Derryn Hinch, a former Melbourne radio broadcaster, has been fined $100,000 for contempt of court.

Hinch was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria by Justice Stephen Kaye. The contempt related to comments Hinch made on his website about the Jill Meagher murder case.

In the decision, Justice Kaye referred to Hinch’s previous convictions for contempt of court: “You have a number of previous convictions for contempt of court, and for associated offences, which are relevant to the determination of your disposition in this case. In particular, you have three previous convictions for breaches of s4 of the Judicial Proceedings Reports Act 1958, namely, for publishing material that was likely to lead to the identification of a victim of a sexual offence. In addition, in 1986, you were convicted by this Court of two charges of contempt of court. The charges in that case concerned three radio broadcasts relating to charges of sexual offences committed by a priest. In those broadcasts, you referred to the priest’s previous convictions, and you accused him of committing further offences while he was on bail.” [Read more…]