NSW: Secret deal alleged on Marsden documents

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-1999
NSW: Secret deal alleged on Marsden documents

A NSW barrister has alleged that a secret deal in which government solicitors gave a
television station details of new sex allegations against Sydney lawyer JOHN MARSDEN had been
an abuse of legal process.

IAN BARKER QC, for Mr MARSDEN, said an agreement to release the documents to Channel 7's
lawyers was reached at a meeting on January 21 this year -- eight days before detectives
interviewed Mr MARSDEN about 12 people making new allegations of paedophilia against him.

He said Channel 7's lawyers, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, were offered the documents by a
lawyer from the Crown Solicitor's office after the TV station had subpoenaed the Police
Commissioner for a wide range of material.

Mr BARKER said Mallesons should never have been given access to the documents and that it
was a deliberate abuse of process.

He said documents had been produced as a result of a secret, off-the-record deal between
Mallesons partner IAN ANGUS and Crown Solicitor staff member PETER SINGLETON.





Channel 7's counsel, HENRIC NICHOLAS QC, is seeking an adjournment to allow investigation
of the 12 new allegations, while Mr BARKER argues they are irrelevant and should be excluded
from the hearing.

The hearing, in which the judge is considering Channel 7's defence after a jury found Mr
MARSDEN was defamed by the station's Witness program, will continue tomorrow.

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KEYWORD: MARSDEN (SYDNEY)

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