Queensland’s veteran human rights warrior on ‘miscarriages of justice’ past and present

Terry O'Gorman, criminal lawyer and civil libertarian, was one of the key figures in the inquiry that brought down Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian

Framed on the wall of Terry O’Gorman’s office in inner-city Brisbane is a white vest and a cartoon.

The criminal lawyer wore the legal observer’s vest as a law student with an Art Garfunkel-esque mop of curls during the brutal crackdown on those protesting against the now infamous tour of the apartheid-era South African rugby team in the early days of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen regime.