Allegations of Abuse in Institutions
	St John of God - Marylands - Index 2006/2 - Moloney & Garchow; Federal Court Appeal
	The Southland Times April 28 2006 Lest ye be judged Editorial Shame about our judges being gormless, isn't it? Their failings have been pointed out in terms that could only have come from an Australian. The elevated Aussie, Justice Rodney Madgwick, has declined to extradite a Catholic brother and a priest accused of sexual abuses in 1970s New Zealand, on the shaming grounds that the men would face an unjust or oppressive hearing here. In cases like these, when charges of sexual abuse span back many years, how to assess uncorroborated allegations becomes a problematic issue. You don't look surprised. Well, Australian law requires judges to remind juries of this difficulty in every case. New Zealand law is slightly different but only to the extent that it does not automate this warning. Our judges are left to use their judgment. And hardly theirs alone. Others can raise the issue during a trial, such as...oh, let's go right out on a limb here...the defence. What's more, a prosecutor might pre-emptively address the implications of decades of delay, on the entirely plausible grounds that it's an all-but-inescapable issue. Given that the burden of proof remains firmly on the prosecution, does the New Zealand approach amount in any way to a problem? It comes down to whether New Zealand judges have the integrity and competence to do their job. Without quite saying it, Justice Madgwick frets over whether they can be relied upon to deliver the judicial equivalent of a clear statement of the bleeding obvious. The Australian judge was also worried about the sheer delay bringing the allegations against the men; Rodger Moloney and Raymond Garchow. They would, he said, have been handicapped preparing their defences by the long delays before the charges were brought to their notice in 2003, between 22 and 31 years after the alleged offences. (Justice Madgwick must particularly regret that he extended the delay himself by taking a year to produce a reserved decision so ill-considered that it raises the question of what, exactly, is the world record for how slowly a knee can jerk.) If we gently put aside any thoughts about what role the defendants themselves, and the St John of God order, may have played in the delays, the fact remains that the passage of decades between an alleged offence and a charge being laid is hardly a great rarity. Prosecutions or acquittals still duly result, based on the strengths of each case. If this judge wants some sort of statute of limitations to kick in, this spasm of trans-Tasman petulance is not the way to conjure one up. It's not as though the charges came entirely out of a blue sky. They relate to Marylands Special School, where similar charges have recently come before the courts. Not only has the St John of God order paid millions to former pupils who complained of sexual abuse in bygone decades but former teacher Brother Bernard McGrath yesterday received a five-year jail term. None of which should be taken as meaning that Rodger Moloney and Raymond Garchow are necessarily guilty of anything at all. But that is a matter to be determined by a New Zealand jury under a New Zealand system. So the New Zealand police do need to appeal the decision and then Justice Madgwick needs to be told, by an appeal court, to run along.