Patterson’s was the first ever lifestreamed sentence in Victoria, with more than 10,000 viewers tuning into the Supreme Court’s official stream and many more across news networks.
Mr Quill said the livestream was a “fantastic thing” that helped to give the public an insight into the court system.
“No court reporter, no matter how good they are, can explain a court proceeding to the public as well as the public actually seeing and hearing it with their own eyes and ears,” he said.
“I hope that other judges will see the benefits of televised sentences and adopt it as standard practice.
“Every crime has a ripple effect. The actual victims of a murder stretches into the hundreds, potentially thousands, and not all of those people can get into a courtroom and watch, that’s just the reality of the judicial system.
“It’s usually through the media that we get to see court proceedings, so the more televised criminal matters the better, in my view.”
Patterson was not visible in the livestream of her sentencing. She looked ahead towards Justice Beale for much of the proceeding – and at one point had her eyes closed for several minutes – before flashing a final glare at reporters.
“I’m absolutely not surprised it (the livestream) didn’t show her,” said Mr Quill.
“She has no choice to be there and it would be a form of humiliation and punishment for the cameras to be on her.”
Sam Russo, senior associate at Gallant Law, agreed that more sentencings should be lifestreamed in future.
Read more at
