00:01David McBride has officially walked out of prison in Canberra today.
00:07He was granted parole by the Federal Attorney General Michelle Rowland a little earlier this morning.
00:12Now, David McBride is, of course, the former military lawyer turned whistleblower
00:17who was convicted in 2024 for stealing and sharing top-secret defence information.
00:23He was sharing that information with journalists out of concern that ADF soldiers
00:28were being over-investigated when actually that information revealed
00:33Australian soldier involvement in unlawful killings in Afghanistan.
00:38Regardless of his intent, he was convicted and sentenced to five years
00:43and eight months in the AMC behind me here.
00:47He had a non-parole period of two years and three months,
00:50which means today is the first day he's been eligible for parole.
00:53That was granted by the Federal Attorney General this morning.
00:56And on his way out of prison today, he hugged his family and supporters
01:01and he told reporters that he was grateful to the Attorney General
01:05for considering and granting his parole application.
01:08I'm very happy to be out. It's a beautiful day to be free.
01:12And I thank all my supporters.
01:14I thank the Attorney General for granting me parole.
01:18I'm just happy to be here with my wonderful family.
01:20David McBride there also revealing his early stages of a lung cancer diagnosis.
01:27He will be receiving treatment and serving the rest of his prison sentence
01:32about three years and five months or so in the community.
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