Marsden v Amalgamated Television Services Pty Limited [1999] NSWSC 1306

New South Wales Supreme Court CITATION : Marsden v Amalgamated Television Services Pty Limited [1999] NSWSC 1306 CURRENT JURISDICTION : Common Law FILE NUMBER(S) : 20223 of 1995; 20592 of 1996 HEARING DATE(S) : 14 December 1999 JUDGMENT DATE : 14 December 1999

JOHN MARSDEN (Plaintiff)

PARTIES : v

AMALGAMATED TELEVISION SERVICES PTY LIMITED (Defendant) JUDGMENT OF : Levine J

M Hall (Plaintiff) COUNSEL : W H Nicholas Q.C. J S Wheelhouse (Defendant) Marsdens (Plaintiff) SOLICITORS : Mallesons Stephen Jaques (Defendant) CATCHWORDS : On admissibility of document number 51 - T3338 DECISION : See paragraph 2

DLJT: 76 (Ex Tempore - Revised) THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION DEFAMATION LIST No. 20223 of 1995 No. 20592 of 1996

JUSTICE DAVID LEVINE

TUESDAY 14 DECEMBER 1999

JOHN MARSDEN (Plaintiff)

v

AMALGAMATED TELEVISION SERVICES PTY LIMITED ACN 000 145 246 (Defendant)

JUDGMENT (On admissibility of document number 51 - T3338) 1 HIS HONOUR: Document 51 is a publication by the publishers of The Sydney Morning Herald dated 25 January 1997 in its News Review section, by Robyn Oliver and headed "Why Jana Went: Bearing Witness". On its face the journalist for that publisher attributes to Ms Wendt the words in the last paragraph of the piece, "What did we get right? A Paedophilia story by Graham Davis …" 2 I cannot see how this document would be admissible as evidence against the defendant of its conduct, when I am not persuaded that it is admissible as to the truth of its contents. It will be marked for identification 51. ***********