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Damien Smith is the law reporter for Seven News in Sydney. He is among NSW's longest serving legal affairs journalists.
Damien joined the Sydney news team in April 1997 and has been reporting on the State's biggest court cases for more than four years.
Damien started his broadcast career in 1981, running errands at Canberra radio station 2CA, then with the Macquarie Radio Network. After graduating through a number of positions behind the microphone as a DJ, he decided to move into journalism.
In late 1989 Damien was appointed to Austereo's bureau at Federal Parliament. He covered the 1990, 1993 and 1996 Federal elections. Damien's first job in television was as presenter of the ski report for WIN television in Canberra. He later moved to the rival Capital network as Chief Political Reporter and Presenter.
He moved to Sydney in 1994 to work for Ten News as a reporter and presenter but returned to Canberra a year later to cover Federal Politics once again.
Damien joined 7news in Sydney after presenting the weekend breakfast program for ABC radio 2CN in Canberra.
During his time with the Seven Network he has covered trials involving the state's most notorious crimes, including the serial child killings of Kathleen Folbigg; the murder of 14 year old schoolboy Edward Lee; the series of gang rape cases in Southwestern Sydney and the insider trading trial of celebrity stockbroker Rene Rivkin.
In the civil courts he covered the famous Moran vs Moran trial, in which health care king Doug Moran was sued by his daughter-in-law, who alleged he had driven his son to suicide. More recently Damien has covered the Holly Vallance contract case and many of the multi-million dollar damages payouts which helped spark the so-called public liability/professional indemnity crisis.
Damien's round takes him to many of the Police Corruption inquiries at the Police Integrity Commission and Coroners' Inquests into suspicious or unusual deaths, including that of model Carolyn Byrne.
Damien also reported from Washington DC and New York for Seven's coverage of the events of September 11, 2001. He was on an overnight holiday stopover visiting a friend near the US capital when the terrorists attacked.
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