Former Queensland Chief Magistrate Diane Fingleton has seen the best and the worst of the justice system, including six months inside of a prison cell. She speaks to Angela Priestley

In mid-2003, the then Queensland Chief Magistrate Diane Fingleton officially lost her career. Following her conviction for intimidating a witness, alongside a barrage of negative publicity in the media, Fingleton was torn from her prominent position as one of the most senior judicial officers in the country to that of an individual with a criminal conviction. When she was sentenced to a one-year jail term, Fingleton fell one step further - she became a prisoner.

Fingleton, whose childhood was depicted in the Australian film, Swimming Upstream - co-written with her brother Tony Fingleton, a former Australian swimming champion - leaves behind a significant legacy in the Queensland justice system. Having retired in June, Fingleton will soon launch her book, Nothing to do with Justice, offering a candid look into the case that ruined her career, the six months she spent in prison and the vindication she sought in having her case heard - and conviction quashed - before the High Court and her career restored.

But Fingleton's story goes beyond the personal. It opens up the significant challenges facing a Chief Magistrate; gender issues and the heart of judicial independence.

It's also a raw and often harrowing tale of injustice.

"There was a lot of loss, grief and worry," Fingleton told Lawyers Weekly of the period following her conviction. "I make the correlation that having not had children, my career was my baby. I had nurtured and loved it and all of a sudden it had been smashed to pieces."

In the beginning

In 1995, Fingleton, along with a number of other women, was appointed as a Queensland magistrate - a move met with much controversy at the time as some men were said to have been overlooked in the bid to appoint and promote women. In 1999, Fingleton was appointed Chief Magistrate of Queensland.

"These were difficult times, but those high level women appointees have stuck it out. They didn't have to deal with what I've dealt with - ending up in prison was a little more than I ever bargained for," Fingleton says.

Fingleton believes she was appointed to promote reform, a position that would always encounter significant difficulties. But reform she did, and Fingleton presided over some significant achievements for the Queensland justice system along the way - including the establishment of the Drug Court, the Murri Court and offering up improved conditions for the judicial training of junior magistrates.

"Having not had children, my career was my baby. I had nurtured and loved it and all of a sudden it had been smashed to pieces"

Fingleton says she was on a mission to make the Queensland Magistracy better, but it was especially lonely at the top and success did not come easy. She believes the issue of judicial independence got confused - with the Chief Magistrate unable to talk to a magistrate to make them aware that a number of complaints and issues had been raised about them. In essence, the Chief Magistrate could not manage the very staff she had been appointed to look over.

"They considered the Chief the first among equals which, in a consensual sense, is a nice thought but ... that person needs to make decisions and that person needs to have support to make those decisions, rather than being constantly subjected to criticism."

Things have since changed and amendments made to the Magistrates Act. For instance, the matter of transfers - which Fingleton found particularly controversial - is handled by a committee. Unfortunately, such changes came too late for Fingleton.

A downward spiral

Things went haywire for Fingleton when, in 2002, she sent an email to Co-ordinating Magistrate Basil Gribbin. Following a number of internal issues, Fingleton sought legal advice before outlining her matters of concern regarding Gribbin's behaviour in the email - notably questioning why he had sought to supply an affidavit regarding Fingleton's decision to transfer a magistrate and requesting that he "show cause" as to why he should not be removed as Co-ordinating Magistrate.

Gribbin believed Fingleton was in contempt of court regarding her comments about him supplying the affidavit. He requested that the Crime and Misconduct Commission investigate Fingleton's email under the Criminal Code, declaring that Fingleton had threatened to remove him from the position of Co-ordinating Magistrate. At the same time, Gribbin also commenced proceedings against Fingleton in the Supreme Court, declaring that she had no power to request that Gribbin "show cause" as to why he should not be removed from his position.

In December 2002, Fingleton was charged with criminal offences. Her trial in the Supreme Court commenced in early 2003. The jury was hung, but Fingleton was found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison following the second trial. The Appeal Court refused her appeal, but reduced the sentence to six months, suspending the last six months for two years. On 30 June 2003, Fingleton resigned as Chief Magistrate of Queensland from her prison cell.

Justice is served

The title of Fingleton's book, Nothing to do with Justice, speaks to the fact that not only was the whole course of events bizarre, according to Fingleton, but also that she held immunity, as Chief Magistrate, from prosecution all along - immunity that would not be uncovered until the case finally hit the High Court, well after Fingleton had served her sentence.

Which begs the question, why was the issue of immunity not raised earlier? "I can't tell you. As it has been noted, I didn't know it was there either in the relevant act, but as soon as I saw it I knew I would be exonerated," says Fingleton. "There was a lot of debate when it finally came out as to who may have know at the time," says Fingleton.

No matter who knew about the immunity, it was enough for the High Court to quash Fingleton's conviction via a six to nil ruling.

Needless to say, it was also the vindication that Fingleton had longed for. She was now determined to get back the career she lost. She aimed to again be instated as Queensland's Chief Justice but settled, happily, for a magistrate's position in the Caloundra Court.

Still, nothing can get back the months Fingleton spent in prison and the trauma of the entire experience. "I still get upset," she says. "It's like what they say about post-traumatic stress disorder. You go back into it, you don't just remember it. If I talk about the jail cell, I'm back in there."

A matter of reform

Just how Fingleton ended up in that cell in the first place is still the question of much speculation. Over the years, some commentators have labelled it a matter of workplace politics, others have declared it an issue of gender, while others still - most notably Alan Ramsey in The Sydney Morning Herald - believe Fingleton's story can be traced back to her attitude which, put simply, was too much for the conservative Queensland Magistracy, during her time.

Fingleton acknowledges she took a tough line in her role as Chief Magistrate, and believes this may have contributed to her being hauled before the court. But, she says, she is who she is and such an approach had worked for her in other aspects of her legal career.

"I would never take a step back and it could be very unpleasant. You would think 'can't these people just accept it? That I'm talking to them, not as Di Fingleton, but as Chief Magistrate'," says Fingleton. "In some circumstances it works. But I've never been a lawyer's lawyer, or a judge's judge. The fit was wrong."

While Fingleton does not explicitly state that her gender played a role, she certainly felt something was up, especially "when one finds out she is referred to as 'she', not 'chief,' and not 'Di', but 'she'."

Does Fingleton believe she was a victim of her own reform? "Yes, in that I was a very determined person."

So, does she regret her actions? Well definitely not her achievements, and certainly not that email she sent all those years ago that she still maintains was the necessary thing to do at the time. However, Fingleton does not believe it would be worth other women in the magistracy following her lead and displaying the same level of attitude that led to such a successful career, but also caused significant hardship along the way.

"You want to have your heart broken? You want to be humiliated and destroyed? Then go for it," says Fingleton. "Do what you can, but perhaps the judicial system is not set up for reformers."

During Fingleton's Valedictory Ceremony on 9 July earlier this year, Queensland Chief Magistrate Brendan Butler SC described Fingleton's career as one of "glittering peaks and devastating troughs". Through it all, and despite hitting the very bottom of what injustice can deliver, Fingleton maintained her commitment to social justice.

Fingleton's retirement came at a time of her choosing, it also came 15 years after she was appointed as the sixth female magistrate in Queensland and signals the end of a significant chapter in the progress of women through the magistracy. Today, 38 per cent of Queensland's court membership is female.

Perhaps that's one more element of vindication for Fingleton.