This Is Justice?

UPDATE: It seems the wallopers have grabbed this nasty piece of work, and because legal sorts regard members of the public as profoundly stupid there are already calls and pleas not to comment on the case. This is supposed to safeguard the defendant, but what it really protects is the bench from being held accountable for not keeping an animal off the street. Can't talk about the defendant? Well, how convenient! Can't talk about the judges and parole system that set him free as well.

This is where the law is poised to make an even bigger ass of itself. The post below, which features an excerpt lifted from the Supreme Court's own website, could do nothing but alert potential jurors to the sort of filth that decency should oblige them to flush. A quick google and it is there for anyone to see.

So is the Supreme Court going to take down its report of the successful appeal? Will it re-publish in Sanskrit or Latin?

As demonstrated by any number of trials in the US, where laws regarding pre-trial coverage are considerably less stringent, jurors are quite capable of making up their on minds on the strength of evidence presented. Just ask OJ Simpson about that.

Here, though, things are different. A judiciary that can't, and won't, sequester scum demands that we trust it. Because, you know, they are so much smarter than the rest of us. Well, much better paid, anyway.

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FOR THE SECOND time in just a few months, Victoria Police are hunting for a convicted and released criminal wanted in connection with a young woman's murder. It is being widely reported that Stephen James Hunter, the man with whom police wish to speak, was sentenced in 1986 to 13 years for stabbing a girl to death.

Well there is more than that to Hunter's past -- and yet more reasons to wonder why any citizen should have the slightest faith in our legal system. From Victoria's court of Appeal, 2006:

32 Because of the error to which we have referred, the sentencing discretion is reopened. It is necessary, therefore, to describe in brief terms the circumstances of each of the offences for which Hunter falls to be re-sentenced.
Count 1 – theft of a motor car
33 In early 2002, Hunter rented a sports car from a car rental firm. Following the expiration of the rental period, Hunter kept the vehicle and ultimately gave it to a friend, who sold the vehicle and paid him $2,500 from the sale proceeds. Hunter told investigating police that he committed the theft because he was desperate for money at the time. The vehicle has not been recovered.
Counts 2, 3 and 4 – kidnapping, false imprisonment and causing injury intentionally
34 In March 2002, Samantha Smith, who was a friend of Hunter’s, requested that he find and capture an acquaintance, one Scott McCasker. Smith promised Hunter $500 if he would do so. Hunter enlisted the assistance of his trans-sexual partner, Kelly Piers. On the morning of 12 March 2002, Hunter and Piers located McCasker in St Kilda and forced him into their vehicle. They then drove McCasker to Hunter’s premises in Armadale, where he was taken inside. Later, they drove McCasker to Smith’s address in Diggers Rest but she was not at home. Hunter then took McCasker back to Armadale, where McCasker was tied up and gagged. He was secured with tape and electric cord. His head was tied to a beam with a wire coat-hanger. Whilst McCasker was in that position, Hunter punched him to the face and ribs on a number of occasions, and he suffered injuries to the face and head. McCasker was left tied up in this way until he was able to free himself and escape from Hunter’s premises.
Count 5 – trafficking in a drug of dependence
35 On 22 May 2002 Hunter was arrested in relation to the offences committed in March 2002 to which we have referred. When he was searched, police located a number of half gram bags of amphetamine on Hunter’s person. He told police that he had used and sold amphetamines to pay for his board and rent. Other similar bags were located at Hunter’s premises. He explained to the police how he cut the amphetamine with glucose and bagged it in preparation for sale. He informed the police that he wanted to make money and leave Victoria to avoid warrants which he believed had been issued for his apprehension. He also stated that he had purchased a quarter of an ounce per week prior to his arrest and bagged about 20 "small lots". He admitted having sold ten small bags for $100 each before being arrested.

Read the whole thing, especially the stipulated non-parole period.

 

The Malady Lingers On

THIS CATCHY number will be familiar to many readers, but those who spent the weekend traipsing about Kingston Heath may have missed it:

To quote Ian Turpie, late of this planet and the Go! Show, it has a good beat and you can dance to it. Come the election, where ever Gillard turns up to excrete a few more lies, this song should be her soundtrack.

Barrie, Lenore and David, Meet Ralph Blewitt

PARLIAMENT resumes next week and Question Time should be even more fun than usual. According to The Australian, Ralph Blewitt has settled on an arrangement with Victoria Police and is now about to sing.

Just for the record, let us hope an honourable member tables the transcript of Sunday's Insiders, which saw the usual courtiers and eunuchs in ferocious agreement about there being nothing whatsoever worth investigating in regard to our Prime Minister's honesty and character.

In years to come, when scholars ponder why the "quality press" collapsed and its credibility with it, Cassidy & Co.'s smuggeries will make a key footnote.

Sooking For A Shark

WILL someone please pass the Silly Moaning Herald's Ben Cubby a box of tissues he can share with fellow sob sister and warmist tragedian Graham Redfearn:

Here's the photo that set the boys to blubbering...

... and their anguish grew only worse as others joined the weep-a-thon...

Amidst all the sniffling for 200kgs of flake, neither Readfearn nor Cubby wondered how a shark came to find itself sucked into an oil rig's bowels nor considered that their readers might find an explanation interesting.

No doubt they were too busy penning their finny friend's obituary and arranging for a wreath to be delivered.

Tim Flannery, Enemy of Golf

AUSTRALIA produces some of the world's best golfers -- and some decidedly provincial tournaments.  Big stars need to be dragged out here, often with a hefty dollop of taxpayer cash as an inducement, and the standard of their play is often less than inspiring. The weekend just past, though, no complaints. It was worth quitting the blogface for a few days to follow the action at Kingston Heath, which was a verdant testament to the skills and dedication of the grounds staff.

