It only takes One zealot......

.... and much can be achieved.  Great 'Good' can ensue.  Many truths uncovered. 

And much can be undone too. Much chaos can be caused; vast amounts of public money spent; many, many reputations ruined by false and malicious allegations. 

One of each zealot-type were discussed here this evening.

I am grateful for the spillage of conversation from another pub in the Village down the hill. My friend  Anna, the Landlady there at the Raccoon Arms. Especially as it is about the goings on over the water on the Big Island.

The Landlady at the Raccoon Arms

Anna, as many know, is an expert on the Jimmy Savile goings-on in the UK and has repeatedly blown loud whistles that go studiously ignored. And it is in that same general area that she takes interest in what is going on in Oz. That subject is 'child abuse'. She is a zealot when it comes to fact-finding.

I have no hesitation in recommending customers here to spend a few evenings in the Raccoon Arms looking through Anna's many, many talks on the subject, with many first-hand experiences.

The Saville issue concerned one man, an entertainment celebrity, and has cast a net to ensnare dozens of others, all, as with Savile, convicted in the Media court without a skerrick of corroborated evidence. That court has as much effect as the Family Court in ruining innocent men.

And so to Oz. We too have Child Abuse Zealots. Several names spring to mind and their targets, rather than being celebrities and nonebrities, all appear to be Priests. The Catholic Church in Oz has been hit very hard by accusation after accusation. Much money has been extracted, paid for by parishioners. 

I won't tell all that Anna says but refer you to her at:

http://annaraccoon.com/2014/11/05/ozzie-man-look-on-my-works-ye-mighty-and-despair/

But I will give some.

Ozzie Man – “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

It used to be that we said ‘What happens in the US this week, will follow in the UK next week’ – but recently we have been following in the footsteps, closely in the footsteps, of Australia. The Land of Ozzie Man.

It is also Slater and Gordon land; home of the rapacious law firm that apparently seeks to corner the market in personal injury civil claims for historic sex abuse. Is there a connection between that fact and what follows? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Now.... this old Knight has 'form' with Slater and Gordon, which as everyone knows was the old stamping ground of Juliar Gillard.  I have crossed swords with the partner who blew the whistle on her shennanigans (for a suitable fee and some media exposure for his Seattle firm, where he is now). Nick Styant-Brown was that chap, the same nong who put several of my naughty-girl clients in jeopardy while building his media image in Oz. But that is bye the bye. 

Australia has been thrashing around in the confines of a ‘Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse'; one of those overarching inquiries into everything, everywhere, at any time, that we are trying to establish in the UK – and there have been some fascinating spin offs.

One of the most vocal figures calling for such an inquiry is an ex-policeman who lays claim to being a ‘child protection expert’.

He has a fanatical following on Twitter and in the blogosphere, where he is wont to sound forth late into the night on the inefficiency, nay possible corruption, of the various police forces that should be looking into these matters.  He is frequently to be found on the breakfast TV sofas, explaining how he had to quit the force in order to properly investigate such abuse – he was prevented from doing so by powerful shadowy figures.

He has been accused of leaking names and details of alleged abuse to popular newspapers, something he strenuously denies – but he is always ready with an alarming quote for anybody who wishes to write about the innuendo he liberally distributes.  He’s made TV programmes and interviewed ‘victims’ and demands action be taken. He has become the darling of left wing politicians who are only too happy to use the paedo-hysteria he has whipped up to score political points.

But here’s the thing – eventually the Royal Commission WAS set up – and it did inquire into everything, everywhere, at anytime – and somehow or other, a spin-off inquiry came about. 

Into our ex-policeman.

Whoops! Did you think you knew who I was talking about? Nope, not him, this ex-policeman is called Peter Fox.

His Pension Fund is Fat from Malice.

The spin off inquiry was called Strike Force Lantle – and the officer in charge, Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Little, has just been given an award for the exhaustive inquiries he made into the claims of ex-policeman Peter Fox – inquiries made in the face of an onslaught of vitriolic social media campaigning by ‘supporters’ of Peter Fox.

A familiar story indeed – and it is instructive just how closely our home grown ‘paedo-heroes’ have followed in the footsteps of the Ozzie trailblazers.

Peter Fox went onto ABC’s Lateline programme with sensational claims that there was a ‘cover-up’ of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in New South Wales by a ‘Catholic mafia’ in the Australian Police force. Those claims fed into a growing ‘underground’ movement on social media of people who believe that we are surrounded by conspiracies – rather than ineptitude and often sheer bad luck.

He fed a local journalist with ever more hysterical claims – including details of ‘victims’ statements and contact details, which appeared in the Australian press. He publicly claimed that he was being prevented from investigating, that his records had been seized by NSW police during an unauthorised raid on his house – and that he was the best person to get to the bottom of the matter…still sounding familiar?

“Fox told Lateline he was forced to stand down from the police investigation into the alleged cover-up of serial child abuse committed by Catholic priest Denis McAlinden.”

“Giving evidence to the state inquiry, he goes further, saying a “Catholic mafia” exists within the police and the McAlinden investigation, codenamed Strike Force Lantle, was “a sham … set up to fail”.”

Anna reports some of the findings, including:

However, the Strike Force Lantle has come to some educative conclusions. 

Careful what you wish for when you ask for an Inquiry into ‘everything’.

No evidence to support claims by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox that a ‘‘Catholic mafia’’ existed within local police ranks, or any evidence which supported his claims that he had been wrongly removed from investigating claims of abuse cover-ups within the Catholic church.

Ms Cunneen found Detective Fox to be an unreliable witness who had become ‘‘obsessed’’ with his own probe of the diocese, and had at times been ‘‘deliberately untruthful’’ and prone to exaggeration.

Anna adds more quite pertinent points and concludes...:

It is a can of worms – not helped by hysterical ‘paedo-hunters’, whether or not they have ever been policemen, making unreliable statements on TV, carrying out their own unauthorised investigations – and using ‘victims’ for their own agenda, leaking confidential police intelligence to the media.

Peter Fox is no longer in Australia…he is continuing his obsessive interest in victims of paedophilia elsewhere…I just hope he hasn’t followed the rest of the Ozzie paedo-industry to Britain. We have our own home-grown versions to contend with already.

The numbers of people who have suffered from his lies and 'zealotry', his manipulations and insinuations are now as long as your arm.  And others have gained. I won't name them here but several women in particular, under a 'christian' guise (not Catholic, of course) have made a career from it. 

Please go and visit the Raccoon Arms for the fuller picture. 

Drink up. Her booze is not quite from the same supplier. But fine enough.

Pax