The Sentencing of Harriet Wran

Abstract

In July 2016 Harriet Wran, daughter of former NSW premier Neville Wran, was sentenced to four years imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years for the offences of being an accessory after the fact to murder and robbery in company. Subsequent media and public comment focussed not on the sentence itself but on the fact that the sentencing judge, Justice Harrison of the NSW Supreme Court, took into account a series of articles appearing in the Sydneybased News Corp tabloids, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. What the judge described as 'a sustained and unpleasant campaign' by these newspapers thus served to mitigate the sentence because it amounted to 'extra curial' (non-judicial) punishment. Media coverage of criminal trials tends to be discussed in legal circles in terms of open justice, pre-trial prejudice, and potential effects on a fair trial and on the jury. This Comment will argue that lawyers might usefully try to build on the Harrison judgment and develop the category of media induced ex curial punishment as mitigation.