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February 11, 2026 — 5:00am
The state’s top prosecutor has expressed deep regret for failing to give her “complete attention” to an internal meeting held shortly before her office gave a negative story about a judge to a media outlet, but insisted she did not authorise the release of the information.
Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling, SC, has been at the centre of a long-running controversy after a highly critical story about District Court Judge Penelope Wass was aired on Sydney radio station 2GB.
Dowling has admitted the story emanated from her office, but has said she only became aware of this more than a year after the fact. She has not apologised to the judge.
The top prosecutor has urged a NSW upper house inquiry examining the incident to “formally put me on notice of any proposed adverse findings ... and give me an adequate opportunity to respond”. The inquiry is expected to report by February 20.
At the time of the 2GB story in October 2024, Wass and Dowling, among other District Court judges, were embroiled in an increasingly public row stemming from comments made by the judges in decisions in sexual assault proceedings.
The judges had expressed the view the ODPP was running unmeritorious prosecutions.
Dowling appeared before a parliamentary inquiry on December 5 last year and admitted her office effectively “gave the story” about Wass to 2GB, but said she had not become aware of this until about “two days ago”.
“At no time did I direct or ask for the [Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions] media manager to provide the story to 2GB,” she said.
At the heart of the 2GB story was an invitation Wass made to an Indigenous teen to perform what she called a Welcome to Country before he was sentenced for serious crimes. He delivered a short acknowledgement of “the traditional owners and custodians of this land” via video link, rather than a welcome.
Ben Fordham, host of 2GB’s morning program, described the “welcome” on air on October 25, 2024, as a “local scandal”. The youth had committed an aggravated break and enter involving the sexual touching of an elderly woman.
ODPP media manager Sally Killoran gave evidence to the inquiry on December 17 that Dowling was at a meeting with her and an external media consultant the day before the 2GB broadcast.
Killoran, who was relatively new in the role at the time and does not have legal training, said she “raised the topic of whether I could proactively pitch the story to the media” and suggested News Corp’s The Daily Telegraph.
“The external media consultant suggested that 2GB would probably be more interested. No one objected to this suggestion and, therefore, at the time, I believed I had approval to pitch the story,” Killoran said.
Killoran said she gave a screenshot to 2GB of an internal ODPP database showing details of the case, including the youth’s name, to help it “confirm the story”.
However, 2GB did not publish or broadcast his name to the public, in line with statutory restrictions on identifying children in criminal proceedings.
Dowling told the inquiry that providing the screenshot “did not involve any offence”, but she was unaware at the time that Killoran had sent it and did not authorise its disclosure.
Killoran gave evidence she made a mistake in releasing the screenshot because she had since learnt the database was for the eyes of ODPP staff only. She was issued a formal caution and counselled after an internal investigation.
The NSW parliamentary inquiry examining the incident was set up a year after the 2GB broadcast, ostensibly to examine existing identity protections for court proceedings involving children.
The Dowling-Wass saga has been the main focus of hearings, although it does not appear that the restrictions on identifying children in proceedings were breached. A police investigation concluded last year with no charges being laid.
Dowling said in a written response to supplementary questions on notice, dated February 2 and released publicly by the inquiry this week, that during the internal meeting she “was, as is my usual practice, also reading emails and texts concerning various prosecutions and other ODPP business”.
“I deeply regret now not giving that meeting my complete attention,” Dowling said.
“To my recollection, during this meeting, Ms Killoran and the external media consultant were discussing the story being in the public interest and discussing that the story would be of interest to news outlets.”
Dowling said she did not dispute that Killoran “had a mistaken understanding” she was authorised to raise the story with 2GB, but “I did not, and would not have, approved this occurring”.
“I repeat and stress that it was not my understanding that she intended to proactively raise the story with a journalist.”
Dowling said she did not have managerial responsibility for the media team. In 2024, that team was overseen by ODPP deputy director Frank Veltro, SC, now a District Court judge.
The controversy has significant implications for criminal proceedings in the District Court.
The Court of Appeal heard on December 18 that four criminal matters involving Wass had been “paused” because the ODPP wanted her to recuse herself on the grounds of apprehended bias. This is not an allegation of actual bias, but of the appearance of it.
This has triggered a pending Court of Appeal case about whether it breaches parliamentary privilege for Dowling’s office to rely on Wass’ submission as the basis for its recusal applications.
The stand-off between the DPP and District Court judges has been brewing for years. Two judges – Robert Newlinds and Peter Whitford – met with disapproval from the Judicial Commission after Dowling lodged complaints against them over their remarks in sexual assault cases.
The controversy does not extend to all judges. Without criticising police or prosecutors, District Court Judge Robyn Tupman made orders last year allowing a man acquitted of sexual assault to recover legal costs after finding the “complainant was a witness substantially lacking in credit”.
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