Pauliar,

You have no problems openly lying about what I say and what I stand for.

I have never on OLO supported Trump or the riots and you are fraudulent and libellous in saying so.

Each time you post some outrageous lie I need to remind you of the skeletons in the Greens' closet some of which are really disgusting.

Stop lying through your teeth and I will stop reminding you. Another truce?

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Dear shadowminister,

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You wrote :

« The presumption of innocence and rules of evidence have evolved over centuries primarily to protect people from the ill intent of an authoritarian state or an angry mob and are the bedrock of justice throughout the civilised world »
.

I mentioned in my penultimate post that the Magna Carta is the origin of the presumption of innocence in our law.

It was signed by the English barons and King John in 12015 and established a certain number of rights and liberties that prevented oppressive rule by the monarchy.

The Petition of Right in 1628 and the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 were inspired by clause 39 of the 1215 charter, which read :

« No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. »

That is a highly legitimate and well-founded principle that no democrat would deny. It constitutes an invincible barrier of legal protection for the innocent but, especially in the case of sex crimes, also for the guilty.

It is a most unfortunate and regrettable paradox that such a noble ideology has produced such an immoral result of protecting a huge majority of criminals and denying justice to so many innocent victims.

Worse, the antagonistic effect of the ideology may even represent a perverse incentive to commit sex crimes and comfort those who commit them.

A classic example of how easily this can occur is related by Michael G. Vann, in "Of Rats, Rice, and Race: The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre, an Episode in French Colonial History" published by the French Colonial History Society (May 2003): In Hanoi, under French colonial rule, a program paying people a bounty for each rat pelt handed in was intended to exterminate rats. Instead, it led to the farming of rats.

There should be no à priori presumptions of any sort for sex crimes.

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Banjo,

Life is not always fair. To convict someone to a long stint in jail you need to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Rectifying one injustice by creating another injustice is never the answer.

shadowminister,

12 jurors found the rock-spider Pell, guilty and were
support by a majority judgement in the Court of Appeal.
All found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Plus
there were many other crimes committed for which he
was not tried. So to overturn the guilty decision - shows
that our system needs overhauling regarding sex crimes.

Now be a good chap and say a prayer for all the victims
who will never see justice under the law as it stand in
Australia regarding sex crimes.

Dear Foxy,

«Now be a good chap and say a prayer for all the victims
who will never see justice under the law as it stand in
Australia regarding sex crimes.

I pray that all who have been raped will find forgiveness in their hearts and peace in their minds.

Even when one's body has been soiled, only s/he whose heart becomes soiled by bitterness or his/her mind with vengefulness, is a true victim.

I pray that all cycles of violence be completed and not become perpetual, that nobody who has been hurt starts a new cycle of violence by calling on the state's police and courts to create new pain.

I pray that all who have been hurt have faith in the justice of our Lord and seek His eternal shelter rather than the rickety shelter of States. I pray for all prisons to be empty and prison-guards unemployed.

If the one who once had a human body that was known as Cardinal George Pell, but who now does not know themselves by any name, has indeed done any wrong, then they must now be suffering very much in hell - I pray for their soul!

I pray that the justice system is reformed for victims
of sexual abuse so that their perpetrators cannot continue
to commit their crimes on new victims. I also pray that the
Churches will take action to ensure that these perpetrators
will not be in positions to continue their crimes. This has
got to stop. And religious people and their religious
institutions must be held to account. And this is not about
any vengeance . It is about justice,