A Tasmanian Supreme Court Judge has been found guilty of assault and emotional abuse. The presiding Victorian deputy chief magistrate Susan Wakeling described evidence from justice Gregory Geason as 'contrived and implausible' as she handed down her verdict.
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00:00A Supreme Court judge walking into court to find out his fate.
00:07Justice Gregory Geeson was charged last year with one count of assault and one count of
00:11emotional abuse or intimidation.
00:14He pleaded not guilty to both and faced a hearing in July.
00:18Allegations he grabbed a woman, struck her chest and pushed her, causing extensive bruising
00:23and a concussion, today found proven.
00:26Victorian Deputy Chief Magistrate Susan Wakeling dismissed Justice Geeson's explanation, saying
00:32''I consider his account to be contrived and implausible.''
00:36The charge of emotional abuse related to incidents between April and November last year and included
00:43tracking the woman's movements using technology, verbal abuse and pressuring her to sign a
00:48contract.
00:49The verdict?
00:50Guilty, with Magistrate Wakeling saying ''I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that
00:55these events form a pattern of conduct, coercive of the complainant's will and controlling.''
01:01So what happens now?
01:03Justice Geeson hasn't resigned and the only way he can be removed is through historical
01:07British legislation and it doesn't look like the government plans to use that mechanism
01:12yet.
01:13Instead, there's a bill before Parliament to create a new process to handle complaints
01:17about judges and sack them if required.
01:20Our expectation is that legislation will be debated over the course of the next 24 hours.
01:28Only Parliament can remove a judge.
01:31It's very important to understand that members of Parliament do not cross over into making
01:36decisions about the judiciary.
01:38We don't personally have opinions about the judiciary for the very good reason that that
01:42is the Westminster Convention to have separation of powers.
01:46The state opposition not as shy in giving an opinion, calling for Justice Geeson to
01:51resign.
01:52Let's get this judge, this disgraced judge, out of our judicial system as quickly as possible.
01:58In the meantime, Justice Geeson continues to be paid his annual salary of half a million
02:02dollars.