geoff clark, rapist

So, after all the bluster and all the lies and all the calculated behaviour of a sexual predator, that cunning fraud and disgrace to indigenous people, Geoff Clark, has finally been stripped of all his veneer as a caring, decent, champion of human rights and Aboriginal leader.

Clark is a rapist. Found by a jury to be the leader of the pack in at least two gang rapes in Warrnambool more than thirty years ago.

And it is only because of the bravery of  one of his victims Carol Stingel and the support of another alleged victim – Clark’s cousin Joanne McGuinness – that a brute of a man has been brought to justice.

They were aided by a fearless campaign by The Age newspaper’s Andrew Rule.

The very first time Carol Stingel, then just sixteen, met Clark, he said: ‘I am Geoff Clark. I can do anything.’ It took a long time but yesterday Clark got the message. No You Can’t.

Typically there was no remorse, no regrets, no feelings for his victim. It was all political. And self-centred and self-important to the end he said – when asked if this was the lowest point in his life  -- ‘it’s the lowest point in the history of this country’. Who is he kidding? Clark also said ‘ No one’s safe’.  No one is safe from him.

The Age today says that at least three new complainants have come forward during the recent hearings. One from Koroit, one from Melbourne and one from Warrnambool.

I have information on another alleged victim near Warrnambool. One e-mail says: ‘When I was a teen it was well-known by many of the locals back then in Warrnambool that Geoff Clark had been involved in multiple gang rapes and other criminal activity. I personally knew at least one other girl who had been raped by Clark.

‘Clark has managed to get away with it all these years claiming he’s a badly done-by black fella… and the large Clark clan always gave each other alibis. And it was known that you didn’t make trouble against the Clarks or you’d have problems’.

Well Geoff Clark is the one with problems now. Discredited. Despised. He must live with the word ‘ rapist’ for the rest of his sorry and sozzled life.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2007