NT court media liaison Cynthia Thompson avoids conviction for leaking to secrets to journalists

A former PR officer has admitted to releasing details about an assault allegedly committed by a police officer, ‘including specifics of each assault and the victims, dates and locations’.

Former NT court media liaison officer Cynthia Thompson leaves the Darwin Local Court on a good behaviour bond. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A former NT court public relations officer who leaked confidential information to the media — including the name of a teenage assault victim — has avoided a conviction after a judge found her conduct was “possibly approaching trivial”.

Cynthia Thompson pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court on Tuesday to two counts of unlawfully disclosing confidential information to journalists, including from the NT News and ABC Darwin.

The court heard in response to inquiries from multiple media outlets, Thompson released details of a charge that had since been downgraded and a spent conviction, which were then published, including by the NT News.

She also admitted to releasing details about an assault allegedly committed by a police officer, “including specifics of each assault and the victims, dates and locations” to journalists from the NT News and The Australian last year.

The subsequent article in The Australian also included the name of one of the alleged victims who was a minor at the time.

In not opposing a 12-month good behaviour bond without conviction, prosecutor Deborah Mandie said there were several mitigating circumstances, including “encouragement from journalists to provide the information”.

“The Crown accepts that for one thing, there was no motive of self-interest, of obtaining some kind of benefit or any malice involved in the offending,” she said.

“It was really just a willingness to go beyond what was permitted in the interests of maintaining the relationships with the journalists.”

But she said Thompson “did have the knowledge by the time she offended that this was improper, that she should not provide this information, that it was confidential”.

Defence lawyer Peter Maley said unlike his client, “the police can pick and choose what they want to release”.

“Videos for a Supreme Court trial involving a homicide have been released,” he said.

“She is really the patsy here, caught between the police issuing what they wish in terms of the police media liaison and a press release, which is sometimes scant of details.”

After reading glowing references from two retired NT Local Court judges, judge Ben O’Loughlin said “the essence of the charge” was “that she released information too early”.

“The information comes out at some stage anyway, when the defendant stands up in court and matters are discussed,” he said.

“It’s usually in open court and then it’s free for the media to report on that, subject to other qualifications.

“Having said that, when pressured by the media, there are some suggestions that she knew that what she should do was something less than what she actually did.

“It’s down the low end, possibly approaching trivial, her character is excellent as per the references.”