Qld tabloid journo desperately seeking thesaurus

Despite an upcoming court case that requires very stringent reporting protocols in order not to jeopardize a fair outcome, a mild and ageing criminal with an age-old sexy media bricking, gets no presumption of innocence from The Australian's Sarah Elks.

Why forgo a hot headline with 'alleged,' when a crook has no recourse through defamation?

With the accused's last crime dating back at least 13 years, and at 47 years of age, the last 11 of those spent severely confined, it might be time for up and coming crime reporters to find a more timely or current target to vilify.

But in Qld's mainstream media, so 'notoriously' outed for their 'infamous' complicity in media brickings and police corruption during the Fitzgerald Inquiry, perhaps it suits troubled newspaper shareholder interests better not to stick to basic reporting laws?

I can't recall seeing any court pursue contempt or subjudice against a newspaper on behalf of an old crook.



However, what Sarah Elks does do very eloquently and innocently, is draw attention to a strange contradiction in the alleged evidence against the accused, who was returned to Supermax shortly prior to the announcement of the Qld election by the former finance minister, and now... premier.
Author Derek Pedley in 2006(two years less of solitary confinement) said the accused had spent longer in the United Nations condemned 'Supermax' isolation' (the long-term effects of which are well documented) than any man in Australian history though he is solely convicted of three charges of bank robbery dating back decades.

Elks in her court report writes that the QCS Acting Director General listed part of the alleged evidence for the accused being returned to Supermax in the 2nd week of August last year, as intelligence from September '08, well after he was moved to the Woodford Prison Detention Unit on the basis of those allegations.

For those of you still playing catch-up because you're more interested in civil liberties and actual facts than reading crime novels or salacious tabloid news, the accused's 'nickname' was invented by WA Police who thought it would sex up his story.

The false claims portrayed the hunted young fugitive as daring and provocative, and as such, made the story more marketable to a ravenous tabloid news media, after he broke out of the 'notorious' human rights-contravening Fremantle Prison - subsequently decommissioned due to inadherence to basic international prison standards.

Almost 2 & a half decades later, the same name is still being rehashed verbatim by a news media too understaffed and overworked to have an imagination.

It is a consideration in mainstream news dailies so dependent on truckloads of news fodder to sell advertising(although that probably isn't the case for the fine establishment that Sarah Elks writes for), that approaching each court case with a presumption of innocence, can have a strangely chilling effect on public sector sources.