Elizabeth Lillian Fullerton (born 27 December 1953) is an Australian lawyer, specialising in criminal law, who has been a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales since February 2007.

Early life and education

Fullerton studied to become a primary and infants teacher at Coburg Teachers College, before working as a teacher in 1975 and 1976. In 1977, Fullerton traveled to Israel to live and work in a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

. Fullerton commenced studying Arts and Law at Monash University in 1978 before transferring to the

University of NSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public university, public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight (Australian universities), ...

where she graduated in June 1983. On 30 May 2019, Fullerton was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by Monash University.

Career

Fullerton was admitted as a barrister in December 1983, with

Carolyn Simpson Carolyn Chalmers Simpson (born 30 March 1946) was a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for 24 years and of its Court of Appeal for nearly three. Justice Simpson made legal history in 1999 as one of three women judges who formed the fi ...

as her tutor. Fullerton occupied the Women's room in Frederick Jordan Chambers, a room established to encourage female barristers in their first year. Janet Coombs was one of the trustees and at the time the rent was subsidised. In 1985 and 1986 Fullerton was part of the legal team, led by Ian Barker that appeared for the Northern Territory at the Royal Commission into the Conviction of

Lindy Chamberlain Alice Lynne "Lindy" Chamberlain-Creighton (née Murchison; born 4 March 1948) is a New Zealand–born Australian woman who was wrongfully convicted in one of Australia's most publicised murder trials. Accused of killing her nine-week-old daught ...

. In 1988 Fullerton was appointed to the

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions or, informally, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) is an independent prosecuting service and government agency within the portfolio of the Attorney-General of A ...

as one of the first in house counsel, before returning to the private bar the following year. Fullerton was appointed a senior counsel in 1999. Fullerton appeared in major criminal trials, being the prosecutor in the trial of five men who were convicted of the importation of a massive quantity of heroin, some 339 kg with an estimated value of $620 million. & . As well as prosecuting, Fullerton also represented defendants, appearing in the sentencing of members of the Ronen family who had been convicted of tax fraud.. Fullerton was one of the barristers who appeared for Rodney Adler in relation to the collapse of HIH Insurance.. and appeared for Tony Oates, the former financial executive who was involved in the fraudulent transfer of money from Bell Resources to Bond Corporation. Fullerton was counsel assisting the coronial inquest into the death of T.J. Hickey.

Supreme Court of NSW

Since her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2007 Fullerton has been the trial judge in numerous high-profile criminal trials. Some of the more notable trials include charges against

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

reporter Ben Fordham and producer Andrew Byrne for breach of the NSW ''Listening Devices Act''.. In 2013 Philip Nguyen pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of police Constable William Crews. Justice Fullerton sentenced Nguyen imprisonment for 9 years and 6 months, with a non-parole period of 7 years.. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal upheld a crown appeal that the sentence was manifestly inadequate, almost doubling the prison sentence.. In 2014 Fullerton was the judge in the trial of Paul Mulvihill, who a jury convicted of the stabbing murder of his former lover Rachelle Yeo and Fullerton sentenced him to a maximum 29 years in prison.. Fullerton was the judge in the trial of Adeel Khan, who was convicted of the murder of Chris Noble and the manslaughter of Bianka O'Brien and her baby son Jude following a fire in Khan's shop at Rozelle. Khan was sentenced to a maximum term of imprisonment of 40 years.. Fullerton was the judge in the third trial of Robert Xie, who had been charged with the murder of 5 members of the Lin family. The jury was unable to agree on a verdict, and Fullerton was the judge in the fourth trial in which Xie was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fullerton, Elizabeth 1953 births Living people Judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales Australian women judges Australian barristers Australian Senior Counsel University of New South Wales alumni Monash University alumni