Thomas Wells (judge)

Thomas Alexander Wells (c. 1888 – 13 September 1954) was a judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, Australia. He was known for having misdirected the jury in a high-profile case in 1934, which was later overturned in an appeal in the High Court of Australia known as Tuckiar v The King.

Career

Wells was a court reporter for a Sydney newspaper.[1]

He served overseas in WWI and on returning to Australia studied law in Sydney, where he practised at the bar for nine years after graduating.[1]

In 1933 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, following the retirement of Justice Mallam (1878–1954).[1][2]

He presided over some of the Territory's most high-profile trials, including the murder trial of Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda, a Yolngu man from Caledon Bay in Arnhem Land, who was convicted of murdering Constable Albert Stewart McColl at Woodah Island on 1 August 1933. This was part of a series of events known as the Caledon Bay crisis Dhakiyarr was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but seven months later this verdict was overturned in the Tuckiar v The King case. Several reasons were given for the success of the appeal, including that Judge Wells had misdirected the jury.[3][4]

He was regarded more benignly for ordering the doors of Fannie Bay Gaol open following the Japanese air raids in 1942, rather than have them suffer should the jail receive a direct hit.[5]

He was himself evacuated to Alice Springs following the air raids, returning in 1945.[6]

Later life and legacy

He suffered a stroke in 1951, and retired the following year. He died in Darwin Hospital in September 1954.

Wells Street, in the Darwin suburbs of Ludmilla and Parap, is named after him.[7]

References
  1. "N.T. Judge". Northern Standard. No. 54. Northern Territory, Australia. 25 August 1933. p. 11. Retrieved 19 January 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. "An extraordinary man of wit and wisdom". NT News. 1 July 2017.
  3. "High Court of Australia: Tuckiar v. The King (n Appeal)". Northern Standard. No. 92. Northern Territory, Australia. 23 November 1934. p. 3. Retrieved 10 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "High Court of Australia: Tückiar v. The King: Judgment of Mr. Justice Starke". Northern Standard. No. 93. Northern Territory, Australia. 27 November 1934. p. 3. Retrieved 10 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Mr. Justice Wells Dies in Darwin". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 97, no. 29, 927. South Australia. 14 September 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 19 January 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "NT Place Names Register". NT Government. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  7. NOTE: Wells Street in the Litchfield area, Wells Creek and Mount Wells were named for the presumably unrelated Charles Frederick Wells (died 1896), a cadet surveyor with the Goyder Survey Expedition of 1869.("NT Place Names Register". NT Government. Retrieved 19 January 2018.)
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