ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A top-level executive from US-owned biscuit giant Arnott’s has lost an appeal against his 47-year prison sentence for being the mastermind behind the ‘new and improved’ Shapes biscuits that saw the company exposed to widespread backlash.
Dennis Archibald Watson, a former director of marketing and sales at Arnott’s, broke down in the NSW Supreme Court in Darlinghurst, on Sydney’s Lower East Side, this morning as Justice Alex Rhode upheld the judgement.
“As you are the first person to be convicted of treason in over a century, I feel it pertinent that justice prevails,” said Justice Rhode.
“For your crimes against the people of Australia, I have no choice but to uphold this judgement and see that you serve a sentence with a non-parole period of 30 years and 6 months and no more than 47 years,”
“Baillif, remove the prisoner.”
Mr Watson’s family wept openly in the public gallery as he was lead from the dock downstairs to the holding cells.
More to come.
