Justice Michael Adams has had a claytons win by instituting defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media and then withdrawing the matter 2 years later. From what I can tell there was no damages paid to Justice Michael Adams although there is what could only be regarded as a very weak apology and the alleged defamatory material is still on the internet. Hardly a win for confessed corrupt judge Michael Adams.

I wrote about Michael Adams last year and said:

“This site has been going for 3 1/2 years now and I can say without a doubt that the dirtiest and most corrupt judicial officer that I have come across is Justice Michael Adams of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He has a colourful background a mile long that would make any career criminal proud.” (Click here to read more) I stand by that as I had direct dealings with Michael Adams last year in court and can support the claim. Adams made me take down a post about his corruption so Adams in effect heard his own case. Very dodgy indeed.

The background to the Fairfax Media defamation matter

Colin Winchester was an Assistant Commissioner in the Australian Federal Police and was murdered in 1989. Four years later David Eastman was charged with his murder and convicted in 1995. The case against Eastman was a circumstantial one with no direct evidence linking him to the murder and the murder weapon was never found. (Click here to read more)

There were always a lot of doubts about his conviction including the dodgy conduct of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and police. The lead prosecutor was Michael Adams who is now a judge of the Supreme Court of NSW.

Fairfax Media published an article in May 2012 that Michael Adams said implied that he had acted corruptly as prosecutor of the David Eastman case. Some of the allegations that are in the Fairfax article (that is still on the internet) that Michael Adams said are defamatory are:

“There are modern criticisms of the conviction going to issues of propriety by prosecutors and police. For example, the court was not told the major forensic witness had been dismissed for professional failings from the Victorian Police forensic unit, nor that he had significantly altered critical testimony between inquest and trial. Counsel for the DPP misled the High Court on whether Carruthers had seen material raising the question of fitness to plead. There are complaints of police misbehaviour, not least in efforts, admitted by police, to harass Eastman so he would explode, and, they hoped, make damning admissions.” (Click here to read more)

An inquiry last year headed by Acting Justice Brian Martin known as the Eastman Inquiry recommended that David Eastman should have his conviction quashed.

David Eastman’s conviction was quashed in August 2014 by the Full Court of the Supreme Court of the ACT. After 19 years behind bars he was released from jail. (Click here to read more) Although he is facing a re-trial as it currently stands but I understand Eastman is trying to have it permanently stayed. (Click here to read more)

Fairfax settled – Did they sell out?

Fairfax said in the so-called apology that:

“The recent judgment of the full court specifically accepted the finding of Justice Martin in the Eastman inquiry that “Mr Adams and others in the prosecution team adhered to the highest standards of ethical conduct”, and that “the failures to disclose were inadvertent and occurred as a result of a combination of circumstances”. The court noted Justice Martin’s finding that “Mr Adams QC endeavoured at all times to comply fully and properly with the prosecution’s duty of disclosure”.” (Click here to read more)

Justice Martin and the Full Court hearing the Eastman matter were always going to defend Justice Adams as they always look after their mates. I laugh where they say “the failures to disclose were inadvertent and occurred as a result of a combination of circumstances”. I have seen Justice Michael Adams in full flight and there is nothing “inadvertent” about his corrupt actions. He knows exactly what he is doing and he knows he is acting corruptly but he thinks he is above the law.

Justice Steven Rares – The man with a hand in two pies

One of the three judges who found that Justice Michael Adams had done nothing wrong in the Eastman matter was Justice Steven Rares. Rares is a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and is also an Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. Basically he works as a Supreme Court judge in Canberra on a part-time basis when they need him.

Justice Steven Rares

Now here’s a question. Who is the Federal Court of Australia judge who was hearing Michael Adams defamation case against Fairfax Media? Yep, you guessed it, Justice Steven Rares.

So last year when the Full Court (Rares was one of the three judges) said Michael Adams had done nothing wrong in the Eastman matter Fairfax Media in effect lost their defamation case at the same time as Rares was also hearing the defamation matter. Fairfax could and should have asked for a new judge but they obviously decided not to as no other judge would have overruled Rares and the others.

I know Rares well and he’s another crook who gets his own chapter in my book. But that’s another story

Adams has not won anything and because of his corrupt ways his reputation is more damaged than ever. Google Justice Michael Adams and it won’t take long to find the articles on this site that out him for the criminal that he is.

Justice Michael Adams instituted defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media on the 1st May 2013 and withdrew the case on 27th April 2015. Adams dragged it out for 2 years and it was a clear case of him doing everything possible to avoid a hearing. I know this as I had a look at all the direction hearings and it was a joke. If Adams really believed he had a case and was defamed then he would have wanted it to go to hearing as quickly as possible to clear his name.

Admin: Talking of frivolous and vexatious defamation proceedings, I was back in court last week and had to take down a few more posts. I am waiting on written reasons then I will write an article about it. This time it was Justice Stephen Campbell who is a former ICAC investigator. Now we are heading inside the workings of ICAC as well.

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