In April Watcharaporn Nantahkhum, a Thai woman, became the first person convicted of slavery in the ACT. The brothel madam, running a sex business out of flats in Braddon in 2008, arranged for Thai women to fly to Australia and work.

But one of the women was ordered to pay off a $43,000 debt, with the money taken out of her earnings until she paid it back. A ledger shown to the jury revealed that by the time she cleared the debt she had serviced more than 700 clients. The woman was also sexually abused by Nantahkhum's associate, Robert Dick.

A Supreme Court jury found Nantahkhum guilty of possessing a slave, attempting to pervert the course of justice and offences under the federal Migration Act. Justice Richard Refshauge jailed Nantahkhum for eight years and 10 months, to serve at least four years and nine months.

''While there is no evidence of particular physical or mental injury suffered by the victims, they have clearly had their integrity as human beings damaged and the first victim, in particular, had her rights abused,'' the judge said. Nantahkhum has appealed her convictions and sentence. Dick was found guilty of abusing the victim but died before he could be sentenced.

The Alexander Maconochie Centre's most notorious inmate, David Harold Eastman, managed to secure a broad-ranging inquiry into his conviction for the 1989 shooting murder of assistant Australian Federal Police commissioner Colin Winchester. Eastman has been bogged down in perpetual litigation of his own instigation ever since he was found guilty at trial in 1995. But the prisoner, serving a life sentence, has maintained his innocence. This year Justice Shane Marshall ordered a fresh inquiry. And jaws throughout the legal profession dropped as the judge delivered a withering assessment of the DPP and the Attorney-General's handling of the inquiry bid and refused to work in this town again. It is hoped the inquiry will get off the ground early next year.

The ACT generally records about one homicide a year - one too many, undoubtedly. But this year was a particularly bad year for violent deaths. In March, Paula Conlon was allegedly stabbed to death in her Macgregor home. Her boyfriend, Aleksander Vojneski, was arrested and charged with the mother-of-three's murder. His lawyers have since flagged concerns about their client's fitness to plead. Then, in April, 75-year-old Ottilia Aranyi was found dead at her home in Yarralumla. Her son, Gabor Laszlo Aranyi, called paramedics to the scene and was later charged with her murder. He has been committed to stand trial in the ACT Supreme Court, but his lawyers have entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental impairment. And, in perhaps the most shocking homicide case of 2012, local sporting identity Terry Freebody was found brutally stabbed inside his neighbour's house in Red Hill's up-market Mugga Way. The neighbour, Luigi Costa, has been charged with murder but has pleaded not guilty. Costa's legal team says their client may have Alzheimer's type dementia, but he has been committed for trial in the Supreme Court.

It's a frequent refrain of sentencing judges: armed robbery is a serious and, regrettably common crime. This year was no exception. Veteran crook Michael Virgil Peter Tresize went down for 10 years for a bank robbery and two attempted robberies committed in 2011. The sentence was handed down 15 years after Tresize told the ABC's Compass program he was determined to stay off the drugs and live what the courts call a ''pro-social life''.

Justice John Nield, in his sentencing remarks, said: ''The offender is more than a typical armed robber.

''In view of his criminal record … he is an experienced armed robber, albeit not a successful one.'' In December, one of the more interesting recent armed robbery sagas came to an end [barring any appeal] with the jailing of former security guard and ex-soldier Adam John Street.

Street stood accused of helping plot a $124,000 gunpoint heist on a south Canberra club in 2008 in which two friends tied up Street - then working on a shift at the club - and two other staff members before making of with the cash. Street denied any pre-knowledge of the heist. Phone taps suggested otherwise.

After four years, two jury trials, three sentencing proceedings (including those of the Street's partners in crime) and the invoking of an arcane legal rule that saw an unsuspecting citizen pulled off the street and shanghaied into jury duty Street went down for 6½ years, to serve at least three years and 10 months.

And in a case to appal even the most lax of parents, four boys including two as young as 13 were sentenced for a service station armed robbery involving long rifles and a meat cleaver. They received sentences ranging from three years and three months to 18 months, served partly in custody and partly suspended.