A public servant, who was working as a court media liaison last year, has escaped a recorded conviction after pleading guilty to providing confidential information to journalists.
Key points:
- Ms Thompson supplied journalists with information that had not yet been made public
- The judge described the level of offending as "possibly approaching trivial"
- She was given a 12-month good behaviour bond and no conviction was recorded
In what Darwin Local Court Judge Ben O'Loughlin described as an "unusual case", Cynthia Thompson pleaded guilty to obtaining information she knew was confidential on a number of separate occasions and being reckless in relation to its disclosure.
According to the agreed facts, Ms Thompson supplied restricted information from the NT government's IJIS record storing system to five journalists early last year.
Only certain employees have access to the system, which holds information about charges and allows users to see past and current matters before the court.
While she was allowed access as part of her job, the court heard she provided the journalists with information that had not yet been heard in open court or provided to the public by police.
The court heard Ms Thompson was alerted to a warning stating: "an employee who communicates confidential information … is liable to imprisonment for three years" each time she signed in.
In one instance, in March 2023, Ms Thompson received a call from reporters from the NT News and The Australian asking for details regarding a public police media release.
The release stated a 39-year-old female officer had been served with a summons for six counts of aggravated assault, harassment and unlawful access to data.
During a 20-minute call with the NT News journalist, Ms Thompson was recorded accessing the police officer's case in IJIS.
In the days after, both publications published articles, with details "which had not otherwise been made public, including specifics of each assault and the victims, dates and locations," according to the agreed facts.
While no Freedom of Information applications had been made, "the article in the Australian identified the offender by name and the two victims, including the dates of the offences and named one of the assault victims who was under the age of 16 yo," court documents state.
In another instance, journalists from the ABC, NT Independent and NT News published articles with restricted information about a past fatal crash involving NT Labor candidate Manuel Brown.
Court records show each of the journalists calling Ms Thompson, and her accessing the case in the IJIS system.
The details of what Ms Thompson provided each of the journalists was uncovered by NT Police when her email records were handed over in July.
In correspondence with one reporter, Ms Thompson ended her email saying: "Hope this helps".
Offending 'possibly approaching trivial'
Judge O'Loughlin said the seriousness of the offence was hard to gauge, but towards the lower end and "possibly approaching trivial".
He noted that, in a statement tendered in court, the executive director of the department of the Attorney-General and Justice, Christopher Cox said Ms Thompson was in a complex role, for which she'd received little training.
"The role of Public Relations Officer navigating the various legislation, suppression orders, spent records and now expunged records is quite complex. There is also little clarity on what can be released. Cynthia had a one day handover and it was simply not possible to cover every scenario that might arise," the statement said.
However, the court heard that in a series of emails sent early on in her appointment, Ms Thompson was reminded not to release specifics such as charges and other details not yet made public ahead of a matter being heard in open court.
Prosecutor Deborah Mandie said Ms Thompson's repeated conduct added to the gravity of the offending, while also acknowledging Ms Thompson had only been in the role a few months.
"The crown accepts that, for one thing, there was no motive of self-interest, of obtaining some kind of benefit or any malice involved in the offending and that is a significant mitigating factor," Ms Mandie said.
"There was certainly encouragement from the journalists to provide the information … and the motive can be inferred it was really just a willingness to go beyond what was permitted in the interests of maintaining relationships with the journalists."
Ms Thompson's lawyer Peter Maley argued that because of his client's "positive good" character, lack of criminal history and the trivial nature of the offences, the court could comfortably deal with the matter with a non-conviction".
Judge O'Loughlin agreed and ordered a 12-month good behaviour bond.