NSW’s top prosecutor gave false evidence on media leak about young Indigenous offender, inquiry finds

Sally Dowling admits her office pitched the story but says it was not authorised by her, while her colleagues call her ‘a person of integrity’

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A New South Wales parliamentary committee report has made findings accusing the state’s top prosecutor of giving false evidence under oath to an inquiry and recommended the attorney general investigate whether there are grounds to remove her from office.

But the state’s attorney general, Michael Daley, has called the report a “stitch-up from the outset” and said it was “the worst … that I have seen in my nearly 21 years in parliament”.

The upper house inquiry voted 4-3 to find that the NSW director of public prosecutions, Sally Dowling, authorised pitching a story to radio station 2GB about a sentencing hearing involving a young person, and “falsely denied having done so in her evidence to the committee”.

Its report, released on Tuesday, found there was “no genuine public interest” in the office of the director of public prosecutions (ODPP) “proactively and surreptitiously” pitching the story. It found the action had risked identifying the child involved, and would “most likely constitute a breach of the prosecution guidelines ”.

The committee recommended that Daley “consider establishing a formal inquiry with compulsory powers to examine [the findings] … with a view to determining whether there are grounds to remove the Director of Public Prosecutions from office”.

Dowling, who gave evidence to the inquiry, has admitted her office pitched the story, but strongly rejected any suggestions she authorised it.

The inquiry, which was set up to examine protections against identifying children in court proceedings, which is an offence in NSW, instead focused mostly on an October 2024 incident which saw Dowling’s department share details to 2GB about the sentencing hearing of an Indigenous child.

The child, incorrectly described in the broadcast as having performed a “welcome” to country , was not named on air. A police investigation into whether the child had been illegally identified ended last year with no charges being laid.

District court judge Penelope Wass, who had allowed the child to perform an acknowledgment of country before sentencing them for serious crimes, wrote a 68-page submission to the inquiry alleging Dowling had organised the leaking of the story.

Wass, who has been among district court judges who have criticised the ODPP’s handling of sexual assault prosecutions under Dowling’s tenure, said the alleged leak was “designed to embarrass and defame me and to undermine the independence of a district court judge with whom the ODPP has had issue”.

When Dowling first appeared before the inquiry last year, she said she had only heard her office had been the source of the story two days before her December 2025 appearance. She alleged Wass had a “personal grievance” against her and the ODPP, and accused the inquiry of a “gross denial of procedural fairness”.

The inquiry later heard evidence from the ODPP’s media manager, Sally Killoran, about a meeting with Dowling and an external media adviser the day before the story aired on Ben Fordham’s breakfast show on 25 October 2024.

Killoran said during the meeting she had discussed “proactively pitch[ing]” the story to the Daily Telegraph. She said the external media adviser suggested that 2GB “would be more interested”.

“No one objected to this suggestion and, therefore, at the time, I believed I had approval to pitch the story to the radio station. Believing I was authorised to do so, I contacted 2GB.”

Dowling later told the inquiry that while she did not dispute Killoran’s “mistaken understanding”, she did not authorise pitching the story. The external media adviser did not appear before the inquiry or make herself available to be served a summons to give evidence .

In written evidence to the inquiry, Dowling said she had been reading emails and text messages about other ODPP matters during the meeting.

The 4-3 majority on the committee report found that Dowling gave false evidence, including “claiming she only discovered in December 2025 the story had been pitched by the [ODPP], despite having sat in the meeting where pitching the story to 2GB was decided upon”.

Stephen Lawrence MLC, the only Labor member out of three on the committee to vote in favour of the recommendations, used a dissenting statement to go further, describing the ODPP as “the most powerful repository of public power in the criminal justice system”.

“This report reveals a failure to properly administer media comment guidelines and the improper use of information. Public confidence in the ODPP needs to be restored and protected,” said Lawrence, a criminal barrister.

Support for Dowling

Before the report was published on Tuesday, all of Dowling’s commonwealth, state and territory counterparts wrote to Daley, supporting Dowling.

The 30 June letter, seen by Guardian Australia, reads: “We have each had significant professional involvement with Ms Dowling SC in her role as the director and collectively hold the view that she is a person of integrity who, in our dealings, has always conducted herself in an exemplary and ethical manner.”

Daley said he had full confidence in Dowling.

“The report makes findings that are unsupported by the evidence. It reaches conclusions that are contrary to sworn testimony. It treats mere suspicion and speculation as fact,” he said.

“Given my serious concerns about the recommendations and findings made in this report, I will instruct the Crown Solicitor’s Office to brief senior counsel to review it.”

A dissenting statement by the committee’s deputy chair, Greens MLC Sue Higginson, said the “unfounded and biased findings … are both irresponsible and incredible”.

“The report’s assertions that the Director possibly broke the law by providing false evidence to the committee, and that the Director’s conduct possibly warrants her removal from office, are profoundly serious allegations that have been made irresponsibly and erroneously. They should be rejected.”

After a court decision in favour of the Minns government, parliamentary committees lost the power to compel witnesses. Higginson said that change, which saw at least one key witness not appear at the inquiry, had “a negative impact on the veracity with which this inquiry can make findings”.

The inquiry found that while safeguarding children’s identities during criminal proceedings helped improve the prospects of rehabilitation, some in NSW were likely being identified “through a ‘jigsaw’ of information”.

It recommended the government expand the definition of information which can lead to identification.

In response to questions for Dowling and the department, a spokesperson said “the ODPP and the Director value the attorney general’s support and full confidence”, welcoming Daley’s rejection of the findings and decision to brief senior counsel. “The ODPP acts with integrity and independence. That is not going to change. We have nothing further to add,” they said.