Milingimbi School principal Jennifer Sherrington appeals right to sue former Commissioner Ken Fleming

A remote Northern Territory school principal who was the centre of a damning ICAC report has revived her bid to sue the former corruption watchdog, claiming she was unfairly targeted.

A Northern Territory principal accused by ICAC of stealing $500,000 from a remote school is again attempting to sue the corruption watchdog for allegedly “acting in bad faith” during its investigation into her conduct.

Ousted Milingimbi School principal Jennifer Sherrington had her claim for $3m in damages made against former ICAC Commissioner Ken Fleming thrown out by the Supreme Court in September.

Granted the right to appeal that decision, Ms Sherrington’s lawyer Trevor Moses fronted the Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday to put forward the case she had been unfairly targeted in the then-Commissioner’s July 2021 report.

The principal who was the subject of a report claiming corruption at a remote NT school is appealing the right to sue former ICAC Commissioner Ken Fleming KC. Picture: Keri Megelus

Mr Moses told the court Mr Fleming had used “selective anonymisation”, “gratuitous language”, and made “false or misleading” allegations with “no real attempt” to verify the truth of his claims.

During the investigation Ms Sherrington had been transferred out of the school and banned from contacting staff or revealing she was the subject of an ICAC inquiry.

After receiving a draft report of findings she prepared a 241-page document responding to each allegation.

Less than four weeks later the ICAC published its findings from a joint investigation with the Education Department.

The ICAC alleged Ms Sherrington diverted $507,796 school funds for her own personal use, including travel and accommodation, car hire for personal shopping and fine dining for herself and her family and friends.

It also alleged she falsely inflated thousands of attendance records in an attempt to secure an additional $1.4m funding for the school.

The report also claimed Ms Sherrington failed to comply with school governance procedures and breached conflict of interest safeguards when hiring four family members.

Ms Sherrington has never been charged in relation to the Commissioner’s findings.

In Friday’s hearing Mr Moses argued the time between Ms Sherrington submitting her response and the final report being published “simply could not have been enough time to consider the exculpatory evidence”.

He said the ICAC did not return to speak with anyone Ms Sherrington identified who might have backed-up her account.

“They didn’t make the inquiries … they had prejudged the outcome,” Mr Moses said.

In reply defence counsel Stephen Free KC said the draft ICAC report was based on 18-months of extensive investigation and Ms Sherrington’s claims did not necessarily raise new evidence.

The Supreme Court of Appeal heard Ms Sherrington’s claim the ICAC Commissioner had “prejudged the outcome” of their findings against her. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Mr Moses also argued the Commissioner acted in “absolute bad faith” by using the report to whip up media interest and promote the ICAC.

He pointed in particular to what he described as the “salacious” language used by Mr Fleming when he claimed: “Ms Sherrington was not in the business of education; she was in the business of manipulating data and herding children to be at school on ‘census’ days”.

One of the three judges presiding over the hearing, Justice Peter Barr, seemed to agree, describing the comments as “extremely damaging” to a principal and coming “close to malicious”.

The judges’ decision will be handed down at a later date.