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What The Criminal Justice Commission Told The Senate What The CJC Said The material that follows is taken from pages 26 and 27 (Volume 2) of the Criminal Justice Commission's submission to the 1995 Senate Select Committee of Inquiry into Unresolved Whistleblower Cases in Queensland relating to the shredding of the Heiner documents 129 Destroying evidence. Any person who, knowing that any book, document or other thing of any kind is or may be required in evidence in a judicial proceeding, wilfully destroys it or renders it illegible or undecipherable or incapable for identification, with intent thereby to prevent it from being used in evidence, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and as liable to imprisonment for three years. No judicial proceedings had or have ever been commenced in which the Heiner documents would have been relevant. Coyne, the QPOA and the QTU had at various times prior to the destruction of the documents indicated that they were considering taking legal action to gain access to the documents, which they claimed they were entitled to see pursuant to the PSM&E Regulations which are discussed below in section (b). The Commission received advice on this matter from Mr Noel Nunan, at that time in practice at the private bar, and it was his view that "judicial proceeding" as used in the section refers to proceedings on foot at the time of the destruction. This view is consistent with the definition of judicial proceeding contained within section 119 of the Queensland Criminal Code which states that: The term "judicial proceeding" includes any proceeding had or taken in or before any court tribunal or person in which evidence may be taken on oath. As no judicial proceedings were on foot when these documents were destroyed no breach of that section could occur. The section also requires that the person who destroys evidence knows that the evidence may be required, and destroys it to prevent it from being used in evidence. In the Commissions view, the section is clearly not applicable in the present case. See: Public Officials Can Still Be Charged Action Against Shreddders Could Be Reconsidered 1256 page visits Content Management Software 2008