Broadcaster Derryn Hinch has been found guilty of breaching a court suppression order but not guilty of contempt of court over information he published about the Jill Meagher case.
Hinch was charged after using his Human Headline website to publish information about convicted rapist and murderer Adrian Ernest Bayley that had been suppressed in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye on Wednesday found Hinch guilty of breaching a court order but not guilty of common law contempt.
Sentencing submissions will be made on Friday October 11.
On his website, Hinch published details of Bayley’s earlier rape convictions and reported that the killer’s parents had warned police shortly before Ms Meagher’s murder that they feared he might attack a woman.
Hinch also reported that police investigating sex crimes had approached the parole board to have Bayley’s parole revoked.
But Hinch’s lawyer David Gilbertson told his trial only 797 individual views of the website had been made over a four-day period in April this year at a time when the court order was in place.
The order was made during the arraignment proceedings in which Bayley ultimately pleaded guilty to Ms Meagher’s rape and murder in September last year.
