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The Centre for Ethics
NewsletterVolume 71 - Term 4, 2013
Fundamental questions of justiceOver the past couple of years,
The Centre for Ethics has hosted three significant events where
fundamental questions of justice have been examined. In 2010,
Walkely Award-winning investigative journalist Colleen Egan spoke
about her book Murderer No More: Andrew Mallard and the epic fight
that proved his innocence. This struggle for justice received
enormous publicity and was featured on the ABCs Australian
Story.
Miscarriage of justiceIn 2011, Malcolm McCusker spoke to a
packed chapel about Miscarriage of justice. Mr McCusker discussed
cases where there have been wrong verdicts. He outlined the impact
on those involved, not just the convicted person but those
surrounding him or her. He also discussed the difficulties people
face in having a wrongful verdict overturned and the compensation
for those who have been wrongfully imprisoned. Mr McCusker talked
about the importance of paying more than lip service to the
principle underlying our criminal law: the presumption of
innocence.
Every parents nightmareEarlier this year, Australian Story
producer Belinda Hawkins, Tom Percy QC and Simon Palfreeman were
here to discuss the issues associated with Belindas book Every
Parents Nightmare: Jock Palfreeman and the true story of his
fathers fight to save him from a lifetime in a Bulgarian jail. In
2009, young Australian traveller Jock Palfreeman was found guilty
of the murder of Andrei Monov, the only son of two people well
connected in the Sofia legal fraternity. He claims he went to the
defence of gypsies being attacked by Monov and a bunch of soccer
hooligans. The Bulgarians claim it was an act of cold-blooded
murder. As Belinda Hawkins shows in her book, the case that
followed Jock Palfreemans arrest was one where vital evidence was
kept out of court and crucial witnesses never called.
Bret Christian of Post NewspapersCloser to home, and very
closely related to the cases discussed by Colleen Egan and Malcolm
McCusker, are those examined by Bret Christian in his new book
Presumed Guilty: When cops get it wrong and courts seal the deal.
We are delighted that the Perth launch of the book will take place
in the school chapel as part of the Centre for Ethics
programme.
As readers no doubt know, Bret Christian is a founder and the
editor of Post Newspapers. The Post is essential reading for those
wanting to know whats going on in the suburban community within
which our school is placed. Christ Church students, staff and
parents regularly appear in the paper.
More gruelling than labyrinthine town-planning brawlsThe Post
was established in 1977. As it grew in circulation, so too the
issues it covered became more complex. There were some terrible
crimes committed in this area and murderers were made to account.
As Bret Christian says in his introduction: Local crime turned into
a challenge even more gruelling than labyrinthine town-planning
brawls. Our papers catchment happened to overlay the hunting
grounds of three serial killers, the first being one of Australias
most notorious. The local community, indeed Perth itself, was
traumatised.
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Darryl BeamishBret Christian begins this disconcerting book with
the tragic story of Jillian Brewer who was murdered in Cottesloe in
1959. He goes on to outline the inconceivably wrong arrest and
conviction of a young deaf man, Darryl Beamish. Charting in
extraordinary detail the procedural errors, inflated egos and often
deliberate obfuscation of truth that took place in the Beamish
conviction, Christian reveals the startling array of pitfalls that
continue to threaten the execution of proper justice in our
society. Readers will become aware of badly interpreted forensics,
biased testimony, mismatched and botched statements of fact, and
downright dirty tactics. All at once horrific, mind-blowing and
puzzling, the stories Christian has unearthed might well be fiction
but, tragically, are all true.
Heartbreaking storyClearly, the Darryl Beamish story touched
something very deep within Bret Christian. As a journalist, he has
covered many tragic cases but The heartbreaking story of Darryl
Beamish was the grandfather of them alla case I discovered
contained almost every element of what can, and does, go wrong with
police investigations and the court hearings that follow. Darryl,
born profoundly deaf, was adroitly framed for a murder he did not
commit, then sentenced to hang.
