Opinion: Wrongful imprisonment case shows judges shouldn’t be above the law

Anthony Albanese should pause in his efforts to buy the election with billion-dollar promises and make this recompense to a Queensland father, writes Mike O’Connor.

Justice Salvatore Vasta was initially found liable for a man’s wrongful imprisonment.

There was that time I was locked up in San Quentin, one of America’s most notorious jails with its Death Row prisoners and electric chair known less than affectionately by the prisoners as Ole Smokey.

“If there’s a riot and you’re taken hostage, we won’t negotiate to secure your release,” warned the San Quentin governor as a guard arrived to take me on a guided tour.

If you’ve never been inside a jail, let me tell you that they are not pleasant places to be, as a Queensland father known as Mr Stradford – which is not his real name – discovered when he incurred the displeasure of a Federal Circuit Court judge.

Back in 2018 Mr Stradford was involved in a property dispute with his ex-wife and found himself before Justice Salvatore Vasta, who ordered him to hand over gambling account statements.

He told the court that he had done his best to locate them, but Justice Vasta was not convinced, and sentenced the father of two children – who was not legally represented – to 12 months’ jail, quipping as he did so: “I hope you brought your toothbrush.”

He was locked up for six days before he was released, with the full bench of the Family Court finding he had been the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice, cold comfort to Mr Stradford, who said that while incarcerated he was attacked several times before being moved to the maximum-security Brisbane Correctional Centre because he was at risk of self-harm and where he was threatened with rape.

Not surprisingly, Mr Stradford felt he had been badly done by, and engaged lawyers, who argued in the Federal Court that Justice Vasta had presided over a “grossest parody of a court hearing” and accused him of being foul-tempered.

This was the same Justice Vasta who had previously been found by an appeal court to have been “frequently aggressive, rude and overbearing” in one court case and “sarcastic, disparaging and dismissive” in another.

The future began looking brighter for Mr Stradford when in 2023 Judge Michael Wigney found Justice Vasta personally liable for his false imprisonment, saying he had “acted without, or in excess of, his jurisdiction” and awarded him $309,500 in damages, payable by Justice Vasta.

The High Court overturned the original finding.

Justice, it seemed, had finally been done, with $50,000 of the total sum being exemplary damages awarded as stated by Judge Wigney “to express the court’s disapproval of the highhanded conduct of the judge and His Honour’s reckless disregard of due process and the rights of Mr Stradford”.

The system, however, had not finished with Mr Stradford, with the High Court recently allowing an appeal by Justice Vasta, overturning the decision to award damages in spite of the “many and egregious errors” made in his treatment of Mr Stradford, and saying judges were immune to a civil suit arising out of acts done in the exercise of their judicial function or capacity.

“The effect of this absolute immunity may be such that a victim of unjust treatment by a judicial officer will be left with no means of obtaining monetary compensation through the courts,” the High Court found.

The bottom line is that if you are wrongfully imprisoned by a judicial officer, then that’s just too bad.

The Albanese government has been promising to set up a federal judicial commission to investigate complaints against judges for the past two years, but has done absolutely nothing to establish one in spite of the Law Council of Australia and leading lawyers saying it was necessary to ensure judges are held accountable for their actions.

Prominent Sydney barrister Arthur Moses has said that the need for a federal judicial commission had been heightened by the Stradford case.

“It is rather concerning that despite longstanding calls by the profession nationally that there should be a federal judicial commission, we do not have one in place in 2025,” Mr Moses said.

“It is important for maintaining public confidence in the judiciary because members of the judiciary are not above the law, and they, of course, must be accountable for their conduct.”

Anthony Albanese should pause in his efforts to buy the election with billion-dollar promises and make an ex-gratia payment to Mr Stradford.

He should also tell his Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to get off his butt and move urgently to establish a judicial commission, while Peter Dutton should guarantee he will establish one should be become prime minister.

If it can happen to Mr Stradford, it can happen to you.

Originally published as Opinion: Wrongful imprisonment case shows judges shouldn’t be above the law