Media

LIAR-ON-LIAR VIOLENCE: False rape accuser sues The Age for $20M for fabricating interview

Top Sunday Herald Sun reporter Hamish Heard has revealed a stunning $20 million lawsuit filed by the false rape accuser of former Victorian cabinet minister Theo Theophanous.

The case against the minister was thrown out at the committal hearing stage by a scathing magistrate who seemed puzzled the case had got as far as it did, with the debacle a major embarrassment for senior Crown prosecutor Michelle Williams SC and the police officer in charge of the case Detective Sergeant Doug Smith, currently under investigation for his handling of the matter by the Office of Police Integrity.

THE AGE’S BIG FAT GREEK DISASTER
VEXNEWS has obtained a copy of the writ which tells a sordid story of lies spewing out of the false accuser, who has now been criminally convicted over her false claims but still cannot be named for legal reasons, and The Age itself.

The woman suing The Age claims:

“The above published article (written by Carolyn Webb and published on the front-page of The Age) is entirely Webb’s figment of imagination with respect to the part that I supposedly provided an interview. I never gave an interview of any kind to the stated journalist and in no case did I ever give permission to publish anything regarding the case. As a result, the newspaper published this article illegally and was fully aware the interview was never given.”

A serious claim indeed that The Age and the journalist they should have boned some time ago, Carolyn Webb, will find IT an embarrassing reminder of an atrocious debacle where they accused a cabinet minister of a crime with no proof. They continue to publish the offending article to the present day.

WHAT’S THE AGE HIDING?
According to the woman suing them they have refused to provide evidence to the Greek courts that would substantiate the purported interview they published.

The woman complains The Age has refused to come clean because it is worried about its financial and legal exposure in Australia:

My incredible discomfort shook me down mentally and physically and as a result nowadays I am under terrible and unbearable social pressure. All this could have been avoided if the defendant (The Age) had admitted the truth that I never provided any kind of interview to the journalist Carolyn Webb, fact that would result in my innocence and the charges against me dropped. However, owing to the fact that the defendant was aware that I did not provide any interview and had ascertained that the interview was entirely deceit and fake, instead of taking responsibility of the possible consequences of the Australian Law, my requests were ignored and the defendant (The Age) preferred my convincing in Greece and my personal and social suffering, instead of facilitating me as was obligated to do, since knowing that because of the defendant’s and the journalist’s act I suffered severe criminal and social consequences. Thus (it) is concluded that the defendant intentionally (sought) my conviction and my suffering in Greece in an effort to suffer any consequences by the Australian laws.”

As a result, the defendant consciously accepted my subsequent non-pecuniary damage to avoid the damage which would be sustained by facilitating me since my complainant would eventually turn against the defendant.

SILENCE AND STONEWALL
A web of lies and obfuscation of the most sordid kind, from which the Age has been struggling to extricate itself through silence and stonewall. Now the writ has been filed, the liars will need to slug it out in the Greek courts, at vast expense to the company’s shareholders (including possible new Fairfax proprietor and its current biggest shareholder Gina Rinehart). It will be a costly distraction for The Age as it fights for survival and struggles to explain its role in this horrific scandal that reminded us how vulnerable those in public life can be to false claims and those who seek to cash in on them, including the media and corrupt or incompetent police and prosecutors.

PRESUMING INNOCENCE
Theophanous wasn’t the first and won’t be the last person falsely accused, but we’d do all well to remember the presumption of innocence. This applies even in the case of people we don’t like, for example, anti-American activist and publisher of Wikileaks Julian Assange, now paid by the Kremlin to appear on their English-language propaganda satellite TV channel, who has been accused of rape in Sweden and has refused to face justice there, spending a fortune on high-priced London lawyers to avoid extradition there.

So while Assange is guilty of hanging out to dry his apparent principal source imprisoned marine Bradley Manning, failing to provide promised legal assistance in a timely manner, and is certainly guilty of endangering countless lives by publishing (without redacting identifying information) the names of freedom fighters and democracy campaigners around the world who were mentioned in the US cables that Assnage published in toto, we ought reserve judgment on the rape charges until he’s subject to the judicial process in Sweden.

KARMA
If you’re patient enough, you’ll see that, in most cases, time wounds all heels.

Webb herself made herself an online joke after writing a nasty, borderline racist travel story last year on Bali that attracted a massive backlash in the form of thousands of online comments, tweets and Facebook attacks. VEXNEWS understands Fairfax has not attracted any more comments on a story since it commenced online publication. They have since been quietly removed in an attempt to minimise her humiliation. Oops, too late. Webb is frequently mentioned as someone editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge is keen to see leave the building.

The Age had a long history of slagging Theophanous throughout his political career. Their blind antipathy prevented them from seeing the obvious in this case. It seems a very just result indeed that the liars principally involved in perpetrating so much vile and unnecessary misery on one of politics’ smartest operators are now caught in a sordid little death-wrestle of their own.

© 2012 VEXNEWS © 2012.