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Allegations
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An Australian judge's
refusal to send two New Zealand clergymen home to face child-sex charges has
been condemned by lawyers and sex-abuse campaigners. The Federal Court in
Sydney has ruled that the two men should not be extradited on the grounds
that they may not receive a fair trial in New Zealand. St John of God
clergymen Raymond Garchow, 58, and a 70-year-old man who has name suppression
are facing allegations dating back to the 1970s of sexually abusing boys at
the Marylands Special School in Christchurch. One faces four charges, and the
other 28. Last year a magistrate
in Sydney ordered their extradition to New Zealand, but the Federal Court
reviewed the decision. On Friday, Justice
Rodney Madgwick ruled that aspects of the New Zealand judicial system and the
length of time since the allegations would make it difficult for the men to
receive a fair trial. He said despite the
seriousness and distressing quality of the allegations, it would be unjust
for the extradition to go ahead. "(There is) very
likely to be a high degree of unfairness to the applicants," Justice
Madgwick wrote in his judgment. "Further, such
trials would occur without the guarantee of a strong warning by the judge to
the jury as to the very real problems in meeting such old allegations. "In Australia the
applicants would have such a guarantee; Australian courts would not permit any
such trial to occur without such a warning being given." But Wellington lawyer
John Langford said suggesting the pair would not get a fair trial in New
Zealand was "quite bizarre". "We (New Zealand
and Australia) have similar legal systems dating back to the British Common
Law. It may be that there is some specific provision in Australian
legislation requiring a judge to give a strong warning to a jury as to the
dangers and difficulties of proving historical allegations. "It is to be
expected that a New Zealand judge would give such a direction in any
event." Canterbury Criminal Bar
Association president James Rapley said there seemed to be an implied
criticism of the New Zealand legal system in the judge's comments. "The judge saying
they would not get a fair trial is most unusual." It was common for
sexual abuse cases to be many years old. "One of mine went back 45
years," he said. Campaigners against
sexual abuse were also stunned by the ruling. The chairman of Male
Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust, Ken Clearwater, said the New Zealand legal
system was fair, police had done an excellent job on the case, and the men
should be tried where the crimes allegedly happened. "To be told our
justice system is inadequate is wrong. "It surprises me that
someone from another country can make judgments on another system." Also, many of the
delays in the case were due to the Catholic Church, which had sat on some of
the complaints, received years before any charges were laid. The Government should
step in, he said. The mother of an
alleged Marylands abuse victim, who lives in Australia, said she was
staggered at the decision to refuse extradition. "It is still
affecting us hugely. Our lives will never be the same. That will be the same
for all the boys," she said. Another
former brother who worked at Marylands, Bernard McGrath, has been convicted
of 21 abuse charges and will be sentenced in Christchurch on Thursday. |
