Everyone should feel empowered by the fact that a small website like this with just over 2740 followers can take on a billionaire like Kerry Stokes and have him on the run. Those are the facts as Stokes’ legal team are using every delaying tactic they can to avoid a court hearing for the defamation case Stokes instituted against me. Why? Stokes was never going to allow it to go to hearing in the first place given his previous experience of being exposed for lying in the witness stand by Justice Sackville in the 2007 C7 judgement.
I have seen the fear in the eyes of Sandy Dawson (Mr Stokes’ barrister) in court when I have mentioned discovery and interrogatories which would allow me access to Stokes’ relevant documents and force him to answer questions.
Background
As regular readers know Stokes instituted defamation proceedings against me in April. He managed to get a Super-injunction (I was ordered not to tell anyone about the court case) which only lasted 2 days because it was that dodgy. Be that as it may, I breached the Super-injunction and wrote an article telling people he was suing me and also wrote an email of complaint to the NSW Attorney-General and Chief Justice Bathurst. For my trouble Stokes charged me with contempt of court and I was found guilty and fined $2000. Since then Stokes has been ducking and weaving and playing delaying tactics in the defamation matter.
I was in court again on Monday (17/11/14) and it was very clear that Stokes is running scared. This is because if it does go to hearing a jury is going to have no choice but to find that Mr Stokes is a perjurer and compulsive liar etc.
The good thing for this website and its supporters is that the court case shows that if you stand your ground that you can win. It does not matter what happens from here because we have won in the court of public opinion and Stokes never had a chance of winning there with his lies. The Supreme Court and Stokes are looking dumber by the day.
Stokes is in effect now refusing to prosecute the case and it should be dismissed for abuse of process
The matter is set down for a time wasting interlocutory hearing on the 2nd of February 2015. Stokes has filed a notice of motion and wants to have my defence dismissed but on his lawyer’s own admission even if they win I will just have to file another defence. There are precedents for this which I pointed out a few weeks ago in court.
So what is the point of Stokes’ notice of motion? To waste time as he is scared of the interrogatories and discovery orders that I have sought. What scares Stokes is that he does not want to get caught perjuring himself again as he did in Seven Network Limited v News Limited [2007] FCA 1062 (27 July 2007) where Justice Sackville said he gave evidence that was “knowingly false” (Click here to read at paragraphs: 385 – 398)
E.g at 391:
391 Even taking these matters into account, however, there were simply too many occasions on which Mr Stokes’ evidence was implausible for me to regard him as a reliable witness on disputed issues. Sometimes it is extremely difficult or impossible to reconcile his version of events with the contemporaneous records, the reliability of which there is no good reason to doubt. Sometimes Mr Stokes’ evidence flies in the face of incontrovertible facts. Sometimes, he changed his evidence when confronted with material that made it virtually impossible to maintain the position he had previously adopted. Sometimes Mr Stokes’ evidence conflicted with that of other witnesses (including, on occasions, witnesses called by Seven) whose accounts are, in my view, reliable.
And at 398:
398 “Mr Stokes’ evidence on this issue was not only implausible but, I must conclude, deliberately false”.
That is why Stokes will never allow a jury to determine if he is a perjurer or not. Because based on the above evidence by Justice Sackville, Stokes clearly is a perjurer. It really puts him in the Craig Thomson league for the stupidity of instituting the proceedings in the first place.
Kerry Stokes – The frivolous and vexatious litigant
The above C7 matter cost Channel 7 shareholders $200 million in legal costs as they lost and had to pay the legal fees for all the other parties. Probably the costliest court case this country has ever seen and Mr Stokes should have been declared a frivolous and vexatious litigant and banned from instituting his dodgy court cases again. Stokes has a long history of using the courts in an abuse of process to intimidate others.
Roll with the punches
While Stokes might be on the run in this battle I have certainly taken a few hits as per the below fine (Unpaid) which I received in August. But the fine will be part of Kerry Stokes’ legacy as it shows what a grubby person he is.
When people look at the above fine they need to remember that it is Kerry Stokes behind it. The court did not institute proceedings against me for breaching Kerry’s Super-injunction, Mr Stokes did. The question that needs to be asked: Is Mr Stokes a fit and proper person to be Chairman of Channel 7? Based on the above alone I think the average person would think he is not a fit and proper person and should be sacked.
I plan on doing jail time on principle instead of paying the bill. Although as someone pointed out it is a bit more complex as per their terms and conditions but I will deal with that when it comes as they have not tried to enforce the fine yet. (Click here to read the back page with the terms and conditions)
It has been a while since I updated where the court case was at so it was time for another post. But I will save most of what I have to say for submissions for the hearing in February. I believe the case is an important one to fight as it is new media versus old media and the outcome can and will have some impact on others using new media.
While I have represented myself in court against Kerry Stokes it has still been costly with time, travel and printing etc. It has only been possible to fight the case with help of the supporters of this site whom I sincerely thank. If you would like to help please read below.
