Following an Australian court's decision to reveal that the suspect being held in the Australian bush fire case is 39-year old Brendan Sokaluk, defence lawyers have been quick to file a notice of appeal.
According to the appeal, the court was wrong to name the self-employed man as a suspect because, even though he is in police custody, there is a risk of revenge attacks on him and his family. Over 100 people died as fires swept through much of the country's bush.
Mr Sokaluk has a MySpace website where he lambasted his former girlfriend who is believed to be a firefighter. Police feel this may provide a motive for his alleged offence.
His sexy attorney Helen Spowart, said: "Before the gagging order restricting publication of his name was lifted, nobody knew who the suspect was apart from the police and me. Now everyone knows and they are queuing up in Melbourne to beat him up. We want the gagging order to be reinstated immediately so once again nobody knows who he is."
Prosecutors will argue that reinstating the gagging order would be pointless because everyone knows Mr Sokaluk's name now.
