Veteran Australian Reporter Testifies In Blackmail Trial Veteran Australian Reporter Testifies In Blackmail Trial Comments Off on Veteran Australian Reporter Testifies In Blackmail Trial SYDNEY, Australia — When a veteran investigative journalist approached another television reporter with information about a mega tax fraud story that was already breaking his “eyes lit up,” a jury has heard. “Beauty,” A Current affairs reporter Brady Halls said, giving evidence in the New South Wales Supreme Court on April 28 about one encounter he had with Stephen Barrett in his newsroom in May 2017. Barrett, 63, has pleaded not guilty of acting in a joint criminal enterprise to blackmail the masterminds of an alleged AUD 105 million ($81.72 million) tax fraud scheme.