THE ARMADALE RAPIST (2)

The serial rapist and paedophile whose identity suppression was one of the main reasons for our Name Them and Shame Them rally on the steps of Parliament House last month has again had his name suppressed.

On 3AW today I didn’t attempt to name him again. I said I would be censored. Again. The station, to protect its broadcasting licence, would bleep me. And to push ahead for dramatic effect could be seen as a stunt.

This issue is far too serious for stunts. Already more than 5000 of you have signed my petition at namethemshamethem.com and your names and protest will be going to the Premier and the Attorney-General.

Those of you who attended that rally know who I am talking about  because I announced it at the rally and several thousand of you repeated it. But  on 3AW I couldn’t tell you his name, or his nickname, show you his photo or even the name of his associates.

The man, known as the Armadale Rapist, is  Mark Anthony Jewell. He terrorised Melbourne girls and women for a decade and was recently  released from jail. Yet again.

Lawyers for the Sunday Herald Sun tried, unsuccessfully, to have the suppression order lifted last week. And editorially the newspaper said:
‘We agree with Prime Minister Rudd that paedophiles should be unable to hide. He said people should be told when paedophiles move into their communities. The public has a right to know’.

Jewell, who terrorised Melbourne women for years, committed his last sexual assault only six months after being released the last time. He indecently assaulted a 12-year-old girl in the presence of an eight-year-old after befriending the younger girl’s mother.

And yet County Court judge Margaret Rizkalla deemed suppression of his identity would best serve the interests of the community.

She talked about the ‘emotional and psychological effect on the respondent if material is published’. What about the victims?  What about the emotional and psychological effects on them? She also said it could affect his rehabilitation.

Jewell was so rehabilitated the last time he got out that he didn’t last six months before attacking a 12-year-old child.

So once again, under what I consider legal abuse of the Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act, we have cases where you aren’t supposed to know who a paedophile is  or where he is living.

In this case we know Police believe Jewell committed many other sex assaults for which he has never been charged. We know that in jail he refused any counselling to aid his rehabilitation. We know that  a judge said he  was resistant to reform and a psychiatrist warned that if released he would assault girls and women again.

Personally I don’t care about his rehabilitation. His list of crimes, his serial record, is so bad that a mechanism must be found to keep violent predators like this behind bars. Like they now have in New South Wales and Queensland. And if ever released on parole must be on such a short leash they have no opportunity to attack again.

The community not only deserves it. We should demand it. This law was meant to protect people not perpetrators. It is tainted. And it is fatally flawed. And it must be repealed or amended.

Monday, July 7, 2008

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008