Even the smartest people can find themselves inadvertently caught in flagrante delicto by technology. Just ask Jeffrey Toobin, star legal commenter for CNN, who inexplicably decided to rub one out live on a Zoom call. But Toobin at least was embarrassing nobody but himself. Far worse was the case of Anthony Weiner, who was exposed – literally – for sending graphic photos that included his face (which, as it turned out, was not his most horrifying feature) to teenage girls.
A high-profile left-wing judge in Australia upped the ante in the worst possible way.
Former Fair Work Commission senior deputy president Justice Alan Boulton, 74, has been charged over material allegedly displayed in the last 15 minutes of a lecture at Monash University’s Melbourne CBD campus on February 5.
It’s one thing to flog the dolphin in front of the whole world, quite another to accidentally put your kiddy porn stash in a slideshow, in front of hundreds of horrified students.
The university referred the matter to Victoria Police, which seized multiple electronic devices during a raid on Boulton’s inner-city Middle Park home a week later.
He has since been charged with one count of possessing child abuse material as a Commonwealth offence and two counts of possessing child abuse material following a ‘lengthy’ investigation by detectives.
Boulton appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday via video link where his lawyer asked Magistrate Brett Sonnet to make an exception to the near-standard bail condition for alleged sex offenders.
That ‘near-standard bail condition’ is confiscation of the offender’s passport and a ban on travelling overseas.
Yet, while one of Australia’s most-decorated living soldiers is confined to, not just Australia but a single state, while he fights dubious ‘war crimes’ allegations, a paedophile judge is allowed to swan about the world as he pleases. It’s not the first time he’s been allowed to flit out of the country after he was outed, either.
His lawyer argued Boulton had travelled overseas in May while under investigation by police and had returned to Australia without absconding.
In ruling that Boulton should be allowed to go on the holiday, Mr Sonnet accepted Boulton had no prior criminal history and no issues with police while on bail.
And, just like that, a paedophile is allowed to jet off, while he was still facing an additional charge of “of engaging in sexual activity, other than sexual intercourse, with a child under 16 outside of Australia”. While that charge was dropped, Boulton pleaded guilty to the other offences last week.
Clearly, it helps to have connections with the politically powerful: Boulton had was appointed as the first-time legal officer of the Australian Council of Trade Unions by then-ACTU President Bob Hawke in 1979. He was also the president of the Industrial Relations Commission of Victoria, president of the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal, was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002, and is known as a collector of Chinese porcelain and 19th Century French Spelter lamps and statues. And much worse, besides, as we now know.
According to an online profile he worked for the International Labour Organisation in Manila and Jakarta where he developed programs on child labour.
The mind boggles.
Boulton is not the only senior Labor old mate caught with his pants down around the kids.
A former senior government adviser has been secretly tried and found guilty of more than a dozen sex crimes against children while his name was suppressed ‘by error’ for more than seven years.
Well, wasn’t that just convenient?
Craig Munnings was on bail from his arrest in February 2019 until a jury’s guilty verdicts earlier this month, allowing him to continue working as a consultant in Australia and overseas.
Including for some of the most powerful Labor figures in the country.
Munnings was once described as corrupt NSW mining minister Ian Macdonald’s ‘right-hand man’ during an ICAC inquiry into the Labor politician’s dealings with crooked parliamentary colleague Eddie Obeid.
He served Labor ministers John Aquilina, Di Beamer and Harry Woods in the regional development, rural affairs, local government, infrastructure and planning portfolios during a 12-year political career.
The married father-of-two has maintained access to the corridors of power in NSW through his ongoing presence on the official register of authorised lobbyists.
For the past seven years, Munnings has lived freely in the community while facing accusations he sexually abused two girls, with his identity protected by a suppression order that was made accidentally.
“Accidentally”, they say. Even with the official suppression order lifted, the legacy media are largely maintaining an unofficial wall of silence around his identity and crimes.
Munnings was not named in the initial meagre media coverage of his arrest, when he was referred to as a 54-year-old church volunteer and Labor Party member […]
While at liberty, Munnings was able to continue running his consultancy businesses and even managed to have his bail altered so he could travel overseas.
His company Crakyl Pty Ltd, which Munnings owns with his wife, is still listed on The Lobbyists Register, granting him access to political decision-makers.
Meanwhile, not a peep on his conviction at the Australian, the Age or the ABC.
Clearly, it helps to have friends in high places.
