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Michael Croucher
Profile
The Honourable Justice Michael Croucher
The Honourable Justice Michael Croucher grew up in Myrtleford, a small town in the north-east of Victoria.
He left school in Year 10 to work on his parents’ farms, and in an attempt to race motocross professionally. A few broken bones later, he gave away racing and became a lumberjack instead.
After a couple of other jobs, a knee reconstruction, and a stint as a builder’s labourer in London, at 25, he went back to his old school and did Year 12 with the aim of studying economics at university. On advice, he enrolled in law as well.
While at Monash University, he won a scholarship with the Reserve Bank of Australia. However, after his interest was pricked by certain legal subjects, Michael decided against pursuing a career in economics with the RBA and focused on the law instead.
After finishing university, he served articles with a criminal and family law firm, and practiced as a solicitor for two years, mostly in criminal law.
Then, in 1999, he went to the Bar, again practicing principally in criminal law, with an emphasis on appeals in the higher courts. He took silk in 2011.
In 2013, Michael was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Sitting primarily in the Criminal Division of the Court, he has spent over a decade hearing cases concerning accused persons at the intersection of serious mental illness and the criminal justice system.
Some of those cases have concerned the orders to be made when an accused person is found, by a judge or a jury, to be not guilty of a serious crime (typically murder) because of “mental impairment” (as that term is understood under the Crimes Mental Impairment (Unfitness to be Tried) Act). Most of those individuals end up as “forensic patients” serving custodial supervision orders at Thomas Embling Hospital, which is a secure facility focused on treatment of and recovery from the serious mental illness (often schizophrenia) that played a crucial part in the behaviour that caused them to perform the acts that led to them being charged in the first place. The periods forensic patients spend at Thomas Embling range from a matter of months to, far more commonly, several years, and, less commonly, the rest of their lives.
Other types of case have involved Michael sitting on the Forensic Leave Panel. This is where forensic patients apply for day or overnight leave from Thomas Embling to facilitate their recovery and eventual transition back to the community on less restrictive orders.
And yet other cases have involved Michael sentencing those found guilty of, or who pleaded guilty to, a serious criminal offence but who committed the offence while suffering from serious mental illness not amounting to “mental impairment”, which may impact on the appropriate sentence, to a greater or lesser degree.
In all of these cases, the treatment, diagnoses and opinions offered by psychiatrists are critical in assisting judges, and sometimes juries, in the decisions they must make.
In this keynote speech, his Honour will share some of his experiences and insights into the importance of the evidence of psychiatrists in these areas of the criminal law.
The Honourable Justice Michael Croucher grew up in Myrtleford, a small town in the north-east of Victoria.
He left school in Year 10 to work on his parents’ farms, and in an attempt to race motocross professionally. A few broken bones later, he gave away racing and became a lumberjack instead.
After a couple of other jobs, a knee reconstruction, and a stint as a builder’s labourer in London, at 25, he went back to his old school and did Year 12 with the aim of studying economics at university. On advice, he enrolled in law as well.
While at Monash University, he won a scholarship with the Reserve Bank of Australia. However, after his interest was pricked by certain legal subjects, Michael decided against pursuing a career in economics with the RBA and focused on the law instead.
After finishing university, he served articles with a criminal and family law firm, and practiced as a solicitor for two years, mostly in criminal law.
Then, in 1999, he went to the Bar, again practicing principally in criminal law, with an emphasis on appeals in the higher courts. He took silk in 2011.
In 2013, Michael was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Sitting primarily in the Criminal Division of the Court, he has spent over a decade hearing cases concerning accused persons at the intersection of serious mental illness and the criminal justice system.
Some of those cases have concerned the orders to be made when an accused person is found, by a judge or a jury, to be not guilty of a serious crime (typically murder) because of “mental impairment” (as that term is understood under the Crimes Mental Impairment (Unfitness to be Tried) Act). Most of those individuals end up as “forensic patients” serving custodial supervision orders at Thomas Embling Hospital, which is a secure facility focused on treatment of and recovery from the serious mental illness (often schizophrenia) that played a crucial part in the behaviour that caused them to perform the acts that led to them being charged in the first place. The periods forensic patients spend at Thomas Embling range from a matter of months to, far more commonly, several years, and, less commonly, the rest of their lives.
Other types of case have involved Michael sitting on the Forensic Leave Panel. This is where forensic patients apply for day or overnight leave from Thomas Embling to facilitate their recovery and eventual transition back to the community on less restrictive orders.
And yet other cases have involved Michael sentencing those found guilty of, or who pleaded guilty to, a serious criminal offence but who committed the offence while suffering from serious mental illness not amounting to “mental impairment”, which may impact on the appropriate sentence, to a greater or lesser degree.
In all of these cases, the treatment, diagnoses and opinions offered by psychiatrists are critical in assisting judges, and sometimes juries, in the decisions they must make.
In this keynote speech, his Honour will share some of his experiences and insights into the importance of the evidence of psychiatrists in these areas of the criminal law.
