I've been entertained by this story as it has unfolded and it was big news last night as he'd sat down for an interview with a top investigative journalism tv show here
Four Forners just before his sentencing. I thought it was a fascinating look at human duplicity - at times you feel he's more honest in many ways than the reporters and police who are trying to get him (and sometimes lying boldly, but you ask yourself if it's fair and justified given the question, etc) so through it you see youself in his position. He was just sentenced to three years in jail with a non-parole period of two years for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 523069.htm
My lie was a fatal mistake, Einfeld admits
Posted Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:18am AEDT
Updated Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:40am AEDT
Former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld has said his lie to the court to avoid a $77 speeding fine was a "fatal mistake".
Einfeld has used an exclusive interview with ABC1's Four Corners to explain the behaviour which led to a jail term of at least two years for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Watch excerpts from the interview.
On January 8 2006, a car Einfeld was driving was photographed by a speed camera travelling above the legal speed limit.
Faced with the prospect of paying a fine, he gave a sworn statement that a woman, already dead for three years, was driving his car.
Speaking to Four Corners, Einfeld broke a two-and-a-half-year silence on a case that has divided the legal fraternity, admiting he did not tell the truth when he first fronted court over the speeding fine in 2006.
"I lied - I can't say it any simpler than that," he said.
"I told a lie, which was a disgraceful thing to do and for which I've been paying ever since and will pay, I presume, for the rest of my life."
Einfeld also admits he may have lied to avoid at least one other speeding fine before, but he denies a habit of dishonesty.
"I don't think I'm in the slightest bit dishonest," he said.
"I just made a mistake and it was a fatal mistake - it was a very serious mistake."
On Friday, Einfeld was sentenced to three years' jail with two years non-parole.
Before sentencing, Einfeld told the program he would accept the court's decision.
"I realise I have to take my punishment and if the court holds that I have to [go to prison], I'll have to go and I will," he said before sentencing.
"I don't know that anybody can be - anybody who's never done [time in prison] before like me can be ready for it as in that sense of the word, but I'm as ready as anyone can be."
The Four Corners crew travelled with him as he was driven to his sentencing hearing and heard his private thoughts as he faced a jail term.
"I'm hardly at my best, I'm hardly at the top of my life or my feelings but it's a process and you have to go through it," he said.
"It makes me even more sympathetic to all the other people I've seen, it's an interesting lesson in how people suffer in a hidden sort of way, you don't even know."
He says he does not expect prison to be a "pleasant experience".
He says he now wants to begin the process of atonement and that he says must begin by telling the world what he did and why he did it.
"I'm being frank as is humanly possible," he said.
"I think Australian people are pretty good at forgiving people who come clean."
Four Corners airs on ABC1 today at 8:30pm AEDT.
The
Four Corners report with Einfeld interview aired tonight on aussie tv. The story about him and his lies gets interesting. Their website has video, transcripts and other news stories on the case.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/default.htm
Okay, it IS humid here, but this is a gross study to conduct.
