Sleaze on the bench … Wandering hands … Half-baked apologies from sexually harassing judges … Professional boundaries violated … Claim that investigations not legitimate … Hiding behind legal mumbo jumbo … The penny that never drops
Take Peter Vickery QC, ex Vic Supremes. He was exposed last week by Bianca Hall in The Age for sexually harassing two of his associates.
Initially Vickery wasn’t named in the news report, to protect the privacy of the women, but later they agreed that the judge should be outed in the interests of “transparency and accountability”.
Kate Eastman SC did a report for the Victorian Supreme Court, finding that Vickery had subjected the young women, at least 40 years his junior, to unwelcome sexual advances.
He placed his hands between the thighs of one of his associates after he took her to dinner in a private dining room. On another occasion he kissed her on the lips.
Soon after unfounded rumours were flying around the court that the judge was having an affair with his associate she requested a transfer and fled – subsequently leaving the court altogether.
Another associate was subjected to streams of the judge’s purple poetry and expressions of love. He was asked not to contact the associate during Eastman’s investigation, nonetheless he emailed her, saying:
“If falling in love with you was and remains a crime, I am guilty.”
He invited her to a drink at “a nice bar just down from the ‘Tree of Life’ on the planet Pandora in the solar system Alpha Centauri A, southern constellation Centaurus, Milky Way”.
Included with the invitation was one of his poems, Virgil’s Verse and a copy of Caravaggio’s nude cherub, Amor Vincit Omnia:
“If I am not made for you in this world / I will find you in another
Look up to the vast night sky / Starlight from Alpha Centauri journeys to Earth.
A thing of great beauty, glittering of you / Nunc scio quit sit amor.”
By this stage it was evident that Vickery was on a different planet.
The young associate told Eastman that on receiving the letter she experienced a panic attack. “I thought I was going to throw up.”
The Sydney silk found that there was a serious transgression of professional boundaries and a significant power imbalance between Vickery and his transgressed associates.
Some years after leaving the court, both women knew about the allegations of sexual misconduct against High Court judge Dyson Heydon, prompting them to come forward with their complaints about Vickery’s overwrought attention.
The publication of Eastman’s findings seemed to mystify the former judge. In a rambling essay posted on his website he couldn’t see what the fuss was about.
“I am a kind, tolerant and fair-minded person, but have been painted in the investigation otherwise … I also extended that kindness to all of my 13 associates who I had the privilege to work with and provide tuition.
I never for a second believed that anything I did may have hurt two of them. I accept that I should have been more alert to this possibility. Had I possessed sufficient awareness, without hesitation I would have altered my behaviour. I extend my sincere apologies to both for any distress unknowingly caused.”
However, he added, the two reports by Kate Eastman have “serious shortcomings” – conducted outside a legislative framework and without protections usually provided to citizens.
There were no “binding” findings of fact as “the investigation was not conducted by a court of law or statutory tribunal.
“Consequently, the findings are open to serious challenge.”
There was a similar mealy-mouthed “apology” in June 2020 from Dyson Heydon following a Sydney Morning Herald investigation and findings by Vivienne Thom, who had been commissioned by chief justice Susan Kiefel to examine complaints by six of the court’s associates.
Dicey’s statement came through his lawyers at Speed and Stracey:
“In respect of the confidential inquiry and its subsequent confidential report, any allegation of predatory behaviour or breaches of the law is categorically denied by our client.
The inquiry was an internal administrative inquiry and was conducted by a public servant and not by a lawyer, judge or a tribunal member. It was conducted without having statutory powers of investigation and of administering affirmations or oaths.
The inquiry did not afford any opportunity for representatives of the person complained of to confront those complaining or to cross-examine them.
Our client says that if any conduct of his has caused offence, that result was inadvertent and unintended, and he apologises for any offence caused. We have asked the High Court to convey that directly to the Associate complainants.
As to the balance of your claims our client denies emphatically any allegation of sexual harassment or any offence.”
This was after numerous women, not just former associates, told of instances of the judicial hand slithering between thighs, indecent assault, fingers down another woman’s pants, unwanted and uninvited kissing on the mouth, intimidation, stalking, groping, and other varieties of taking advantage of young women.
Heydon’s statement implied that you can’t trust non-lawyers to find the facts as only lawyers know how to hide them.
The judges in the #MeToo frame want full-blown contested hearings into the complaints against them, conducted in private, of course. In particular, Dicey knows how the inquisitorial system works having conducted a frame-up royal commission into unions on behalf of his ideological bed-mate, the Mad Monk.
Kiefel’s statement issued on June 22, 2020 did mention Heydon by name. There was no escaping that as the SMH and The Age had already done so.
Anne Ferguson, the Victorian CJ, in her first statement of February 17, 2022, played nice and kept Vickery’s name out of the stink. The Age had done the same in its 5 am post of Bianca Hall’s scoop.
By the afternoon, following the second story in The Age posted at 11.06 am which named Vickery, Ferguson sent an email to media outlets:
“The Supreme Court is aware that a former judge has been identified as the judge involved in allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. The court is able to confirm that the actions of Peter Vickery QC were the subject of the reports and the chief justice’s statement this morning.”
Vickery had no option but to out himself after The Age published his name.
The wishful expectation by the court that the judge’s identity could be kept under cover of darkness was not sustainable.
“Vickers”, as he was known around Vic’s Bar ‘n’ Grill, is an Edwardian sort of chappie. His father was a major-general and Vickers claim to fame was that he designed the Supremos’ new robes. Seriously.
He’s also been rewriting verses of the National Anthem as part of the Recognition in Anthem campaign – an attempt to incorporate Indigenous heritage into the dirge.
He had a big practice as a building and construction silk and ran the list in the Supreme Court. By all accounts he did a good job at the court.
One Yarraside barrister says the judge went “pants man” a few years before he retired, so much so that sources say that his wife turned up at his court one day and loudly demanded, “Stop fucking your associate”.
He closed the court and took personal leave. It’s hoped that the court reporter captured the moment.
The associate about whom assumptions were made actually wasn’t having an affair.
Quaintly, in December last year he published a paper called #MeToo and Sister Hashtags – A Moment for Positive Change:
“This paper proposes a positive plan for further promoting cultural change in the workplace to deal with sexual harassment. It is open to be adopted to support other worthwhile initiatives …”
And what of Dicey Heydon? He’s been having lunch at The Australian Club with Francis Douglas and walking his pooch in the mists of Robertson.
Vickery and Heydon are the unreconstructed fossils who were left without a chair when the music stopped.
The Age Bianca Hall story I, Feb 17 @5.00 am
The Age Bianca Hall story two Vickery named, Feb 17 @ 11.06 am
SMH on Dyson Heydon June 22, 2020 @ 4.29 pm
SMH second story on Heydon with his apology June 23, 2020 @ 6 am
Kiefel CJ statement, Monday June 22, 2020