Victims Must Come First
by Derryn Hinch - Wednesday, 16 July 2014
THERE’S AN ANGLE to lifting suppression orders on sex offenders that opponents seem to miss – or conveniently ignore.
The publication of the name and photo of a convicted offender may not only alert people to possible danger and prevent future attacks. It may encourage other past victims of that predator to come forward.
When they realise they were not alone and maybe they will be believed. Especially if the attacker is a high profile entertainer or sports star.
I now call it the ‘Rolf Harris Syndrome’ after so many other women came forward with personal stories once Jake the Ped was publicly identified and charged.
Women like New Zealand MP Maggie Barry (whom I wrote about yesterday) now being urged to reveal the identity of the ‘prominent New Zealander’ who pleaded guilty to an indecency charge but had his name permanently suppressed and no conviction recorded.
The former All Black Grahame Thorne, whom I named here yesterday.
New Zealanders are not allowed to know that he pleaded guilty in the Dunedin District Court to a charge of performing an indecent act intended to insult or offend a woman. He was convicted and ordered to pay $5000 reparation for emotional harm and $1500 in counselling costs.In the Court of Appeal in Wellington His lawyer argued that Thorne, in a bid to avoid a public trial, only pleaded guilty on the understanding he would be offered diversion or a discharge without conviction.
The matter was sent back to Dunedin. Thorne was discharged without conviction and his name permanently suppressed in New Zealand. from Hawke’s Bay, he’s a lawyer, and his name is Bevan Heremia.
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The Official Derryn Hinch Website
Hinch Says
by Derryn Hinch - Wednesday, 16 July 2014
THERE’S AN ANGLE to lifting suppression orders on sex offenders that opponents
seem to miss – or conveniently ignore.
The publication of the name and photo of a convicted offender may not only alert
people to possible danger and prevent future attacks. It may encourage other past
victims of that predator to come forward.
When they realise they were not alone and maybe they will be believed. Especially if
the attacker is a high profile entertainer or sports star.
I now call it the ‘Rolf Harris Syndrome’ after so many other women came forward
with personal stories once Jake the Ped was publicly identified and charged.
Women like New Zealand MP Maggie Barry (whom I wrote about yesterday) now
being urged to reveal the identity of the ‘prominent New Zealander’ who pleaded
guilty to an indecency charge but had his name permanently suppressed and no
conviction recorded.
The former All Black Grahame Thorne, whom I named here yesterday.
New Zealanders are not allowed to know that he pleaded guilty in the Dunedin
District Court to a charge of performing an indecent act intended to insult or offend
a woman. He was convicted and ordered to pay $5000 reparation for emotional
harm and $1500 in counselling costs.In the Court of Appeal in Wellington His lawyer
argued that Thorne, in a bid to avoid a public trial, only pleaded guilty on the
understanding he would be offered diversion or a discharge without conviction.
The matter was sent back to Dunedin. Thorne was discharged without conviction
and his name permanently suppressed in New Zealand.
could have more legal complications
.
Overnight I received numerous emails – including some from Kiwis who obviously
ignored the legal warnings – and one suggests the former sports star could have
Kiwi suppression oppression
Photo Courtesy of: topnews.in
Derryn Hinch
Hinch can be contacted on
Twitter @HumanHeadline and
via email on the Contact Hinch
page.
Published
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
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more legal complications.
A woman wrote:
‘Hello Derryn. Omg! I can't believe you have done this, you have made me cry and
smile at the same time. You have no idea how I have wanted his name out there. For
2.5 years I have been in emotional turmoil. And with Rodney Hide's article in the NZ
Herald I was about to email him and plead with him to help me, but you have already
done the work for me! You are just amazing. I don't know what else to say! I just want
to thank you from the bottom of my heart’.
Another said, all in capitals: ‘I AM DELIGHTED TO READ YOUR ARTICLE TONIGHT.
THE LADY IN YOUR ARTICLE IS A VERY GOOD FRIEND OF MINE AND AT LONG
LONG LAST SHE HAS HER WISH COME TRUE!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH’.
