Lloyd Rayney — the barrister cleared of murdering his wife who then won a $2.6 million defamation payout from the police who accused him — has been recommended to be kicked out of the legal profession for lying to a magistrate.

For the first time since a State Administrative Tribunal ruling in January, it can now be reported how Mr Rayney has been found guilty of professional misconduct by a panel headed by Supreme Court judge Peter Martino.

That finding could spell the end of Mr Rayney’s career in the law in WA.

The findings revolve around allegations that before his wife Corryn’s death, as the couple’s marriage crumbled, the former top prosecutor covertly recorded their heated conversations using a dictaphone.

Although he was never charged or convicted of a criminal offence over the recordings, he was quizzed about them by magistrate Martin Flynn, in secret, in November 2009.

And WA’s Legal Professional Complaints Committee claimed during that interrogation, Mr Rayney swore an affidavit he knew was false and then gave similarly untrue evidence to the magistrate in person. After a hearing late last year, Justice Martino found Mr Rayney’s actions did make him guilty of professional misconduct.

But until now, that ruling has been suppressed so not to prejudice Mr Rayney’s recent appearance for a defendant in a long-running and complicated District Court trial, which subsequently collapsed.

An 11th hour bid before the WA Supreme Court late yesterday to have the penalties stayed, and further suppressed, failed.

And so the LPCC’s recommendation that Mr Rayney be struck off for deliberately misleading a court and a magistrate can now be revealed.

“An emphatic message should be sent that such conduct should not be tolerated ... and is incompatible with anyone in the legal profession. The result should not be in doubt,” John Vaughan SC, representing the LPCC, said at a hearing in March.

“The golden rule is that the witness (in any legal proceeding) is told to tell the truth ... (Mr Rayney’s conduct) strikes at the very core of the legal system,”

Mr Rayney has appealed against the SAT’s rulings, which will lead to a hearing in WA’s highest court.

If that fails, the Supreme Court will then decide whether Mr Rayney will be allowed to work in WA as a lawyer again.