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The Peter Ellis web
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The Australian courts have
permitted extradition of two clergymen to New Zealand to face sex charges.
PeterEllis.org hopes that our justice system will heed Australian Justice
Madgwick, who raised serious concerns that the men may not receive a fair
trial in New Zealand, spokesperson Richard Christie says. In particular ·
Will the two men receive separate trials from each other in New
Zealand? Joint trials would likely be regarded as unjust in Australia and not
occur. ·
Will the jury be given a strong warning by the judge as tothe very
real problems in meeting such old allegations? In Australia the accused would
have such a guarantee. ·
Will the two men face "representative charges"? Such charges
are not permitted in Australia, where Justice Madgwick quite rightly pointed
out: "How can a man defend himself if he doesn't know when the alleged
offence is supposed to have happened?" ·
Will the jury be warned of the dangers associated with mass allegation
cases, including concoction or unconscious contamination of complainant
testimony? Many of the complainants were interviewed repeatedly by the same
psychiatrist and attended victims' group sessions. ·
Will the jury be warned that the reliability of the complainants
evidence is hopelessly compromised by the tens of thousands of dollars
offered to anybody willing to claim that they were victims of abuse?
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