Court demands Underbelly tapes
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The Nine Network must hand over copies of Underbelly, plus episode outlines and story lines, to the Victorian Supreme Court by 10am Monday morning.
The Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) has subpoenaed tapes of the 13 episode series, to be viewed by Supreme Court Justice Betty King and lawyers.
There are concerns its broadcast may prejudice a murder trial.
The court is to receive 13 hours of tapes on Monday, only two days before the show is due to go to air.
Both the DPP and lawyers for an alleged killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will not receive a fair trial if the series goes ahead.
“This is well-crafted, powerful, interesting, riveting and indeed illuminating,” said lawyer Anthony Brand.
“I do not want this material at all in the arena.”
The court heard the series would be screened on dates coinciding with the murder trial.
The alleged killer is not named in the series but a character in Underbelly is based on him. His alleged victim is a character in the series.
Justice King, sitting in Geelong, expressed grave doubts about the series going ahead.
“How can this man get a fair trial when the whole gangland wars are exposed on national television?” Justice King said.
She said the series may portray the alleged victim as “a particularly evil man or a nice man, I don’t know.
“It is putting it at the precise same time as the trial into the loungerooms of every potential juror in Victoria.
“The whole purpose of Underbelly is to be in the homes of every Victorian – that is the purpose of your client.”
Brendan Murphy, for the Nine Network, refused to voluntarily hand over the tapes, saying they were incomplete and that the network’s lawyers were closely supervising production.
He said the series made no assertions about the guilt of the accused killer.
An edited version of the series would be shown in Victoria, Mr Murphy said.
“The fact of the matter is Channel Nine has taken this very seriously,” Mr Murphy said.
The subpoena states that copies of two completed episodes, along with uncut versions of the other 11 episodes, plus episode outlines and story lines, must be handed to the court by 10am on Monday.
Any court order would only affect the series being shown in Victoria.
Source: AAP / The Age
7 Responses
They need to do a good investigation into the alleged disappearance of William Tyrell and why there is no concern about is sister Leah. How killing a child in a driveway, drowning in pools, left in bath or car to die or driving up on a footpath and killing a child is always put down by Police to tragic accident. No adult is ever to blame.
It’s “pay back” time, Channel 9.
For weeks I have been forced to suffer the UB supers over other programs.
Thanks Channel 9, you have turned me against UB so much because of your incessant supers, that now I have no wish to see UB, and that’s the way it’ll stay.
You brought it on yourself.
Your promotion turned to harassment.
Well, that serves you right, Channel NINE, you choose to take off MOONLIGHT to fit this in and then you may not be able to air it at all …
I swear … I had nothing to do with it! 🙂
Jack!
It will be interesting to see what will happen, if the show is banned from airing in Victoria, what programming nine would have to come up with as an alternative and also the time frame on how long the ban would be, I hope it is not as long as the one for Blue Murder(I think that was 6 years for NSW).
Its unfair the courts are only now acting the shows been due to air in February for a long while now. This could’ve been dealt with sooner rather than leaving it until a few nights before it premiere.
I’m really looking forward to it, thankfully I’m a NSW resident!!
Oh, so we in Victoria get an “edited version”?
Guess this is one I’ll be torrenting, then.
I hope the Courts will let this show to air.. Ive been looking forward for a very long time to watch this show.