Tuesday, April 12, 2011

JOHN QUIGLEY; MP STANDS FIRM; ASKS WHERE IS ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANDREW MALLARD'S WRONGFUL CONVICTION;


"Mr Quigley said it was ironic that he could be struck off the legal roll and yet no action had been taken against seven Supreme Court judges and a number of lawyers who had contributed to the wrongful conviction.

"There was a clutch of lawyers who were all involved in the wrongful jailing of Andrew Mallard, nothing's happened to any of those lawyers," he said.

Mr Mallard has lodged a complaint with the committee over the actions of former senior prosecutor Ken Bates, but The Australian understands it is understood the committee is yet to finalise an outcome."

REPORTER DEBBIE GUEST; THE AUSTRALIAN;
(PHOTO: JOHN QUIGLEY (LEFT); ANDREW MALLARD (RIGHT);

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"MAVERICK West Australian Labor MP John Quigley yesterday lashed out at the state's legal regulator after it charged him with unprofessional conduct for revealing the name of an undercover police officer," the Australian story published earlier today under the heading, "Quigley hits out over naming undercover police officer," begins.

"The Legal Profession Complaints Committee has accused the opposition legal affairs spokesman of "unsatisfactory professional conduct" for threatening -- and then revealing -- the name of an officer who had been involved in the wrongful conviction of Andrew Mallard. Mr Mallard spent 12 years in jail," the story continues.

"Mr Quigley claims the officer, code-named Gary, was corrupt and that he threatened to reveal his name in an attempt to convince him to reveal the extent of police corruption in the unsound murder conviction of Mr Mallard.

Yesterday Mr Quigley criticised the priorities of the committee that laid the charges last month, after acting on a complaint by Gary.

The WA Police Union has provided Gary with legal advice.

The allegations against Mr Quigley date back to 2002 and yesterday was the first time the charges were mentioned in the State Administrative Tribunal, where the committee was ordered to provide Mr Quigley with more detail of the charge.

According to the committee's grounds for taking action, Mr Quigley used a variant of Gary's real name on a number of occasions during a radio interview and showed the media Gary's phone number.

These allegations do not relate to when Mr Quigley named Gary in parliament in 2007.

The committee claims Mr Quigley ought to have known that the information he sought from Gary was of a "highly confidential nature" and that disclosing Gary's name would have exposed him and his family to "the prospect of physical harm".

Yesterday Mr Quigley said he did not regret his actions.

"I'm not guilty, I'm going to stand my ground," he said.

"All I ever sought to do was to expose the corrupt practices that led to, and at that stage, were still keeping, Andrew Mallard in prison.""


The story can be found at:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/quigley-hits-out-over-naming-undercover-police-officer/story-e6frg6n6-1226038146361

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;