Steve Barrett: Veteran Seven journalists extortion charge dropped

A veteran crime journalist has won a five-year battle to clear his name after the Crown prosecution on Friday dropped a charge alleging he was part of an attempt to extort $5m from members of the Plutus Payroll cartel.

Former 60 Minutes and Channel 7 journalist Steve Barrett in 2021 faced trial after he denied being involved in a scheme to blackmail members of the tax fraud syndicate.

Mr Barrett, 65, pleaded not guilty to making an unwarranted demand with menaces with intention to obtain a gain by accusation or threat.

In May last year, the jury in his Supreme Court trial was discharged after they were unable to reach a verdict.

Since being arrested in 2018, he has persistently denied allegations he used his journalistic credentials to threaten several members of the syndicate.

On Friday, the Crown prosecution dropped one count of making an unwarranted demand with menaces.

Mr Barrett said outside the Supreme Court it had been “a very tough period on me mentally, physically, financially” and the saga had “destroyed” his reputation.

“There’s a lot I’d like to say but I’ve got to go away and think about things. I need to rebuild my life and at the end of the day all I was doing was working as a journalist to break a very big story and that did happen,” Mr Barrett said.

His solicitor Andrew O’Brien hailed it as an “important decision for the freedom of the press in Australia”.

“In 2017, before (the Plutus Payroll scandal) came to the attention of authorities, Steve Barrett as an investigative journalist became aware that there could be a big story in the offing, related to massive losses to tax revenue and the use of dummy companies and directors to mislead the tax office,” Mr O’Brien said outside court.

Mr O’Brien said that the allegation, that he was attempting to help blackmail $5m from the members of the Plutus scheme, made “no sense”.

“He was investigating the case with a view to revealing it to the public via the TV screen,” Mr O’Brien said.

Mr O’Brien said a key witness had admitted to repeatedly lying about his contact with Mr Barrett.

“Finally, in May 2022, this key witness was forced to concede flagrant breaches of Supreme Court orders made in 2017 when the witness was supposedly providing full and frank co-operation with the authorities,” he said.

Up until last week, Mr Barrett had been waiting for a retrial, despite his first trial ending over two years ago because he had to wait for legal proceedings against the members of the Plutus scheme to run their course.

Mr O’Brien said Mr Barrett had been forced to sell his family home and live on social security benefits.

“The prosecution of this journalist has caused much pain and suffering by way of a severe impact on his mental and physical health and his financial position,” Mr O’Brien said.

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