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In 1997, Constable David Carty approached a man in Fairfield warning him against using bad language. Later the same night, when he was off duty, Carty was confronted in the Cambridge Tavern car park by the same man accompanied by gang of his friends.
Carty was fatally stabbed and violently punched and kicked as he lay dying on the ground. Another police officer who had accompanied Carty, Constable Michelle Auld, raised the alarm and tried to beat off the attackers. Carty died in the ambulance on the way to hospital.
Two brothers, Gilbert and Richard Adam, were both placed on trial on 10 October 1998. Richard Adam was found guilty of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm to David Carty, while Gilbert Adam was found guilty of murder.
1. Newspaper articles on Proquest ANZ Newsstand, available remotely to registered clients of the State Library of NSW. Type in David Carty and Richard Adam.
2. A Bill to provide for mandatory life sentences for the murder of police officers has been passed by the NSW Parliament. The Crimes Amendment (Murder of Police Officers) Bill 2011 was introduced into Parliament by Michael Gallacher on 24 May 2011. It was assented to on 23 June 2011. See Crimes Amendment (Murder of Police Officers) Act 2011, NSW Act No 20. There is mixed reaction from the community to this change. For example, read the following:
If you are interested in exploring the issue of mandatory sentencing, this new legislation would be interesting to investigate. Additional information on sentencing can be found in Hot Topics 55: Sentencing, 2005. If you are interested in locating journal articles on this issue, you could search AGIS Plus– if you have a State Library reader's card. Type in "mandatory sentencing”.
If you want information about the crime committed, these resources provide useful information:
Criminal law Chapter 16, The Law Handbook 11th ed, Thomson Reuters, 2009.
Legal Studies Research Guide - Crime - crime and going to court.
David Carty
Evaluating the effectiveness of the law? These websites will help you find information about any issue you have identified from this case and background information that is helpful for evaluating the effectiveness of the legal system:
Statistics can be helpful for evaluating the effectiveness of the legal system:
