An internal inquiry has found a Federal Circuit Court judge harassed two young women, after one of them made a complaint to the court.

The inquiry found that a Parramatta-based judge repeatedly emailed the junior staff member with harassing comments, the behaviour escalated to two instances of unwanted touching. The woman made a complaint to the court in April last year and has been on mental health leave since.

Alarmingly, when the woman raised her concerns, she was initially told “there’s not much you can do about it because he’s a judge”

The other complainant, a law student, made her complaint in September last year.

The latest findings of poor behaviour from a judge comes after former high court judge Dyson Heydon was found to be a serial sexual harasser of young women.

Today on Please Explain, senior writer Jacqueline Maley joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss the latest findings of poor behaviour in Australian courts.