Brian MartinThe epigraph for Presumed Guilty comes from Justice
Brian Martin QC who said on the 1st of November 2012: The criminal
law is replete with miscarriage of justice caused in cases reliant
on circumstantial evidence, particularly when the heart of the case
rests on interpretation of forensic evidence.
Not police bashingThe book is not an exercise in police bashing.
But as Bret Christian started to pick apart the investigation into
the murder of Jillian Brewer he was shocked at the behaviour of
some investigators. What I learned about the work of certain
devious detectives shocked me to the core. Almost impossible to
reconcile with this new knowledge was the high regard I held for
the many police officers I encountered as a newspaper reporter and
on the streets. Most cops I met were dedicated, hardworking, mostly
smart, compassionate and justifiably proud of their work. They
dealt daily with the crims on our behalf.
Juries: the worst wayFor Bret Christian, one of the most urgent
tasks in bringing about reformation of the justice system is that
of abolishing juries and what he calls the legendary and much
prized notion of a coppers instinct. As he writes, Sadly, science
and hindsight have shown that coppers instinct is no more than
cognitive conceit wrapped in blue. As for juries, that sacred
bulwark against injustice is also very vulnerable as it turns out.
Despite the quaint instruction by judges to hearken to the
evidence, science has now proven that lurking in every juror is a
dangerous potential for prejudicenot just for or against the
accused person, but also for the evidence of police, civilian and
expert witnesses and even the personalities of the lawyers at the
bar table. Alarmingly, the consensus method employed behind the
locked doors of jury rooms has now been scientifically proven to be
the worst of ways to reach a good verdict.
Trial by GoogleAnother matter of deep concern for Christian is
what he calls trial by Google. No doubt he will elaborate on this
subject during the launch of Presumed Guilty.
Alison Fan: who better?The evening with Bret Christian will take
the form of an interview. Who better to pose the questions than
Perth journalist Alison Fan? When it comes to this topic Alison has
seen it all. As a reporter, presenter, columnist and producer in
both the electronic and print media, Alison has covered just about
every major court trial in western Australia over the past several
decades. This includes the WA Inc Royal Commission. She has been
tear gassed in California and shot at in riots in San Francisco so
we are confident that Alison is well and truly up to the task of
interviewing Bret Christian about his fascinating new book.
Lindy ChamberlainBret Christians final remarks in this book are
cautionary even as he recognises that some progress has been made.
He recalls Lindy Chamberlain convicted because of junk science and
the knowledge illusion. Now that we know about it, we have no
excuse for repeating these errors; but we do daily, and a continuum
of devastating justice errors proves it. He revisits his call for
police to avoid the dangers that are behind false impressions, the
knowledge of illusion and other traps of our intuition. Thirty
years of insight provided by cognitive science cannot be forever
ignored. We cannot go on believing that we know if someone is
telling the truth just by looking at them, and then allow wrecked
individuals and society to live with the dire consequences.
Tom Percy QCThe warm up act for this evening is Tom Percy and
his band, Gang of Three.
Frank Sheehan School Chaplain Director of the Centre for
Ethics
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Bret Christian has been a newsman all his working life,
beginning his career on The Daily News (Perth), and working in
Melbourne and Sydney before returning to Perth to start his own
suburban Post Newspapers group at the age of twenty-eight. Writing
about murder in the western suburbs of Perth fuelled his interest
in this mysterious human act of evil. His search for answers led
him to unearth many extraordinary injustices, some of which he
helped put right. Bret has been a commentator on numerous episodes
of the ABC television
documentary programme Australian Story where injustices in his
home town have featured. He lives by the sea at Cottesloe with his
partner, Jane, where they have raised six children and more pets
than he can count. He is still a reporter.
The Centre for Ethics is delighted to host the launch of Bret
Christians book Presumed Guilty with Alison Fan interviewing Bret
on Friday 18 October at 7.00pm in the School Chapel. All are
welcome and bookings are not required.
