Diane McGrath Fingleton (born 11 January 1947) is a former magistrate in the Queensland Magistrates Court, most notable for being appointed Chief Magistrate and later being convicted of the offence of intimidation of a witness, before the conviction was quashed on appeal to the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...

Early life

Fingleton was educated at St. Stephen's Cathedral School and

All Hallows' School All Hallows' School (AHS) is a Catholicism, Catholic day school for girls, located in Fortitude Valley, close to the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1861, the school is a day school, having had a board ...

, in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. She was a stenographer on Bill Hayden's staff in the Whitlam government years. She studied at university in the late 1970s and early '80s, and graduated with a law degree. She waitressed at night and studied by day.

Magistracy

In 1995, the Goss

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

appointed her to the magistracy and the Beattie government made her a senior magistrate three years later, just as it would appoint a dozen women (and 11 men) to various judicial appointments that upset Queensland's legal establishment. In 1999, Fingleton was appointed to the position of

Chief Magistrate A chief magistrate is a public official, executive or judicial, whose office is the highest in its class. Historically, the two different meanings of magistrate have often overlapped and refer to, as the case may be, to a major political and admi ...

. This appointment was seen as controversial amid suggestions that it was political. Appointed by Matt Foley, she was Queensland's first ever female Chief Magistrate. The following year, Fingleton attracted criticism from Chief Justice of the

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Paul de Jersey and others for holding

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ceremonies in six Magistrates Courts in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and issuing a formal apology to

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Conviction

In 2002, Fingleton emailed a fellow Magistrate, Basil Gribbin, threatening to have him dismissed from the senior position of Co-ordinating Magistrate, whilst retaining his position as Magistrate, because he had supported a colleague in a workplace dispute against her. Before sending the email, Fingleton obtained legal advice from her solicitor, David Searle. Fingleton viewed Gribbin's action as evidence he had no faith in her role as Chief Magistrate, perceiving his behaviour to be openly provocative and disloyal. Gribbin took legal action against her, and this resulted in her being charged and imprisoned for retaliation against a witness, a criminal offence under the Queensland Criminal Code. The crown brought in a prosecutor from NSW,

Margaret Cunneen Margaret Mary Cunneen Senior Counsel, SC (born 15 January 1959 in Sydney) is an Australians, Australian barrister, prosecutor and Royal Commission#Australia, commissioner of a government inquiry. Background and early career Cunneen was born at ...

. Fingleton appealed, and the Queensland Court of Appeal appeal upheld her conviction but halved her jail sentence. Released later that year, Fingleton worked as a lecturer at

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

Appeal to the High Court

Fingleton sought special leave to take her case to the

. On 8 October, the day before the 2004 federal election, Justices McHugh and Gummow granted her special leave to appeal. The decision to grant leave was made 73 minutes into the hearing. Justice McHugh said that:

It would be hard to imagine a stronger case of a miscarriage of justice in the particular circumstances of the case. There is not only a question of conviction and a gaol sentence, but the applicant has lost one of the most important offices in the State of Queensland..

The following year, in 2005, the High Court unanimously allowed the appeal and quashed Fingleton's conviction. Their reasoning was that Fingleton in fact had immunity from criminal prosecution under the Queensland Magistrates Court Act for anything done in the course of her judicial or her administrative functions. Justice Kirby described what happened to Fingleton as "indelible". Professor Rosemary Hunter, a supporter of Diane Fingleton and former Dean of the Griffith law school, has argued that Fingleton's case has raised a range of issues around party politics, gender politics and office politics.

Present

Later that year, Fingleton was again appointed and sworn in as a magistrate of the

Caloundra Caloundra ( ) is a coastal town in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the town of Caloundra had a population of 96,305 people. Geography Caloundra is north of the Brisbane central business district. Caloundra is acce ...

Magistrates Court. She retired in May 2010. She continued to serve at board appointments and speaker engagements. In 2017, Ms Fingleton was special guest speaker at the 50th anniversary event for human rights and legal advocacy organisation, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties (QCCL) in Brisbane.

Filmography

'' Swimming Upstream,'' her brother Tony's autobiographical film about his background and family, includes brief glimpses of his younger sister, Diane. The film was released in 2003 and was very well received.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fingleton, Diane 1947 births Living people Australian magistrates Australian women judges Australian solicitors University of Queensland alumni Lawyers from Brisbane People educated at All Hallows' School