The final day's round was nothing short of inspiring. Adam Scott drove like a demon, sank putts that defied belief and made mockery of bunkers that are some of the most formidable sources of misery ever dropped on a course anywhere in the world. He won, as we all know, and what made his victory even more laudable, apart from overcoming the lead Ian Poulter took into the final day, was that the Englishman was in tournament-winning form himself.

For those not interested in golf, a little bit of intelligence of a more specific nature: While chatting this afternoon with the president of the club where The Professor plays most often, the poor fellow became quite defensive when it was noted that the fairways are in worse nick than at any time in recent human memory.

"Don't blame me," he retorted, immediately fingering Tim Flannery as the culprit.

It seems that all the talk of Australia being plunged into perpetual drought inspired a decision some years ago to seed the fairways with a variety of kikuyu grass which does well in the heat. Unfortunately we have not had too much of that over the last few years.

As the president explained it, this particular grass needs a ground temperature of 22 degrees in order to thrive. So far, the highest reading has been 18 degrees, and this has meant divots aren't repairing themselves, growth is slow and the course looking very sad indeed.

Flannery! You wouldn't shout "fore!" if he ambled in front of your tee. No way.



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Tim Palmer and the "Tedium" of Prostate Cancer

IN COMMENTING on the imminent Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of children, Andrew Bolt quotes a little snippet from ABC quality journalist Tim Palmer's interview with one of Cardinal Pell's clerical critics.

Ah, Tim, such memories! It is quite a few years since the ABC high-flier has dropped a line to the Billabong, but Andrew's reference brought the memories flooding back. As a guide to the perspective and sympathies that will shape ABC coverage of what promises to be an extended bout of Papist-thumping, here is what Tim had to say in his spirited and entirely unsolicited defence of an institution far more curious than the Catholic Church, Margo Kingston, who was then doing so much for Fairfax's credibility at her original Web Diary:

Dear Stanley
Time was when tedious right wing crackpots would shuffle off to a cabin in Montana, form a militia and (mercifully) barricade the rest of the world outside.

Now they set up the grownup's version of the lemonade stand - a weblog.

I never thought I'd side with Mr Sheridan on anything but your piece on the virtues of colonialism has achieved that.

I haven't laughed so hard since I read Paul Johnson's Modern Times (obviously a seminal text for you) with its dunderheaded central issues like "who was the better President, Nixon or Reagan?".

So how did I get to your Sargasso Sea of ideas - via Crikey of course. But don't be too encouraged by Mayne's reference, I, and I suspect most others, won't be back.

You write about Margo Kingston's log "It’s like watching some poor unfortunate have an almost-daily seizure. You should turn away, and you know it. But it’s impossible to drag your eyes off the spectacle".

Unfortunately the same can't be said of your site. It's more like watching someone die of prostate cancer. It's tedious, the viewer may die of something else in the meantime and in the long run you just don't want to know about it anyway.

regards

Tim Palmer

When you read, watch or listen to the latest news it is always nice to know a little about about the sort of people who shape it.

 


 

Kill the Gillard story? Reporter "Agreed To Do So"

THIS IS interesting and a bit sad. In today's Australian, our PM's talent for inflicting misery on undeserving third parties -- Mrs Craig Emerson, Mrs Bruce Wilson and Mrs Michael O'Connor spring immediately to mind -- appears to be growing ever more virulent.

Today it is successful Melbourne businesswoman Joanne Painter who must be beside herself with anxiety. Painter is mentioned in The Australian's latest report as having been The Age reporter who was working in 1996 on a story concerning renovations to 36 St Phillip St, Abbotsford, where Gillard sometimes rested when not sleeping over with Brown Bag Bruce at 1/85 Kerr Street, North Fitzroy. Here is the paragraph that must be causing Ms Painter quite some agitation:

The Cambridge diary states that in September 1995 Mr Gries revealed to Mr Cambridge that a journalist at The Age newspaper was going to publish a “fairly correct” story about union-funded renovations at Ms Gillard’s house… The diary states that Mr Gries knew the proposed article was the work of Age journalist Joanne Painter.... According to the diary, Mr Gries said he had “specifically requested” Painter drop the article and she had agreed to do so. Painter declined to comment yesterday.

You can understand why the cat has Ms Painter's tongue. She is the founder and proprietor of Icon PR which boasts a slather of blue-chip clients. The last thing the poor woman needs is questions about why, while still a reporter, she (reportedly) agreed not to publish a story that would have been of considerable interest at the time and is even more compelling today.

Joanne Painter, PR lady with a problem

Ms Painter must be hoping the whole damn thing will just go away, leaving her free to polish the good name of the Australian Taxation Office and other customers. Adding a certain poignancy to Ms Painter's ordeal are her own words, tweeted last year by way of commentary on a rival PR firm's then-woes.

"Painter declined comment yesterday," says The Australian. As a PR pro, does she not realise silence is a huge mistake? As the recipient of ATO dollars, can she be unaware that, should she choose to speak up, her cash flow is vulnerable to this venal and spiteful government? Such a dilemma!

As for The Age, with Mark Baker poking about in other organisations' records, surely he can have a hunt through his own employer's files and memories. It would seem his readers are owed an explanation as to why Painter's original expose was scuttled. Australia might have been spared the ordeal of a liar in the Lodge if only The Age had done its duty all those years ago.

Why did the Age spike the story? Why did Painter agree to see it spiked? What must her current clients think of a contractor whose most adept response to date is silence?