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Lloyd Rayney loses battle to remain on WA roll
The notorious Perth-based barrister and former Crown prosecutor has been struck off the West Australian state roll for professional misconduct including recording conversations with his late wife without her knowledge or consent, and then knowingly giving false evidence about those recordings.
Jerome Doraisamy
Mr Rayney — who was accused and acquitted of murdering his wife almost a decade ago — has lost his fight to keep his practising certificate after a successful action was brought in the WA State Administrative Tribunal by the state’s Legal Profession Complaints Committee.
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The Tribunal found that at least seven secret recordings made in 2007 by Mr Rayney of conversations between him and his wife were not made for the purpose of obtaining a record that an insinuation made by his wife, Corryn Rayney, was untrue. Instead, it held that the making of the recordings contravened the Surveillance Devices Act, and that evidence given was knowingly false.
For recording the conversations and knowingly making false assertions about it, both in an affidavit and to the Magistrate’s Court, the Tribunal found that Mr Rayney had engaged in professional misconduct that warranted his removal from the roll.
The fact that the false evidence given was in a personal matter, and not one in which Mr Rayney was engaged in his capacity as a legal practitioner, did not sway the court in its ruling: “Knowingly giving false evidence constitutes serious professional misconduct, including when that evidence is given in a personal matter,” it held.
“By his conduct in giving evidence he knew to be false with the intention of misleading, Mr Rayney demonstrated that he lacked the honesty and integrity that are essential prerequisites to the right to practice law,” the Tribunal concluded.
“Mr Rayney has demonstrated no remorse or insight into his professional misconduct in giving that false evidence.”
The Tribunal did cede that he had suffered “many distressing, traumatic and stressful events” over the past decade, which contributed to his restricted ability to practice law and impacted upon his financial standing.
“[But] the matters personal to Mr Rayney cannot override our fundamental obligation to provide appropriate protection of the public interest in the honesty and integrity of legal practitioners and the maintenance of proper standards of legal practice,” it noted.
“It is our view that Mr Rayney lacks the honesty and candour that are essential attributes for a legal practitioner.”
In light of this professional misconduct, the “only appropriate penalty” was to recommend that his name be removed from the role of practitioners, the Tribunal decided.
Mr Rayney was recently awarded a $2.62 million defamation payout from the WA government for publicly naming him as the “prime” and “only” suspect for the killing of his wife.
His striking from the WA is the latest in a series of battles against the WA Legal Professional Complaints Committee, which has previously attempted to have his practising certificate cancelled.
One of these attempts resulted in a successful claim by Mr Rayney about abuse of process.
