This is a further subscriber post
Our family were subjected to a two-year court ordeal. Gagging orders, financed by YouthLaw, were brought against our family (mother, father and two sons) in the Family court.
Background
Our world was shattered when we discovered soon after our daughter turned 14, that she was victim of sexual crimes by a St John ambulance paedophile gang, on Auckland’s North Shore. Unfortunately NZ authorities determined that the sex between our child and the adult men was “love and romance”, and that we were not permitted to do anything to safeguard our child. Authorities told us that our underage child’s sexual exploits were none of our business.
As soon as our daughter turned 16, she moved out of our home, and was financed by the State to live independently in the home of a school teacher (David and Madeleine Hayden). All contact with our child was cut off, and YouthLaw financed her to gag her parents and brothers in the courts.
The court proceedings
Gagging orders taken out against us in the North Shore Family court. There were no allegations of inappropriate parenting. The case was simply to shut us up so that the NZ public would not find out what had happened to our family. Our daughter commenced the gagging application against her parents and brothers, soon after her 16th birthday.
At the initial court hearing, the opposing barrister Barry MacLean launched into a tirade of lies to discredit the girl’s mother. It comprised vicious vitriol – a 20-minute stream of baseless fabrications. At the end of his tirade, Justice Ryan called a recess for morning tea. When the court re-assembled after the recess, the court was surprised to see that barrister Barry MacLean had left the building with no intention of returning. Having told his lies, he simply left, abandoning the court proceedings. As the opposing barrister was not present, we and our lawyer were now not permitted to address the court. We were thus denied an opportunity to refute Barry MacLean’s tirade of lies besmirching the mother’s character. Rather than postponing the hearing or cancelling the hearing as would be required by the rule of law, Justice Ryan closed proceedings and retired to consider his verdict. We were gagged until a final hearing could occur – two years later.
Our two sons were gagged “ex-parte” (without notice) by Justice Clarkson – our sons were not permitted to be present in court and were not permitted to offer any defence, or even know there was a secret legal case against them. These gagging orders are still in place today, 8 years later.
The court kept us waiting for 2 years until they gave us a final hearing – a long time in the life of an alienated, sexually promiscuous teenager. At one point we were offered a deal – if we voluntarily accepted permanent gagging, they would return our daughter to us for three months. We refused. For the State to attempt to trade time with our beloved child in return for our silence about State atrocities, is the most heinous form of blackmail.
The message from the Family court was loud and clear – they would go to any lengths to silence us and cover up State atrocities against our family, they demonstrated that they would not be constrained in these efforts by the law or the rule of law. We were threatened with immediate imprisonment by the courts. We were innocent yet terrified, and decided to flee NZ as soon as the court cases were cleared up.
During the court hearings we were specifically barred from bringing witnesses for cross-examination, however the opposing side were permitted witnesses.
The court stretched out proceedings for two years before we could get a final hearing. During this period we were gagged as an interim measure. Technically, the final hearing had to occur before our child became an adult at 18. When this date loomed, the court discussed declaring our daughter to be a child until she turned 21, so that they could delay proceedings a further 3 years, and thus keep the interim gagging orders on us. The court showed complete willingness to contemplate twisting the law in these ways in order to silence us for longer.
We provided considerable evidence to the court that our daughter had been and was being severely alienated from her family. Even though the judge agreed there was considerable parental alienation, he completely ignored it. We can only surmise that the NZ court views parental alienation as acceptable if it contributes to hiding information about State atrocities.
In only 3 court appearances, 6 out of the 8 principles comprising the rule of law, as identified by Lord Tom Bingham, had been seriously violated. One could expect these standards of justice in countries such as Somalia or Zimbabwe. In our opinion, judges who deliberately disregard the rule of law are a greater danger to society than child sex paedophiles. The St John Ambulance men who had committed sexual crimes on our daughter had got off free, but in order to cover up their atrocities, the State came after the victim’s parents and brothers with frenzied gusto in order to bully us into silence.
Outcomes
– Even though we eventually won the gagging proceedings, and even though we defended ourselves most of the time, our legal bills still amounted to over $50,000.
– Our eldest son took his own life a few months after the gagging proceedings against him. He was the victim of incredible illegal bullying by the courts in order to frighten him into silence. Our surviving son is still gagged from the secret gagging case he was not permitted to defend.
– We fled the country as soon as we won the final court case. We were convinced that if we remained in NZ, the State would simply continue to harass us in the gagging courts and with threats of imprisonment for speaking out about State atrocities.
– We have had almost no contact with our daughter since she left home at 16 – this was 8 years ago. She has changed her name, refuses all communication with family, and refuses to even tell us where she lives. Whenever we call her phone she simply hangs up without saying even “hello”. She has shunned her whole family and extended family for 8 years now.
– Our experiences have featured on NZ TV (Close Up in 2012), in magazines (cover of Investigate), in newspaper articles, and on radio (6 hours discussion on NewsTalk ZB in 2012). In Nov 2012, a UK MP brought up our NZ experiences in a debate in the House of Commons in Westminster.
– The St John ambulance men who committed the sexual crimes against our child, were presented with a second Queen’s award by the NZ Governor General in Nov 2012. The judge who gagged us for two years has recently been promoted to Acting Chief Justice of the NZ Family court. The school teacher who harboured our school child for two years cutting her off from all contact with her family, is still a registered teacher in NZ. YouthLaw lawyer John Hancock who commenced the gagging proceedings against us, now works for the NZ Commissioner for Children.
– To date, no-one has been held to account. We remain as determined as ever to expose these atrocities against our family.
More information
A more detailed description of our ordeal can be downloaded from here: http://bit.ly/ourNZexperience
A website has been setup here: http://www.consumersvoicenz.com
An infographic comparing approaches to paedophilia in Australia, the UK and New Zealand is here:
http://bit.ly/Infographic-paedophile-approaches