A comment from former Seven personality Ryan Phelan. Domestic violence charges against Phelan were withdrawn by NSW Police in September.
I wouldnât agree itâs a myth, but it is very difficult when people automatically start pointing fingers without both sides. Thatâs why we have a court system, although a bloody slow one.
Innocent until proven guilty has been dead for years in the eyes of the public. Luckily a court of law recognises it.
You just need to look at any social media article of someone charged in court. Read through the comments and it is straight away comments that state they are guilty before they have even been tried. The media has played a role in this, so itâs all good that this is coming from someone in the media. They need to be the change.
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He was found not guilty of an offence that, had it occurred after the law changed, would have been a different outcome. Conflating being not guilty with innocence is a very bad idea.
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I donât understand what you are talking about sorry.
There has never been a âlaw changeâ in regards of the presumption of innocence. Its law in Australia and a human right. And my comment was never in relation to him directly. It is rather a comment directed at media painting someone guilty before they have been tried. But please clarify what you are talking about because it doesnât make a lot of sense to me.
Craig McLachlan was found not guilty but the laws around consent have since changed and do not apply retroactively. From the above article:
Magistrate Wallington said the âresult may have been differentâ if current consent laws were applied in this case.
âThe law requires me to apply the law as it stood at the time of the alleged offending,â she said.
She said that required her to âapply a subjective test as to the accusedâs belief as to whether a complainant consented to sexual touchingâ.
But Magistrate Wallington said consent laws had changed since the time of the alleged assaults.
âThe law on consent has been replaced with a more objective test: Was the accusedâs belief reasonable?â she explained.
âWere the current law applicable, it is possible the result may have been different.â
No that isnât what I was commenting on. I was talking about the tweet posted above in relation to the presumption of innocence but thanks for the quote.
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I have recently worked in the public sector and found a number of young women there who believed they could have any older men they disliked in their workplace removed from his employment by making vexatious sexual harassment complaints. Those girls were likely correct.
There are whole workplaces in the public sector where there are no middle aged men - they have either been removed during rolling redundancies or the occasional sexual harassment complaint. I am certain the public broadcasters would be no different than the rest of the public sector.
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Yup. #Metoo did this.
Itâs not right. Just because a woman says something happened doesnât mean itâs true. Same for men. Just because they say something happen doesnât mean itâs true.
People are way too quick to jump on board and believe anyone who makes an allegation.
I can just imagine how many peoples lives have been ruined because of the me too movement removing innocent til proven guilty.
Social media has made the world a horrible place. It is disgusting and if it were to be banned tomorrow it would make the world a happier place.
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Not just happening in the workplace but the courts as well which is part of where I worked in the public service. Adult complainants in sexual assault cases declared as vulnerable witnesses and only having to give recorded evidence thus not being able to be cross examined by the defence barrister. Whatâs going on is a lot bigger than just employment law.
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As a female I can say that Iâm not a big fan of the #Metoo movement. Yes, itâs done a great job in bringing down some serious predators but a lot of innocent people have been accused too. And it seems that almost every woman has their own #Metoo story, whether real or perceived. Itâs almost like some sort of warped âclubâ that women feel they need to join to get credibility.
The term âsexual assaultâ is so broad now that it encompasses pretty much everything. A friend told me recently her 12yo daughter was distraught after hearing her aunt had been sexually assaulted. She thought her aunt had been raped, when sheâd actually been grabbed on the bum while walking through a pub. Of course this should never have happened, but a swift kick in the wrong place or a well positioned stilletto heel usually does the trick.
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Certainly not my experience in the public sector and canât say Iâve seen instances of sexual harassment. The private sector and not for profit where Iâve also worked I would say sexual harassment is rife but is generally handled much better since I started working in the 90s.
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I understand your point, but Iâm guessing youâve never been on the receiving end of sexual assault or harassment? Most victims donât bother making a complaint because of that kind of attitude. If #metoo encouraged some men and women not to remain silent then itâs been a good thing.
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Itâs a hugely complicated issue that seems so simple but gets complicated because of false accusations. While I think itâs great that MeToo has brought a lot of things to the surface and a lot of attention, I have heard of instances where accusations can be brought and believed which ultimately discredits them and the other actual victims who do need a voice.
I used to do work with kids and it was something we had to always be on the look out too because they could work the system out that they could cause an issue by making accusations - usually not actually realising how serious the ramifications for the accused could be.
Itâs not just in workplaces/schools/churches/etc⌠itâs something Iâve heard of frequently in relationship breakdowns as well. Accusations getting made to make sure the other partner loses access to the kids and things like that.
Itâs hard because those who have been assaulted need to have their voices heard, need to have the perpetrators punished and that goes for cases of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Similar issues happen with bullying complaints in workplaces: If you are a manager handling the complaint you have to be very careful that the complainant is not actually the bully. I have seen this happen myself.
In the few genuine sexual harassment cases I have seen in one of my workplaces, the male harasser was always a workplace bully as well.
I have also seen a couple of casting couch situations where the woman was a willing participant with the end result that girls who would not be in it got absolutely nowhere career-wise.
This is really sad. Craig was found innocent, regardless of whether he really was guilty or not. Christie seems to be on some sort of witch hunt and wants someone âto payâ.