A MAGISTRATE has ordered the defence team of a former police officer charged with perjury to provide a medical certificate detailing the man’s condition.
Nigel Douglas Kentish is facing nine charges after an investigation by the Police Integrity Commission in relation to an alleged assault on a woman in the Armidale Police Station cells in September, 2009.
In August, on the day he was due to front a week-long hearing on the charges, the court was told he had suffered a serious head injury.
The case returned to Armidale Local Court on Wednesday after a lengthy adjournment was requested to allow him to recover.
But the court heard a medical certificate had not been provided to the court.
Magistrate Michael Holmes adjourned the case on the request of solicitors but said medical evidence needed to be provided to the court.
“A medical certificate is to be supplied for the 29th of August within 14 days,” court documents state.
“A full medical report [must be provided] by the 16th of November.”
Mr Holmes adjourned the case to November for mention.
Kentish, who did not appear in court for Wednesday’s proceedings, has denied all of the charges including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, fabricating evidence with intent to mislead a judicial tribunal, making false statements on oath amounting to perjury and giving false evidence at a hearing before a commission.
Meanwhile, Kentish’s co-accused has had his appeal against his perjury conviction adjourned to a Sydney court.
Sergeant Anthony Kirk is appealing the conviction and sentence handed down after he was found guilty of fabricating part of his police statement on September 26, 2009, as well as making a false statement to Armidale Local Court in a case on July 23, 2010.
He was found guilty of both charges on September 1 by Magistrate Michael Holmes after a hearing in Armidale Local Court and handed a 12-month suspended sentence.
Kirk, a serving police sergeant in the Northern Rivers, lodged an immediate appeal, which was scheduled to be heard last week in Armidale District Court.
But the case was not reached and was adjourned part-heard by Acting Judge Colin Charteris.
The hearing, which is expected to last a day, will now be heard in the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney in early-November.
In his findings, Magistrate Holmes found Kirk “enhanced his statement” to support the alleged actions of his co-accused, Kentish.
Breanna Chillingworth
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