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Categories: Channel 7, Kerry Stokes, Supreme Court of New South Wales
Shane, as usual the very best of luck in February. I cannot believe how these type of people get away with things….it’s obviously a power trip for Stokes but the dreadful judiciary and bent lawyers have a lot to answer for….and then there’s the MSM who are seemingly a pack of whimps! Keep fighting mate.
yes, keep fighting – Public opinion of Stokes is ZULCH – and tens of thousands+ of people don’t watch Channel 7 anymore – me for one – what is our legal system coming to when this man blatantly flaunts the law – just who does he think he is?
Shane, I believe you are dealing with independent entities here (these being the Court system, the Law and Mr Stokes), which each display sociopathic features.
Features that class these entities as potentially dangerous, destructive and predatory. Please keep “shining the bright light of truth” on them. You have my support!
Con
Hi Shane, I find it difficult to beLIEVE that these people keep AT you, when they know full well you WILL expose their lies and unbelievablly immoral, corrupt behaviour!
What on EARTH makes them think they’ll get away with it?
You have my full support!
I’m really thankful there are people like you who WILL endeavour to keep those in power honest!
Take care, keep safe and God bless.
Claude
Ditto..!!
Shane, May your integrity, courage and fortitude deliver you from the despicable, petty bullying by this ‘little’ man.
love and light
jingle belle.
Shane, Full credit to you for your stance against Stokes.
Shane, I admire your courage to have taken this Mr Stokes on. Usually the money-side
wins. You have not been deterred by this at all and thank goodness, you are taking care of your own defence.
I just hope, you will not have to go to jail because of this man, that would be the pits.
I wish you the very best for February, but hope to read some more on your site before this.
I will support you as best I can!
Good on you, keep it up. Channel 7 is the bottom end of the barrel of the controlled media.Channel 7’s trashy anti-Australian,anti-democracy, anti-Christian propaganda and rule as a dictatorship, has come to an end,along with the elite who run this country.
I wonder what the Judiciary feels about Kerry Stokes ongoing actions. Judges are not puppets to be played with – how much more mocking will they tolerate before they inject disciplined perspective back into this case by making examples of power-seeking individuals who seek to exploit a time honoured institution and drag them into the muddy standards by which media moguls are renowned. What do the Peers of Justice Hall feel about the Super Injunction that placed their Confraternity in disrepute by the public. Do Media Moguls believe they are above Judges – it’s time for the Judiciary to restore Order and put Media Despots back into their rightful place – below the Law not ruling it.
The Judges should be thanking you Shane, for pursuing Just decisions – as you are giving them an opportunity to restore Right Judgement and remedy the misuse that has taken place. And restore the credibility of the Judiciary. I support you.
Great to see you are keeping up the pressure even though its like David taking on Goliath with your limited resources. You still have our support.
This clown is the perfect bogon capitalist. We, the observers will just wait for his son to lose his inheritance.
Thank u for showing us courage. When I read your post, i learn not to back down with this bullies. And there is plenty of them. You gave me voice, when i thought that i have lost…. I will keep donate the best as I can
Where do we go from here Shane? This bogon only exists via handouts————–how is the Cat franchise WA going Mr Stokes?
We enter another phase of self adornment where something this imbecile say’s is credited as newsworthy
It is over for this clown and others that wan’t to take on the social media. Regards to all that follow this site.
Grubby tactics by a grub of a man…shame on him and shame on the Judiciary.. He is pathetic… He is going to drag it out to the bitter end….going to be bitter for him…nasty nasty man… Wise up Stokes.
Well Shane, I am not too sure if congratulations is in order, having a Billionaire like Kerry Stokes gunning for you. With all due respect, why he hell would Kerry Stokes even care what you say or write about him, as you said you only have about 2,500 subscribers..??
He would have been better off, ignoring you and just sidelined everything, as to why this has even gotten this far, I suspect that the real issue is within our legal system that needs reform..!!
If this was to be heard before a Jury of 12 Citizens, rather than being presented to a Judge like the olden days of the “Star Chamber”, it would never have either gotten of the ground and dare I say Kerry Stokes and his Legal Cronies wouldn’t have even dared..!!
Perhaps we need Legal Reform in Australia, with all cases being heard before a Jury and then this sort of rubbish could come to an end, with the Old School Tie Society finally relegated to history… !!
You need to be aware that Contempt of Court is a common law charge and that they cannot charge you for that. I would not pay that at all. Where is the signature to the order? Remember that he who orders must pay .
I no longer give the Kangaroo courts of Australia any credence because they are a treasonous unlawful mob.Why would one even try to beat the unlawful treasonous justice system is beyond me, As long as you give them any credence whatsoever then they have you. The facts are simple I applied to the federal freedom of information act department many years ago for the High courts of Australia enabling statute.They replied that there is no such document……………….. I therefore have determined by there reply that the entire/complete justice system of Australia is nothing but a treasonous mob..I Nothing about them is legal unless you accept their garbage.
This seems pretty petty, supreme court because you called him a liar…lol