Court Reporter

by Jamelle Wells

  A man at the same dinner continued, ‘Why does the ABC feel like it has to educate people? You should be reporting on all the good things that happen in the world — not all this crime. Reporters are irresponsible.’

  I have also been at functions where people have come up and started talking about a court story they are absolutely convinced I have covered.

  ‘I saw you on SBS last night.’

  ‘I don’t work for SBS.’ I reply.

  ‘But I saw you,’ they persist.

  The poetry of evil

  There is an isolating part of the job which might explain why, just like police and other emergency services workers, court reporters sometimes stick together. We see exhibits and hear some evidence that can’t be made public, but we can talk about it to each other.

  Ex Telegraph court reporter Amy Dale was in court with then teenagers Matthew Milat and Cohen Klein, who murdered David Auchterlonie in Belanglo State Forrest in 2010 after luring him there on his seventeenth birthday. Matthew Milat is the great-nephew of serial killer Ivan Milat, who murdered seven backpackers in the same forest in the 1990s.

  Amy still clearly remembers a chilling moment during the sentencing hearing. She recalls the shock she felt when the court was played a recording of David moaning while he was forced to lie face down on the ground and hit over and over with an axe. Amy says the victim’s family were distressed too and although the judge suggested they should wait outside, they wanted to stay in court.14 Court reporters still talked about that tape, months after it was played.

  The murder of David Auchterlonie was described by Acting Justice Jane Mathews as a pre-meditated ‘thrill kill’ recorded on a mobile phone.15

  Klein was later jailed for up to thirty-two years and Milat for up to forty-three years, with the judge finding they showed no remorse.16

  Outside court the day they were sentenced, Detective Inspector Mark Newham, who worked on the case, described the crime as horrific.

  ‘All murders, all homicides, are obviously terrible in their own way,’ he said. ‘But this is certainly one of the worst we’ve come across and in particular having to listen to that recording and knowing what David Auchterlonie would have suffered in those final minutes.’17

  What stayed with me for a long time after this case, were two incredibly sick and twisted poems that Acting Justice Jane Mathews referred to when she sentenced the teenagers. The judge said that in jail, Matthew Milat wrote poems that he put in an envelope addressed to his mother and that he asked her to hide them away somewhere safe. The mail was intercepted by juvenile justice and the poems were passed on to the police. ‘Two of them appear to be recounting the events leading up to the killing of the deceased,’ said the judge. ‘One of these is titled “Killer looks and on evil side”. The other is “Your last day”. This latter poem is particularly chilling.’

  Justice Matthews said the poems were written by Matthew Milat almost ten months after the murder.18

  Your last day

  Click-clack,

  hear that,

  stopping in the, middle of the track,

  Are you Getting Nervous in the back,

  Should be Cxxt your getting wAcked,

  talk shit here, talk shit there,

  No-one’z really gunna care,

  but talk shit with every breath,

  You just signed away your health,

  I can see you start to sweat,

  Wanderin what your gunna get,

  hopin 4-1 in the head,

  Cxxt ILL Put it in Your Leg,

  tell me, ARE YA HAVIN FUN,

  get up Cxxt, And start to run,

  how fAr are ya gunna get,

  Your Match Cxxt you have just Met,

  stumblin all OVA the place,

  Hear the crunch of leaves and feet,

  feel your heart, skip a beat,

  Are ya gunna get away,

  No hope kid this is your day,

  The day that you wont be found,

  Six feet under Neath the ground.19

  (Spelling as in original.)

  The judge said Matthew Milat finished another poem called ‘Cold Life’ with these lines:

  I am not fazed by blood or screams

  Nothing I do will haunt my dreams

  Maybe they might scare you

  Cold blooded killer that’s me not you.20

  In 2014 Matthew Milat lost an attempt to have his sentence reduced but Cohen Klein had his maximum sentence cut by five years.

  It is hard to fathom what went through their minds when they committed the murder and that they had so little insight into the suffering of another human being.

  Sitting with the enemy

  Apart from ICAC and some royal commissions and inquiries, in most courts there is no separate seating area for the media. That means reporters are in the public gallery with family members of the accused, sometimes the accused themselves and lawyers and police and anyone else connected to the case who happens to be in court that day. It can be a little disconcerting having an accused person sitting next to you in a small court while you are writing notes about them.

  One day in Burwood Local Court in the inner west, I was writing notes about a man who was on drug charges. Little did I know that his sister — who looked nothing like him — was sitting next to me.

  She leaned across and whispered, ‘He’s twenty-two now, not twenty-one. His birthday was last week.’

  Another interesting encounter occurred during the New South Wales Supreme Court trial of the six men charged over the 2009 bikie brawl at Sydney Airport that led to the death of Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas. Six Comancheros bikies stood trial for murder after the brawl and a Hells Angels member stood trial for riot and affray. The victim was bashed with a metal bollard and stabbed with scissors during a Sunday afternoon brawl between rival clubs in front of terrified passengers at the domestic terminal. Zervas died at the scene.21

  During the murder trial, one prosecution witness testified that as he arrived at Sydney Airport, he heard a bikie shout at a rival ‘You are a dead man walking.’22

  A number of witnesses gave evidence and security camera footage of the fight was shown in court. Through the four-month trial, the accused bikies sat side by side in the dock. Some of their very well-heeled wives and girlfriends with big hair and expensive jewellery sat in the public gallery each day.

