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Identities can be revealed under Law Reform in Queensland · The Slippery Slope

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I'm Jay Fallon. Thanks for listening to the
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slippery slope slow. What's been going on here in
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Queensland, anyway? A few, a few things are
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happening. Interesting.
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Some of it a little scary. But one thing that really caught
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my attention and listen, I'm not against, I'll just say it now
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before we start, I'm not against this law or anything like that,
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but there's a few things about it I find a little concerning
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about about the the rhetoric around it, that comes about all
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the time anyway. And I'll I'll just tell you my
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experience with it, with it in general.
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So, QLD, Parliament has passed a law reform, I should say,
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properly, a law reform. That allows the naming of
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accused rapists before they stand at trial.
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So this this change, It says that this change brings
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Queensland in line with the rest of the country, with the NT
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being the only jurisdiction that currently maintains A
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defendant's anonymity in these cases.
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The new legislation is expected to take effect from October 3rd,
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2023, so I'm going to read a bit of a story.
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A news article here from Comes from the You're not dubious at
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all ABC. Anyway, just go through a few
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things and I want to tell you a bit about my own experience with
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a couple of a couple of jobs while I was in the police that
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around sexual sexual accusation. Charges sexual sexual
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accusations. Can't talk.
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Probably today anyway, so let's check out this story together.
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So from the ABC. Like I said, so accused rapists
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can soon be named before being committed to stand trial after
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changes to archaic laws in QLD. It says that adults charged with
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rape and other sexual offences in Queensland can soon be
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publicly named before they're committed to stand trial before
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sorry, after new laws passed parliament.
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Obviously, these charges they won't.
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Changes won't take effect till October the third.
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The move has been welcomed by sexual assault advocates, who
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say the archaic laws were born out of the false assumption that
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people maliciously made-up complaints to damage.
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Reputations. I will stop right there and
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look, if you if you if you've been involved in law enforcement
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for long enough, eventually you will come across a job or two
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where people do make up allegations specifically for
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that reason. False people maliciously make up
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complaints. To damage the reputations of
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other people. It does happen.
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So the you know, even with this article, to put out this idea
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that basically you know that that just never happens.
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The false assumptions. People would never maliciously
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make up complaints just to damage other people's
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reputations. But you're involved in law
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enforcement for long enough. People will come along and make
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up the weirdest stories. Were the strangest reasons you
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try and wrap your head around and think why.
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Why would you do that to someone else?
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And whatever reason they have, whether it's just born out of
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pure revenge. Whether it's acting on someone
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else's behalf because they you know someone else has talked
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them into it sometimes which you've seen happened and you
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know I'll continue you just to just to say that you know.
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Completely false. No one would ever do this.
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You can see the line that they're already going down with
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that. You know, this kind of thing
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would never, never happen. Like I said, my experience,
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yeah, unfortunately it does happen.
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And you know, I'll continue on. So what's changed?
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The changes mean adults accused of rape or certain sexual
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offences can be named by the media before they're committed
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to stand trial. It brings Queensland along with
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the rest of the country. The sexual offences include
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rape, attempt to commit rape, assault with attempt to commit
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rape and sexual assault. This means those offences will
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be treated the same as all other criminal offences in Queensland
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regarding publishing information about a person accused of an
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offence. Says why it is important,
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Women's Legal Service CEO Nadia Bromley said the changes were
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significant because it meant victims of sexual violence will
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be treated equally in the justice system.
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The existing distinction in the law was based on harmful and
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outdated myths about sexual offences, she said, whereas
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national and international research.
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Consistently demonstrates that instances of sexual assault are
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significantly underreported and have lower rates of prosecution
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and conviction than other offenses.
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Now this word here is what really This is where I I start
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to take Umbridge with, you know, it's it's it's these outdated
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myths that people make up false complaints, or the complaints
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are easily made. And if there's one thing that
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victim, survivors of sexual assault can tell us is that the
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process is anything but easy. Now here, here she is Yvette
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Darth. Anyway, speaking in Parliament,
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Attorney General Yvette Darth got no idea how she made
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Attorney General. Actually I do, because they like
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to promote the people who are very under qualified in our QLD,
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parliament, QLD, government, if you're under qualified.
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Then you're definitely qualified, she said.
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Rape myths, so this constant use, this constant use of this,
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this phrase about being rape myths, it's all a myth.
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Anyone comes and accuses you, well, there's no way it can be a
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myth. There is, you know, these rape
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myths have no place in a society.
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Obviously the person being accused is guilty.
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That's what. That's the narrative that
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they're putting forward. These these changes were made in
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response to a recommendation from the 2nd Women's Society and
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Justice Task Force report go down How it's how it will work.
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Under the new legislation applicants which include
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includes defendants, complainants and the prosecution
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will have three business days to apply for a non publication
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order. So listen, look, like I said,
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I'm not necessarily against against the the reform.
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In general I mean it just brings us up into into line with other
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other charges. You know if you're if you're
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charged with, if you're being accused of murder or attempted
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murder or something like that. So obviously you can be named
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then the narrative, I don't like that with that we're constantly
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being it's constantly being pushed upon us.
