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SYDNEY- Marcus Einfeld has avoided being locked up behind bars for now, but faces more humiliation by having to report weekly to his local police station.
The disgraced former Federal Court judge was granted conditional bail on Friday, despite opposition from the crown.
But he now has three weeks to consider the prospect of the ultimate fall from grace - a full-time jail term which would have to be served in protection.
Justice Bruce James will sentence the 69-year-old retired judge on March 20 for perjury and lying to pervert the course of justice to avoid a A$77 speeding ticket in 2006.
Justice James emphasised that granting conditional bail was appropriate in this type of case and was not an indication of his ultimate decision.
Einfeld, who already has been stripped of his Queen's Counsel title, will have to report to Waverley police station every Wednesday.
He also has to surrender all passports he holds to the registrar of the NSW Supreme Court.
And he is not to go within 400 metres of any airport or any other recognised point of departure for overseas.
Since his arrest in March 2007, Einfeld had been on unconditional bail.
On the third day of sentencing submissions, Wayne Roser, SC, repeated the crown call for "the prisoner" to receive a full-time custodial term.
On the first day, despite his lawyer's call for the contrary, Einfeld was told to sit in the dock.
Continuing his opposition to full-time custody, Einfeld's QC, Ian Barker, added "persecution" by some part of the media to the long list of humiliations he had endured.
He cited an article in Monday's Sydney Morning Herald, which he said contained "nasty, vicious stuff".
Mr Barker said it demonstrated that journalists like the article's author thought they had a "licence to attack" the retired judge without restraint.
Such articles were "calculated to have a result they achieve - maximum humiliation" and could be taken into account in sentencing.
A psychiatrist has told the hearing of Einfeld's humiliation over the lack of control over his bladder and bowel, side effects from his treatment for prostate cancer.
Some of the 31 people who provided character references for the man they said worked tirelessly for the disadvantaged also referred to his public humiliation and "profound shame".
"You are here looking at the public destruction of the reputation of a man who has done an enormous amount for humanity over a long time," Mr Barker told Justice James.
But Einfeld will have to wait three weeks to see whether the judge agrees with his QC's claim: "Society owes him a debt and he is entitled to call it in."
- AAP
