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You are here: Home / Gordon MacRae / Cardinal Pell, Pornchai Moontri, and the Scales of Justice

Cardinal Pell, Pornchai Moontri, and the Scales of Justice

Posted by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on September 11, 2019 14 Comments

The cases of Cardinal George Pell and Pornchai Moontri stand at opposite ends of flawed justice. In the case of Cardinal Pell, moral panic blurred the rule of law.

In “Cardinal Pell and I Are Judged ‘Guilty for Being Accused.’” I wrote that Cardinal George Pell has joined me among the falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned for whom a biased justice system has failed. Having lost his appeal, Cardinal Pell now must serve a six-year sentence in an Australian prison for crimes charged with no evidence, crimes for which reasonable doubt could not transcend a media circus and its resultant judicial bias.

On the night before typing this post, I listened intently to the “Papal Posse” on The World Over with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN. Raymond Arroyo was joined by Fr. Gerald Murray and Robert Royal of The Catholic Thing for a discussion about current events in the Catholic Church. On that particular night, the plight of Cardinal Pell was front and center.

Robert Royal made a statement that captured well the naivete of Catholics whose sense of the legal system comes from watching TV’s “Law & Order.” I paraphrase from memory, but he alluded to not knowing a lot about the criminal justice system. Mr Royal said, “It seems that in some jurisdictions in Australia, someone can be convicted of sexual abuse with no other evidence than the accusation itself.”

This is not at all unique to Australia. It has been a fact of American justice for forty years. It has roots in the radical feminism of the 1970s and is the origin of so-called “Hashtag Justice” that presides in American courts today. Setting aside a presumption of innocence to accommodate terms like #MeToo and #BelieveSurvivors is creating a new class of victims in the news media and the justice system.

Gone is the professional skepticism upon which both institutions once relied. As an example, here is the actual wording of “New Hampshire Revised Statute Annotated 632-A 6 Sexual Assault and Related Offenses,” a law amended in response to significant lobbying efforts in the 1970s:

“The testimony of the victim shall not be required to be corroborated in prosecutions under this chapter.”

Most people just don’t understand that in nearly every U.S. jurisdiction, a man can be charged, tried, and convicted of sexual assault charges – even charges that are decades old – with no other evidence than the accusation itself from a single accuser. This is so even when the accuser has a clear avenue to financial gain by making the claims, which is the case of virtually every accused Catholic priest today.

The only hope of the accused is to accept a plea deal for a lenient sentence. Not accepting one may be seen today as evidence of actual innocence. The draconian irony is that an innocent defendant who risks a trial will spend far more time in prison than a guilty defendant who is inclined to take the deal.

UNEQUAL JUSTICE THE CASE OF RICHARD ALAN BAILEY

Before writing on the flawed trial and appellate decision in the case of Cardinal Pell, I want to profile an American legal case that many TSW readers will find familiar. It is pertinent because both cases were alleged to have taken place two to three decades ago. You may have read about this story in what I think is the most important post I have ever written: “Pornchai Moontri: Bangkok to Bangor, Survivor of the Night.”

On September 12, 2018, Richard Alan Bailey of Westlake, Oregon appeared in Penobscot County Superior Court in Bangor, Maine to answer to 40 Class A felony counts of sexual assault of two adolescent boys that occurred from 1985 to 1987. Most of his sexual assaults were also violent, a fact that especially inflicted lifetime damage on his victims.

The victims in that case, as readers may now know, were Pornchai Moontri and his older brother who were taken against their will from their home in Thailand at ages 11 and 13 in 1985. Had the case gone to trial, the State was prepared to introduce a long list of compelling evidence against Mr. Bailey stretching back thirty-three years.

That evidence included not just the detailed statements of Pornchai and his brother, but corroborating evidence from neighbors, social workers, police officers, school personnel, medical personnel, and the highly probative evidence of two brothers’ consistent claims over a period of three decades.

