Crownies

Episode 1

Episode #1.1

54 mins

As the staff of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions prepare for their 1930's-themed office Christmas party, Senior Crown Prosecutor Janet King and Solicitor Lina Badir anxiously await the jury's verdict in the case of Billy Evans for murdering his friend Simon Grady. Solicitor Erin O'Shaughnessy feels disillusioned by the decision not to proceed with the case against a man accused of raping a physically disabled woman, due to the fact that the victim is unable to verbally communicate. Meanwhile, a highly sensitive file containing explosive allegations against the Attorney General, Nicholas Quinn, lands on DPP David Sinclair's desk. He refers the file to Janet for her consideration as to how they should proceed, and she asks Solicitor Ben McMahon to prepare a summary. She cautions Ben as to the sensitivity of the file, but he promptly shares the file's contents with all the other junior Solicitors. Solicitor Tatum Novak antagonises Managing Solicitor Tracey Samuels by belittling her Christian faith, something she may come to regret, as Tracey plays favourites and controls the allocation of files. The Crownies rub shoulders with their colleagues, barristers and judges at their party. Ben takes judge's associate Julie Rousseau as his date, and they end up back at the DPP's office ordering pizza and having sex on Sinclair's desk. Solicitor Richard Stirling reports to his crush, Tatum, that her boyfriend Con is snorting cocaine in the toilets. Her anger with him turns to joy when he proposes outside the hotel. Erin flirts with journalist Jimmy Butcher, who has turned up at the party uninvited. She gets drunk and wakes up the next morning with no memory of what happened the night before. We discover that Lina is having a secret relationship with Police Detective Andy Campbell. The following day, Janet and Richard attend a pre-trial conference in a matter where the defendant argues that his aggression was due to a genetic abnormality. Meanwhile Tatum impresses Lina by using her extensive network of contents to prove how Billy Evans created a false alibi for himself in the murder of Simon Grady, but it is now too late to bring the evidence before the court. As Janet and Sinclair discuss the matter in his office, he receives an email alerting him to the fact that the contents of the Quinn file have been leaked in an article written by Jimmy Butcher. Janet is devastated as her comment on the file "We could proceed, but do we want to?" has been latched onto by the press. The five junior solicitors are rounded up and questioned, as their swipe cards show that they have all been into the office after hours on the previous night and thereby had the opportunity to leak the file. The jury finally returns in the Evans trial, and he is found guilty, vindicating Janet's decision to proceed to trial.