A Queensland police officer who leaked the address of a domestic violence victim has had a computer hacking conviction and suspended prison sentence reinstated by the state’s court of appeal.
The decision paves the way for the suspended senior constable, Neil Glen Punchard, to be sacked from the Queensland police service after years of legal limbo.
Punchard pleaded guilty to nine counts of computer hacking in 2019.
The police officer accessed two separate confidential computer systems to obtain the address of a woman and other details. He sent it to her estranged husband, his childhood friend.
“Just tell her you know where she lives and leave it at that. Lol,” Punchard wrote to his friend after sending the address in 2014.
In another message, he said: “The police will contact you if they want to speak to you … then you give them my name. That is your get-out-of-jail-free card.”
The recipient of the text message would later be convicted of domestic violence offences.
Punchard was convicted and sentenced to two months in prison, wholly suspended, by the Brisbane magistrates court in 2019.
That sentence was overturned last year by the district court, which ordered Punchard to instead complete 140 hours of community service, and determined that no conviction be recorded.
The Queensland police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, then challenged the district court ruling in the court of appeal. On Friday, the court of appeal set aside the district court judgement.
The long-running case has deeply embarrassed the police service and exposed widespread problematic attitudes in police response to incidents of family violence.
At issue – the reason for the repeated appeals – is whether Punchard can remain a serving police officer.
Carroll and her predecessor, Ian Stewart, have come under considerable public pressure to sack the senior constable, who was stood down from operational duty in 2018 and formally suspended the following year.
Police still pay Punchard’s salary and his ongoing employment has been deeply embarrassing for senior officers as they attempt to instil confidence in police responses to domestic violence.
Under Queensland police disciplinary procedures, officers can only be dismissed in extremely narrow circumstances. It is understood the reinstatement of the conviction and suspended sentence will give Carroll a trigger required to sack Punchard.
The woman whose address was leaked, Julie*, told Guardian Australia that Carroll should act immediately.
The case has remained in the public eye for five years partly due to the campaign by Julie for Punchard to be disciplined and charged for computer hacking. She also successfully fought police for compensation for breach of privacy.
Comment has been sought from Carroll and the Queensland police service.
The court of appeal found there was no grounds for the district court to consider the initial sentence excessive.
“The material before the district court on the appeal did not support a conclusion that there was an error in the exercise of the magistrate’s sentencing discretion and there was no basis for his honour to re-sentence the respondent on the ground the sentence was manifestly excessive.”
“[The district court judge] could not proceed to re-sentence the respondent, unless there was an error in the exercise of the magistrate’s sentencing discretion and the only error relied on was that the sentence was manifestly excessive.”
