During the program [MARCUS Einfeld], the recipient of an Order of Australia who was once labelled a “national living treasure”, says he believes Australians are “pretty good at forgiving people who come clean”.

“It’s probably more shameful than the driving,” Einfeld says. “[Teresa Brennan] was a friend of mine. She was a wonderful person and for me to use her name is more hurtful than anything else.”

“I’m desperately sorry for what I did,” he says on Four Corners. “I’m sorry to the public at large, because they have been my audience over the years.”

MARCUS Einfeld has used a television program to express the guilt, shame and remorse he stubbornly withheld from the court that last week sentenced him to three years behind bars.

The former Federal Court judge has told the Four Corners program, due to air on ABC-TV tonight, that he is desperately sorry for his lies and ashamed he used the name of an old friend to wriggle out of a speeding fine.

“I’m sorry to my family, my elderly mother and my children,” Einfeld says.

But Einfeld, speaking publicly for the first time about the events that led to his public humiliation and destroyed his career, also expresses the hope Australians will forgive him.

Einfeld allowed the Four Corners crew to follow him around in the weeks leading up to his sentencing and to document his attempts to prove that the lies that put him in jail were out of character.

Last Friday, Einfeld was sentenced to three years in prison, with a non-parole period of two years, for lying to try to avoid a $77 speeding fine in 2006.

Reporter Sarah Ferguson believes Einfeld’s motive in speaking to Four Corners was to rehabilitate himself with the Australian public.

“There was a strong desire on his part to have his life considered along with his fall, his career put into the ledger along with his crimes,” she said.

During the program Einfeld, the recipient of an Order of Australia who was once labelled a “national living treasure”, says he believesAustralians are “pretty good at forgiving people who come clean”.

Ferguson said that before his sentencing Einfeld had at times been funny, dignified and nervous. “But at the key moments, like thesentencing hearing, you could see the stress,” she said.

“It was quite painful to watch. The answer to the question of why he did it, why did you lie, is far more complicated than you might think.”

Einfeld openly admits he did not tell the truth: “I lied. I can’t say it any simpler than that. I told a lie, which was a disgraceful thing to do and for which I have been paying ever since.”

He says his claims he had lent his car to a friend visiting from the US, Teresa Brennan, a professor, who had died three years earlier, was the source of his greatest sorrow.

“It’s probably more shameful than the driving,” Einfeld says. “Teresa Brennan was a friend of mine. She was a wonderful person and for me to use her name is more hurtful than anything else.”

But at the same time he denies his untruths were part of a longstanding pattern of behaviour. “No, I’m not dishonest … I don’t think I’mthe slightest bit dishonest. I just made a mistake.”

But more than anything, the former judge is full of regret. While he did not directly apologise during NSW Supreme Court proceedings — a fact noted by sentencing judge Bruce James — Einfeld has issued an apology via the ABC to those he has hurt.

“I’m desperately sorry for what I did,” he says on Four Corners. “I’m sorry to the public at large, because they have been my audience over the years.”

Credit: John Stapleton

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