Molloy convicted of legal breach
Restaurateur put killer’s name out on public forums
Auckland restaurateur Leo Molloy has been convicted, fined and ordered to complete community work for deliberately flouting a High Court suppression order and naming Grace Millane’s murderer online.
The owner of HeadQuarters in the Viaduct was the first and, to date, only person to be charged by New Zealand police after numerous suppression breaches before and after the highprofile murder trial of Jesse Kempson in November 2019.
Others were given warnings by police for identifying the British backpacker’s killer before he lost his name suppression last December. Kempson’s suppression remained long after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for Millane’s murder because he faced two further trials for violent sexual offending against two women.
Kempson was found guilty of all nine charges at both judgealone trials last year and is now appealing. The sentences will be served concurrently, with a non-parole period of 17 years.
Before Kempson was named, however, Molloy took it upon himself to let others know of the murderer’s identity.
Molloy pleaded guilty last year to knowingly or recklessly breaching Criminal Procedure Act suppression provisions.
Yesterday, the businessman, dressed in a pink blazer, was sentenced to 150 hours of community work and fined $15,000 by Judge Peter Winter in the Auckland District Court.
The judge said Molloy’s “blatant breach” potentially jeopardised Kempson’s subsequent two trials. He said Molloy appeared to display a deliberate desire to publicise that Kempson faced more allegations.
Molloy’s lawyer, David Jones QC, had sought a discharge without conviction for his client.
Jones said Molloy had a “deep rooted sense of justice and fairness” which drove him to name Kempson after believing Millane was victim shamed during the trial.
“He offended through, if I can call it, honourable motivation.”
Jones added Kempson’s identity was “one of the worst-kept secrets” because of breaches by international news organisations and social media users.
“With all due respect, the identity of Mr Kempson was well-known to anyone who wanted to Google it in a few seconds,” Jones said.
Molloy started a discussion on the NZ Premier Racing Community’s website, where the 65-year-old is known as “poundforpound”.
In a forum on the site called “Main Street Cafe” — with 2483 members — Molloy made a post at 4.54am titled: “This is the Grace Mullane murderer [sic]”.
The court documents show Molloy wrote: “He got name suppression because he’s also up on another independent rape charge … he needs a bullet.
” . . . I put it here because this forum has the traffic and people need to know about this dog.”
Later in the evening Kempson was found guilty of murder.
At 8.58pm Molloy made another post on the forum naming the recently convicted murderer, court documents show.
When spoken to by police, court documents show, Molloy said Kempson had “no rights”.
“Why should he be protected when this poor little girl wasn’t, and her family wasn’t?”
There were several breaches of Kempson’s name suppression after his arrest and first court appearance during December 2018 for murdering Millane.
One person sitting in the public gallery at the first hearing in the Auckland District Court posted a photo on their Facebook page, while the UK and Australian press also named Kempson.
But it was Google’s algorithm which was responsible for arguably the biggest breach when it inexplicably sent a mass email to its Kiwi subscribers naming Kempson. The tech behemoth was later warned by police and apologised.
In the days before Kempson was named last year, Court of Appeal President Justice Stephen Ko´ s said of Kempson’s suppression: “His identity has been published. You put his name into a computer and you find it.”
In the court’s decision declining the killer continued secrecy he added “it is time now for a dose of reality”.
“While the New Zealand media deserves great credit for its obedience to the suppression orders made in the High Court and this court, these orders have not been effective in overseas jurisdictions.”
The Court of Appeal also dismissed Kempson’s challenge against his murder conviction last year, however, the now 29-year-old’s legal team has signalled a final challenge to the Supreme Court.
Justice Minister Kris Faafoi earlier told the Herald there were no current plans to amend legislation relating to suppression.
Ministry of Justice officials and other agencies, however, are having ongoing discussions with tech and social media companies about how breaches of suppression orders can be quickly identified.