David McBride: commonwealth prosecutors seek jail sentence for Australian defence whistleblower

Former army lawyer asks for leniency on basis of ‘exemplary character’ after pleading guilty to leaking secret defence documents to media

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The commonwealth wants to see army whistleblower David McBride in jail for more than two years for his role in leaking secret defence documents on the Afghanistan war to the media, a court has heard.

At a sentencing hearing on Monday, a decade after McBride first began secretly taking classified documents from the Australian defence force where he worked as an army lawyer, the commonwealth’s counsel, Trish McDonald, said McBride’s actions amounted to “egregious conduct” and affected how defence conducted some operations in addition to Australia’s relations with allies.

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