A 74-YEAR-old man convicted of drugging and raping women he enticed on to his yacht has sufficient mental capacity to represent himself during his sentencing hearing, a court has heard.
John Collins on Thursday told the Brisbane District Court he intended to represent himself at his April 3 sentencing hearing, saying it was "impossible'' for lawyers to represent him.
Judge Nick Samios, reading from a medical report tendered to the court, said it was now apparent Mr Collins could be transferred to a prison rather than remain at his current secured residence, Wacol's The Park Centre for Mental Health, on Brisbane's western outskirts.
Collins was last week fund guilty by a jury of 22 charges, including 10 counts of rape and five of administering a stupefying drug to commit a crime.
The jury had been told the septuagenarian sailor recruited young women to work on his vessel as nannies, with the added incentive of allowing them to sail to Queensland's tropical islands in and around the Barrier Reef.
Collins, who was convicted of 19 offences, had pleaded not guilty to all charges and ended up representing himself after sacking his counsel at the commencement of his trial.
Prosecutor David Nardone, during a sentence review on Thursday, said the Crown was prepared to provide the material it relied on for sentence to Collins in advance of the sentencing hearing.
Collins told the court he hoped to obtain a medical report for presentation at the hearing, but that he had found it difficult to arrange any medical appointment from the confines of a secure mental health facility.
"It's is pretty hard where I am (being) held to telephone a doctor,'' Collins said.
When asked by Judge Samios if he agreed with the medical report he should be transferred to prison, Collins said: "I think you're right. I don't need to remain in a mental health institution.''
Collins said he would find it much easier to prepare for the hearing from a jail cell than a ward of a secure facility.
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