At times the accused was sent to a room below the court to take part in the proceedings by video-audio link. This banishment followed numerous outbursts from Eastman, including one when he called the trial judge, Justice Kenneth Carruthers, “a corrupt shit”.
Eastman also had a testy relationship with the many sets of lawyers he employed to conduct his defence. He ended the six-month trial in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court as he began it: representing himself. For long periods, despite urgings from the bench, he refused to engage in the proceedings at all.
Eastman, a former…
