Susan Moriarty says she and her client are preparing a dossier of online abuse for the federal police after Queensland police investigation

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A lawyer says she has received a violent threat over her role at the centre of a high-profile race discrimination case and that her client is preparing a dossier of online abuse to send to police.



Solicitor Susan Moriarty contacted Queensland police about a “particularly distressing” threat over her handling of a lawsuit targeting Queensland University of Technology students under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which included the threat: “We are coming to get you.”



It forms part of a bid to appeal against the federal circuit court’s dismissal of proceedings against the students by Moriarty’s client, former QUT Indigenous studies unit staffer Cindy Prior.



Court asked to close off search for origin of racist QUT Facebook post Read more

Prior also plans to lodge a complaint with the Australian federal police over the abuse she has received after publicity about her case.



This included a Facebook private message last Friday telling her she was a “racist bitch” who was “not fit to shovel shit”.

Moriarty has detailed in court papers a message, which nominated the Australian’s letters to the editor email address as a point of contact, and linked to a story by the newspaper about her role in the case.

An affidavit filed by Moriarty states that police attended her Brisbane law firm on 14 November after her office manager “forwarded emails on to me emailed to the firm over the weekend, one of which, linked to the Weekend Australian article, read: ‘We are coming to get you’.



“For reasons relating to my particular family circumstances I found that particularly distressing,” she said.



The message contained the subject line “blackmail and extortion”, stating it was from “Readers of The Australian <letters@theaustralian.com.au>”.

Prior’s lawyers have argued in court that the Australian’s extensive coverage of her case has enabled a “platform” for those campaigning to wind back section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” others on the grounds of race, colour or ethnicity.



They filed material showing coverage of the case, mainly by the Australian, had received 24,500 online comments, include alleged calls for violence against Prior.



Moriarty told Guardian Australia a female police officer investigating her complaint had advised her to contact the Australian and ask them to disable online comments on its coverage of the case “because they were inciting violence”.

A Queensland police spokesman confirmed officers provided that advice but said they did not launch an investigation, as Moriarty did not make a formal complaint. Moriarty said she did not contact the Australian as she doubted it would take action.

The solicitor said she was shocked at this response by police, adding: “I can assure you they attended my office because I made a complaint.”

“What on earth were they doing at my office on 14 November after my office manager telephoned and said that I needed to speak with police about a death threat?

“As an employment lawyer, I can tell you the words ‘formal complaint’ mean something and at no stage did they tell me I needed to ‘formalise’ my complaint.

“Better still, they phoned 30 minutes to an hour later and said they were trying to track down the [threatening] emails and how difficult it was because they were false email addresses.”

Moriarty said she has asked Prior to collate a dossier of abusive and threatening online messages to report to the AFP.

“This has been the subject of commentary not just in North America but in Europe as well,” she said. “There are many other Facebook posts but the problem is they’ve been travelling at such a rate over the past six months, I’ve not been able to keep up.



“But certainly I’ve asked her to prepare a dossier and we’re going to the federal police because this has got to stop.”

Moriarty said Prior had been lambasted by trolls who wrongly assumed she had not worked since her successful WorkCover claim against QUT.

In fact, Prior had been working for the past 15 months but Moriarty decided against including details of her employer in court material out of concern that she could be targeted at her workplace.

Moriarty’s account of the alleged threats forms part of her case for the federal court to allow Prior’s appeal outside the deadline for lodging it. The application will be heard on Friday.

The Australian story referred to in the alleged threat towards Moriarty involved former QUT student Kyran Findlater, who spoke of correspondence with Moriarty over her client’s request to settle her complaint out of court for $5,000.

Moriarty claimed that Findlater had breached confidentiality terms of the settlement by giving the interview.

Findlater was among students who commented on the QUT “Stalker Space” Facebook page after Prior asked three white students, including Alex Wood, to leave an Indigenous-only computer room in 2013.

Prior, in a $250,000 lawsuit that ultimately went to court naming QUT and three students, argued unsuccessfully that the Facebook comments breached section 18C. On Friday a court ordered her to pay the students’ estimated legal costs of more than $200,000.



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