Secret recordings claims in Digance blackmail case
Former Labor MP Annabel Digance will argue evidence used to accuse her of blackmailing Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas is incapable of supporting a conviction and relies on secretly taped private conversations.
Greg and Annabel Digance. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
Digance has applied to Adelaide Magistrates Court to have the case against her thrown out as an abuse of process.
She has also applied to cross-examine a number of witnesses including Malinauskas, the alleged victim of the blackmail charge.
In documents released by the court yesterday,the former MP for Elder argues there is no case to answer and the allegations against her are “totally unfounded”.
“The taint of abuse of process permeates throughout the entire investigation and prosecution process,” the application said.
It said the case against her relied on recordings of private conversations that sought to entrap Digance and her husband Greg, who is facing the same charge, in the commission of an offence.
That attempted entrapment should lead to a stay of the proceedings, the defence argued.
The Digances were arrested in April at their Strathalbyn home.
Police said previously it would be alleged the accused were involved in a common enterprise to obtain a personal gain by threatening to make allegations of misconduct by Malinauskas.
It was understood that benefit involved Digance being placed in a winnable spot on the Legislative Council ticket or being preselected for a safe Labor seat prior to the next state election in March.
In her application before the court,Digance said if any threats were made they fell within the so-called “political exception” to blackmail laws which protected “negotiations” to secure a political advantage.
She noted that almost a year passed between when the alleged offences occurred and when she and her husband were arrested, arguing the timing was designed to stymie a parliamentary inquiry into bullying and intimidation in the Labor Party.
She was also critical of police conduct during her arrest, including a direction for her to “duck” when she arrived at court in a police vehicle that was surrounded by TV cameras and journalists.
Digance said she instinctively did as she was instructed which “portrayed her in the public mind as a person guilty of a criminal offence”.
Her application to cross-examine Mr Malinauskas and her no case to answer submissions will be considered later this month.
Prosecutors have indicated they will oppose both applications.
-AAP
