because there is a reasonable apprehension of bias?” he said.