Death rattle of the Carmody story … Secretly recorded CJ rant back in the news as Sgt Plod called in to investigate senior judge administrator … No need for Justice Byrne to pack his toothbrush
The judicial “scum” outburst by Bluto Carmody has resurfaced once more in the daily blatts.
The CJ’s tirade was captured on Justice John Byrne’s iPhone when Timbo was seeking to rejig the Court of Disputed Returns, just after the knife-edge state election outcome in January 2015.
David Boddice, who had been nominated as the Court of Disputed Returns under a tried and tested protocol, was also at the fiery meeting in Bluto’s chambers. The CJ is reported to have told Byrne he was a “passive aggressive narcissist” and for Boddice to “shut up” before he ordered them out.
Serial complainant and non-practising barrister Greg Williams has dobbed the senior judge administrator into Sgt Plod to investigate whether the secretly recorded conversation somehow or other breached the Invasion of Privacy Act.
If an offence is proven then Byrne faces two years porridge.
The Australian got a bit excited about the story, saying the “one of Queensland’s most respected policemen, detective inspector Mick Dowie of the homicide squad, is leading the investigation”.
The fact that the murder squad is now involved takes this to a new level. It is unlikely the DI Dowie will come up with anything too stunning, let alone a murder weapon.
Prohibitions on the use of listening devises in recording private conversations do not apply, “where the person using the listening devise is a party to the private conversation”.
And then there are sections 44(2)(a) and 45(2)(a) – where it’s permissible to play the recorded conversation to others who were part of the chat. There are also multiple defences under 45(2)(c), including the protection of the lawful interests of the person who communicated the recording.
The secret recording has never fully come to light, applications for its release under the Right to Information regime having been turned down.
Greg Williams, described as a company director, told The Australian that he made the complaint to “ensure that the judiciary acts to the highest standards under the law”.
In June last year Williams was off to police headquarters with another complaint, this time about Justice Margaret McMurdo’s refusal to sit on appeals with Carmody CJ.
Investigative news hound at the Bowen Hills Bugle, Des Houghton, was on the story, quoting Williams as saying that he was taking this action to “break the impasse” between McMurdo and Carmody.
Sgt Plod must have put this one in the too hard basket or the dust bin.
Williams must be a dedicated Carmody man, claiming that the CJ, as he then was, has more experience than those attacking him.
In 2011, Williams, complained to the coppers about the University of Queensland about the nepotism brouhaha. It came to pass that the vice chancellor, Prof. Paul Greenfield, and his deputy, Prof. Michael Keniger, resigned their positions because the VC’s daughter had secured a place in the medical school after falling short of entrance qualifications.
Later, the Crime and Misconduct Commission issued a report critical of the university’s conduct for the way the story was spun to the reptiles of the media.