ACT authorities breached the human rights of a leading indigenous artist by waiting more than 10 years to bring him to court on child sex charges, the High Court has been told.
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But Dennis Michael Nona has lost a bid to have his fight over the delay heard in the High Court.
Nona, born on Badu Island in the Torres Strait, was widely considered one of Australia's most talented indigenous artists.
He won numerous awards, including a $40,000 Telstra indigenous art prize, and his works were shown in the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House, and at leading institutions overseas.
Nona, 41, was found guilty by a jury in August 2012 of four sexual offences against a young girl who became pregnant, likely with his baby.
The crimes allegedly occurred between January 1995 and September 1996.
Nona was not sentenced for the crimes, and appealed against his conviction in the ACT Court of Appeal.
He won the challenge on two of the offences, and a retrial was ordered.
Now, Nona, represented by barrister Shane Gill, has attempted to have an appeal heard in the High Court over the delay between police first issuing him with a warrant over the crimes, and his eventual summons to court and charging with the offences.
That delay dragged on for more than 10 years, something Mr Gill said was a deliberate decision by authorities. The ACT's human rights laws require that an accused be tried without unreasonable delay. But the right is only afforded to an individual after charges have been paid.
Mr Gill argued on Friday that the conduct of authorities before Nona was charged went to the concept of unreasonableness.
''How is it, we ask, that the conduct of the state is simply to be excluded from the concept of unreasonable delay?''
But the High Court rejected the application for special leave to appeal without hearing from the respondent, the Director of Public Prosecutions.
DPP Jon White also made a separate appeal against the decision to order a retrial for Nona.
The retrial was ordered because of problems with the trial judge's summing up of the case to the jury on three issues.
But Mr White sought leave to appeal in the High Court to reverse the order for a retrial, saying the three issues relied upon were never raised at trial or during the original challenge by Nona's lawyers.
He said the problems had not amount to a miscarriage of justice for Nona, and should not have been picked out and combined together by the ACT Court of Appeal.