Mark Weinberg (judge)

Weinberg was born in Sweden and lived in the United States until the age of 10, when he and his family moved to Melbourne. He attended Melbourne High School and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from Monash University. He was awarded the Supreme Court Prize in 1970, the year he graduated. In 1972 he received the Vinerian Scholarship for top graduate of the Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford.[5] In 1975 he was called to the Victorian Bar.

From 1984 to 1985, Weinberg was dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne, having previously served as acting dean and deputy dean.[2]

In 1986, Weinberg was appointed Queen's Counsel. From 1988 until 1991, he was Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.[6]

After being appointed to the Federal Court in 1998, Weinberg also held appointments as deputy president of the Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal, non-resident judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji, additional judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island.[7] He resigned from the Federal Court and his other appointments in 2008 in order to take up office as a judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

In 2017, Weinberg was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the judiciary and to the law, particularly through reforms to criminal law and procedure, to legal education in Victoria and to the administration of justice in Fiji and Norfolk Island.[8]

On 9 May 2018, Weinberg retired from the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria after 10 years of service.[9] He continues to hear cases as a reserve Judge.[9]

In 2018, he presided over the jury trial of Dimitrious Gargasoulas, the perpetrator of the January 2017 Melbourne car attack which killed six people and injured 27. In February 2019, he sentenced Gargasoulas to life in prison and a non-parole period of 46 years.[10]

In 2019, he heard the high-profile County Court appeal of Cardinal George Pell against his conviction for the commission of sexual offences. He dissented with the Court of Appeal 2-1 majority that rejected the appeal, which was subsequently overruled by the High Court.[11][12] He found that there was a "significant possibility" that Pell may not have committed the offences having serious doubt on the complainant's credibility and reliability and cited the High Court judgement in the Lindy Chamberlain case.[13]

Following the release of the Brereton Report, in December 2020, Weinberg was appointed by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton as the Special Investigator to investigate alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.[14]