possum

Ex-Centrelink worker slammed over Corby leak
By Greg Stolz
October 10, 2007 02:45am


A FORMER Centrelink employee who leaked twisted information about jailed Bali drug runner Schapelle Corby to a television current affairs show was branded "a disgrace" yesterday by a Gold Coast magistrate.

Magistrate Terry Duroux said the Corbys had already been through enough "without this sort of thing".

He was sentencing Natalie Pearson, 24, who pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrate's Court to unlawfully communicating private information about a pension application by Corby a month before she was arrested in Bali in October 2004 with 4.1kg of marijuana in her bodyboard bag.

The court was told Pearson leaked the details to Channel 7's Today Tonight, which ran a story alleging Corby had applied for the pension for drug-related psychological problems.

But Pearson was only repeating office gossip, as Corby's pension claim was for post-traumatic stress believed to be related to her cancer-stricken father, Michael.

Defence lawyer Debbie Marinov said Pearson had been pressured into doing the Today Tonight interview, even though she "knew it was the wrong thing to do".

Mr Duroux said while Pearson might have been pressured, she simply should have refused to do the interview.

"This was a trying time for Ms Corby and her family," he said.

"They had already gone through enough and didn't need this sort of thing being aired nationally throughout Australia."

The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year's jail and a $6600 fine but Mr Duroux released Pearson on a $1000, three-year good behaviour bond.

He recorded a conviction.

An emotional Rosleigh Rose, Corby's mother, confronted Pearson after the hearing, telling her: "You shouldn't have done that."

Outside court, Ms Rose said: "She's just a naughty, terrible girl who you'll never be able to trust."

Ex-Centrelink worker slammed over Corby leak | NEWS.com.au

Crazy Canuck

My response to this one cannot be repeated in public.

I don't know how the family can take this - especially her mother.

Crazy Canuck