Shorten rape accuser: Cops failed me

[nero_bolt]

Woman who accuses Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of rape says police failed her 

A news paper video of the woman is here http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/woman-who-accuses-opposition-leader-bill-shorten-of-rape-says-polic...

A WOMAN who claims she was raped by federal Labor leader Bill Shorten has accused Victoria Police of failing to investigate properly because of his position of power.

Earlier this year, authorities decided not to press charges against Mr Shorten because prosecutors felt that “there was no reasonable prospect of conviction”.

The woman, Kathy, asked that her surname not be published, but agreed to be photographed.

Interviewed by the Herald Sun in Queensland, she said the trauma of what she says happened to her had been exacerbated by what she sees as an inadequate police investigation.

“I had three main witnesses ... I gave them the phone number of one, her maiden and married names, told them she lived in Melbourne.

“The police told me they couldn’t find her,” Kathy said.

“But they went to all of Bill’s friends,’’ she said.

Mr Shorten’s press secretary Ryan Liddell last night referred to Mr Shorten’s statement in August: “The claim has now been thoroughly and rigorously investigated by police, as is entirely proper.’’

Mr Shorten said then: “I fully co-operated to clear my name. And that is what I have done ... The police have now concluded the investigation. The decision speaks for itself.”

A Victoria Police spokesman said the force was satisfied that the matter had been “fully investigated”.

Kathy told the Herald Sun she felt let down and devastated by how police had handled the matter.

“With another witness, the police tried to say she was influenced by the media, which doesn’t make any sense.

“I don’t think I had a hope in hell with the police because of who he is,” Kathy said.

“If Bill was just a regular guy I think it would have been different. The police would have had a load of evidence to do something.

“I left it in the hands of the police, and they did nothing.”

Kathy, now 44, alleges Mr Shorten raped her at a Labor youth conference in Portarlington in the winter of 1986, when she was just 16.

The community nurse completed a 19-page police statement with detectives from Victoria Police’s sexual offences squad last October 23.

The police rang me up in April and told me they had called Bill in for questioning.

“They then said the case was closed and that they weren’t going to reopen it,” Kathy said.

“They said I would not be able to get access to any of the evidence. They said I could apply through Freedom of Information but I wouldn’t get it.

“I never really had a leg to stand on. They have tried to bully me,” she said.

“ I have got rights, and they are trying to take away my rights. People are treating me like a nutcase.

“It doesn’t mean I’m stupid or I’m fabricating things.”

Kathy had a rapid rise in Young Labor when elected to the rural policy committee.

She became a delegate for party state and national conferences in 1986.

Soon after joining Labor she says she came to know Mr Shorten — himself a rising star in the party.

After he travelled to Wodonga to meet local members, Kathy says she began speaking to him on the phone regularly about party and policy issues.

Kathy says she and her sister went to Portarlington for the youth Labor conference during the winter of 1986.

Kathy says she was raped by Mr Shorten after being pushed into a bathroom in the early hours of the morning.

She says no one else was present. A number of Young Labor members had spent the evening drinking and smoking marijuana, she says.

In her police statement, Kathy outlined how she came to know Mr Shorten and what she said happened on the night in question.

Kathy says she was raped after a group had arrived back from going for a drive.

“There was a knock at the door,” Kathy says. “I thought it was my sister. I opened the door and it was Bill.”

Kathy says she and her sister left the camp the next day.

The Herald Sun has seen a police statement by Kathy’s sister, completed on October 23 last year, in which she confirms details about the location of the Labor youth camp and the people who were present.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/woman-who-accuses-opposition-leader-bill-shorten-of-rape-says-polic...

[azureline**]

That's a bit of an over reaction................... she may still make a civil claim.

[debra9275]

if she is genunine, she should open a civil case, but micasheen can you explain why she "broke the story"" in such a huge public way?

the police have stated that there is no case to answer, and no conviction was possible.

[karliandjacko]

---

@debra9275 wrote:

if she is genunine, she should open a civil case, but micasheen can you explain why she "broke the story"" in such a huge public way?

the police have stated that there is no case to answer, and no conviction was possible.

---

I'd like to know why she chose Larry Pickering as her reporter of choice to tell her story.  Why would anyone traumatised over an old rape choose to tell her story to a cartoonist who uses penises to portray the "quality" of the subject, over a journalist?

[boris1gary]

---

@lightningdance wrote:

The isil terror is being milked by Bill for all he's worth. Stirring up division, racism and bigotry at Lakemba yesterday, pandering to the lowest base of people's anger and his thinly veiled attempt to blame Australia for this isil rage.

I wonder how the Japanese people are feeling in Australia and their own country when he launched into the attack on Japanese submarines and how Japan is a threat to Australia, conjured up war and death.

Poor Bill, he cares so much more than anybody else doesn't he, his replies to the PM are longer and more emotive, he is a  clone of David Marr who we all know is such a carer.

Is ISIL Bills Beaconsfield?? the disaster he rode all the way to the top? over the back of a dead miner? Probably.

Bill has form in sexual harassment, has form with his staff and has form for his grubby climb to the top and has form for marrying up to abet his ambition.

His naked ambition is on show every day.

---

Poor sad tony, he is milking the anti Islam so called state for all its worth. Creating division among Australians with his pathetic linking of Muslims with terrorism in his slimy veiled way.

poor sad tony, I wonder how our WW11 service people feel about his pandering to the Japanese and his outrageous talk of Japanese soldiers "honour".

Poor tony, it's clear that he cares little for the majority of Australians with his weak pandering to the mega rich at the expense of our own pensioners, unemployed, the sick and disabled.

