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The New Lawyer
WA's shadow attorney general, John Quigley, is to appear before the state's Legal Practitioners Complaints Committee for allegedly bringing the legal profession into disrepute.
WESTERN Australia's shadow attorney general, John Quigley, is to appear before the state's Legal Practitioners Complaints Committee for allegedly bringing the legal profession into disrepute.
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He faces the charge after he threatened to reveal the identity of an undercover police officer in 2002.
Quigley told the officer he would name him in parliament unless he agreed to tell the truth about his involvement with the Andrew Mallard case. Mallard was wrongly jailed for nearly 12 years for the murder of Pamela Lawrence, who was bludgeoned to death in a jewellery shop in 1994.
Mallard was released from jail in 2006 after the Australian High Court quashed his conviction. The decision sparked a corruption inquiry into police handling of the case.
It will be alleged in the Complaints Committee today that A-G Quigley called an undercover police officer in 2002, and urged him to tell the truth about his involvement with Mallard. He then named the officer in parliament.
At the end of a Corruption and Crime Commission inquiry into the Mallard case, the commissioner said [Quigley's] action were "exceptional circumstances" and had helped Mallard's appeal succeed.
Quigley said he does not regret his actions.
"Playing a role in securing the acquittal of an innocent man who had at that stage been held in custody for some 12 years, you can't hesitate because you know you might get backwash," he told ABC News.
