Jailed former military lawyer David McBride appeals severity of whistleblowing sentence
ABCFormer military lawyer David McBride has asked the ACT Court of Appeal to set aside a ruling he said left him with no option but to plead guilty to theft and distributing classified material to journalists. But that was abandoned when ACT Supreme Court Justice David Mossop refused to instruct the jury on the concept of "duty" in terms that McBride had requested. ACT Supreme Court Justice David Mossop found McBride knew he had an obligation to protect the material he distributed. But the trial never happened, with McBride having pleaded guilty after Justice Mossop refused to instruct the jury that his duty under the Defence Force Discipline Act was outweighed by his duty to the Australian public as per his oath to the Queen as a member of the Australian Defence Force.
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