Apology to Aborigines started the rot, says former magistrate

Former Queensland chief magistrate Di Fingleton traces her downfall and wrongful jailing to the historic apology she issued to Aborigines.

Former Queensland chief magistrate Di Fingleton traces her downfall and wrongful jailing to the historic apology she issued to Aborigines.

The woman who made legal history by spending six months behind bars in 2003 for threatening another magistrate, only to be exonerated after the High Court discovered she had had immunity from prosecution, has told her story in a new book extracted exclusively today in The Weekend Australian.

In the book, Ms Fingleton, 58, reveals that her disastrous falling-out with her colleagues began with the sorry statement, professing the "sincere sorrow and regret" of magistrates at the treatment of Aborigines and Islanders.

And for the first time, the fiery Ms Fingleton acknowledged she "lost control of the situation" as tensions over staff transfers were brought to a head by her demand to senior co-ordinating magistrate Basil Gribbin to show cause why he should keep his job.

This move by Ms Fingleton, in a September 2002 email to Mr Gribbin, triggered her prosecution and jailing for the little-known crime of retaliating against a witness.

Ms Fingleton now says she would not "in a million years" have sent the email to Mr Gribbin had she known where it would lead.

"I lost control of the situation, obviously," she told The Weekend Australian in a candid interview.

"Whether I could have prevented it, I don't know. I lost popularity, I lost co-operation so we weren't all working towards the same goal. And something that had developed . . . with a dispute over a transfer, supported by an affidavit from Mr Gribbin, exploded into this enormous drama.

"It got out of control quite quickly, and I think that was because communication had broken down."

Ms Fingleton said the publication of her book, Nothing To Do With Justice, partly written during her time in the protection unit of Brisbane's maximum security women's prison, was set to reopen old wounds.

After her release from prison in December 2003, and the subsequent quashing of her conviction on appeal to the High Court, Ms Fingleton received $475,000 in compensation from the Queensland government and was reinstated to the magistrates' bench, though not as chief.

This year, she accepted a separate and undisclosed payout after agreeing to settle a $2.3 million damages claim against some of the biggest names in the law in Queensland, who were involved in both the defence and prosecution at her trials.

"It was nothing like I sued for," she said of her civil action against such figures as top Brisbane silk Russell Hanson QC, Queensland Solicitor-General Walter Sofronoff QC and District Court judge David Searles, who was her former solicitor.

"It was my decision and I wanted to move on," she said of the settlement.

"And I could see the case going on and on. No more photos walking into court for me."

Ms Fingleton said she had held off releasing the book until after retiring in July from her position as a Caloundra-based magistrate, north of Brisbane.

"You can't go into the job upholding justice and then publish a book which is critical of it," she said. "So I sat on it for five years."

Ms Fingleton cites the apology to Aborigines as one of her proudest achievements, but as a catalyst for the trouble that was to come following her appointment as chief magistrate in 1999.

While she had consulted some magistrates about the initiative, others were deeply offended.

"That could probably be described as the beginning of the rot," she said. "I wasn't popular for it. But I don't think on reflection if I had consulted them they would ever have agreed to my doing do it. And I decided to do it."

The transfer of Brisbane-based magistrates to regional posts further soured relations. Ms Fingleton said that in her initial role on the bench, as deputy chief magistrate, she had refused to supply an affidavit to support colleague Jacqui Payne in resisting a move at short notice to Townsville, following an approach by Ms Payne's ex-husband and prominent Brisbane defence lawyer Andrew Boe.

In the book, Ms Fingleton writes that while she thought Ms Payne was being hard done by, she had put loyalty first to her then boss, Stan Deer.

The loyalty question surfaced again during her showdown with Mr Gribbin, who in 2002, provided a supportive affidavit to another female magistrate, Anne Thacker, who, represented by Mr Boe, was resisting a transfer from Brisbane.

On September 18, 2002, Ms Fingleton fired off the notorious email to Mr Gribbin in which she accused him of lacking confidence in her leadership, and asked that he show cause why he should retain his position as co-ordinating magistrate.

Mr Gribbin called in the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission, setting in motion events that would lead to her being charged and jailed for 12 months, later reduced to six months by the Queensland Court of Appeal.

In the protection unit of Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre, Ms Fingleton's cell was next to that of a child-killer, the late Valmae Beck, with whom she struck up a rapport.

However, another prisoner, with a reputation for violence, targeted her. "She was trying to stand over this other woman . . . and I just said one day, 'Leave it off' . . . She was a dangerous woman this one," Ms Fingleton told The Weekend Australian. "But I never felt at physical risk. I was quite capable of looking after myself."

Like other prisoners, Ms Fingleton lived for weekend visits from her husband, John McGrath, friends and family.

Asked if she had forgiven those she believed had wronged her, she said: "I suppose it's nobody's business but mine, if I do or don't. But I would never wish another human being ill. And I have moved on."