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Steve Barrett is a very well known journalist who has frequently broken some important and tough stories.

His work often led him into the dark underbelly of our society whether it was dealing with police and criminals or paedophiles such as his scoop in finding notorious serial paedophile, Dolly Dunn.

Some may suggest after 39 years of working at the pointy end of journalism he should have retired honourably but good journalists can never say no to a good story and revealing the truth.

In simply doing his job on one last big yarn he found himself accused of taking part in a $5 million blackmail of members of the Plutus Payroll tax fraud scheme.

He maintained his innocence from the moment he was charged in 2018, telling the court he was simply chasing “a bloody good story” .

Those charges were ultimately dropped when the prosecution’s chief witness was described as indulging in a “blizzard of lies”.

Barrett’s solicitor, Andrew O’Brien, said,

“Prosecuting authorities must be careful not to confuse mere contact by journalists with criminals as criminal conduct itself – yet that confusion is what has occurred in this case.”

Presiding judge, Natalie Adams, declared; “no further proceedings have been directed in this matter. That is the end of it,”

But the damage had been done, he lost the family home and his reputation and had to survive on social security benefits. He described those lost years as; “seven years of torture for me and my family”.

But that’s not the end of the pain, Steve Barrett sought a cost award of the $500,000 he had to spend to try and survive this legal nightmare.

But now Judge Adams has rejected that application.

In response, Steve posed a central question; “I would urge the federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus to look at why the Australian Federal Police told the Commonwealth DPP there should be no charges against me but the Commonwealth DPP still went ahead,”

Charged for simply doing his job, charges dismissed but still fined for simply doing his job.

We urge you to stand by truth telling and by journalists who forage in the dark corridors of our criminal world.

Support Steve, support public interest journalism and donate to our HELP STEVE fundraising efforts.