FED: Einfeld cool under fire

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2007
FED: Einfeld cool under fire

By Amy Coopes

SYDNEY, Dec 11 AAP - For a man who had just suffered a character assassination, Marcus
Einfeld appeared remarkably sanguine.

The 69-year-old former judge cut an imposing figure in the Downing Centre Local Court
today, ambling into court just before his case was to resume and assuming a seat in the
second row.

Before long it was standing room only, as media and interested onlookers packed the
Sydney courtroom for his committal hearing on traffic and perjury charges.

His co-accused Angela Liati and her lawyer were among the last to enter, standing among
the crowd who lined the walls and doorway for most of the hearing.

At the bar, Einfeld's counsel Ian Barker QC was also on his feet, to register his "disgust"

that the prosecution was working "in step" with the media.

With his face plastered across the front pages of Sydney's major daily newspapers,
Einfeld had already undoubtedly attracted a few curious looks from fellow commuters during
his train journey to court.

Accompanying the pictures were the comments of prosecutor Wayne Roser SC, who in yesterday's
opening address labelled the human rights advocate a man who "lies at will" when it serves
his interests.

Einfeld had twice used an old friend, whom he knew to be dead, as an alibi to avoid
paying traffic fines, Mr Roser told the court yesterday.

It was a "systematic course of criminality" by a man who "changes his story and gives
a different version which he perceives will assist him" when caught out lying.

Mr Barker today cried foul, accusing the crown of making a "generalised and unjustified
attack on Mr Einfeld's character".

"The document contains material which travels far beyond what was necessary for a balanced
statement of facts," Mr Barker said.

"It makes the prospect of a fair trial on any of these matters a remote possibility."

Einfeld appeared unperturbed, his eyes fixed forward and unblinking.

He seemed similarly unmoved when his close friend, Vivian Schenker, took the stand
to testify they had lunched together on the northern beaches on January 8, and had travelled
in his car.

The former SBS Dateline journalist, a friend of Einfeld's for 20 years, agreed to give
evidence against him after police confronted her with CCTV footage contradicting her original
claim that he had collected her in his mother's car.

Einfeld smiled faintly, but did not meet Ms Schenker's eye, as she agreed her memory
of events was "imperfect" and she could not picture the car he was driving that day.

Outside court he faced the waiting media alone, his head held high as he strode past
the cameras towards the railway station.

AAP ajc/was/sp

KEYWORD: EINFELD SCENE (PIX AVAILABLE)

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