A female prosecutor was so infatuated with her boyfriend she was driven to reopen his road rage sentence and lie to the magistrate to secure him a lighter penalty.
A new psychiatric report in the case of disgraced former prosecutor Rosanna Doolan has cast light on the motivation for her May 2012 “brain snap”.
Doolan managed to have then-boyfriend Dax Roep’s compensation liability for a road rage assault halved after telling the magistrate Roep had not slapped his victim in the face, but had pushed her.
She was convicted of two counts of misconduct in public office last year and sentenced to 18-months’ jail, but successfully appealed.
A new psychiatrist’s report for Doolan was submitted in the Brisbane District Court on Monday, when the former prosecutor was let off with a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to the lesser charges of abuse of office and abuse of office for gain.
Judge Kiernan Dorney said the doctor’s report found Ms Doolan had been so desperate to hold onto her “idealisation” of Roep that she had lost sight of the bigger picture.
“It is clear that the infatuation you had with your boyfriend gave you a blinkered view of your role as a prosecutor in the criminal justice system,” Judge Dorney told Ms Doolan in sentencing.
“It is also clear that you were aware of the nature of what you were doing.”
The psychiatrist’s report found Doolan’s behaviour wasn’t a result of mental illness but a “personality flaw” that caused her anxiety.
She had been diagnosed with several mental conditions including borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder.
She had also been abusing alcohol at the time of the scandal, which was described as a “brain snap” at her trial.
Judge Dorney accepted Doolan had been publicly shamed by media reporting of the scandal, and took into account the four months’ imprisonment she served before her appeal.
He sentenced her to terms of six months’ imprisonment and ten months’ imprisonment, both suspended for 12 months.
© AAP 2015