  One morning, halfway through the evidence of a witness, one of the dolled-up women sitting behind me leaned forward and whispered in my ear, ‘Watch what you write bitch’.

  Did she just say that? I thought to myself.

  Former Comancheros boss Mick Hawi was sentenced to at least three and a half years’ jail for his role in the brawl after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Hawi had at first been found guilty of murder, but that conviction was overturned on appeal. In sentencing him for manslaughter, Justice Clifton Hoeben said, while Hawi did not play a physical role in the assault on Anthony Zervas, his ‘willing participation’ in the fight was an aggravating factor. The judge said Hawi’s participation would have, in effect, authorised the actions of other Comancheros.23

  Another day, lining up for the ladies toilets during a murder trial lunch break, a woman I’d never seen before gave a group of my colleagues and me the evil eye.

  ‘Look at these reporters with their slutty clothes,’ she said loudly.

  We pretended not to hear.

  Phone crime

  Court reporters would be lost without their smartphones even though we are not allowed to make or receive calls in court. We file stories with our iPhones, text each other and our crews waiting outside, we email our newsrooms, record radio voice reports and email those back to our newsrooms, tweet, take photos and record interviews with them outside court. The most embarrassing thing that can happen in a court is for your mobile phone to actually ring. Phone crime is not tolerated very well by some judges. Those in public galleries who are sometimes unfamiliar with court etiquette can be forgive
n more easily for mobile phone crime than lawyers and journalists who should know better.

  Then there’s the challenge to find power points in the court foyer or in the court itself, to recharge phones and iPads as the day goes on.

  Former ABC court reporter Joanne Simpson tells the story of how in 2000, after covering the Thredbo landslide inquest for a year, she raced outside to file when the findings were handed down, only to find that the entire ABC phone system was down. The fault was soon repaired, but not being able to file her story as soon as she had the information she needed, was a stressful experience.24

  That’s the luck of the draw for a court reporter. You can think you have the best story of the day and you think everyone should know about it right now but then a better one comes along or circumstances beyond your control mean it doesn’t get to air.

  I always carry a spare phone and when I first started the court round, I carried not just the two mobile phones, but also a sturdy Morantz recorder with a shoulder strap to record audio outside court which was sent back over the phone. That’s now a thing of the past because sound grabs recorded on iPhones are mostly just emailed back to the newsroom.

  I still remember a time in commercial radio when I would read news stories off pieces of paper and separate them between my fingers for quick access and to minimise page rustling noises.

  Running down the corridor with a handful of paper and a stack of manual audio carts just as the news theme was playing, always presented the challenge of catching your breath before opening your microphone.

  I read the news and put audio to air off a computer screen now, but always under one hand is a paper print-out of the bulletin in case the screen freezes or crashes. There are new recording devices, newsroom software packages and apps to master in any newsroom all the time. I’ve even thrown video journalist training into my skillset. You need to be able to get across new technology quickly and the technology I now work with is changing as I write this.

  The live cross

  Live television and radio crosses are a big part of my job and they are a chance to go into more detail with what can’t be fitted into a radio or television story or short online story. As a court reporter, crosses are sometimes tricky — if a matter is still before the court or if there are suppression orders in place, there are some things you simply can’t talk about. It’s my job to remind the presenter I’m speaking with about any suppression orders and to steer them away from what actually can’t be reported.

  This can sometimes be a challenge. I usually provide the presenter with a few questions before the live cross but often there isn’t time, especially on breaking stories. Some presenters talk a lot during a cross. Others say almost nothing and leave me to do all the talking.

  Most of my radio court crosses over the years have been on ABC Sydney Drive with presenter Richard Glover because his show is on air just after most court cases have wrapped up for the day. Richard thinks part of the audience interest in court cases is that they make us think of hypotheticals, such as, what would I do if I were in that situation? For example, what would I do if my own child was caught drink driving or speeding and there was a way to get them out of it? Would I give them advice or say, ‘You are on your own here because you have broken the law’? Would I give them an alibi for a minor crime? Would I give them an alibi for a serious crime?

  Talking to me off air about the high-profile AVO court case between television presenter Kelly Landry and accountancy chief executive and champion sailor Andrew Bell in May 2017, Richard said he thought it was just another example of friction in a marriage breakdown, but that people might have been riveted to the case because they liked to take sides after hearing details of some of the fights the couple had over money.

  ‘Men might say it’s an example of a vindictive woman or women might say, “look what this poor woman has gone through, he won’t even give her enough money for the groceries”. They relate it to their own lives and it’s a gossipy tale that lets people reflect on their own behaviour and what’s right and what’s wrong.’25

  Outside the King Street Courthouse doing a News Channel cross on the sentencing of murderer Robert Xie, 13 February 2017.

