The Australian’s podcast Shadow of Doubt led to a delay of ۱۰ months for the sex offence trial of a “sadistic” paedophile already serving a ۴۸-year jail term for abusing his daughter, court documents have revealed.
William “Rob” Gilfillan, a former physical education teacher, was to stand trial in Victoria in February last year on five counts of indecent assault and sexual penetration of a person under ۱۶, relating to two schoolgirls in his care in Gippsland in the ۱۹۸۰s.
Due to the presumption of innocence the jury could not be told about Gilfillan’s convictions for child abuse in New South Wales.
The Shadow of Doubt podcast, launched in March ۲۰۲۳, claimed the conviction for the rape and torture of his daughter in ۲۰۱۶ may be a “grave miscarriage of justice”.
Gilfillan and his ex-wife Karen, who was also jailed for sexual abuse, told The Australian from jail: “We’re innocent … these things just did not happen.”
An editorial in the newspaper in ۲۰۲۳ said the victim’s story was “manifestly implausible”.
Neither the podcast nor other reporting named the Gilfillans, because there were suppression orders in place until a jury returned a verdict in the Victorian courts.
But details such as the family’s involvement in high-level athletics and teaching meant people recognised them.
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On the eve of the empanelment of the jury in the Victorian case last year, the defence barrister, Paul Kounnas, told the court his client’s name and criminal history was easily discoverable online.
Kounnas said the reporting of the jail interview by the journalist Richard Guilliatt had sparked feverish speculation on internet forums such as Reddit.
“The podcast is the first link that comes up on typing the accused’s name into Google, even though he is not identified by name in that podcast,” Kounnas said.
“The podcast is one called Shadow of Doubt … and it details the record prison sentences received in this matter and alludes to the nature of the ‘depraved abuse’ that the trial was subject of.”
Kounnas applied for a permanent stay of the trial, arguing the “prejudice is immediate and obvious”.
“It has been inflamed to such a degree by the podcast, which I understand was reasonably high profile, that it’s fuelled the internet flames, so to speak,” Kounnas said in court transcripts seen by Guardian Australia.
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The prosecutor, Sandra MacDougall, said the publicity had “created an irredeemable prejudice to the conduct of this trial”.
Justice Michael O’Connell denied a stay but ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions to attempt to remove the prejudicial material from the internet before the trial could go ahead. He delayed jury selection until ۱ December ۲۰۲۵.
“I’m very troubled by the continuing position where these comments remain on the internet notwithstanding that, for weeks now we’ve identified a very significant problem potentially affecting the fairness of the trial and nothing’s been done it seems to resolve the problem,” O’Connell said.
When the trial went ahead in December the jury found Gilfillan guilty of “brazen and forcible” sexual crimes and he was sentenced in June to seven-and-a-half years in jail, to be served concurrently with his record ۴۸-year term.
The Australian did not respond to a request for comment.
In April, Corrective Services NSW said it was investigating how Guilliatt had been able to interview the couple in jail.
After legal restrictions were lifted, the victim in the NSW case agreed to be identified by news.com.au and said the podcast had been highly detrimental to her mental health.
