COSA New Zealand Inc.

Casualties of false Sexual Allegations New Zealand Incorporated

Chairperson: Don Hudson Ph 03 388 2173

Contact: 80 Avondale Road, Christchurch, New Zealand

Latest Newsletter, August 2003: Issue 19

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To see this issue, click here: Newsletter Issue 19

Newsletter Issue 15, November 2002

• Debate sought over ACC changes
• Wakefield fliers: breach Fair Trading Act?
• Crime, Justice, and the Media: a Journalist's View - Report of a talk by Journalist Cate Brett - plus 'Mind the media'
• Reith lecturer says 'press freedom' imposes real responsibility
• Malicious leaflet placed in letterboxes
• A year's contentious institutional sex allegations - Summaries of 30 items of news over sex allegations, from New Zealand and Australia, Ireland, Canada, & the United States
• UK NEWS
  • 'A new genre of miscarriages of justice'
  • Lillie/Reed libel case decision not appealed; review team caves in
• WHISTLEBLOWER - OR OFF-LOADER? - re Louise Deans' allegations in an Anglican context
  • Including: Inheriting the whirlwind: out of the religio-politico-sexual complaints nexus
• Justice prevails
  • Not guilty of sex violation; DNA test freed teenager; More DNA work sees another man charged after Dougherty's exoneration; Girl says she made up rape story; NZ: One innocence project exoneration! and US: Many innocence project exonerations!
• Why wrongful convictions?
• Body of work links false memories to cultist 'mind control'

Titbits

• Non sequitur?; Press Freedom in New Zealand was not evaluated in new international scaling; Uniformly legitimated; and Defeated at the ballot box

To see this issue, click here: Newsletter Issue 15

Newsletter Issue 14, August 2002

Libel payouts to UK nursery caregivers - Maximum damages awarded to ex-accused because child sex allegations were untrue; 'Review team' members acted with malice

Therapy danger: Hypnosis danger - 'certainty' over recalled memories does not necessarily mean accuracy; Therapists' selections socially embedded despite their efforts; Retraction of 'infant memories'; Risk of unfairness if therapist unavailable in recovered memory cases

Trial observations: a neutral observer of a New Zealand court

Sexual allegations: the false, the misidentified, the misguided, the wrongly demonised: Tennessee (US, historical); Christchurch (NZ); Saskatoon (US); Auckland (NZ); Dunedin (NZ)

'Any disturbed person can walk into a police station and make false allegations'

Signs of sanity: A sensible 'signs of abuse' list to judge child behaviours

Parameters for forensic investigation in sex allegation cases

Gutter media have a lot to answer for: Two fathers sued network for libelous 'documentary', and won; Therapist successfully sued re client's allegations: Damages awarded against therapist - 'incest past' may be totally fictive; Both 'sides' still to appear in TV program; Netherlands Health Council to report on fictive memories

Conferences around the world about aspects of false sexual allegations: Differentiating between true and false - enhancing rationality; 'Reconciliation' focus for Melbourne AGM

Submissions on review of New Zealand's court system

Will new legislation contribute equally to professional, client, patient - even taxpayer - safety? Proposals for the new Health Professionals' Competency Assurance Bill were announced on 21 December 2001 by Health Minister Annette King

Psychologists and Psychiatrists will take the opportunity to make input to the HPCA Bill

WHEN IS THERE A CASE FOR INTERVENTION IN AN OCCUPATION?

Also: Donkey Philosophy 101 ...

Newsletter 13: May 2002

CHRISTCHURCH CIVIC CASE/SYSTEMIC ISSUES

Public disenchantment grows - Systemic problems in the judiciary

• NBR-Compaq poll finds most people think Ellis innocent.
• The case could become an election issue
• The final arbitrator may be the Privy Council
• Christchurch paper reports 'new' allegations where no basis is evident, ignores poll news

Legacy of a decade of distortion: Still working on the Civic Case

1. Chronicle of public discussion, from December 2001 to April-May 2002

Ellis ... scapegoat ... Dreyfus ... failure ... cowardice ... unrest ... commission of inquiry ... pardon ... a 'running sore' ... None conspired ... independent body to consider claims for wrongful conviction ... to Justice Minister: You CAN do it ... Hood's research, arguments, convince ... Sir Thomas ... not evidence itself ... dogged 'foot-soldiers' ... 'Ellis asks Goff for new inquiry' ... Auckland psychology professor supports ... Contrary view ... 'Face reality' Mr Goff ... children as young as those in Civic 'cannot be relied upon' ... 'The case (the full case) needs to be reviewed' ... Lynn Crook trips

2. What must be done in the wake of the Civic Case - NZ Law Journal

General observations, and sections on Police investigation, Section 23G of the Evidence Act, Psychological evidence, and The appeal structure

Wisdom from the bench

Christchurch Police

Police investigation problems and PCA difficulties not just peculiar to Christchurch; Why the CIB staffing problems? New District Commander: will she oversee improvements? What the public see in some media reports is fiction' - perception of retired detective-superintendent Millar (Christchurch); Police Guild's booklet takes account of (some) violence perpetrated by women on men

Sexual allegations in Education

New 'Teachers Council' group announces compulsory vetting for non-teaching staff

Sexual allegations in the Catholic Church

New Zealand responds to the world-wide focus on Catholic sexual allegations

Sexual allegations in the health field

New report for Medical Council about doctor-patient safety; Unnamed Hastings doctor at centre of 'abuse row'

