Former judge loses appeal against corruption finding over his conduct during Bruce Lehrmann inquiry

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Who led the inquiry into the criminal prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann has lost his bid to have serious corruption findings against him overturned. Former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff came under fire by the ACT integrity commission which found he engaged in "serious corrupt conduct" in his contact with journalists. Mr Sofronoff challenged the finding but today the federal court dismissed his appeal upholding the commission's corruption findings.

Transcript

00:00Jake Danby is currently serving a 12-month intensive community corrections order after

00:07pleading guilty to hit and run causing death over an incident in 2024 in which he hit two

00:14Aboriginal pedestrians with his vehicle, fled the scene and then later sent a series of text

00:19messages referring to the victims as dogs and as oxygen thieves. One of the victims,

00:25known as Mr Whitehurst for cultural reasons, died in hospital as a result of his injuries.

00:31The Director of Public Prosecutions filed an appeal on the single ground that the sentence was

00:36manifestly inadequate. Today, Prosecutor Patrick Williams told the court that the sentence really

00:41just didn't go far enough in the circumstances. In particular, he pointed to the text messages Danby

00:47sent in the aftermath of the incident saying they should have been considered aggravating factors

00:52and they were relevant because they went to Danby's state of mind at the time.

00:57Mr Williams also argued that the primary sentencing considerations should have been denunciation

01:02of Danby's offending as well as promoting community deterrence about this kind of offending in the

01:07future. On the other hand, Defence Barrister John Tippett KC told the court the sentence was

01:13appropriate and even went as far as to say the community should be applauding the court for

01:18sentencing a young person to an intensive community corrections order as opposed to an actual term

01:23of imprisonment. Mr Tippett said Danby was the perfect example of someone who would benefit

01:29from a community corrections order because of his age, his lack of criminal history as well as his

01:34strong prospects for rehabilitation. Mr Tippett argued a community corrections order wasn't a lighter

01:40or more lenient option it was just a different option and even took a swipe at the media saying

01:46that they had focused too much on certain aspects of the case which had led to a misunderstanding

01:51among the public about what an intensive community corrections order actually means. After about one

01:57and a half hours of submissions from both sides the NT Court of Criminal Appeal decided to reserve

02:03their decision for a later date and said they had not yet reached a decision on whether Danby should be

02:09resentenced.

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