Elizabeth Lillian Fullerton (born 27 December 1953) is an Australian lawyer, specialising in criminal law, who has been a judge of the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian States and territories of Australia, State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil law (common law), civil matters, and hears ...

since February 2007.

Early life and education

Fullerton studied to become a primary and infants teacher at Coburg Teachers College, before working as a teacher in 1975 and 1976. In 1977, Fullerton traveled to Israel to live and work in a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

. Fullerton commenced studying Arts and Law at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

in 1978 before transferring to the

University of NSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

where she graduated in June 1983. On 30 May 2019, Fullerton was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by

Career

Fullerton was admitted as a barrister in December 1983, with

Carolyn Simpson Carolyn Chalmers Simpson (born 30 March 1946) was a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for 24 years and of its Court of Appeal for nearly three. Justice Simpson made legal history in 1999 as one of three women judges who formed the fi ...

as her tutor. Fullerton occupied the Women's room in Frederick Jordan Chambers, a room established to encourage female barristers in their first year. Janet Coombs was one of the trustees and at the time the rent was subsidised. In 1985 and 1986 Fullerton was part of the legal team, led by Ian Barker that appeared for the Northern Territory at the Royal Commission into the Conviction of Lindy Chamberlain. In 1988 Fullerton was appointed to the

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions or, informally, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) is an independent prosecuting service and government agency within the portfolio of the Attorney-General of ...

as one of the first in house counsel, before returning to the private bar the following year. Fullerton was appointed a senior counsel in 1999. Fullerton appeared in major criminal trials, being the prosecutor in the trial of five men who were convicted of the importation of a massive quantity of heroin, some 339 kg with an estimated value of $620 million. & . As well as prosecuting, Fullerton also represented defendants, appearing in the sentencing of members of the Ronen family who had been convicted of tax fraud.. Fullerton was one of the barristers who appeared for

Rodney Adler Rodney Stephen Adler (born 19 August 1959) is an Australian whose family founded the FAI Insurances group, of which he became chief executive in 1989, and which was at one stage Australia's third largest general insurer. Adler became a director ...

in relation to the collapse of

HIH Insurance HIH Insurance was Australia's second-largest insurance company before it was placed into provisional liquidation on 15 March 2001. The demise of HIH is considered to be the largest corporate collapse in Australia's history, with liquidators e ...

.. and appeared for Tony Oates, the former financial executive who was involved in the fraudulent transfer of money from Bell Resources to

Bond Corporation Alan Bond (22 April 1938 – 5 June 2015) was an English-born Australian businessman noted for his high-profile and often corrupt business dealings. These included his central role in the WA Inc scandals of the 1980s; the biggest corporate co ...

. Fullerton was counsel assisting the coronial inquest into the death of T.J. Hickey.

Supreme Court of NSW

Since her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2007 Fullerton has been the trial judge in numerous high-profile criminal trials. Some of the more notable trials include charges against

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

reporter

Ben Fordham Ben Fordham (born 29 November 1976) is an Australian sports reporter and radio presenter. , Fordham hosts the breakfast radio program ''Ben Fordham Live'' on Sydney radio station 2GB. Early life and education When Ben Fordham was seven years ...

and producer Andrew Byrne for breach of the NSW ''Listening Devices Act''.. In 2013 Philip Nguyen pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of police Constable William Crews. Justice Fullerton sentenced Nguyen imprisonment for 9 years and 6 months, with a non-parole period of 7 years.. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal upheld a crown appeal that the sentence was manifestly inadequate, almost doubling the prison sentence.. In 2014 Fullerton was the judge in the trial of Paul Mulvihill, who a jury convicted of the stabbing murder of his former lover Rachelle Yeo and Fullerton sentenced him to a maximum 29 years in prison.. Fullerton was the judge in the trial of Adeel Khan, who was convicted of the murder of Chris Noble and the manslaughter of Bianka O'Brien and her baby son Jude following a fire in Khan's shop at

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle s ...

. Khan was sentenced to a maximum term of imprisonment of 40 years.. Fullerton was the judge in the third trial of Robert Xie, who had been charged with the murder of 5 members of the Lin family. The jury was unable to agree on a verdict, and Fullerton was the judge in the fourth trial in which Xie was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fullerton, Elizabeth 1953 births Living people Judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales Australian women judges Australian barristers Australian Senior Counsel University of New South Wales alumni Monash University alumni