The return of Eb Leary to the ranks of our legal profession shows a disturbing lack of reality amongst some in the legal profession and judiciary that have supported his return to practising law. This is a man who involved himself, not in the representation of criminals, in a fair trial, but in the operation of the drug trade. He helped drug dealers evade police prosecutions, for offences such as introducing drugs into prisons. He descended to defeating the course of justice, with acts such as bringing cash into the court room to buy drug dealers out of prison time. He took their money, to fund his life style, and thumbed his nose at our country.

Would you let a teacher who had assisted drug dealers to infiltrate a school have his job back? Would you let a policeman who had assisted burglars to evade detection have his job back? Why don’t we just keep lowering the bar so the next lawyer that does this does the likes gets back into the trade in 10 years?

If Mr Leary has risen above his previous pathetic level of existence, good on him, I congratulate him on his return to society. For those who have chosen to exonerate this man, and return him to the legal ‘profession’, they are fools to believe that they have restored this man’s credibility rather then lowering their own. This man was lucky not to be convicted of the crimes he committed, he got off lightly, and to see him rewarded in this manner by some of his former friends is an insult to the public of New Zealand, and a threat to the integrity of our justice system.