JOHN Favretto tilts back in his chair and steals a wry grin.
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“Not every person with an Italian surname from Griffith is on the wrong side of the judicial system, you know,” he says.
Mr Favretto would know.
After leaving his home town of Hanwood to pursue a university degree in 1974, Mr Favretto has forged a formidable legal career.
And in a neat piece of symmetry, Mr Favretto was back in his birthplace last week – almost four decades after he left – to act as a fill-in magistrate at Griffith Local Court.
Relaxing in his chambers deep in the bowels of Griffith Courthouse on Friday, he spoke with The
Area News about his remarkable career.
After stints as a Crown prosecutor with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Favretto was appointed a magistrate at Sydney’s Central Local Court in 2006, where he oversees a procession of thugs, mugs and murderers.
He rules on up to 100 cases a day – and plenty of his decisions have courted controversy.
He earned the scorn of the media when he handed swimmer Nick D’Arcy a suspended sentence for a vicious assault on fellow swimmer Simon Cowley and recently presided over a case involving a fatal airport bikie brawl.
“Life in a Sydney court can be interesting,” he said.
“One minute you’re dealing with an inner-city homeless person who might have serious substance abuse or mental health issues and the next it might be an organised crime figure. You see the real extremes of the human condition.
“It teaches you to be humble. You recognise how much misfortune some people can have and how lucky you were as a child to have a stable home and strong role
models.”
The push for tougher sentencing, fuelled by the tabloid media and opportunistic politicians, is not as simple a debate as many think, Mr Favretto said.
“It’s about striking a balance between inflicting punishment and protecting society, and rehabilitation,” he said.
“A lot of people think sentencing is just about punishment but an equally important legal principle is rehabilitation.
“Sometimes you have to be creative to manage those competing factors together and it doesn’t always involve jail.
“If it’s a young offender, for example, sometimes sending them straight to prison is not going to help them. It could make them more likely to reoffend.”
The middle of five children, Mr Favretto still makes regular trips to Griffith to see his mum Linda and sister Anna.
He often reflects on growing up among the citrus trees and vineyards on his family’s property, Farm 122 in Hanwood.
