Adjudication No. 489 (March 1991) [1991] APC 24

ADJUDICATION NO. 489 (March 1991)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Australian for publishing the name of a woman tried for the murder of her husband.

Mr J F Preece complained that in an article "Involuntary action plea ruled a defence", published in THE LAW section of The Australian on 23 November 1990, the woman was named.

The woman had separated from her husband after discovering that two of her adult daughters had, in their earlier years, been sexually assaulted by him. Subsequently the daughters brought criminal charges against their father. Before these charges were heard, the husband sexually assaulted his wife and taunted her that she and her daughters would not be believed in court. The wife then shot him.

The wife was found guilty of murder, but the West Australian Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the guilty verdict and ordered a new trial. The Crown appealed this decision to the High Court in Canberra, which upheld the Appeal Court's verdict, but on different grounds, and ordered a new trial.

In none of the court hearings was application made to suppress the woman's name, but in Western Australia the Perth journalists had agreed to only report the woman's name as "Nina".

The Australian published the woman's name when it reported on new law resulting from the High Court case. As The Australian pointed out, the woman's daughters, who had been sexually assaulted by their father, could not be identified as they are married and are known by different names. The woman was being tried for murder and was not in court as a complainant in a sexual assault case. The woman's name has already been published in the report of the Western Australian Court of Criminal Appeal trial and will shortly be published again in the report of the High Court appeal.

Whilst the Press Council is concerned with the privacy of individuals, it does not consider that The Australian has breached either journalistic ethics or any of its principles and the complaint is dismissed.