Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC has withdrawn from a murder trial following an announcement by the corruption watchdog that it had referred evidence about her to the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider if she should be criminally charged.
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The deputy senior Crown prosecutor returned to work on Tuesday this week to take on a murder trial, 231 days after she had stood aside to do battle with ICAC – and 41 days after she beat the commission in the High Court. The trial will continue on Tuesday without Ms Cunneen.
"You want a quote?" she told Fairfax Media. "Have no fear: I never left."
But on Wednesday the Independent Commission Against Corruption issued a statement saying that it had referred the evidence it had gathered during the course of its ill-fated inquiry to the DPP.
In its statement, the ICAC said it conferred with the DPP on May 19 about referring the Cunneen matter.
The DPP has been asked to consider whether Ms Cunneen, her son Stephen Wyllie and his girlfriend Sophia Tilley should be criminally charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and for giving false evidence at private hearings.
If proven the charges attract penalties of up to 14 years for attempting to pervert the course of justice and five years for giving false evidence to the commission.
Ms Cunneen, 56, stood down as a prosecutor in October last year after the corruption watchdog announced it would hold a public inquiry into allegations that on 31 May 2014 Ms Cunneen attempted to pervert the course of justice by advising her son's girlfriend to feign chest pains to avoid being breathalysed at the scene of an accident.
Ms Cunneen has strongly denied claims and has said her only conversation with her son's girlfriend after the accident was when she entered the ambulance to ask if she could ring her parents.
Before the inquiry could begin, Ms Cunneen launched legal action challenging whether ICAC had exceeded its power. After losing at the first instance, she was successful in the NSW Court of Appeal and in April 2015 the High Court ruled that ICAC did not have the power to investigate the Cunneen case.
Legislation enacted by NSW Parliament in the wake of the High Court decision allowed ICAC to refer to other agencies evidence obtained before the High Court ruling.
The ICAC has also suggested that the DPP appoint someone from outside NSW to consider whether Ms Cunneen should be prosecuted.
In her time away off work Ms Cunneen had taken boxing classes from two of her sons, including Stephen, and she arrived at the Supreme Court in Darlinghurst on Tuesday, fighting fit and cheerful.
