This Is Why We Should Take No One’s Word for It

There are many damaging lies that get passed off as conventional wisdom these days, endlessly proving Orwell’s observation of just how much harm is caused because “the average human being never bothers to examine catchwords”. One of the most harmful unexamined catchwords of the present-day, yet endlessly parroted by the left, is ‘believe women’. By that, of course, they really mean, ‘never doubt that women might lie about rape’.

Think on what this idiotic phrase really means: firstly, it means overturning one of our most fundamental legal principles – the presumption of innocence. Worse, it means abandoning a fundamental principle of logic, the burden of proof. It also means clinging to the clearly nonsensical belief that women are somehow magical beings who never tell a lie.

Does anyone really believe this?

Clearly, not the leftists who regularly parrot the phrase. As it turns out, even the most strident anti-rape activists refuse to ‘believe women’ when it suits them (i.e., when those women are Jews).

And it also turns out that some women, at least, very much do lie, about rape and other crimes.

Thomas Zaja was woken in his bed at 3am with guns at his head as up to a dozen heavily armed men stormed his Canberra house, using explosive charges to force their way into the property.

“There’s maybe six machine guns pointed at me from behind shields, and I was just hauled out of bed in my undies,” the 34-year-old earthworks contractor tells the Australian.

Zaja barely had time to register that the black-clad intruders were part of a police tactical response team before he was dragged down a flight of metal steps, still in his underwear.

The police jumped on him, breaking two ribs and one of his teeth he claims, then made him stand in the street for over an hour, still in his underwear, with their guns trained on him – and on his terrified 56-year-old mother, Katherine, who also lived on the property.

Why did all this happen? Not even because he’d enjoyed a succulent Chinese meal – but because a woman lied to police.

The saga began when Zaja’s estranged girlfriend told police he was an outlaw motorcycle gang member hoarding weapons and drugs. After the violent raid on his house, Zaja – who has never been a member of a bikie gang – was charged with a litany of crimes including assault, choking/suffocating/strangling and threatening to kill, after allegations of serious domestic violence by the woman […]

From the morning of the violent raid on Zaja’s house, his solicitor warned investigating officers that the allegations were a total fabrication. At every stage, Zaja’s criminal lawyers informed police, prosecutors and the court that Zaja’s former partner was lying to gain advantage in a contentious parenting dispute over the couple’s son. Zaja still has not seen his son since he was dragged from his home that morning on October 17.

Zaja was eventually released on bail after two weeks imprisoned at Canberra’s Alexander Maconochie Centre, after barrister Anthony Williamson told the court there was “not a scintilla of evidence” to support the charges. “The only real issue that arises is whether she is an inherently unreliable witness, or whether she is a calculated liar.”

Yet, police and prosecutors, as we are all urged to by left-wing activists, chose to ‘believe women’. With shocking consequences.

The saga has revealed a staggering level of negligence and incompetence by ACT Policing and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Magistrate Jane Campbell described the conduct of police and prosecutors as “egregious” and months of inaction over clearly fabricated allegations as “unbelievable”.

Zaja’s lawyer directed a savage spray at DPP Victoria Engel for “dragging her feet” in failing for months “to consider what was overwhelming evidence that the complainant is a cunning and calculated storyteller”.

Even worse was the allegedly unlawful behaviour of police involved. Despite ACT law requiring police “to use [body-worn cameras] during police duties”, police later said there were no recordings of the raid. They also, illegally, told his mother not to use her phone to take videos or photos. Australian law expressly allows citizens to record police officers in public, as long as you don’t interfere in their carrying out their duties.

Zaja was freed on strict bail conditions while separated from his young son. Eventually, digital forensic analysis of the woman’s phone proved the threatening and obscene messages had been faked.

The analysis confirmed she had used her Apple wallet to pay for an anonymous texting subscription on the websites anonsms.com and anontexter.com.

On September 12, 2025, she sent herself a demeaning text message – “Stupid slut keep it shut” – and then deleted it, on the date she claimed Zaja had harassed her.

Despite the evidence, investigating police admitted to taking no meaningful action to verify Zaja’s claims of innocence for months.

Yet, despite his solicitor, Peter Woodhouse, writing to the DPP alerting him to the fabricated evidence, DPP refused to budge. Even when police confirmed in court that the messages were fabricated – and, worse, that they had only dropped off Zaja’s own phone for digital analysis on the morning of the hearing, despite having it in their possession for seven months – the DPP claimed they needed more time “to review the matter”.

The saga has taken an extraordinary toll on Zaja, who has been unable to see his son and has had to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay legal fees and keep his business afloat.

So why hasn’t the person who lied to police and made false accusations – both crimes in themselves – been prosecuted in her turn?