00:00A Supreme Court judge walking into court to find out his fate.
00:07Justice Gregory Geeson was charged last year with one count of assault and one count of
00:11emotional abuse or intimidation.
00:14He pleaded not guilty to both and faced a hearing in July.
00:18Allegations he grabbed a woman, struck her chest and pushed her, causing extensive bruising
00:23and a concussion, today found proven.
00:26Victorian Deputy Chief Magistrate Susan Wakeling dismissed Justice Geeson's explanation, saying
00:32''I consider his account to be contrived and implausible.''
00:36The charge of emotional abuse related to incidents between April and November last year and included
00:43tracking the woman's movements using technology, verbal abuse and pressuring her to sign a
00:48contract.
00:49The verdict?
00:50Guilty, with Magistrate Wakeling saying ''I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that
00:55these events form a pattern of conduct, coercive of the complainant's will and controlling.''
01:01So what happens now?
01:03Justice Geeson hasn't resigned and the only way he can be removed is through historical
01:07British legislation and it doesn't look like the government plans to use that mechanism
01:12yet.
01:13Instead, there's a bill before Parliament to create a new process to handle complaints
01:17about judges and sack them if required.
01:20Our expectation is that legislation will be debated over the course of the next 24 hours.
01:28Only Parliament can remove a judge.
01:31It's very important to understand that members of Parliament do not cross over into making
01:36decisions about the judiciary.
01:38We don't personally have opinions about the judiciary for the very good reason that that
01:42is the Westminster Convention to have separation of powers.
01:46The state opposition not as shy in giving an opinion, calling for Justice Geeson to
01:51resign.
01:52Let's get this judge, this disgraced judge, out of our judicial system as quickly as possible.
01:58In the meantime, Justice Geeson continues to be paid his annual salary of half a million
02:02dollars.
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