A police officer's error collecting evidence has led to the collapse of a robbery trial and charges against the accused man being discontinued.
"Every step of this process has been a disaster for the investigator," defence barrister Travis Jackson told the ACT Supreme Court on Monday, when the admissibility of that evidence was first raised.
Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson ruled on Tuesday the identification evidence could not be used in the judge-alone trial after the officer in question failed to comply with a "clear legislative requirement".
"[The officer] chose the 'convenient' over the 'inconvenient'," she said in a published decision.
On Wednesday, prosecutor Marcus Dyason discontinued charges of aggravated robbery and unlawful confinement against Jaiden Ashton Higgins.
The judge also made an order to vacate the trial, at the heart of which was identification.
The prosecution case against Higgins claimed he grabbed a man on the street in July 2022 and said: "Give me all your stuff."
They alleged Higgins assaulted that man repeatedly and, with two other men, "dragged" him to a residence "while continuing to hit him in the face", confined him there and took his wallet and phone.
After Higgins' arrest, the senior constable failed to offer him the chance to take part in an "identification parade", where alleged victims are asked if they recognise a perpetrator, as required by legislation.
He instead organised a "photo board", being the alternative process.
The officer gave evidence on Monday that "ideally" you should offer the identification parade but thought it was unreasonable to do so in Higgins' case.
"At the time, the [accused] was in custody and I believed it would not have been feasible to locate eight other similar looking persons to conduct an identification parade," the police officer said in a statement.
The court heard he had made "assumptions" about the difficulty of finding these eight people, was "pretty confident" he was doing the right thing, and did not enquire if Higgins would participate in the first place.
"The officer gave evidence he did not consult the legislation or speak with a supervisor about the 'correct procedure'," the judge said.
Mr Jackson previously told the court the senior constable's action had been lazy and possibly incompetent.
Ultimately, Justice Loukas-Karlsson said the officer had acted with "a high degree of recklessness".
Higgins pleaded guilty on Monday to a property damage charge relating to an incident that occurred on the same day as the other discontinued charges.
After spending more than a year in custody, he is set to appear in court again on Thursday before a registrar to get a sentencing date for the property damage and another series of charges.
"Your job now is to turn your life around," Justice Loukas-Karlsson told the man on Wednesday.
"Show the court, the community, and most importantly yourself, that you can do better than what you've done so far."