Bret Christian
Neil and Jenny Delmage are the creative team behind
award-winning Western Australian company Naturescape Creative
Landscaping, and this book showcases their beautiful work. The
pairs passion for creating water-wise gardens is obvious here, as
is their approach to gardening from a sustainable and ecological
perspective. They deem soil preparation and watering infrastructure
such as drip irrigation as their most important considerations, and
many years of experience has provided them with an extensive list
of plants that thrive
in low water Western Australian gardens without compromising on
style.
In Australias dry climate, how do you create and maintain a
beautiful yet waterwise garden? Neil and Jenny have been setting
the standard in garden design for more than twenty years, creating
sustainable, biodiverse and waterwise gardens. Their innovative
ideas and tried-and-tested methods produce stunning gardens that
fit the natural environment. Vivid photos and beautiful layout
combine with useful tips and
in-depth advice in this book, to satisfy both the hands-on
gardener and the armchair gardener.
12 Gardens
Compassion is an international Christian child development and
child advocacy ministry committed to working in partnership with
local churches around the world to foster the spiritual, economic,
social, physical and emotional development of children living in
extreme poverty in over 26 developing countries. These local
congregations can best
identify the specific needs of children in their community and
are able to contextualise our programs to drive change in their own
community.
This ministry was born during the Korean War, when American
evangelist Rev. Everett Swansons heart was broken by the
destitution of Korean children orphaned by the
war. As Swanson walked through the streets of Seoul, he watched
as piles of rags were loaded onto a garbage truck, then realised
that they were the bodies of homeless children who had died
overnight from exposure amid the rubble of war.
Compassion
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Winton was born in Perth in 1960 and is the author of 13 books
novels, short stories, non-fiction and books for children.
Winton has been named a Living Treasure by the National Trust
and awarded the Centenary Medal for service to literature and the
community. He is patron of the Tim Winton Award for Young Writers
sponsored by the City of Subiaco in Western Australia.
He has lived in Italy, France, Ireland and Greece but currently
lives in Fremantle with his wife and three children.
When he was at Curtin University of Technology Winton wrote his
first novel, An Open Swimmer, which won The Australian/Vogel
Literary Award in 1981. He has stated that he wrote the best part
of three books while at university. His second book, Shallows, won
the Miles Franklin Award in 1984. It wasnt until Cloudstreet was
published in 1991, that his writing
career was established. Breath, was published in 2008.
In 1995, Wintons The Riders was shortlisted for the Man Booker
Prize for Fiction, as later was his 2002 book, Dirt Music. Both are
currently being adapted for film. He has won many other prizes,
including the Miles Franklin Award a record four times: for
Shallows (1984), Cloudstreet (1992), Dirt Music (2002) and Breath
(2009). Cloudstreet is arguably his best-known work, regularly
appearing in lists of Australias best-loved novels.
He is now one of Australias most esteemed novelists. All his
books are still in print and have been published in eighteen
different languages. His work has also been successfully adapted
for stage, screen and radio. On the publication of his novel, Dirt
Music, he collaborated with broadcaster, Lucky Oceans, to produce a
compilation CD, Dirt Music Music for a Novel.
Tim WintonWinton draws his prime inspiration from landscape and
place, mostly coastal Western Australia. He says The place comes
first. If the place isnt interesting to me then I cant feel it. I
cant feel any people in it. I cant feel what the people are on
about or likely to get up to. His themes often centre on an issue
which is described by the character Gail in The Turning when she
says that every vivid experience comes from your adolescence.
Winton is actively involved in the Australian environmental
movement. He is a patron of the Australian Marine Conservation
Society and is passionately involved in many of their campaigns,
notably their work in raising awareness about sustainable seafood
consumption. He is a patron of the Stop the Toad Foundation and
contributed to the whaling debate with an article on the Last Whale
website.He is also a prominent advocate of the Save Moreton Bay
organisation, the Environment Defenders Office, the Australian
Wildlife Conservancy and the Marine Conservation Society, with
which he is campaigning against shark finning.
