ICAC scrutiny leads to delay for Obeid trial

The NSW Supreme Court has blamed news reports and statements for forcing the court to delay Eddie Obeid’s conspiracy trial.

Former NSW Labor minister Eddie Obeid. Picture: AAP

The NSW Supreme Court has blamed news reports about a corruption inquiry in Sydney as well as public statements by Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for forcing the court to delay a long-awaited criminal conspiracy trial.

The public commentary was found to be so adverse that it threatened the right to a fair trial of former politician Eddie Obeid, his son Moses and former NSW minister Ian Macdonald.

The trial, which had been due to start on September 30, has been delayed after judge Elizabeth Fullerton considered media reports and commentary made in response to the current inquiry being conducted in public by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

“The press coverage of the ICAC hearing included, by way of commentary, repeated adverse reference to the accused Mr ­Edward Obeid and Mr Ian Macdonald, utilising a range of epithets,” Justice Fullerton said.

The judge issued a statement late yesterday saying she had ­issued a suppressed judgment about articles published by leading media outlets that included reports of remarks by Mr Morrison and Ms Berejiklian.

The judge’s assessment of those individual reports has been suppressed but she lifted part of that suppression order late yesterday to permit publication of part of a statement the court described as a judgment summary.

That document implies the judge did not single out any journalist or publication as being more egregious than others: “In all the circumstances, and without individual journalists, print media outlets, radio broadcasters or contributors to social media being singled out as more egregious in their commentary than others, her Honour resolved … that a temporary stay of the joint trial of the accused should be granted.”

The judgment said The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend magazine published an edited extract on September 14 from a book by investigative reporter Kate McClymont that made an adverse and explicit reference to Eddie Obeid.

It also referred to a broadcast by John Laws on Sydney radio 2SM as well as articles in The Australian, The Weekend Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian Financial Review and The Saturday Paper.

It said the Prime Minister “had various adverse comments attributed to him” in his description of NSW Labor during question time in parliament on September 8 and September 12 that were reported in The Australian, and The Sunday Telegraph.

Also, a report included in The Daily Telegraph on August 29 included an adverse quotation from Ms Berejiklian.

The judge found there was “an unacceptable risk that the right of each of the accused to a fair trial would be prejudiced because of the intensity, proximity and ­nature of the pre-trial publicity where the accused are referred to in adverse terms”.

As well as McClymont and Laws, the court’s statement referred to articles and commentary by Angus Grigg, Peta Credlin and Mike Seccombe.