First, a sense of proportion; at the time Marcus Einfeld wrote a false name for the driver of the Lexus at the heart of the sorry case that saw him taken into custody this month, the maximum, I repeat, the maximum fine for making a false declaration of that nature was $1000.

Second, a declaration: I've known Marcus for 30 years and worked on many cases with him - some contentious, some not.

That said; has there ever been a more pernicious avalanche of bile and hate by the press directed at a man who spent the previous 70 years of his life attempting to build a better Australia, a better world? A less circumspect man than myself might have written that he is not the first Jew they have crucified.

Peter Fitzsimons of this paper is not alone to query the crushing sentence of the Supreme Court. The legal basis of the punishment will be analysed on any appeal that is lodged. It will not be an easy task for an appeal court to choose between the judgment of a single judge and the misjudgment of a retired judge. It is not the law I want to address: it has been full of holes - inadequate, chaotic and mysterious - since the Ten Commandments. I make my living pointing this out.

But the whole head-on-a-stick reaction of the press, radio callers and lip-licking popularists is another matter; it reeks of what mobs have always wanted - blood, especially if it is different from theirs. It is embarrassing to witness. It is cruel beyond words. It should be un-Australian. Oh, where are the angels of mercy? When should you be able to call upon the reservoir of good graces and goodwill you have built up over a lifetime? Why do we need sacrificial lambs?