False allegations, false sexual allegations, 'not guilty' verdicts

Girl's unsupported rape, abduction charges may lead to her being charged; 'Not guilty' of alleged violation of nephew; Woman prosecuted, fined, over false assault complaint; Police announce pack-rape allegation was false; Police not pursuing charges in sex investigation into rugby league team; Man, now acquitted, had retrial because of jury's awareness of previous rape charge; Allegations retracted before trial resulted in man's conviction: he now seeks compensation

Compensation for Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment

INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELATING TO FALSE SEXUAL ALLEGATIONS

US, all states: disciplinary rates of Psychology Boards seems to be a contested field

US: Man imprisoned for 15 years but exonerated of the rape by DNA, files lawsuit

US (Mass): Lawyer specialising in the falsely accused is candidate for Governor

Europe (Netherlands): landmark civil decisions against recovered memory therapy

Newsletter 12: March 2002

LUMP SUM PAYMENTS - CATALYST FOR FALSEHOODS AND TRAUMA, OR REHABILITATION AND FAIRNESS?

1. Chronicle of recent changes and discussion re ACC: a confusing story; Firm's offer worries false abuse group; 2. General information about the new Injury prevention legislation; 3. An Auckland focus on the milieu of the new Injury Prevention legislation; 4. The New Compensation Act; 5. Conclusions: How good is the sensitive claims system going to be from 1 April 2002?

Other news about ACC and the assessment of abuse claims

Psychology reps and ACC managers talk - Nov 2001; ACC has a manager of ACC's relationship with the health sector; Former head of Social Welfare Psychology Team, working regularly for CYFS, fined and censured by Psychology Board

General news

Investigative journalist backgrounds false rape allegations

NZ Law Conference 2001 - papers relevant to sex allegation cases:

'Expert' psychological evidence is rather questionable;

Wenatchee sex allegations cases: evidence of misconduct, and lessons to be learned - paper by Jacqueline McMurtrie

New 'little' witchhunts

Christchurch: man's name suppression led to false rumours

Judge's 'porn site' visit whips up a storm-in-a-teacup

Australasian news

Governor-General declined patron role for survivor advocacy group

'PTSD', 'colonisation', 'Freud', US president of ISSD, Defence Department - at Autralasian Trauma Stress Studies conference

Newsletter Issue 12

Newsletter 10: September 2001

'Negligence of input' of Crown-employed forensic specialists - by Peter Williams QC

Compensation announcement for David Dougherty

Number and Cost of New and Ongoing Paid and Accepted Sensitive Claims (ie, claims for alleged sexual abuse) by Year

Counselling: A dissonant time in New Zealand; plus Social Services Minister Steve Maharey announces new Social Workers Registration Bill, and Pendergrast decries absence of RMT in book on therapy history

Families Focus: Politician decries fatherlessness; Christchurch, Whangarei being used as testing-grounds over children's evidence service; Family Court looks at releasing more case details; Hague Convention resisted - by children ?; and International custody and Hague convention (US/NZ case)

Feminisms: Then and Now

Why believe anything so painful as being sexually abused, if it isn't true?:

• Why/how people make, and believe, false sexual allegations in families, contemporaneous with separation and divorce: Motivations and mechanics (loosely based on a web site - see text)
• 16 'psychological' reasons why some adults get false 'memories' (based on a book by Claudette Wassil-Grimm)
• An integrated theory of why: wrong ideas plus social/cultural support (based on a book by Nicholas Spanos)

The Bizarre column: Gender, age, and sex allegations: false (NZ case), and Parents (and children?) wish them to stay in rehab centre despite alleged abuse (Samoa, Aus, Can, US)

The Fringe - Reports that raise questions, doubts: 'Children's Court' call by social worker, and Dis-parents (both NZ cases)

Plus ... Snippets from international sources by subject area - from Black Studies and Psychiatry to Social Work, and including news that there is a new Alliance against false sexual allegations in the UK having its first meeting in September 2001 ...

Newsletter Issue 10

Articles ...

• Kids ARE curious: paediatrics paper says "a broad range of sexual behaviors are exhibited by children who there is no reason to believe have been sexually abused"
• Ellis Inquiry report (April 2001) disastrously perpetuates false stories, AND, Ellis's innocence
• 'False sex-attack claims are more prevalent than the public realise, police say'
• COSA members guest speakers to Psychiatric Emergency Service staff
• It's Good to Be a YAVIS

Reports ...

• The False Memory Syndrome Foundation
• The Leadership Council for Mental Health, Justice, & the Media
• Witchhunt: an 'Internet discussion group devoted to free and open discussion' on allegations of child abuse, and
• 'False Allegations' mailing list

'An Alphabet on the State of play'

And, about other New Zealand issues ...

• ACC has accepted 47,000 claims for sexual abuse
• Disputed cases in the courts around New Zealand

• The re-introduction of lump sums for ACC payments in October 2001,
• ambiguities around a Christchurch Sexual Abuse survivors group,
• DNA sampling in process and in court,
• sexual abuse issues muddled with labour demarcations in a psychiatric hospital,
• 14 pertinent items from the New Zealand scene, and
• other items, including

"On crying wolf, and compensation needed - Christchurch 'Creche' case".

See Newsletter Issue 8

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