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Is that obviously the person who's being accused?
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As soon as they're being accused, they're already guilty.
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So like they said in this article, assault advocates say
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the archaic laws were born out of the false assumption that
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people maliciously made-up complaints to to damage
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reputations. And we're constantly being
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pushed in. The narrative that's constantly
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being pushed is that it's a myth that people would make up
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allegations. So look, I'll tell you a little
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bit about my experience. I didn't have a lot to do with
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many rape cases while I was involved in the police, but I'll
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tell you 3. Three instances where there was
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allegations of rape. One was very serious of the the
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very first one and it was a bit late.
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I was still doing general duties but we were there.
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There was a a call put out. I was working in the in the the
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far northern region, corporate out, so female.
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Can't remember the age. Probably early 30s, late 20s,
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early 30s. Maybe.
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She'd been accused of being sorry.
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She'd been raped in her home and she was in a like a farmhouse at
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a in the in amongst, surrounded by cane fields.
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The house was just there by itself.
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She'd been raped, violently, violently raped.
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She'd eventually gotten away. The the perpetrator had fled.
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And she's disheveled, run out, found a road, pulled up.
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I think it was a tourist bus full of, I think it was
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international tourists or something.
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Flagged them down. She's all bloodied like, said,
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disheveled, bloody. They've taken aback, Called
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ambulance, all this stuff. We've raced up there, remember
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going up through the scene, sorry through the house where
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this has all happened, Just me and my partner.
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We were the first ones on scene going up to clear the house, you
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know? Weapons drawn.
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Clearing one room at a time, every walking up, going up the
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the steps. I think it was three steps.
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You go up. There was a big open living
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area. Female underwear laying there on
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the floor, blood on the floor, blood splattered in different
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places. We've cleared all the rooms.
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There's stuff strewn all over the house.
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Cleared that. Gone on moved on to another area
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found out who this guy was moved on and eventually we we've
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caught him Couple of things have happened in the meantime
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detectives were there getting statements sorry.
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Back at somewhere else at the hospital think getting
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statements finding what happened.
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They've called they said this is what happened I we need to find
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this guy couple of days later we've we've I found I actually
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arrested him so. And you know there was no doubts
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Okay this guy had rape and he he kind of came out hands up after
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realizing that we're kind of pulling the town apart basically
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hunting for him. And it was only a small place
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and it's kind of come out hands in the air in the middle of the
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street. It's very tempting just to but
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just Yep, Okay, I arrested him, took him in.
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That was all good. So that was.
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The actual first actual rape, now, the very first job that I'd
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have come to. I was very new in my police
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policing career. Remember we were out doing
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nights, I think of zinc cans and we are.
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I think it was like maybe 1-2 in the morning and there was this
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call comes out on the radio. There was a sexual assault and I
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think the words used that a woman was being raped.
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Right now, a rape was in progress.
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It was just out of the city center, not far away.
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I think it was a Friday and maybe a Saturday night.
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I think it was about one or two in the morning.
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Everyone is just going to going to the scene.
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I remember we were about second, maybe third car vehicle on the
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scene. My partner and I can't remember
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who I was with. We get there and there was
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basically in Kens, you know we had.
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You've gone down a main road and you've turned into a side street
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and there's a block of apartments.
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There's a vacant block. And then there's another block
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of apartments and behind there's a block of apartments.
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Anyway, I've gotten out freaking all pumped up yet.
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Where we going? We're getting this fella and the
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office is another senior officers coming back.
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I think it was actually the DDO who was the first one on scene.
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DDO is the district duty officer, so it's the senior
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Sergeant. I think generally that's the
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DDOI think it ended up that he was the first one on scene.
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Now when we get there and I'm all pumped, like, yeah.
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Hunting someone, what are we doing?
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And I'm like, what? What's everyone doing?
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Everyone's kind of like sheepish sheepishly walking back towards
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cars and like mumbling, kind of giggling what the heck's going
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on. So in the end, what had happened
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was this young girl. When I say young, she's old
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enough to go night clubbing. She's gone out for the evening.
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She's, if you don't know, cans. Cans is a very touristy town.
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A lot of tourists go there, a lot of backpackers go there.
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She's gone out going night clubbing.
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She's met up with a young, I think he was a Brazilian guy.
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Things have gotten very amicable, very amorous between
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the couple. They've decided to go back to
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her place from the nightclub, walk back to her place.
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Along the way, things have gone a little.
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Were going very well, I suppose you could say for them and you
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know one thing that led to another They couldn't couldn't
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hold in their passions and decided to decided to become
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amorous in the vacant lot. Apparently things were so noisy
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that the neighbors in the surrounding buildings thought
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that this young lass was being raped.
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Called it in as yes. Young girl is down there in the
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vacant block being raped. So like I said, all officers
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hands on deck going because we're going to prevent this
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crime from happening and arrest a very bad dude.
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Seeing officer walks back and sheepishly tells everyone the
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story about 9 things have just gone down and they just
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apparently couldn't wait to get back to the girl's house.
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And the girl, the young girl was extremely embarrassed.
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And then they quietly walked back to their apartment, which
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they should have done in the 1st place.
