Justice Kelly Rees issued an arrest warrant, 2 years ago, for journalist Shane Dowling (me) to serve 10 months jail for contempt of court on the instructions of Kerry Strokes’ Channel Seven and its parent company Seven West Media. The arrest warrant was issued at the Supreme Court of NSW on the 3rd of September 2021.

Within 2 days of the arrest warrant being issued I published an article and then a video in effect saying “bring it on” if they want and I will fight extradition from Queensland where I had been living since November 2019.

Brief overview of the background to being a fugitive in Australia

The 5th of September 2021 article titled “Arrest warrant issued for Queensland journalist Shane Dowling by the NSW Supreme Court on behalf of Kerry Stokes’ Seven Network and Seven West Media” with the background information starts off:

Journalist Shane Dowling (me) has been sentenced to 10 months jail by Justice Kelly Rees of the NSW Supreme Court on the instructions of Kerry Stokes’ Seven Network and its parent company Seven West Media. This is the third time Kerry Stokes’ Seven have had journalist Shane Dowling charged with contempt. The first time backfired badly and Stokes and Seven have a lot to answer for but when an old media company is having new media journalists jailed all media should be asking some serious questions.

They have issued an arrest warrant as I live in Queensland and Justice Rees and other judges refused to transfer the matter to Queensland even though I made several applications to have it transferred so I could go to court. They transferred the Capilano Honey v Simon Mulvany defamation matter from Sydney to Melbourne in 2017 so they could have transferred this matter to Queensland. This makes me a fugitive in my own country.

I am currently free in Queensland where I originate from and where I have lived since November 2019, and if I am arrested, I intend on fighting the extradition to NSW on numerous legal grounds. (Click here to read the full article)

The below video is an overview of this article and some further details:

(Click here to watch the above video on YouTube)

Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media and the Seven Network

The contempt of court was a private prosecution by the Kerry Stokes controlled Seven West Media and the Seven Network who have stalked me with multiple SLAPP Lawsuits since 2014 for exposing Kerry Stokes’ corruption.

Ironically Stokes’ right-hand man Bruce McWilliam lied to a journalist and said Seven had nothing to do with the court case which is something that would also be raised at any extradition hearing. (Click here to read more)

The Seven Network, it’s parent company Seven West Media and major shareholder Kerry Stokes are the same companies and person who have in recent times spent $millions paying for Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation case to try and hide Roberts-Smith’s war crimes.

In the cases against me, Kerry Stokes was using Seven’s money in 3 SLAPP lawsuits, to try and hide his and Seven’s crimes which I had been reporting on for years. Stokes also used Capilano Honey’s money, where he was the major shareholder and is still a shareholder, to try and silence my reporting as well.

On the 15th of May 2022 I published an article titled “Fugitive Australian journalist Shane Dowling talks about being on the run and Australia dropping to #39 on the world press freedom index”. (Click here to read the article)

On the 23rd of February 2023 I published an article titled “How Queensland’s Human Rights Act protects fugitive Australian journalist Shane Dowling from being extradited to NSW” which lays out the key elements and starts off:

On the 3rd of September 2021, the NSW Supreme Court sentenced Shane Dowling (me) to 10 months jail for contempt of court and issued an arrest warrant but the Queensland Human Rights Act gives the right to a “fair hearing” to every Queenslander which I say was breached.

It’s a “right” that will be tested in court if I am arrested but the right to a “fair hearing” guaranteed by a Human Rights Act is something every Australian should have which they currently don’t.

Human Rights is an issue that should be on the federal government’s agenda given the continual persecution of whistleblowers David McBride, Richard Boyle, Julian Assange and others.

Australia does not have a Human Rights Act, but Queensland and the ACT do, which might help David McBride whose matter is being tried in the ACT courts. People living in other states and the NT should be asking why people living in Queensland and the ACT have more human rights than they do. (Click here to read the article)

The problem the NSW government have is the 2021 trial in the NSW Supreme Court breached the Queensland Human Rights Act which protects my rights to a fair trial. And if the NSW government did try to arrest me and then extradite me to NSW, they would be in breach of the Queensland Human Rights Act for a second time.

The NSW government would have to instruct lawyers and barristers to lie and deceive like no tomorrow to have any chance, but even then it would be futile. Unless the NSW government could convince a Queensland magistrate, 3 Appeals judges of the Queensland Supreme Court, possibly the High Court of Australia judges, police and the Qld Human Rights Commission to all breach the Queensland Human Rights Act and conspire with the NSW government to stitch me up for the 10 months jail. That won’t happen especially given the whole situation would play out on the Kangaroo Court of Australia media and social media.

Since the arrest warrant was issued on the 3rd of September 2021 I have continued to work as an independent journalist publishing articles on the Kangaroo Court of Australia website and videos on the YouTube channel and promote them via Facebook, Twitter and Threads accounts.

At the beginning of the videos on YouTube I start off introducing myself as “Fugitive Australian Journalist Shane Dowling from the website Kangaroo Court of Australia” and I also have articles pinned to the top of my website and social media accounts reporting the arrest warrant.

So, I have not been hiding the fact that there is an outstanding arrest warrant for me in NSW and at this point no one has tried to arrest me or even contacted me about the issue.

But as I also said in the 23rd of February 2023 article titled “How Queensland’s Human Rights Act protects fugitive Australian journalist Shane Dowling from being extradited to NSW”:

But running an argument at an extradition hearing that my human rights under the Queensland Human Rights Act have been breached would put the NSW Government, NSW Supreme Court, Justice Kelly Rees and others on trial for breaching the Queensland Human Rights Act. That is a gauntlet that none of them would ever want to run.

The major reason I have not been arrested I have no doubt is that I am not a threat to anyone and no one in the NSW government wants to sign off on a request to the Queensland Police asking that they arrest me as a matter of urgency. (Click here to read more)

In the near future I will likely write to the NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley pointing out the facts of the matter, that the arrest warrant breaches NSW law and also breaches the Queensland Human Rights Act. 

Michael Daley wasn’t the Attorney-General when I was stitched up by Justice Kelly Rees and has only held the position since Labor won the 2023 NSW election. But Michael Daley is in power now and it is his responsibly to deal with the issue.

Please use Twitter, Facebook, email and the other buttons below and help promote this article.

Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and is reliant on donations to keep publishing so please click on the Patreon button below and support independent journalism.

If you would like to support via PayPal use the button below or for other donation options click here to go to the Donations page.

Thank you for your support.

For the KCA t-shirt shop click here.