{"id":39485,"date":"2025-07-05T01:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T01:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/39485\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T01:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T01:03:13","slug":"retired-ccc-head-john-mckechnie-reflects-on-more-than-40-years-in-public-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/39485\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired CCC head John McKechnie reflects on more than 40 years in public service"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARNING: This story contains details readers may find distressing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After more than four decades in public life, there isn’t much prosecutor, judge and corruption fighter John McKechnie hasn’t seen.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had the hapless, the helpless, premiers, paupers, the foolish, the wise,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“And as a judge, you get the best seat in the house because it all unfolds before you.”<\/p>\n

Mr McKechnie took up that seat on the Supreme Court after a legal career which saw him appointed the state’s first director of public prosecutions in 1991.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The latest chapter of Mr McKechnie’s career, with the CCC, came to an end this week. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

After 16 years on the bench, rather than retire, he was appointed to lead WA’s Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) out of a troubled period \u2014 a role he held from 2015 to earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Former Chief Justice Wayne Martin once described the legal juggernaut as having “something of an addiction” to public service.<\/p>\n

Through it all though, one topic still weighs heavily: the scourge of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

\"CCC<\/p>\n

For the legal juggernaut, domestic violence is still one of the biggest issues in society. (ABC News: Kenith Png)<\/p>\n

“It’s a very complex issue, and at heart, it’s our community values, it’s all of us on trial” he said.<\/p>\n

“What do we do when we hear neighbours screaming? Nothing, or do something?<\/p>\n

\"WA<\/p>\n

The last case Mr McKechnie saw as a judge centred around domestic violence. (Supplied: WAN)<\/p>\n

“We can’t put it all on police. We certainly can’t put it all on courts.<\/p>\n

“Courts are always there at the end of the process, not at the beginning.”<\/p>\n

50 years and no change<\/p>\n

It has been one of few constants in Mr McKechnie’s life.<\/p>\n

“The proper term is serious crime,” he said of family violence when he announced his retirement.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

Mr McKechnie was chief crown prosecutor in 1990. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“I started my career as prosecutor \u2026 in a case where a man had stabbed his wife to death.<\/p>\n

“My last case as a judge \u2026 was a case where a man had stabbed his wife to death.”<\/p>\n

Corruption watchdog probes how Floreat murderer legally owned firearms<\/a><\/p>\n

WA’s corruption watchdog is investigating how a man who killed two women in Floreat was able to legally own firearms.<\/p>\n

And his second-last report at the CCC investigated the circumstances around one of the state’s most shocking family and domestic violence deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Fifty-odd years \u2026 nothing had changed,” Mr McKechnie said.<\/p>\n

“The only thing that’s changed is that politicians have now discovered domestic violence. It’s always been there.<\/p>\n

“Laws won’t help it. More police won’t help. We need a fundamental change in the community attitude to domestic violence.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Abortion firestorm\u00a0<\/p>\n

McKechnie’s influence on Western Australia’s laws began long before he took his seat on the Supreme Court bench.<\/p>\n

He was director of public prosecutions in 1998 when a boy told his teacher about a baby his family had in their freezer.<\/p>\n

\"Supreme<\/p>\n

In 1999, Mr McKechnie was sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court. (AAP: Richard Wainwright)<\/p>\n

“The mother had had a termination at a clinic with two doctors, and she wished to take the fetus back to her homelands for burial,” McKechnie said.<\/p>\n

“In the end, I charged, or caused to be charged, the two doctors. That ignited a firestorm.<\/p>\n

Abortion reform architects say it’s time for law update<\/a><\/p>\n

The architects of the first law to decriminalise abortion in\u00a0Australia say their home state now lags behind the rest of the country and further changes are needed.<\/p>\n

“As I said to my junior counsel at the time, as they say on fireworks, light blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance.<\/p>\n

“There was a complete firestorm, but eventually politicians did what they had ducked for years and passed a bill effectively decriminalising abortion in most cases.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That legislation led to WA becoming the first place in the country to remove most criminal penalties for women seeking the procedure and doctors providing it.<\/a><\/p>\n

Those laws stood from 1998 to 2024, when they were overhauled again to remove the need for mandatory counselling and completely moving provisions out of the criminal code.<\/a><\/p>\n

‘When law ends, mercy begins’<\/p>\n

Another case which stood out for McKechnie was that of “Alice”, describing it “one of the sadder cases” he came across.<\/p>\n

\"CCC<\/p>\n

Mr McKechnie showed mercy to a woman who tried to end her and her baby’s lives. (ABC News: Kenith Png)<\/p>\n

“She was married and had a child, and after 18 months, psychologically, she parted from the child,” he said.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs help:<\/p>\n