Federal Court hands down formal order to reveal witnesses against David Jones
The Federal Court hearing the $37 million sexual harassment case against luxury retailer David Jones Ltd, nine company directors and former chief executive Mark McInnes finally ordered on Wednesday the revelation of all the names of witnesses involved in celebrated sex case.
Justice Geoffrey Flick said in his decision that the defence counsels' plea of protecting the witnesses' names failed to convince him as he is more inclined to grant public access on the information since the court is accountable to the welfare of the general public.
The Federal Court said that concern for such accountability far outweighed the importance of providing a protection of anonymity for the witnesses.
In her argument, lawyer Rachel Francois, who handles the defence of former David Jones publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk, said that her 27-year-old client is already suffering from severe adjustment disorder due to the extensive media coverage trained on the case.
She stressed that the same fate awaits the witnesses should the Court decides against the defence plea of protecting their names as she added that Ms Fraser-Kirk already endured undue intrusion and harm and the same suffering should not be applied on the other women with interests in the case.
Ms Francois specifically asked the Federal Court to protect the identity of several witnesses but Justice Flick saw it the other way and ordered the prosecution to divulge the names of all the women working with Ms Fraser-Kirk's case against David Jones and Mr McInnes.
The Court said that the names must be furnished to the defence team when case session resumes on Thursday morning, which is set down for hearing on December 20 this year.