I’m a retired Supreme Court judge. Tom Silvagni should not have been prosecuted in secret

In April 2008, I jokingly referred to myself as the “Queen of Suppression Orders” when explaining to a jury why I had banned a show that had been about to air on the Seven network.

I was the Supreme Court judge in charge of the gangland murder trials involving Carl Williams and had issued some noteworthy suppression orders.

The TV segment was set to show Judy Moran arguing with Carl Williams’ mother over whose son was the better criminal.

When I commenced dealing with Williams, he faced at least seven trials, predominantly for murder and conspiracy to murder, which involved seven different murders, and they were anticipated to take many years to be heard. Despite those upcoming trials, Williams, the charges he faced and his family were daily media fodder.

One reason for the orders was that I presumed that the first application that Williams would make would be an application for a permanent stay of all the trials on the basis of that publicity.

It would have been impossible to find an impartial jury if they had read about his conviction for one execution-style murder immediately before his trial for another execution-style murder.

A successful application would have meant that he would not have been prosecuted at all. I must have been prescient as that was indeed the first application.

Because of the suppression order and due to the lapse of a few months with no publicity or reference to Williams, I was able to refuse the application.

The purpose of these orders was not to help Williams – it was to help the community have these trials dealt with as expedi