AN EVIL EXPOSED

Robin Fletcher is an evil man. A self-styled sex witch who spent ten years in jail for sex crimes against two 15-year-old girls.  In his so-called religion he believes he believes that sex with children is his right. While still in jail he wrote letters to villagers in Africa offering to pay them to find young women to be his disciples. In one letter he asked for girls under 20 but said he preferred primary school aged girls and said that under his ‘religion’ children should witness sex even from a young age. And children should be flogged.

Fletcher boasts ‘I will never change my views on these issues’.

On his release from jail in 2006 Fletcher was ordered to live inside Ararat Prison boundaries but won a legal challenge to live outside. But he has been under an Extended Supervision Order restricting where he can work, live and travel.

If it hadn’t been for the Herald Sun you would not know that Fletcher has been in court trying to have those restrictions lifted. You see, under the way these Extended Supervision Orders are being abused, sex offenders are getting their names suppressed. You can’t know their names, their addresses, what they look like, what their criminal records are.

The Herald Sun went to court and successfully fought Fletcher’s suppression order and Justice Philip Cummins declared the public had a right to know.

Hallelujah. This is an issue I have been fighting for years.  It is why I am facing criminal charges in the Magistrate’s Court and the Supreme Court next month.

You do have a right to know.

That is why I held a rally on the steps of Parliament House last year.

There are now more than 20 serial paedophiles who have been released on Extended Supervision Orders. How many have re-offended? We are not allowed to know.

The sick irony is that I applauded when the Government appeared to get tough. When they announced they were amending the 2005 Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act, so the Secretary of the Department of Justice could apply to the County or Supreme Court for a supervision order where a sex offender is assessed as posing a serious risk to the community of re-offending.

Nobody mentioned to us that they could return to the community incognito and melt back into the community without the public knowing who they are or where they are. They didn’t trumpet that minor point.

Police Minister Tim Holding said in 2005 ‘The public can be reassured that every precaution is being taken to protect the community against these people.’  And Corrections Minister Bob Cameron said ‘The new scheme will….. result in enhanced community safety.’

That is rubbish.  As the Herald Sun editorial says today:

‘.. we will challenge the practice of allowing some of these paedophiles to remain anonymous. We believe in the public’s right to know that the person who may be moving in next door may be one of these monsters.’

I know what I did last year on the steps of Parliament House was morally right. The courts will decide if I was legally right. Whatever they decide I am proud of what I did and I am ready for whatever happens.

I just hope more judges take Judge Cummins ruling yesterday as a precedent and follow suit. These suppression orders are wrong. Child abusers are now abusing our courts.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009