Lloyd Rayney

In January 2018, Rayney lodged an appeal against the judgment, seeking an increase in the damages component of the awarded compensation, which covered only three years' loss of income—from when the defamation was uttered, to when he was charged with his wife's murder in December 2010. Rayney had argued that the damage to his career extended over 10 years, warranting compensation of $11 million. As of February 2019 his bid for additional millions in damages for defamation was stayed while he appealed findings of professional misconduct. As of 2 August 2019 the Supreme Court rejected the latter appeal, upholding the decision to ban him from practice for giving false evidence about secretly recording conversations with his wife, a decision against which he immediately appealed.

In March 2017, the Supreme Court began hearing Rayney's claim against the state for compensation over a WA Police media conference in September 2007, during which a senior officer called him "the prime and only suspect" in the death of his wife. Judge John Chaney had ordered that the case be heard by a judge sitting alone.

In a judgment handed down on 15 December 2017, Judge Chaney ruled that the officer's words "in their entirety, bore the imputation that the plaintiff murdered his wife" and awarded preliminary damages of $600,000 "for the harm to his reputation, personal hurt and distress caused." On 20 December, the judge awarded additional sums for economic losses and interest, bringing the total award to $2,623,416--"almost four times as large as the previous biggest defamation award in W.A." The judgment was highly critical of the police, finding that senior officers involved in the investigation into Ms Rayney's murder "had formed a prejudicial view" of Mr Rayney and had "taken the approach of assessing [his] actions and words against an assumption of guilt".

Rayney's wife, Corryn, was murdered in August 2007. In the following month, Rayney was publicly named by police as "the prime and only suspect", though he was not charged with the murder until December 2010, more than three years after the event. In a three-month trial which began on 16 July 2012, he was found not guilty. Three interstate judges unanimously dismissed a prosecution appeal, and upheld the trial judge's verdict.

In 2003, Rayney sued art critic Robert Hughes for allegedly calling him a "curry muncher" in the course of a trial at which Rayney was a Crown prosecutor. The action was settled out of court.

Lloyd Patrick Rayney (b. Aden, Yemen 1962) is a Western Australian barrister and former Crown prosecutor who came to prominence when he was charged and acquitted in 2012 of the murder or manslaughter of his wife Corryn Rayney.