THERE was the crash on the New England Highway at Beresfield in 2016, when truck driver David James Price somehow failed to notice a long queue of traffic had formed in front of him and "overrode" a Toyota HiLux, killing 30-year-old Ellalong man Daniel Milne.
Then after Price was found guilty of causing the crash and jailed for a maximum of two-and-a-half years in Newcastle District Court in May, 2018, there was the DNA swab, routine for an inmate upon entering custody, that detectives alleged led to a breakthrough in the 2006 random sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy, who was allegedly attacked by a stranger in a public toilet block at Cardiff.
And then, last year, with Price's non-parole period for causing the fatal crash set to expire, there was the revelation as he was preparing to apply for bail on the 2006 sexual assault allegations that, if successful, he could be taken into immigration detention.
There were concerns that Price, who came to Australia as a "Ten Pound Pom" in 1962, had triggered the government's mandatory visa cancellations for non-citizens who commit a crime and are jailed for 12 months or more, a regime introduced by the federal government in 2014 that has led to a spike in deportations.
But this week there were another couple of chapters added to the story of David James Price.
Three days into a trial in Newcastle District Court on the alleged aggravated sexual assault and indecent assault of a then 15-year-old boy at a Cardiff toilet block in 2006, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) made the determination that there should be no further proceedings and Judge John North dismissed all four charges.
With no charges holding him in custody, it was expected that Price would either be released or taken into immigration detention, where he would begin a fight against deportation to the UK. But on Wednesday morning - not long before the charges were formally no billed by the DPP - detectives told Price's lawyers, barrister Rob Hussey and solicitor Gillian Jewison, that they would be charging Price again, this time over a number of unrelated alleged sexual and indecent assaults against a then teenage boy dating back to 1983.
Price was charged with a single offence on Wednesday and had his matter mentioned briefly in Newcastle Local Court that afternoon.
He was refused bail overnight and re-appeared in Toronto Local Court on Thursday, by which time the charges against him had multiplied to five counts of sexual assault between 1983 and 1985 at Edgeworth, Cessnock and Mungo Brush.
The charges "emerged from [Price's] involvement in the Scouts," Magistrate Andrew Eckhold said on Thursday.
During a bail application for Price yesterday, Mr Hussey outlined the background and said detectives had waited two years, until the day he had his other charges dismissed, before charging him with the historical offences, which he labelled an "extraordinary and unjustifiable" delay.
"Yesterday while walking into court we were told Mr Price would be charged with this matter," Mr Hussey told Mr Eckhold. "The complainant in this matter approached police in August, 2018. That is a two-year delay in having this matter charged."
"That is bizarre," Mr Eckhold said. "That is going to be critical. If people are playing ducks and drakes."
Ultimately, Mr Eckhold accepted the detectives reasoning for why the charging process had been delayed so long.
And despite that delay and a number of strict conditions being proposed, Mr Eckhold refused Price bail until November.
Yesterday while walking into court we were told Mr Price would be charged with this matter. The complainant in this matter approached police in August, 2018. That is a two-year delay in having this matter charged.
Defence barrister Rob Hussey said on Thursday.
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