Tim Ellis

Ellis was charged with negligent driving causing death, and pleaded not guilty. Describing the crash in her evidence, Ellis’ partner, Anita Smith, told the court:

It was like a hole had opened up in the earth and we had fallen through it ... I presumed I was dead. I could see the driver’s face and I was just praying that we wouldn’t collide – but we did...Their car spun into a ditch and there was silence...Tim said, ‘We’re alive and I’ve broken my leg’, so I realised I wasn't dead.

Mr Ellis suggested the “structure” of Tasmania’s Court of Criminal Appeal “invites apprehension” from convicted criminals seeking to appeal their sentences.

When he killed her, because of who he was, we thought he would stand up again, go ‘look what I have done to this family’. We were so close to Natalia. We did everything with her. She worked with us, she travelled with us, she had her own home but came and had dinner with us and he’s just destroyed us — he has taken everything away from us. His behaviour has been appalling.

On 15 January 2015, Premier of Tasmania Will Hodgman and Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin announced Ellis would not continue in the role of DPP, after the Governor accepted their recommendation he be removed from the position.

Ellis was found guilty of negligent driving causing death on 26 June 2014. Following an unsuccessful appeal, Ellis returned to the Magistrates Court of Tasmania for sentencing. He was convicted of negligent driving causing death, and sentenced to 4 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended, and driving disqualification for 24 months.

On 24 March 2013, Ellis was driving south on the Midlands Highway in Tasmania around a sweeping bend when his vehicle crossed into a lan of oncoming traffic. Ellis managed to steer his vehicle in the wrong lane for some 30 seconds, over 700 metres. He collided with a vehicle being driven by Natalia Pearn. Ms Pearn died as a result of the crash.

In 2010, Ellis conducted the trial of Susan Neill-Fraser for the murder of Bob Chappell on Australia Day, 2009. The result was that Neill-Fraser was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 years. Ellis later defended the verdict and sentence before the Court of Criminal Appeal, with the result that the verdict was undisturbed, but the sentence was reduced to 23 years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 13 years. Ellis again successfully defended the verdict before the High Court of Australia on a special leave application.

In 2008, Ellis controversially decided to charge Jack Johnston, Commissioner of Tasmania Police with divulging State Secrets, igniting a political stoush with Premier David Bartlett. After Johnston successfully applied to stay the prosecution permanently, Ellis sought to appeal against the permanent stay first before the Court of Criminal Appeal, and then before the High Court of Australia by way of a special leave application, unsuccessfully in both cases.

In 2007, Ellis charged then Labor Minister for Infrastructure, Bryan Green, with conspiracy and interfering with an executive officer. The charges related to an alleged deal between Green and the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation, a privately-owned building accreditation company with two former Labor ministers on its board, which saw a monopoly granted to the Corporation for builder accreditation worth up to $2,600,000. Green was tried twice, on each occasion with a hung jury as a result. He was discharged by the Supreme Court.

He was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions in 1999, and was dismissed in 2015 following his conviction for negligent driving causing the death of Natalia Pearn in 2013.

Ellis was born in 1955 and raised in Longford, Tasmania. He graduated LLB from the University of Tasmania in 1977. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania in 1979, and practised from the Launceston firm of Clarke & Gee.