The column, urging Maggie Barry to go public under privilege, was written by former
ACT Party leader Rodney Hide, who appeared with Marcus Lush on RadioLIVE’s
breakfast program today – in the same seat where I sat last Friday urging support
for the Sensible Sentencing Trust campaign for a public register in New Zealand.
Before Hide’s legally careful appearance, Lush made this announcement:
‘An overseas blogger has published the details of a prominent New Zealander who
admitted sexually assaulting a woman – but was then given permanent name suppression
– preventing the media from revealing his identity. For legal reasons RadioLIVE can’t
name the blogger or the country that the blog was published from’.
The suppression culture is so strong in that country (as it has been in Australia) that
a High Court judge has just allowed a child-sex offender to keep his name
suppressed even though the Solicitor-General requested publication and so did one
of the man’s victims who waived her own name suppression.
cause him ‘extreme hardship’
A victim named Erena Chadwick waived her right to have her name suppressed in an
attempt to publicly expose the name of her attacker. The District Court turned her
down. The Solicitor-General appealed to the High Court and he got turned down.
Justice Raynor Asher declined to lift the name suppression order, saying identifying
the man would cause him ‘extreme hardship’. As opposed, I guess, to the extreme
hardship that Erena Chadwick experienced or the extreme hardship suffered by a
second child the man admitted sexually assaulting between 1984 and 1990.
Judge Asher also said there was no doubt the man would lose his job and possibly his
partner if his name was published.
I would have thought his partner would have known of his criminal behaviour
involving children. If not she should know.
He’s from Hawke’s Bay, he’s a lawyer, and his name is Bevan Heremia.
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He spent years at the Hawke’s Bay Community Law Centre including more than four
years as Managing Solicitor.
In the High Court, Judge Asher made much of the fact that after the offending (after
multiple offences) Heremia sought counselling.
It was claimed that he thought he should report himself to police but didn’t because
the counsellor said it would not be a constructive step. Might have been a
constructive step for his victims. Publicly admitting his guilt might have helped them
too.
What about the bloody victims?
The judge said: ‘As an unskilled person, he proceeded to put himself through law
school, obtain a law degree and forge a career for himself in the profession. In those
circumstances it would be a very extreme punishment to public (sic) his name and
destroy the life that he has created for himself since his acceptance of wrongdoing’.
What about the bloody victims? What about their ‘extreme punishment’? They were
children. Their childhood innocence was destroyed by Bevan Heremia.
Elena Chadwick said she believed her attacker ‘did what he had to do’ with the
counselling after his crimes were exposed.
‘It's all about him. He doesn't care about me and how my life has been because of
what he did. It wasn't because he felt bad about what he'd done to me and wanted to
deal with it’.
I shall wait with interest to see what tonight’s email’s bring.
Footnote: Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has an article in today’s Herald
Sun about preserving your name and reputation. He writes: ‘Hard to earn. Easy to
lose. Very difficult to regain. The lesson? When mistakes occur, admit them, deal
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transparently with them and rebuild’.
Good advice, but a suggestion to the Catholic Church just reinforces a furphy.
Kennett asks: ‘Does the Catholic Church need to put an end to celibacy for its
priests?’
Wouldn’t matter. That’s not the problem. These perverts aren’t celibate now despite
their oath and they target children. They’re not attracted to adult men or women.
Not adult parishioners. Children.
DH
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A crazy example of Government
madness. Who can get their name and
photo suppressed in Australia and who
Jul
18
A bureaucratic bungle being covered
up here. And in the UK, shades of Rolf
Harris, 600 suspected child porn
Jul
17
WARNING. Like yesterday, it is illegal
for this editorial to be accessed by New
Zealand readers because of
Jul
16
WARNING. It is illegal for this editorial
to be accessed by New Zealand readers
because of suppression orders in that
Jul
15
The carbon tax is gone. Will Bill Shorten
attract votes at next election with promise to
bring it back?
Yes
No
Don't know
Don't care
Vote Results
LostthePlot
KeptintheDark
VictimsMustComeFirst
AllBlack–andGrey
