Angelo Vasta was an Australian Queen's Counsel and judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland.
10 Facts About Angelo Vasta
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Angelo Vasta was the first superior court judge with an Italian background to be appointed in Queensland, and the second to be appointed in Australia.
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Angelo Vasta was born in Innisfail on 8 January 1941.
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Angelo Vasta completed his education from Melbourne University in 1964.
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In 1967, he moved to Brisbane where Vasta was called to the Queensland bar in 1968, appointed a QC in 1980, Chief Crown prosecutor in 1981 and appointed to the Supreme Court in 1984.
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Angelo Vasta maintained a successful private practice at the Queensland Bar before retiring on 1 July 2020.
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On 24 October 1988, Angelo Vasta either stood down or was stood down as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland after evidence of his friendship with the suspended Queensland Police Commissioner Terence Lewis was given at the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption which contradicted statements made under oath during a defamation case in 1986, amongst other behaviours.
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Angelo Vasta was formally removed from office on 8 June 1989 by an Act of the Queensland Parliament, the only occasion since Federation that any parliament in Australia has removed a Supreme Court judge.
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Since 1 January 2015, another son, Salvatore "Sal" Angelo Vasta, has been a judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia with significant controversy surrounding several of his cases.
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Angelo Vasta died in Brisbane, Queensland on 29 September 2021 aged 80.