The lawyer for a high-profile Australian magistrate jailed for the little-known charge of retaliating against a judicial officer says his client is being punished over an "office squabble".
Queensland's former chief state magistrate Ms Di Fingleton (56) is spending her third day in jail today as protesters outside claim she is the victim of a male-dominated legal culture that objects to strong women.
Ms Fingleton was sentenced by a Supreme Court judge to a year's jail after being convicted by a second jury of sending an e-mail threatening to demote a junior magistrate, Mr Basil Gribbin, over his support for colleague Ms Anne Thacker.
The e-mail sent by Ms Fingleton had been vetted and approved by her own lawyer.
Mr Gribbin wrote an affidavit backing Ms Thacker - with whom Ms Fingleton was in dispute - that was tendered at a judicial committee review of Ms Fingleton's decision to transfer her.
The first jury failed to reach a verdict after 17 hours of deliberation, but the second found her guilty in the first case of its kind ever conducted in Australia.
Defence lawyers said the case amounted to an office squabble not an attempt to pervert the course of justice. But Judge John Helman disagreed, ruling that the gravity of the offence required a custodial sentence.
Ms Fingleton will appeal the one-year sentence, but her brother said she would not apply for bail.
AFP