There is a highly secretive and unusual court case playing out behind closed doors in Far North Queensland involving a prominent married man and his alleged affair, a non-publication order we are not allowed to see and an allegation of extortion we cannot tell you much about.
This is a story of how a regional magistrates court became the centre of a mysterious high-stakes legal drama that raises questions over the fundamental principle of open justice, the media’s right to fairly report what happens in court, and whether powerful people are using their influence over public institutions to protect this high-profile man from embarrassment.
The defendant’s legal team, along with media organisations including the ABC, have now launched a judicial review into the acting magistrate’s decision, arguing her blanket suppression order went beyond the scope of her powers.
Police prosecutors and the magistrates court have doubled down, hiring their own top silk to fight the appeal.
A directions hearing before Justice James Henry in Cairns Supreme Court on Wednesday morning was conducted entirely behind closed doors, with journalists locked outside.
We had raced there from a press conference around the corner with Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.
As a former attorney-general, he was asked about the case but refused to comment on it specifically, agreeing only that the fundamental concept of open court in the justice system was important to uphold.
“I couldn’t possibly comment based on the suppression order that’s in place by a court,” he said.
Source: Why we cannot name high-profile Queensland man at centre of Cairns extortion case – ABC News