The Forestry Corporation is under pressure to blacklist a logging contractor after its workers were found by a magistrate to have committed common assault against two environmentalists in a NSW forest, AAP reports.
It’s been three-and-a-half years since Mark Graham and Andre Johnston were assaulted on a public road during a day trip to the Wild Cattle Creek State Forest, where logging was under way.
On Monday, the pair got their day in court with a Coffs Harbour magistrate finding two employees of Greensill Bros had committed common assault.
The environmentalists are now demanding Greensill Bros be banned from any further logging work for the NSW government-owned Forestry Corporation.
They also plan to pursue a corruption complaint against the Forestry Corporation, alleging that one of its direct employees who was overseeing the logging operation filmed the assault but failed to intervene.
The NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, who has practised as a public interest environmental lawyer and provided legal advice to both environmentalists in the past, said serious questions must be answered about the conduct of the Forestry Corporation and police, alleging it amounts to a wilful miscarriage of justice.