Kyle and Jackie O told to ‘engage their brains’ over mushroom case

Sydney-based shock jocks Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O could face possible contempt charges for comments made on their radio program during Erin Patterson’s murder trial.

The outspoken duo may have gone too far while giving their own early verdicts on Patterson in the weeks before she was convicted of three counts of murder, venturing into discussions that may have touched on material declared off-limits while the trial was still under way.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.

“Did she do it or what?” Sandilands asked live on air on June 16 before his co-host rushed to chime in: “Yeah, like, what does the evidence point to? My question is, how strong is her case?”

Sandilands responded: “Not strong.”

The KIIS breakfast radio presenters then discussed evidence from the prosecution about mobile phone tower records potentially placing Patterson in Loch and Outtrim in South Gippsland, two sites where death cap mushrooms had been spotted.

“Picking mushrooms,” Sandilands said, before asking: “Hasn’t she done something like this before, with the mushrooms?”

Media reporting on, and others commenting on, trials are prevented from publishing information that may prejudice the hearing, under sub judice contempt laws. The laws continue to result in career and inexperienced legal scribes walking a tightrope in relation to Patterson’s case.

But with his radio program already on the nose with Victorian audiences, some of Sandilands’ June 16 remarks about Patterson’s trial appear to have tripped him up with Supreme Court judge Christopher Beale.

That afternoon, before the jury returned to court after the lunch break, Beale disclosed he would refer the matter to the Office of Public Prosecutions for possible contempt proceedings and warned the media that the court would continue to keep close watch.

“I encourage all commentators to engage their brains before they open their mouths, as they may otherwise land themselves and their organisations in hot water,” he said.

The penalty for contempt can range from fines to jail time.

The development continues a horror run in Victoria for Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson, who have struggled to win over Melbourne audiences and have only a 5.1 per cent share of breakfast listeners.

Last week the contempt issue raised its head again on-air when Sandilands stormed off his show after a segment was dumped over the legally risky content.

“I’ve got to tell you, the radio laws need to be immediately overhauled. We are constrained to all these –,” Sandilands said before the program’s producers cut the broadcast.

“I was using all the correct lingo, you panic dumped it, did you? Or what’s happened there? Because we’re live now, can’t get dumped,” he continued, pressing one of the show’s producers over the decision on air.

Sandilands said, “That’s it, I’m going home”, before realising he was already broadcasting from his home. “I’m not going to waste my life coming in here when I’m being given this instruction, that instruction, this archaic law, that archaic law, not doing it.

“Until this show runs the way I intend it to be run, I will not be back on the air at all in any way, shape or form.”

Sandilands returned the next morning.

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