In 2019 ROBERT MACKLIN broke the national story of the secret trial of Witness J and his furtive imprisonment in the Alexander Maconochie Centre. Now the judge’s sentencing remarks have been released, but Witness J won’t be silenced…  

THE Witness J secret trial and imprisonment that was first revealed in “CityNews” on November 14, 2019, took another controversial turn last week with the release of Justice John Burns’ original sentencing remarks, calling him “reckless and driven by anger”.

However, Witness J has refused to be silenced. He has told “CityNews” the judge’s remarks were “factually incorrect”. 

“I never betrayed my oaths, no classified documents were sent and I was fundamentally let down by an agency that continues to elude public accountability,” he said.

“CityNews” has only ever identified the agency as subject to the Intelligence Services Act of 2001. However, the eminent Melbourne barrister Julian Burnside QC, has been more specific. And in July 2022, “The Sydney Morning Herald” published an article by reporter Lisa Visentin recording that the watchdog for Australia’s national security laws, Grant Donaldson found that the “secret prosecution of the former Australian spy known as Witness J should never have happened and must never happen again”.

This prompted Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, she wrote, “to commission a wide-ranging review of laws governing the level of secrecy courts can apply to proceedings involving national security issues”.

The report is due for completion in November.

ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum released Judge Burns’ remarks saying: “Secrecy is anathema to the rule of law [though] the logic of some secrecy in the case was clear”. 

It is also now equally clear that, had not Witness J made contact with “CityNews” while still serving his sentence in the Alexander Maconochie Centre, the case would have remained unreported.

Witness J, then in his mid-30s had been imprisoned in a section of the jail reserved for sex-offenders, even though his was not a sex offence. Even the ACT Attorney General Shane Rattenbury, was unaware of the case.

He had spent much of his time in jail recording and writing his observations of the thoroughly unpleasant characters – and their occasional redeeming features – in a manuscript that he felt would give some purpose to his life while penned in with them.

A graduate of Duntroon and with an honourable military career serving in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq before later becoming a civilian intelligence officer. By the time of the offence, he had been at the front line of Australian security his whole working life.

He was also a fluent and engaging writer; and in prison he was encouraged in this pastime by the then general manager of AMC, Ian Robb. 

He was also familiar with my 2015 book, “Warrior Elite” – a history of Australia’s Special Forces and Intelligence Agencies. 

Then in October 2019 two things happened – Ian Robb departed for greener fields and Witness J sought advice from myself – via a roundabout but strictly legal manner – on how best to get his book published. And a new AMC manager Ms Corinne Justason took over.

I had received permission to visit him in AMC, but on the day before the appointment I was told it had been reviewed and denied. Later I learned that the AFP then raided his cell and his brother’s home to confiscate the manuscript.

Facing a future where jobs would be hard to find – he took civil action, representing himself against the ACT government. Justice Burns presided and on November 8, 2019 found against him. My wife and I were present in the rare Friday afternoon setting, and my report followed in which I coined the Witness J alias. 

Since then, his book “Here, There Are Dragons” – was published. Indeed, in 2021 plans were well advanced for the Canberra Writers Festival to host a Q&A session between Witness J and myself. However, covid restrictions intervened to make the event impossible to stage. 

Meantime, I understand he is keen to continue a writing career in a genre more popular and compelling than his first foray into the rough and tumble of non-fiction publishing. 

My own view, after writing four biographies of Special Service volunteers and several military histories, is that like so many of our frontline soldiers, he was pressured to breaking point. Some call it PTSD. To others it might well appear as recklessness driven by anger.

robert@robertmacklin.com