The Judge has decided to find firstly that I had a case to answer and secondly that I am guilty of breaching name suppression. He has gone to considerable effort to write a lengthy discourse about the case in an attempt to clarify the law.
In my opinion it is far from that, in fact it smacks of closing the stable gate after the horse has bolted.
Essentially I have been found guilty of knowing a secret that shouldn’t have been known then talking about that secret loudly. Worse his judgement now tells everyone that if you hold a piece of a puzzle as to the identity about someone subject to suppression order, then you are vicariously liable for publication because you hold a piece of the puzzle.
In 4 of my charges I simply put a single name on my site. That is now held to breach name suppression orders. So any time a piece of the puzzle, like for instance the whitepages is published then they too would be liable. So too is the court when it publishes the court roster.
The thing is, and the prosecution and the judge both mentioned it, you can inadvertently breach and order, the reason you can is because you aren’t allowed to know it exists.
Anyway, I’ve got my slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket and you can read Judge Harvey’s judgement here.
