A Family Destroyed

The recent news that all charges were dismissed by the court in the case of the alleged pedophile circus training center in the Blue Mountains comes as no surprise.

I started following the story and writing about it when it first broke in early 2018, My interest was because of the exploitative and sensationalized media presentation of it and because the allegations themselves were so reminiscent of the bogus Satanist pedophile scares of the 1980s and 1990s.

I did some digging and quickly found that the Blue Mountains had a history of these types of allegations connected to religious cults. This was also the case here, as relayed to me by friends of the family who contacted me after finding my original posts, but who were restrained from making any of it public due to a court suppression order. I do not know if that order is still in place.

But what I can and will discuss yet again, is the way the case was presented by the media – particularly the Murdoch media and the Daily Mail. These media outlets chose the least flattering images of the accused and continually highlighted their alternative lifestyle, along with the lurid descriptions of the acts purportedly visited upon the three children by all of the accused. It had the desired effect. Click-bait to whip up the outrage level of the mob on social media.

I hope the family sues those outlets, though no amount could possibly compensate for the damage done.

But more than that, I want to discuss the culpability of the police in this life-destroying fiasco.

The police would have had both sides of the story. The Cook family side was supported by the very films taken that were supposed to be evidence against them. Moreover, the stories included not only bizarre acts of gross indecency – but ones that are physically impossible. The Cook family side of the story by comparison was sane, but also incredibly sad, given the actual facts as I have come to understand them.

The police claimed to have a strong case. But the truth was and remains that they had no case at all. As above, the film of the indecent acts that the police claimed to have, showed no such thing. Additionally, there was no physical evidence of abuse – which there certainly should have been, given the horrific claims being made. The prosecution brief fell over entirely however when one of the children recanted and admitted making the stories up. Despite all of this however, the police maintain that the case should proceed. It seems like the special unit involved is incapable of admitting error. It has certainly shown it is not above trying the case through the media via leaks and downright lies – a particularly egregious way to proceed when the defence is restrained from replying via court order.

Profiling of the family (and the alternative lifestyle of its members), no doubt played a large role in the charges being laid in the first instance. It is a longstanding issue with law enforcement. Ask Lindy Chamberlain – charged with murder because she did not cry on cue as the pop psychology used by police said she must, if innocent. Ask any African-American pulled over in a car or stopped on the street in the US. Or indeed, Indigenous people here, along with certain ethnic groups. Go back to the 1960s and ask the hippies. Or just go to any music festival now and ask around.

The police should also be sued for wrongful arrest, and compensation needs to be made for time spent in prison, the punitive bail conditions, loss of income, loss of trust and respect in the community and whatever else the lawyers determine.

One last issue concerns the comments of one of the magistrates who, on the one hand, admitted the lack of evidence, but on the other, could not conceive of young children being able to make up the kinds of allegations involved. Under normal circumstances, I’d agree. These were not normal circumstances. The children were subjected to the imagery involved through the so-called church they were raised in.

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