Is this bombing lark his light on the hill - how many civilians will we kill this time?

tony has form for indecent assault and harrassment of women

While at University, Tony Abbott was charged with indecent assault for allegedly touching a female student teacher between her legs on the lower buttock.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2004, Tony Abbott claimed it was a "completely fictional incident" but later claims to have only touched her on the back to get her attention.

When Tony Abbott turned up to court, he had the assistance of a legal team (including a QC) as well as several witnesses.

The case was dismissed.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - July, 2004

After losing an SRC election, Tony Abbott is alleged to have approached the person who defeated him, Barbara Ramjan, come as close to an inch from her nose and then punched the wall on either side of her head.

Tony Abbott claims to have no recollection of the incident.

Source: News.com.au - September 8, 2012

poor tony has form for violent thuggish behaviour

Lindsay Foyle, a former deputy editor of The Bulletin and a past president of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association, has revealed that Tony Abbott once threatened to punch him because of a disagreement over abortion (Lindsay took a pro-choice stance, Tony Abbott reportedly didn't like that stance).

Lindsay is on record as saying that a number of journalists witnessed this, including Greg Sheridan, a friend of Tony Abbott's who is also the Foreign Affairs editor for the Australian.

Source: New Matilda - September 2012

Tony Abbott has admitted to punching Joe Hockey out cold sometime during the late 80's. At the time, Tony Abbott was "kind of a semi-player coach" for a rugby union team.

Source: Tony Abbott Interview - December 9, 2009

Tony Abbott was once caught by police bending a street sign after passing his economics examination.

Once again, Tony Abbott had to go to court, however while the offence was proven, no conviction was recorded.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - July, 2004

 poor pathetic little tony, his naked ambition is on show day after day. 

[i-need-a-martini]

---

@lightningdance wrote:

---

@poddster wrote:

All you have to do is consult history to see the grubbiness of all the Labor leaders, it is a prerequisite to qualify for the position.

---

let's not forget the paedophiles Labor has shielded for years, some are in prison but many of them are still around. What is it with Labor and criminality?

---

What lol??? I'd love to hear more about these sheilded Labor paedophiles lightning. Please elaborate.

[i-need-a-martini]

I would like to know what this has to do with left winged media?

I would also like to remind you that this was seriously investigated by police (or are you suggesting that the police are left winged too?). Mind you the police investigated it not because she reported it to them but because it was an incident that needed investigating.

I suspect she didn't report it to police because she knew that a police investigation would find the 2 witnesses she suggested were there would not be able to back up her version of events and that the police would also discover the discrepancies in time and other anomolies she presented as fact once interviewed.

And quite frankly I don't understand why she would be all cut up now about the investigation being botched when she didn't even bother to report it in the first place.

[i-need-a-martini]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

---

@lightningdance wrote:

---

@poddster wrote:

All you have to do is consult history to see the grubbiness of all the Labor leaders, it is a prerequisite to qualify for the position.

---

let's not forget the paedophiles Labor has shielded for years, some are in prison but many of them are still around. What is it with Labor and criminality?

---

What lol??? I'd love to hear more about these sheilded Labor paedophiles lightning. Please elaborate.

---

And of course lets not forget the paedophiles the Liberal Party are shielding in amongst their ranks. We all know this has been going on for years.

[***super_nova***]

---

@poddster wrote:

If it did happen I hope she takes it further and mounts a civil case, just to show how much the justice system sux and that people with power and clout can get away with rape, murder, grand theft and the list just goes on.

---

IF, that is the problem,and we will never know what really.  But what IF it did not happen?  The damage to Shorten has been done already, and that seems to be acceptable to some here.  If this woman first reported it to police,  and only when she felt they are not dealing with it properly she would have gone public, I might have had some sympathy for her. 

[nero_bolt]

Will Bill Shorten Face Court?

The woman behind the rape allegations has hired a barrister.

THE woman at the centre of historical rape allegations against Bill Shorten is seeking to reopen her case after it was rejected by authorities because they believed there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction.

The woman has recruited high-profile barrister Peter Faris QC, who has informed the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, John Champion, that his client wants to review the DPP’s decision not to press charges.

In August, the Opposition Leader identified himself as the subject of an investigation into rape ­allegations dating from 1986 that he said were untrue and abhorrent. Mr Shorten, who was speaking soon after Victoria Police confirmed they would be taking no further action, said the matter was over and he had a right to “draw the line on this”.

Investigating police said at the time they would be taking no further action after the state ­Office of Public Prosecutions ­advised them there was no reasonable prospect of success.

Mr Faris has written to Mr Champion seeking documents that appear to lay the groundwork for further proceedings aimed at challenging the legal basis for the DPP’s decision.

Mr Faris asked the DPP to confirm the nature of his decision, whether he was prepared to reconsider and whether he would provide the reasons why Mr Shorten was not charged. The letter, sent on Friday, seeks access to the police brief and any other material Mr Champion used when making his decision.

Mr Faris told The Australian his client, Kathy, was of limited means and his pro bono involvement was the first time she had the benefit of advice from a lawyer. “She is frightened that he is so powerful that nothing will happen. She wants to have a court decide this, not the DPP,” Mr Faris said.

Kathy has alleged that she was raped at a Victorian Young Labor camp near Geelong, in 1986, when Mr Shorten was 19 and she was 16. Mr Shorten said in August there was “absolutely no basis for the claim”.

[cherry*135]

The woman behind the rape allegations has hired a barrister.

Is that supposed to be  earth shattering news? People hire barristers everday for one reason or another.