It was painful to watch a once famous - now infamous - judge twisting round like a live prawn on a skewer in a vain attempt to evade any honest appraisal of his own motivations for having committed perjury - for having lied in court - in an attempt to avoid paying a small traffic fine. Kudos to the ABC's 4 Corners program for securing the privilege of following Marcus Einfeld around for a few days in the lead-up to his sentencing hearing.

But no glory, even no redemption, for Einfeld. It was "a moment of madness" that made him, repeatedly and over a long period of time, not admit to the truth. His hubris escalated to fever pitch when he looked down his nose at the media, telling the ABC that when talking to a journalist about the dead Teresa Brennan - the woman Einfeld said was driving his silver Lexus at the time it was caught speeding - he did not feel any remorse about lying "because I was talking to a journalist and you don't feel the same obligation in that circumstance".

Einfeld actually got off easy with three years' detention and a non-parole period of two years. He pleaded guilty to perjury and thus avoided the other lies he had told others - through equally false statutory declarations - being made public in court. He "may have" lied at other times but he is "an honest person". Right.