Sex case cop found guilty
By Keith Moor
February 22, 2005
From:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12333304-2,00.html

What a fit up this is ........doing his job too well
Court ... Superintendent Peter Halloran convicted / AP
VICTORIA Police Supt Peter Halloran was last night found guilty of indecently assaulting a schoolgirl in West Africa.
The conviction came despite the alleged victim giving evidence that he had not touched her.
Supt Halloran was jailed for 18 months in one of the world's most dangerous jails in war-torn Sierra Leone.
It houses some of those he was investigating as a war crimes investigator with the UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone.
He plans an immediate appeal against the conviction, which came after a controversial five-month trial labelled as unfair by the Victoria Police Association.

An hour before the verdict, Supt Halloran told the Herald Sun he feared all along he might be found guilty for political reasons, rather than on the evidence.

"If I am convicted I hope the Australian Government doesn't just abandon me," he said.
"I don't expect the Government to take my side or prove my innocence - given a fair hearing I can do that myself.
"But I do hope the Australian Government will put pressure on authorities in Sierra Leone to get me a speedy appeal.
"I have heard of it taking years to get an appeal. They just lock you up and forget about you.
"I appeal to the Australian Government not to let that happen to me."

Supt Halloran said his trial hadn't followed international rules of justice. He claimed powerful Sierra Leone Government figures applied pressure to get a conviction as a means of discrediting the Special Court.
The Special Court is despised by some in Sierra Leone, and has charged former deputy Defence Minister Sam Hinga Norman with war crimes.

The Special Court has already held its own disciplinary board of inquiry into the case against Supt Halloran and found no credible evidence to support the sexual misconduct allegation.
A report by the National Forum for Human Rights and Trade Union Coalition of Sierra Leone found evidence the alleged victim was pressured to wrongly claim she was assaulted.
"There is no evidence against me," Supt Halloran said.

"The alleged victim said it didn't happen, there was no physical evidence that an assault took place, and no witnesses to say they saw the girl and I together.
"The authorities showed extreme willingness to push ahead with the prosecution despite that lack of evidence."
Sierra Leone High Court Judge Samuel Ademusu yesterday convicted Supt Halloran, 56, of indecently assaulting teenage girl Kadia Kabia in June last year.

Earlier, the judge threw out two other sex charges against Supt Halloran on the grounds there was no case to answer.
Supt Halloran, who took 12 months' leave from Victoria Police to work as commander of war crimes investigations at the Special Court, denied the allegations.

He was charged after former Tasmanian police officer Mandy Cordwell said Kadia told her about the alleged abuse.
Ms Cordwell, 37, worked with Supt Halloran at the Special Court and shared a house with him and two other war crimes investigators.
Kadia's brother was their houseboy and she was interviewed by Supt Halloran about a possible job as a nanny for a friend's child.

Supt Halloran claims he and Ms Cordwell fell out over various matters in the weeks before the sex allegations were aired.
Ms Cordwell had a local police officer take a statement from Kadia in which the girl claimed she had sex with Supt Halloran and he indecently assaulted her.
But Kadia later told the court her various statements were false and she made them only because Ms Cordwell offered her rewards.

"She promised to build me a house, buy a motor car and take me to her country if I did what she would ask me to do," Kadia told the court.
Ms Cordwell was suspended on full pay in November, pending the results of an inquiry to see if she was the source of corruption allegations made to the Herald Sun about her boss, Special Court registrar Robin Vincent.

The Herald Sun was interviewed by a Special Court investigator but refused to identify the source of the allegations.
Ms Cordwell was suspended for four months without pay on December 15, but resigned on January 21.
Ms Cordwell has refused to comment and since resigning from the court has not responded to requests for an interview.