In 2003, Winton was awarded the inaugural Australian Society of
Authors Medal in recognition for his work in the campaign to save
the Ningaloo Reef.
Winton keeps away from the public eye, unless promoting a new
book or supporting an environmental issue. He told reviewer Jason
Steger Occasionally they wheel me out for green advocacy stuff but
thats the only kind of stuff I put my head up for.
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A Kenyan rubbish tip was a confronting side trip for members of
a visiting Australian party led by led by Tonya McCusker, wife of
WA governor Malcolm McCusker.
One of the visitors was Akram Azimi, a University of WA student,
Young Australian of the Year and ambassador for the So They Can
charity.
Akram wrote of his shock on encountering starving children:
During my trip to Kenya and Tanzania, I visited a rancid rubbish
dump.
Unlike our landfills here, this decaying place housed many
families. I talked to them, heard their stories. What they said
broke my heart.
Children here sniff glue from a very young age not to feel good
but to suppress the gnawing pangs of hunger.
Indeed, when they are brought in from the dump and placed in the
orphanage they cry out for glue, not food, because they are not
used to the thought of food satisfying their hunger.
From what I saw, there was no dignity that came with living in
extreme poverty.
For those living in extreme poverty in Kenya and Tanzania, only
a single pleading look was etched on their gaunt faces: Please, get
me out of here.
On the trip were Michael Sheldrick, also a UWA student and Young
Western Australian of the Year, and Christ Church student James
McCusker (13) Tonyas son.
Michael said that as the group travelled through Kenya and
Tanzania with So They Can, an educational organization chaired by
Australian investment banker and philanthropist Peter Hunt, it
sensed a spirit of optimism and dynamism.
Thanks to the collaboration between So They Can and the local
community, children who once lived on the rancid rubbish dump now
have safe shelter, nutritious food, a quality education and hope
for a better life.
Australia, as a generous and wealthy nation, can and should do
its part to
remedy this injustice, Michael said.
Our aid can ensure these kids get an education so they can live
up to their full potential and so they can lead lives worthy of
inherent human dignity.
Akram added: In the midst of all this bleakness, I also saw part
of the solution.
I visited schools that gave these kids a quality education.
These schools offered these kids a chance a chance to break the
cycle of extreme poverty once and for all and lead lives worthy of
inherent dignity as a human being.
In countries like these, where there are so few doors of
opportunity, the phrase a quality education is the key to life
takes on a grand significance.
Education is not a preparation for life it is life itself.
Courtesy of POST Newspapers.
Kids learn theres more to life than a tip
Phot
o: P
OST
New
spap
ers
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Please contact Teresa Scott on 9442 1705 beforehand, in case
there is a change in the programme. A map of Christ Church Grammar
School is available on our website
www.ccgs.wa.edu.au/about-us/our-location/campus-map
The Centre For Ethics
CalendarDate Event and topic Speaker Time Location
Friday 18 October
Book launchPresumed Guilty
Bret ChristianAlison FanTom Percy QC
7.00pm Chapel
Tuesday29 October
EyrieTim Wintons new novel
Tim Winton6.30pm for 7.00pm
ChapelTickets: Lane Bookshop 9384 4423
Thursday 31 October
So they Can James Tonnison 9.00am Chapel
Friday 1 November
EcoCare Climate Justice Anglican Board of Mission Morning
Classrooms
Tuesday 5 November
Ethics Book Club Frank Sheehan 7.30pmRSVP9442 1705
Thursday 14 November
Compassion child development and advocacy ministry
Frank Sheehan 9.00am Chapel
Tuesday19 November
Leadership Greg Mitchell Morning Classrooms
Wednesday20 November
12 Gardens Neil and Jenny Delmage 7.30pmRSVP9442 1705
Wednesday4 December
Advent service Carol service 7.00pm to 9.00pm Chapel
Tuesday 24 December
Nativity play10.00am to 11.00am
Chapel
Tuesday 24 December
Christmas Eve service 8.00pm to 9.00pm Chapel
