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Sunday Star Times
November 30, 1997
page 1
Wrongly jailed dad: I want molester to go through hell
by Donna Chisholm
Picture this. You are in
a courtroom lobby, standing just metres away from a man who sexually molested
your children for three years.
Not only that, but you'd been wrongly convicted of the abuse and sentenced to
six years in jail when he was the real offender all along. And you'd just
found out he'd been regularly assaulting your children while you were behind
bars.
That's what happened this month when Michael Smith* (36) went to the North
Shore District Court to watch paedophile Andrew Craig jailed.
"People have asked me if I wanted to kill him," says Michael.
"But I didn't. If he died it would be too easy for him.
"I wanted him to go to jail for what he did. I wanted him to go through
the absolute hell I went through. I am just so angry at him."
Michael's lawyer, Rob Harrison, is preparing a compensation claim for the
wrongful imprisonment, but says establishing the amount is difficult.
"We are looking at a per day figure for the 440 days (14.5 months) he
spent in jail. How do you compensate someone for those lost months, for being
labelled a child molester and for the best part of three years being deprived
of your children?"
Michael was paid $7500 in damages after the Corrections Department kept him
inside for one day later than necessary when the Appeal Court quashed the convictions in
October 1996 after his son admitted his father had not abused him at all.
Justice Minister Doug Graham, during a snap debate in Parliament on Tuesday,
told Labour Justice spokesman Phil Goff the father did not qualify for
compensation because his case did not involve "a free pardon" or
reference back to the Appeal
Court by the Governor General.
But Mr Harrison, who acted for Michael on appeal but not at his trial, said
the compensation claim would be filed this week.
"Not only is there an appearance of bad faith on the part of the police
(who failed to pass on to the defence before the trial that Michael's son had
retracted his abuse allegation) but the Government has relaxed the laws of
evidence and this makes it easier to get convictions for child abuse."
A civil claim has also been filed against the Children, Young Persons and
their Families Service, the police and the family therapist who counselled
Michael's son for more than a year before he named his father as his abuser.
Michael says he is not seeking compensation only for himself, but for his
family who have suffered just as much.
His parents mortgaged their home to raise $50,000 towards his appeal.
"I can cope but I want my family to have a stress-free life after what
they've been through. All I was doing was sitting in prison thinking how
horrible it was, but my partner and my parents were working their guts out
for me. This is vindication for them."
Michael says he might have killed himself without that support.
He believes the prison guards who escorted him at his trial spread the
message in jail that he was not a child rapist. Or maybe his height and bulk
kept him out of trouble -- whatever the reason, he says he never became a
jail target as other paedophiles have.
The night before the verdict, he recalls sitting in jail -- where he was
remanded without warning after being on bail throughout the trial: "I
just went through cigarette after cigarette crying my eyes out, thinking
`this can't be happening to me'. I knew I was going to jail because of the
way the boys gave evidence on video."
Since his release, Michael and his partner Lana, whom he met in February
1995, have been living together. The boys are very much part of their lives.
Lana said she never doubted Michael's innocence, from the time he told her of
the charges against him.
In hindsight, she says, she kicks herself for her naive faith in the justice
system; her belief that the truth would come out at the trial.
For Michael, too, trust has been destroyed.
"I don't trust anyone. I don't go near kids. I used to be the class
idiot at kids' parties, running around picking them up . . . now I'll be
walking down a quiet street and a boy will walk towards me and I have this
fear he'll claim I've touched him."
Michael says since his release, no one has apologised; no one has told him he
is innocent and no one has acknowledged the hell he has been through.
And someone, he says, should have to pay for that.
* Michael's name has been changed to prevent identifying his sons.
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