Daily Telegraph’s ‘inaccurate’ reporting taken into account by judge when sentencing paedophile

Some of the coverage by News Corp and 2GB ‘went far beyond appropriate and expected denunciation of those who commit offences of child sexual assault’. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

The “sensational” and “inaccurate” reporting of a trial by the Daily Telegraph and a Nine broadcaster’s wish that the offender be “riddled with cancer” were taken into account when sentencing a convicted paedophile, a Sydney district court judge has said.

Sydney’s Downing Centre district court judge Robyn Tupman was critical of News Corp’s framing of the offender as the “pony club prowler” and remarks by 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley who said “I hope his life is short and I hope it is spent in jail as well.”