Margaret Cunneen

Background and early career

Cunneen was born at St. Margaret's Hospital in Darlinghurst, the daughter of John and Catherine Cunneen. Her father was a civil engineer who became chief of the NSW Water Resources Commission. Cunneen grew up in the south western suburbs of Sydney, was educated at Santa Sabina College, Strathfield.

She joined the Attorney General's Department in 1977, working in the Ministerial office. She was an Industrial Officer at the Public Service Board of NSW from 1981 to 1986, when she transferred to what is now the New South Wales Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions where her immediate manager was Megan Latham. After commencing study part-time in 1977, she graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the NSW Institute of Technology in 1982 and a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney in 1989. In 1982, she was admitted a legal practitioner of the New South Wales Supreme Court. In 2014 she was awarded the Law Alumni Award by the University of Technology.

Crown Prosecutor

Cunneen is a Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor in the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and has held a commission as a Crown Prosecutor since 1990. She came to prominence when she prosecuted a series of highly publicised pedophiles and several notable gang rape and murder trials.

In October 2007 Cunneen was appointed as Senior Counsel and her peers at the Bar elected her as one of 21 members of the Bar Council of New South Wales. She is a Bar Councillor, having received the second highest number of votes in the 2014 Bar Council elections.

Between 1995 and 2009 Cunneen was a lecturer in child abuse and neglect, focusing on the court system, at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of New South Wales.

In April 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Cunneen had been removed as prosecutor in the trial of an alleged gang rapist after the court found there would be a perception of unfairness if she acted in the case. Cunneen had referred to the case, although without naming it and speaking only in reference to the deleterious effects on the victim arising from the seven–year delay in concluding it, during the Sir Ninian Stephen Lecture in 2005 at Newcastle University. Cunneen's lecture was described by Justice David Levine as "the most articulate commentary on the criminal justice system, in my opinion". The decision to remove her was criticised by the New South Wales Bar Association, however it was not appealed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. John Marsden wrote to the Legal Services Commissioner, calling Cunneen "a disgrace to our profession". His complaint was dismissed.

In 2010, Cunneen as a private citizen, gave character evidence for Brett Stewart, referring to his having campaigned in New Guinea against violence towards women, in Sydney's District Court in his trial after an allegation of sexual assault. Stewart was found not guilty by the jury in under an hour's deliberation.

ICAC investigation

Following a serious car accident involving the girlfriend of one of her sons, it was alleged by an anonymous complainant that Cunneen, her son (Stephen Wyllie), and his injured girlfriend (Sophia Tilley) attempted to influence the outcome of police inquiries into the accident by attempting to pervert the course of justice. Cunneen rejected the claims against her. Cunneen was accused of advising Sophia Tilley to fake chest pains to avoid a breath test after the car accident.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) announced on 29 October 2014 that it would begin investigations into her alleged actions. Independent witnesses at the scene vouched that Tilley was being treated in the ambulance before the police, and later Cunneen, arrived. Tilley, who was not the at fault driver, was blood-tested at hospital and recorded 0.00. Cunneen submitted that the failure of ICAC to clearly illustrate the reasons for their decision to investigate Cunneen’s alleged conduct was to commission an investigation whereby acting beyond their powers. Cunneen successfully appealed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal, and ICAC was granted leave for the matter to be heard before the High Court of Australia.

On 15 April 2015 the High Court found that ICAC had exceeded its authority based on its misinterpretation of "corrupt conduct" in the ICAC Act. The Court ruled that Cunneen's alleged conduct, had it occurred, might have affected an official's choice of action, but would not have affected the official's probity in making that choice. The High Court also held that the alleged conduct could not have amounted to corruption. The Court accepted that the alleged conduct of Cunneen, had it occurred, would have been in a private and not an official capacity, and also found that the alleged conduct could not have amounted to corruption. ICAC was ordered to pay costs.

On 27 May 2015, ICAC referred the allegations against Cunneen, Wyllie and Tilley to the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions. The DPP referred the matter to the Attorney General, who referred it to the Solicitor General. The Solicitor General, after obtaining advice from senior counsel in another state in view of Cunneen's prominence in the NSW legal profession, determined that there was no evidence whatever warranting the prosecution of any of them for any offence. Following this decision, Cunneen criticised ICAC's powers as "extraordinarily draconian".

Notable cases

Notable cases successfully prosecuted by Cunneen include:

In 2004 it was reported that Cunneen's advice to Nicholas Cowdery, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, concerning sexual abuse allegations against an Australian swimming coach, Scott Volkers, was leaked. It was reported that Cunneen's advice stated that "the inevitable conclusion from the brief as a whole is that Scott Volkers was a thoroughly disreputable man, given to inappropriate touching and comments towards young swimmers in his charge." But it warned that the situation was "complicated by the fondness of many for him." Her final assessment of the matter was that "prosecution of these old matters being so relatively minor would erode public confidence in the course of the criminal justice system." In July 2014 Cunneen made a statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Commissioner

On 9 November 2012 Cunneen was appointed Commissioner of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. Commissioner Cunneen reported to the NSW Governor Marie Bashir on 30 May 2014.

Personal life

Cunneen lives in Sydney's North Shore. She has three sons, born in 1988, 1990 and 1992.

The fictional character Janet King, in the ABC TV drama series of the same name, is believed to be loosely based on Cunneen.