This was not a case of “I just remembered the details.” It was a case of “I have lived with the details every moment of my life since.” Both boys were stranded in what was for them a foreign country and neither could speak English when these vicious assaults were first occurring. The compilation of evidence was such that Mr. Bailey pled “no contest,” but the Court found him guilty of all charges.

Unable to be in the court because he was serving his own prison sentence that began when he was a teenager, Pornchai Moontri’s Victim Impact Statement was read aloud in court by a prosecutor. Defendant Richard Alan Bailey was found guilty with ample and compelling evidence of forty felony charges of child rape and other acts of violence against Pornchai and his brother.

As a result of the plea deal, Mr. Bailey was sentenced to zero prison time, eighteen years of probation, and lifetime public registration as a sex offender. He will likely never spend any time at all in prison.

Meanwhile Pornchai Moontri has been in prison for the last twenty-seven years for an offense that every informed observer – including, today, police and prosecutors – believes would never have occurred had Pornchai not himself been a victim of horrific crimes. Richard Bailey’s crimes forced Pornchai into a life of deprivation living on the streets as a homeless teenager in a foreign country.

This story and its grave injustice did not end there. In 2000, while initiating divorce proceedings from the man who has now been found guilty of these crimes, Pornchai’s mother was beaten to death on the U.S. territorial Island of Guam. The murder is today filed in Guam as a “cold case” unsolved homicide.

Pornchai’s mother was reported missing there by Richard Bailey who also later reported finding her body himself. Days earlier, a new witness asserts, Pornchai’s mother telephoned a relative in Thailand in a desperate plea that Bailey was threatening to kill her. Overtures to have this matter reopened for review have to date been without response from officials in Guam.

And thus far, at least, Pornchai and his brother have no avenue to civil recourse either. Richard Bailey has no deep pocket like the Catholic Church behind him. Not a single American lawyer would look at this matter because there is no lucrative forty-percent take from a guaranteed settlement. After being forced from his home and country at age 11, Pornchai will be forced to return from this long nightmare at age 46 as penniless as he was when he left.

I raise this case and its outcome because at every step of the way in the priesthood scandal, just about everyone involved – the Church officials, the victim advocacy groups, the law enforcement personnel, the news media, the contingency lawyers, and the court system have all claimed that the spotlight on the Catholic crisis has had a singular agenda and objective: To protect children.

Pornchai Moontri had to go to prison before he could find anyone who would protect him from the history of victimization that nearly destroyed his life. In his own ironic words, Pornchai wrote, “I Come to the Catholic Church for Healing and Hope.”

THE FLAWED TRIAL OF CARDINAL GEORGE PELL

While that sorrowful mystery was winding its way through the American judicial system, a respected high ranking Catholic Cardinal was charged and placed on trial in Australia. It was a similar case involving two adolescent boys about the same ages as Pornchai and his brother, and the claims came from about the same time period.

The glaring difference is that there was no corroboration or evidence at all. There was no paper trail, no prior evidence that the case had ever surfaced. One of the alleged victims had died an accidental death in the years before the other decided to bring his claims. The case arose in the midst of a media-fueled moral panic about priests and abuse that started in America and spread to Australia. The target was a high profile Vatican official in a coliseum of predator lawyers

Over the last few weeks, the Catholic media has been abuzz with commentary about the failed appeal of Cardinal Pell. Do not take its failure as a statement that justice has been served. It has not. The story behind the initial trial is ludicrous.

A claim that Cardinal George Pell, still fully vested and having just finished Mass, spontaneously sexually assaulting two 13 year-old boys in full view in the sacristy would have raised many eyebrows of suspicion thirty years ago. But now that the priesthood crisis has been weaponized, such details have become lost in the bias.

Implausible accounts like this are now accepted as the norm. Of the three judges who heard Cardinal Pell’s appeal – Chief Justice Ferguson, Justice Maxwell, and Retired Justice Weinberg – only Justice Weinberg seems to have successfully blocked the moral panic from doing his thinking for him.

