One Nation candidate Linda Champion sues SA Police amid claims of evidence tampering

This woman claims police broke the law by prosecuting her, but a judge says she has behaved inappropriately toward a witness.

A former One Nation candidate suing SA Police for $30m claims the state government has “tampered” with evidence – but has, a judge says, inappropriately contacted a witness herself.

On Tuesday, the District Court was scheduled to hear Linda Champion’s claim that police maliciously prosecuted her for assault to get “easy KPIs, easy guilty pleas, revenue raising and advancement of careers”.

However, Ms Champion – a newly-admitted legal practitioner who is representing herself – claimed the trial’s tender book of evidence “had been tampered with” by Crown solicitors because of a handwritten and signed addendum to a witness statement.

Judge Michael Durrant told Ms Champion that was a normal part of the court process – unlike the actions she had undertaken prior to the hearing.

He said another witness had provided the court with details of emails and phone calls he had received from Ms Champion.

Pauline Hanson with One Nation candidate Linda Champion. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Judge Durrant said Ms Champion had asked the witness what he intended to tell Crown solicitors and discussed what evidence might be “deleted from the subpoena if not relevant to her case”.

“Can I make it plain – a subpoena is a court order, and court orders are not to be interfered with nor subject to this type of correspondence,” he told Ms Champion.

“I’m going to suggest you get some advice about this correspondence, as it’s correspondence I was not pleased to read.

“I’m not seeking an explanation from you now, because I’m urging you to give the Law Society a call and seek advice from more senior counsel – and do so today.”

In her court documents, Ms Champion alleges she was improperly charged with, and maliciously prosecuted for, assault over an incident at her dentist in February 2017.

She alleges she called police saying the dentist had grabbed her, but the dentist claimed she had pushed him in the chest.

Ms Champion, who was subsequently charged, alleges the incident was improperly investigated and prosecutors attempted to force her to plead guilty.

She further alleges she was “bullied and harassed” and that, in an email, prosecutors described her as being “madder than a cut snake”.

Ms Champion was acquitted of the assault charge.

The government and SA Police have denied any wrongdoing and said Ms Champion is not entitled to any compensation whatsoever.

On Tuesday, Ms Champion told the court she would seek to prove SA Police’s actions were “motivated by malice”.

“I stand before you today to seek justice … these wrongs have done me incalculable harm,” she said.

“(This was about) easy KPIs, easy guilty pleas … the assault charge was a way of coercing me to plead guilty to disorderly behaviour.

“(It’s about) revenue raising and advancement of careers.”

The trial continues.