Powerful rumours that so often sweep through Adelaide

Power & pedophilia
Trudy Harris
March 09, 2005
The Australian

THE powerful rumours that so often sweep through Adelaide can be devastating. The personal and political life of South Australia's former top lawmaker, Chris Sumner, took a battering when he was accused in the late 1980s of frequenting the City of Churches' brothels for young girls.

The former attorney-general confronted the rumours head-on - declaring his innocence from the outset. But the potent mix of power, sex, rumour and innuendo in the conservative small city could not be ignored. The now defunct National Crime Authority investigated allegations that the Labor MP was using brothels and was therefore at risk of blackmail. An exhaustive 18-month inquiry eventually cleared him of any wrongdoing. But the damage had already been done and he suffered a stress-related breakdown.
So Sumner has some sympathy for those embroiled in the latest sex-and-politics scandal sweeping the city. Sensational allegations raised in state parliament - that an unnamed state MP had sex with underage youths in Veale Gardens in the central business district's southern parklands - were not substantiated when they were first raised in 2003. But the rumours continued anyway, gathering momentum this month. Finally, on Monday, Police Minister Kevin Foley told the parliament that the police anti-corruption branch would investigate any new material brought forward.
Leading the push for the investigation is independent Speaker Peter Lewis, who has taken up the cause of abused children after being sexually abused as a young man. His volunteer staff members have allegedly taken statements from eight people about a "pedophile MP". And one of the claims involves a video purportedly showing the same MP having oral sex with a young man.
Regardless of whether he is innocent, the damage to his reputation and his personal and political life from the controversy in parliament and subsequent persistent rumours in Adelaide society, may be irreparable.
Unlike Sumner, this minister has remained silent throughout his ordeal but his name is well known.
Sumner says such allegations should be immediately taken to the relevant authority, such as the police, rather than run "on the rumour mill" or aired in parliament.
"It [allegations against Sumner] did not have any impact on my political career but it took a significant personal toll," says Sumner, who is now deputy president of the Native Title Tribunal after resigning from politics when the Arnold Labor government lost office in the early 1990s.
"They can be terribly vicious rumours which can have a devastating impact. Unsubstantiated allegations have serious consequences."
Such rumours have been a part of Adelaide's history dating back to former premier Don Dunstan, who sacked his police commissioner in 1978 after it was discovered special branch held thousands of "offensively inaccurate" files on Adelaide's public figures.
The latest sex scandal has many sinister twists and turns. Lewis has also claimed in parliament that two dead men accused the unnamed Labor MP of pedophilia before they were killed. The men were Robert Woodland, found bashed to death in Veale Gardens in December last year, and Shaine Moore, found dead in his home last month in what detectives say are suspicious circumstances.
Another man, whose alias is Wayne, has told Lewis's office the MP had been active in the parklands and its toilet blocks since the '80s and '90s, soliciting sexual favours from youths. And Lewis claims his office has heard that a legal officer and a journalist are also involved in this pedophilia ring.
The city's Sunday newspaper went even further this week, publishing a front-page story claiming that a serving member of the judiciary was a member of the ring who "passed around" his teenage son at a toga and drugs party.
Such allegations are remarkable, even for Adelaide, which has seen its fair share of pedophile and sex-abuse controversy in recent years.
The Catholic Church commissioned a report last year that found that Brian Perkins, a former bus driver at its StAnn's Special School, was a serial pedophile who had abused intellectually disabled students.
And the Anglican Church is still recovering from its explosive inquiry last year that discovered church staff had protected those accused of sexual abuse, rather than the victims, for many years.
The Adelaide Anglican Church issued an apology in June and its archbishop resigned after a chaplain at one of the city's most respected private schools, St Peter's College, was revealed to have been a confessed pedophile. The offender fled to Thailand before allegations of abuse of students could be properly investigated.
Soon afterwards, the South Australian police pedophile taskforce swooped on suspects it had been investigating for more than a year - arresting and charging more than eight people with child-sex offences, including a former Church of England Boys Society leader, a former Catholic school teacher, a former Anglican Church minister, a former Salvation Army minister and a Surf Life Saving Association coach.
Moves are under way to increase the size of the taskforce, which has already investigated more than 300 allegations of historical child sexual abuse. Premier Mike Rann has warned of more to come. "I don't care whether the pedophiles are from the church, the media or within the public service - there's no hiding place left," Rann said last year, before the allegations against his minister were aired.
"We are coming after them. They must fear the tap at the door from police. We are urging victims to come forward with their evidence so we can prosecute and convict pedophiles."
That includes victims in state care. Lewis successfully pushed late last year for a separate inquiry into children in foster homes after his staff members were inundated with people claiming they were victims of abuse whose complaints had been ignored through the years.
Three women are apparently preparing statements for this inquiry, which started in December, claiming that the same Labor minister offered them money and drugs in exchange forsex.
Headed by former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan, the inquiry has the power to compel witnesses to give evidence and subpoena documents.
The Rann Government is hamstrung while it awaits the outcome of the police investigation into the allegations. It cannot move against Lewis in the meantime for fear of sparking claims of a cover-up. Such claims would be politial suicide.
Adelaide still remembers the last time authorities were accused of covering up a pedophile ring. A group of sexual deviants called The Family was blamed for kidnapping, murdering and in some cases raping five young men before dumping their bodies around the city. Bevan Spencer von Einem was jailed for one of the murders. But many Adelaide residents remain convinced von Einem took the rap to protect other homosexuals and pedophiles involved, including some of the state's unnamed judiciary and politicians.
Whatever the outcome this time, Lewis has no regrets about raising the allegations in parliament. Lewis says he was forced to act after the claims were "inadequately investigated" by police in 2003. "It was all investigated as separate reports, without an appropriate process being undertaken," he says.
And Lewis says he believes a "vast majority of the public" is "strongly supportive" of his actions, with "only the very, very few people who see their narrow and improper interests being adversely affected" objecting.
The claims have also taken a toll on his own life. Pressure is mounting on Lewis to resign if the allegations do not stack up under the scrutiny of police investigation. And he says threats have been made on his life, mainly anonymous telephone calls to the home of his wife, who has a silent number. While she is shaken and distressed, Lewis remains resolute. "It was my duty - you don't complain about your duty," he says.
Additional reporting: Tom Richardson