The Snitch: Sally Dowling under fire over another failed rape case

Which judge has hit out at DPP Sally Dowling SC? Which lawyer lost their appeal to have their sexual harassment case heard in secret? And will Alan Jones speak? The Snitch is here.

NSW District Court judge Penelope Wass has lodged a formal complaint against chief prosecutor Sally Dowling.

One of the judges at war with Sally Dowling SC has called out the chief prosecutor’s office in court over another rape case doomed to fail.

In awarding legal costs to a man acquitted by a jury of raping two women on Thursday, District Court Judge Penny Wass SC questioned whether the lawyers in Ms Dowling’s office had evaluated the evidence in the case before deciding to run the trial.

Judge Wass told the court the evidence of the two women was “so substantially lacking in credit” the prosecution office should have known “it was an inevitable conclusion by the jury” that the man would be found not guilty.

Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling’s office has been called out over another rape case doomed to fail.

She then fired a shot by noting the court system is forced to hear cases Ms Dowling’s office put before it.

“Whether it is in the public interest to run weak cases – putting in peril all those involved … is entirely a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions consideration and not a matter for the court,” Judge Wass told the court.

“The court is obliged to hear weak or indeed hopeless cases if they are put before it by the prosecutor,” she told the court.

Judge Wass then turned to what the courts can control – ordering the state to pay the man’s legal bill. She ordered taxpayers to pick up 100 per cent of the man’s legal costs.

The judge then told the court there was “never any prospect that any jury” would have accepted the evidence of the two complainants and that it was “unreasonable” for Ms Dowling’s office to have launched the case.

The complainants had accused the man of raping them in separate encounters.

CCTV footage tendered in the case disproved one of the complainant’s accounts that they had been raped in disabled bathroom inside a shopping centre.

A friend of the other complainant gave evidence that they were “a bit proud” of the sex they had with the man.

Judge Penelope Wass ordered taxpayers to pick up 100 per cent of the legal costs of the man accused of rape.

The Sunday Telegraph last month revealed Judge Wass asked the NSW Bar Association to examine if Ms Dowling were a “fit and proper person” to be practising law.

There has been no official finding and Ms Dowling declined to comment to Snitch.

This came after Ms Dowling dragged Ms Wass’s personal life into her complaint to the state’s judicial watchdog against Judge Peter Whitford.

The NSW Judicial Commission partially upheld Ms Dowling’s complaint against judge Whitford after he made scathing comments in court accusing her officer of prosecuting sexual assault cases that were doomed to fail.

The commission also upheld Ms Dowling’s complaint against judge Robert Newlinds SC after he made similar criticisms in court.

HOUDA LOSES APPEAL

High profile lawyer Adam Houda has lost his appeal to have his sexual harassment case heard behind closed doors.

Mr Houda has been accused by fellow lawyer Hana Seraphim of harassing her when she was a trainee lawyer working in his office.

High profile lawyer Adam Houda lost his appeal in a sexual harassment case. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers.

The case, which is set to run in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, had been paused while Mr Houda appealed a decision in an attempt to have the matter heard away from the public.

Lawyer Hana Seraphim accused Adam Houda of harassing her when she was a trainee lawyer working in his office. Pic: Max Mason-Hubers.

The appeal was dismissed on Thursday.

According to NCAT records, the appeal was thrown out after Mr Houda or his legal team “failed to appear”.

WILL ALAN SPEAK?

Alan Jones outside Day Street Police Station last month. Picture: Dylan Coker

There has still been no word from broadcaster Alan Jones since police charged him with historic indecent assault and sexual touching charges.

The 2GB legend was stoic in his silence when making his way through the media scrum with lawyers Chris Murphy and Bryan Wrench outside Day Street Police Station after his bombshell arrest last month.

All eyes will be on whether he maintains that silence on Wednesday when he appears in the Downing Centre Local Court for the first time to answer to the allegations.

Stay tuned.