  The AVO applied for by Kelly Landry was eventually dismissed in the Downing Centre Local Court.26

  Doing court crosses with the late Mark Colvin when he was presenting the ABC radio current affairs program PM was a treat, because if I left any detail out he would question me in such a way that left no stone unturned for his audience. Mention any court jargon such as ‘he’ll be arraigned next week’ and Mark would be straight on to it.

  Peering over the top of his microphone he would come back straightaway with, ‘What exactly does that mean?’

  My crosses for Radio National and NewsRadio are for a national audience so I am often asked to briefly recap details of the case, so listeners in other states can quickly get their head around the story. It’s the same with my television crosses on the ABC News Channel for a national audience.

  Most of the television and radio presenters I do live crosses with, have done a bit of court reporting at some stage of their careers. It’s considered a bread and butter round in a newsroom.

  ABC News Channel presenter Joe O’Brien likes the intrigue and drama of the big cases we talk about on air. He still remembers the very first court case that he ever attended during work experience at the Innisfail Advocate in Queensland around 1983. It involved a stripper who had come to Innisfail and taken too much off in public and so was charged with indecent exposure.

  Joe, who was in Year 10 at the time, went out on the front steps of the courthouse to join the rest of the media who were taking pictures of the woman standing near a column and talking to reporters.

  One of his teachers, a nun, walked past and asked, ‘Are you enjoying your work experience, Joe?’

  ‘Yes, sister, it’s very interesting,’ he replied.27

  6

  ICAC: you couldn’t make it up

  INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION public inquiries are usually into what happens to people when power and greed meet opportunity. They can sometimes reveal sordid personal details and give insight into the lives of influential politicians and business players most people would never otherwise encounter. They also create a sense of outrage at the audacity of people trying to steal public money. Many people I have seen hauled before the commission have become complacent after getting away with doing a little bit of the wrong thing . . . and not known when to stop.

  I’ve always enjoyed covering the ICAC because it provides variety from the murder trials and other crime cases I sit through. Some ICAC hearings, such as those involving former politicians, have been so sensational I still think about the colourful answers the politicians gave to tough questions and the psychology of people who feel that they are so entitled.

  The watchdog was set up in 1989 and you would think its inquiries would serve as cautionary tales, but public officials seem to keep missing the message and the bad behaviour continues.

  One such case involved a former Parramatta Council compliance officer who accepted cash, sexual services and aftershave for three years between 2004 and 2007 in return for turning a blind eye to illegal brothels.

  An ICAC inquiry heard he said to one brothel owner, ‘Christmas is around the corner and it would be lovely to get a present.’

  He was referred to the director of public prosecutions (DPP), charged and convicted. He hung his head in court the day he got jailed in 2010 for at least fifteen months for corruption.

  District Court Judge Colin Charteris said the behaviour was ‘calculated and prolonged’ and the people who lived next door to the illegal brothels suffered from it. Before the man was led away by court officers he handed his tie and personal belongings to his long-suffering wife (who the judge said was stoic for sticking by him) and blew her a kiss. Who knows what she thought he was doing at work each day.1

  A lot of the evidence given at the IC
AC could never be imagined by the best script writers.

  I once heard a solicitor accused of corrupt practices tell the ICAC his ‘drinking problem’ caused his shoddy behaviour and he was often so drunk he ‘talked to his fridge’.

  It’s at times a surreal place where some witnesses can be overconfident because the ICAC is a not like a regular court. It can’t charge anyone and evidence given at an ICAC inquiry can’t always be used if the matter does proceed to court. But the ICAC can make corrupt conduct findings and refer them to the DPP to consider charges.

  Many ICAC witnesses develop ‘poor memories’ or come up with the most amazing excuses. I have seen people in the media room count out loud the number of times witnesses say the stock response, ‘I can’t remember’ or ‘I don’t recall’.

  During one day of the 2014 inquiry into water infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings, that involved politicians from both the New South Wales Labor and the Liberal parties, one of the cameramen was keeping score.

  It was only midday and he shouted, ‘We’re up to 40!’

  ‘No way,’ a reporter replied. ‘It’s at least 42.’

  Some of the witnesses are great at saying a lot about nothing when backed into a corner. They understand how to use pauses to muster their thoughts, how to hide their anger triggers and breathe and speak clearly with calm and well-modulated voices. Others lose the plot completely and give the impression that they are as guilty as hell. Some witnesses just can’t handle the pressure of it at all.

  Once during a 2013 inquiry into Circular Quay café leases, I saw a former senior public servant burst into tears after pushing a female photographer into a lift. He said that he had lost his job and he had two children to feed. The photographer was not injured.

  There are also the witnesses who aren’t accused of any wrongdoing themselves but are being asked to give evidence about someone else and they fear it will come back to bite them.

  Looking at some of the story leads for ICAC inquiries I’ve covered over the years will give you an idea of what a bizarre snapshot of life the hearing room can be.