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Now I remember at that time thinking it's probably good that
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the senior officer got to this job first because all I could
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imagine was a couple of really young, young coppers, couple of
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young blokes getting out of the car.
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Weapons drawn maybe, you know, walking through, running through
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the the vacant block, weapons drawn in sue in the, in the, in
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the sule position, you know, police all mate turns around
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hands in the ear. What's going on?
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Things get mistaken. Someone gets shot.
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I'm saying thinking, man, that could have gone.
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That could have gone so many bad directions.
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Probably lucky that the senior officer was the first one on
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scene, maybe a bit more level headed and just not like me and
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just wants to run out and like, Yep, we're hunting someone,
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let's go thought, OK, so I was interested.
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Anyway, that kind of played in my mind for a bit though.
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Well that could have turned out very differently.
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The third one, The third one. Now I wasn't really involved in
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this, I was just involved in discussions about it.
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I was working in another area up in the far north.
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And remember, the detectives connected with this, with this
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area being very quiet for a couple of days.
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And I thought it was a bit strange because, you know,
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normally everything's a lot of banty going on and, you know, we
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mix in with jobs and this kind of thing.
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Anyway, I've gone into the office and we're talking about
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what happened. They said, Tommy, pull me and
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just tell me, oh, this is what's been going on.
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So this young girl's gone out night clubbing again, gone at
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night clubbing. So she's got a boyfriend.
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She's going out with, I can't remember, it was by herself with
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some girlfriends, going out to a club, decided to go out without
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the boyfriend. She's met up with someone else,
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hooked up with someone else at at this nightclub.
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But basically, Long story short, she's ended up sleeping with
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this guy, having sex with this guy the next day, boyfriend,
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girlfriend and boyfriend. He's asked what's going on, what
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she do, you know, where'd she go?
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Why was she home so late and all this stuff?
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Out of all her guilt, she the guilt that she feels because
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she's slept with this guy, this other guy, she's told the
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boyfriend that she's been raped. Now look, hats off to this bloke
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instead of just firing up and saying, well, I'm going to kill
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this father. I'm not sure if they knew him or
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what. Whatever had happened, he's
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insisted. Well, you've been raped.
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We have to take this to the police.
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So he's like, Yep, we're going to the police and just basically
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just made sure she's gotten in the car.
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We're going to the police. We're reporting this.
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So she's come to the police. She's reported all this.
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Detectives have taken all this, They've interviewed her, gotten
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her statements, everything. Yep.
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She's been raped. You know, do everything like
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that, all the testing, everything that has to be done,
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then they've gone around to see. The the young chap has been
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accused of this rape. He's usly denied everything.
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Obviously everything was on the up and up.
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This was consensual. This is what his story is.
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Met at the club. Whatever.
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I can't remember. I think they might have known
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each other, vaguely met at this club.
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Everything was consensual. She wanted to do this.
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So this is kind of remember the detective said they thought from
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the start that there was something very weird about this
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girl's story. It didn't add up.
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It just didn't add up OK. So this is going on for about a
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week. They've continued investigating,
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try to get different statements from people and find out what's
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happened. Or we see there's other
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statements saying, you know, everything seemed very friendly
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at the nightclub and all this kind of thing.
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So it was a bit strange that now she'd been raped and all this.
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But so eventually a week goes by and the the guilt has gotten to
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this, this female, this young lady and threw out some
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questioning. She's come clean and said no.
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Made-up the story. Just felt guilty.
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Didn't want to admit to my girl, my boyfriend, that I'd actually
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just cheated on him and slept with someone else again.
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Always stuck in my mind thinking because I was all I was.
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Generally of the opinion that someone comes and accuses and
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says hey I've been raped. Well I probably had a bit of a
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closed mind about it for while you've been raped, I, I, I, I
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can honestly say I would never have question.
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I would never have. Questioned very much the the
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legit, the legitimacy of that accusation and what, like I
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said, I'm not against this new law where they say where they
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want to name these people. What I think is a bad Rd. for us
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to go down is the sensationalism that's that's being spouted off
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here, like with this Women's Legal Service CEO saying that.
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It meant that the existing distinction in the law was based
19:36
on harmful and that dated myths about sexual assault.
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That it's all myth in it. In the Darth coming out in in
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Parliament saying rape myths had no place in our society, as
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unfortunate as as it is, people make false accusations, women
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and men. You you have to face the fact,
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like I said, I'm not against if someone's being charged with
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something I'm not, I'm not particularly against it.
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But can we get rid of this narrative where we're just
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automatically assuming that because someone's made an
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accusation, especially if a female has made an accusation,
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they are automatically 100% true and the man definitely,
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definitely guilty before the before it's even gone to trial?
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This is, this is the narrative that we're constantly told they
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have to be the woman's made a statement.
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This must be true. And the sooner we open our eyes
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and realize that we're not living in a society where
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everything is black and white and my and people do actually
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lie and people do actually make false accusations and people
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aren't aren't guilty just because someone has come out and
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said they are, well then the better off they'll be, the
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better off we'll be. Anyway, that's just my opinion.
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Let me know what you think. Ah, thanks for listening to the
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slippery slope they just feel.