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Former army lawyer and whistleblower sentenced to jail
A former Australian army lawyer was sentenced to more than five years behind bars for leaking classified documents to media.
Naomi Neilson
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The ACT Supreme Court sentenced David McBride to five years and eight months jail, with a non-parole period of 27 months, for handing classified material to journalists at the public broadcaster.
In sentencing him on Tuesday (14 May) morning, Justice David Mossop said that while McBride was “of good character”, he had a “misguided belief … he was unable to operate within the legal framework that his duty required him to”.
He became “obsessed with the correctness of his own opinions”, Justice Mossop added.
McBride pleaded guilty last November to three charges of stealing 235 defence documents over an 18-month period between May 2014 and December 2016.
The court was told 207 of the documents were classified as either secret or cabinet documents.
They were used by the ABC in its The Afghan Files reporting, which investigated war crimes committed by Australian Defence personnel during the Afghanistan war.
The investigation was confirmed by the Brereton Inquiry.
Although the ABC offices were raided, prosecutors chose not to proceed with a case against journalist Dan Oakes.
Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) acting legal director Kieran Pender said McBride’s sentencing was a “dark day for Australian democracy”.
“The imprisonment of a whistleblower will have a grave chilling effect on potential truth-tellers,” Pender said.
“Our democracy suffers when people can’t speak up about potential wrongdoing. There is no public interest in prosecuting whistleblowers.”
Rawan Arraf, the executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, said it was a “travesty” that the first person to be imprisoned in relation to Australia’s war crimes is a whistleblower.
“The case has significantly undermined Australia’s commitment to implementing the findings of the Brereton Inquiry,” Arraf said.
The HRLC said McBride is the first whistleblower to be imprisoned in recent memory.
Witness K, who exposed Australia’s spying on Timor-Leste, was given a suspended sentence. His lawyer, Bernard Collaery, had his case dropped when Anthony Albanese took office.
Tax Office whistleblower Richard Boyle will face trial in September.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
