“Some of that information could only have come from a participant in the meeting. Some of the information was a distortion of what had been said.”

Mr Davis said during a subsequent emergency Bar Council meeting he wrote to Mr Bleijie to confirm his position.

“It is not appropriate to disclose the content of that letter, save to say that it did not urge the appointment of Judge Carmody,” he said.



Mr Davis also claimed that during a phone call on June 8 a close colleague of Judge Carmody told another Bar Council member that Judge Carmody’s appointment was a “fait accompli” and the Bar Association should support it.

Mr Davis, who as president of the Bar Association represented the state’s barristers, said the government claimed to have consulted widely on the appointment.



“My sense though is that there was little, if any, support for the appointment within the legal profession and little, or none, within the ranks of sitting Supreme Court judges,” he wrote.



“Senior figures warned against the appointment and some have spoken out against it since its announcement.”

Mr Davis said he had tried to maintain the dignity of the courts through the appointment process but his position was no longer tenable.