Posted on 06/02/2006 6:43:19 PM PDT by naturalman1975
PROMINENT Sydney lawyer John Marsden was found by a NSW District Court judge to have sexually abused an eight-year-old schoolboy when he was a swimming and football coach at a Catholic boarding school in the late 1960s.
The 2001 civil case, in which the plaintiff was awarded the then maximum amount of $40,000 in victim's compensation, could not be revealed until now because it was subject to a court suppression order.
But now that Marsden - a former New South Wales Law Society president - has died of cancer, his alleged victim has come forward to The Weekend Australian.
Marsden will be buried today at St John's Church in Campbelltown, in southwest Sydney, just over a kilometre from the primary school where he was alleged to have assaulted his victim on two separate occasions.
Paul Micheal Fraser - who consented to his name being used - was awarded a total of $53,078 in compensation, which included a psychiatrist's bill of $5078 and $8000 in legal costs.
In his judgment of July 6, 2001, NSW District Court judge Ken Taylor accepted "on the balance of probabilities" that Marsden had sexually abused Mr Fraser after swimming lessons, after football training and after a junior rugby league grand final.
"The appellant (Mr Fraser) is supported by the psychological evidence. Resistance to his version of events has been slight. On the basis of the material before the court, it has concluded that it is more likely than not that the events occurred as stated by the appellant (Mr Fraser)," Judge Taylor said.
Mr Fraser said he had "rejoiced" the day he heard that Marsden, 64, had died of stomach cancer while holidaying in Turkey a fortnight ago.
"It could not have happened to a nicer fellow," he said.
Mr Fraser said he still had nightmares about Marsden sexually assaulting him as a young boarder "and they will probably never go away". "He destroyed my life," Mr Fraser said.
In 1992, Mr Fraser, who was being treated for "severe depression and psychosexual dysfunction", told his psychiatrist that he had been sexually abused by Marsden. This was more than two years before NSW Labor frontbencher Deirdre Grusovin named Marsden in parliament as a "pederast" and more than three years before two Seven Network current affairs programs alleged Marsden had had underage sex.
In Australia's longest-running defamation case, Marsden successfully sued Seven for $7 million, including legal costs, for labelling him a pedophile.
Mr Fraser described in graphic detail how he was sexually assaulted on three separate occasions as an eight- and nine-year-old boy by Marsden, who coached rugby league and taught swimming at St John's College (now St Patrick's), Campbelltown, where he later established his first law practice.
Mr Fraser told the court the first occasion, in 1967, was in a pumphouse of the school swimming pool after Marsden gave the Year 5 student his swimming lesson. Mr Fraser said Marsden exposed his penis, got him to masturbate him and then encouraged him to do the same.
Mr Fraser said that at the age of eight, "although no one else had ever done anything like that to me, I did not know it was wrong".
The second occasion was after football training the next year, when he was returning sports equipment to Marsden's car.
Mr Fraser described how Marsden again "fondled" him.
The third occasion was after Mr Fraser played in a local rugby league grand final at another school and went to the toilet afterwards. Marsden was in one of the deserted toilet block's cubicles and made Mr Fraser perform oral sex on him.
This time, Mr Fraser did complain to school authorities, but said he wasnot believed over the respected local solicitor and former trainee priest.
Mr Fraser took his allegations against Marsden to Wood royal commission investigators in 1996, but Marsden was never charged by police.
Mr Fraser then began a civil action in the NSW Supreme Court, but said he was "threatened with financial ruin" by the rich and powerful lawyer.
On legal advice, he sought victim's compensation instead.
Should also be mentioned - part of Saddam Hussein's defence team.
And this underscores the fact that homosexuals are not mentally ill. <sarcasm
Really! No surprise there.
Yeah - charming fellow.
Homosexual himself, gay-rights activist - back in the 1970s (while he was still in the closet) he found himself defending a man on rape charges.
Marsden discovered that the two victims were lesbians - and brought this up in court as a way of attacking their characters, and countering their evidence.
The man got off. He went on to become of Australia's worst serial killers, responsible for at least seven murders - there's another six where he is a strong suspect. His brother thinks he killed over twenty.
And at Marsden's funeral today - a High Court Judge gave the eulogy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.