The Snitch: Supergrass case falls over after police disclosure problems

What could go wrong with a supergrass witness with something to hide? Which lawyer photobombed a beautiful celebrity moment and who is the other Adam Cranston? The Snitch is here.

A third major criminal trial was aborted recently because of disclosure issues by the police.

The case is shrouded in non-publication orders, so we will have to tread carefully about what we say about it so as not to step on a legal landmine.

But in the latest case there were also issues as to whether the police had fully disclosed all of the relevant evidence to the prosecution and defence lawyers.

It’s becoming apparent that 2023 has been a year to forget when it comes to major court cases collapsing because of disclosure issues.

In March, a case fell over when it was revealed in court that a police rollover witness told lies to a court after being charged with drug offences interstate.

When the rollover witness was sentenced interstate, he got a shorter sentence because he was allowed to call on his good character.

No one told the interstate judge about the crimes he had committed in NSW that led to him becoming a supergrass. Needless to say, his credibility as a witness was shot and the NSW case imploded.

Police discolure issues have resulted in three trials being aborted this year.

Another case fell over when it was revealed that members of a related gang could not have been bashing an alleged victim because records emerged that they were playing football for a team called Ghost Squad in a midweek comp.

The more recent case that fell over is a little more complicated, but similarly related to issues where police should have disclosed certain information, but for whatever reason, didn’t.

We expect a decision will now have to be made as to whether the accused man in the case stands trial again or if the issues with the witness have been fatal to the prosecution’s case.

Check back with us later when it is listed for an arraignment.

We can’t say when for legal reasons.

DOWN IN FRONT

Sydney lawyer Chris Murphy has been in the middle of celebrity scandals for years, usually performing the function of shutting them down.

And it looks like he’s still at it.

Murphy went semi-viral this week when he appeared in a picture in the New York Post’s iconic gossip section, Page Six.

Hollywood superstar Natalie Portman with her husband Benjamin Millepied watching a Rabbitohs v Roostersmatch in 2021 — with lawyer Chris Murphy in front. Picture: Getty

Page Six featured a story about actor Natalie Portman and her on-again-off-again husband Benjamin Millepied sitting next to each other at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final at Homebush last week.

But the picture they ran was from several years ago when they were at a South Sydney Rabbitohs game.

And guess who ruined the shot? Yep, Mr Murphy.

The lawyer was sitting in one of the rows in front of the celebrity couple and completely photobombed the picture.

“I’ve never been to a soccer game in my life,” Mr Murphy said.

THE OTHER CRANSTON

In a week where $105m tax fraudster Adam Cranston was jailed, a similar court case is gathering steam, involving a dead insolvency practitioner who was ripping off the ATO to a similar level.

Sam Henderson, 45, was found dead at North Sydney’s Vibe Hotel at 3pm on April 4 and owed creditors about $26m.

Samuel “Sam” Henderson who was found dead in a hotel in April.

A case unfolding in the The Federal Court of Australia has been told that Henderson was in the middle of a tax ripoff scheme that rivalled that of Cranston’s.

The case involves “construction services” company Fourteen Consulting Services, which was put into liquidation in February owing $67m to creditors.

The liquidator unpicked a complicated web of companies and concluded that it was operating as a tax ripoff scheme.

One of the companies had transferred $123 million to one of the other entities and other companies were brought into the fold to create the “illusion of a further corporate layer”, the court heard.

The end result was similar to Cranston’s operation: Keeping PAYG tax instead of paying to the ATO.

The court was told a “substantial proportion of the funds” were paid to a company under Henderson’s control.

Henderson was also an undischarged bankrupt who previously worked for several accounting firms.

He met with the liquidator shortly before his death.

“Based on his conversations with Mr Henderson, the liquidator formed the view that … Mr Henderson was the controlling mind or at least one of the controlling minds of the group of companies involved in the scheme,” Justice Ian Jackman wrote in a judgment for the case in June.

The matter continues.

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