{"id":722915,"date":"2026-06-08T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/722915\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:10:10","slug":"queensland-magistrate-suppresses-identity-of-man-with-high-public-profile-in-extortion-case-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/722915\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland magistrate suppresses identity of man with \u2018high public profile\u2019 in extortion case | Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland<\/a> magistrate has suppressed the name of a man with a \u201chigh public profile\u201d during an ongoing extortion case in Cairns.<\/p>\n

The man \u2013 referred to in court as MM \u2013 is not a party to the case, which was back before the Cairns<\/a> magistrates court on Monday.<\/p>\n

MM\u2019s conduct was allegedly used as the basis of an extortion attempt against a far north Queensland woman by her former partner.<\/p>\n

Sen Sgt Maynard Marcum applied for the suppression order to protect MM on behalf of the Queensland police commissioner, Brett Pointing.<\/p>\n

The magistrate Gelma Meoli ordered the court to be closed, except for accredited media.<\/p>\n

Barrister Andrew O\u2019Brien, representing media organisations, opposed the broader order suppressing identities beyond the alleged victim of the attempted extortion and the alleged perpetrator. O\u2019Brien argued that naming MM would not reveal the woman\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

He argued the magistrate lacked the power to make an order protecting any other party, citing a string of previous cases which he said found that a suppression order could only be made by \u201cnecessity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suppression orders were only necessary to protect the alleged victim\u2019s identity, the court was told on Monday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn a blackmail case, the complainant and the defendant share the guilty secret, whereas in an extortion case, it\u2019s different; it\u2019s one person revealing another person\u2019s guilty secret, to which they\u2019re not both a party,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

The alleged extortionist allegedly gained information by taking photographs of messages on the woman\u2019s computer, the court was told. He also allegedly made a \u201csupplementary threat\u201d regarding conduct by another friend of the woman.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said it was \u201ccurious and telling\u201d that the police applied for a suppression order that only protected the identity of MM and not the friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this were a genuine application directed at protecting complainants \u2026 coming forward, then our friend [Marcum] would also be seeking an order to protect that information.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election to pursue suppression of [MM] as opposed to the other woman \u2026 can only be explained by embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien argued that MM could have made an application in the supreme court if he believed his right to privacy was at risk, or he could have instructed a solicitor to represent him in the magistrates court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat your honour is being asked to do is to make orders to alleviate or remove empowerment, embarrassment, distress, reputational harm, or some other collateral issue for [MM], but that is just not a basis upon which this court could grant relief,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The police prosecutor, Marcum, argued the final decision should be left to the committal hearing; and if a suppression order was not made on Monday, \u201cit deprives the judge that will hear the matter from making that final determination\u201d.<\/p>\n

The magistrate determined that identifying MM would achieve the purpose of the alleged extortion and discourage future complainants from coming forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI acknowledge that [MM] in this application has a high public profile and this order is based on not that fact,\u201d Meoli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is based on the application of the law as it applies to any person, whether they be high profile or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The matter was scheduled to return to Cairns magistrates court on 28 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland magistrate has suppressed the name of a man with a \u201chigh public profile\u201d during an ongoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-722915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}