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 accused has occurred, not in the constitutionally established forum in which it must, as a matter of law, but in the media" (at 280 [30]); and


 * (4) the "public at large has been given to believe that guilt is established" (at 280 [30]).

1049 This reasoning meant the order to be made and the result was not dependent upon what advice had been received as to the making of the speech and from whom (although the inaccurate impression given to her Honour the speech had been made in the teeth of advice from the DPP, no doubt made the action in giving the speech more inexplicable). Ms Wilkinson was not a party and had no right to appear, but if Ms Wilkinson was aggrieved by a finding of the Court, it was open for her to approach the Court to seek leave to appear as a person affected by a finding to correct the record and seek the specific finding as to her ignoring advice be withdrawn. For her own reasons, she did not do so after having been talked out of it by Network Ten. On no view of it, does this amount to a denial of natural justice, or, more specifically, a denial of procedural fairness.

1050 The submission that support or belief from a public figure in the guilt of an accused more than one week before trial televised nationally would not tend to affect the juror pool is unsustainable and reflects a worrying continued insistence by Ms Wilkinson to understate the seriousness of what occurred notwithstanding the vacation of the hearing date which was, for the reasons explained by her Honour, inevitable in the circumstances.

1051 I do not accept the implicit premise in the submission now advanced by Ms Wilkinson (on the basis of "unchallenged" evidence) that she was somehow vexed and reticent in making the speech upon receiving the award at the Logies and she "was placed in an invidious position of balancing her concerns … with her obligations to comply" with lawful directions by her employer. The notion of reluctant Ms Wilkinson being forced by her employer to make the speech does not ring true at all.

1052 Although I regard Ms Wilkinson's conduct in giving the speech to be improper and unjustifiable, she has less culpability than those encouraging her to make the speech. Ms Wilkinson at least had the insight to seek advice and might not be expected to have the objectivity of others within Network Ten given the fact that she had, as Ms Smithies noted, become part of the story.

1053 Although these findings are sufficient for the purposes of identifying the actual and attributed conduct of both respondents as an aggravating circumstance, I cannot responsibly leave this Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369