This appeal resulted in a split (two to one) decision with a compelling dissent from Justice Weinberg. He found the complainant at trial to have embellished aspects of his account and to present his details inconsistently. Justice Weinberg concluded that the evidence contained discrepancies, displayed inadequacies, and otherwise lacked probative value such that it caused the judge to doubt Cardinal Pell’s guilt.

Justice Weinberg further found that the complainant’s account of a second incident of abuse “was entirely implausible and quite unconvincing.” The judge could not exclude the possibility that the complainant had “concocted” his testimony. The appeal summary states firmly that…

“In Justice Weinberg’s view there was a significant body of cogent, and, in some cases, impressive evidence suggesting that the complainant’s account was, in a realistic way, impossible to accept. To his mind, there is a significant possibility that the Cardinal may not have committed the offenses. In those circumstances, Justice Weinberg stated that the convictions could not stand.”

Unlike Pornchai Moontri’s devastating victimization at the hands of Richard Alan Bailey, the claims against Cardinal Pell had no paper trail going back 30 years, no evidence, no eyewitnesses, no history of police or social worker reports, no corroboration from a second victim, no one backing up any of it. There were only the claims themselves, claims that I and others have examined in detail in a compelling article, “Was Cardinal George Pell Convicted on Copycat Testimony?”

But also unlike the Pornchai Moontri case, the accuser of Cardinal Pell stands to gain financially just for making these claims. This important factor has driven the Catholic scandal. Thirty years ago, it may have given pause to the purveyors of justice, but today it succumbs under the weight of Hashtag Justice. One does not #BelieveSurvivors by questioning motives such as monetary gain.

The stories of Pornchai Moontri and Cardinal Pell stand as bookends of gross injustice. Richard Alan Bailey has escaped most of the justice that is aptly and demonstrably due to him while Cardinal George Pell remains imprisoned by the perversion of justice his case now represents. In a time of moral panic, justice falters. It did here in both cases.

It remains to be seen, now, what the Church will do in response to all this. Cardinal Pell does have one more possible appeal in a year or so. Presently, he and I are the only priests so accused, convicted, and in prison who are not also dismissed from the clerical state.

That would compound gross injustice with grave sin and further weaponize the priesthood crisis. Remember Hebrews 13:3: “Remember those who are in prison as though you are in prison with them.” Please pray for Cardinal Pell and Pornchai Moontri.

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Note from Father Gordon MacRae: Please share this important post. Please remember to Subscribe to These Stone Walls and follow These Stone Walls on Facebook.

The following related accounts are cited in or contributed to this post:

  • Pornchai Moontri: Bangkok to Bangor, Survivor of the Night by Father Gordon MacRae
  • When Justice Came to Pornchai Moontri, Mercy Followed by Australian Attorney Clare Farr
  • Was Cardinal George Pell Convicted on Copycat Testimony? by Father Gordon MacRae
  • For Cardinal George Pell, Justice Descends Down Under by Australian Attorney Malcolm Farr

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About Fr. Gordon J. MacRae

The late Cardinal Avery Dulles and The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus encouraged Father MacRae to write. Cardinal Dulles wrote in 2005: “Someday your story and that of your fellow sufferers will come to light and will be instrumental in a reform. Your writing, which is clear, eloquent, and spiritually sound will be a monument to your trials.” READ MORE

Comments

  1. Father Gordon J MacRae says

    October 14, 2019 at 7:52 AM

    Mark Taylor asks a very good question. But the answer may not seem obvious. These “progressive” groups have used the clergy scandal to try to push the Church toward their own agenda. Voice of the Faithful proposed a “remedy.” Their answer is the end of celibacy, the ordination of women, an election process for bishops and the obliteration of a sacrificial priesthood. They hold up the American Episcopal church as their ideal for Christianity.

    Reply
  2. Mark Taylor says

    October 12, 2019 at 5:31 AM

    I want to know why Loud Fence, Catholics4Change, Voice of the Faithful and other websites about the church sex scandals have nothing to say about the other side of the coin.

    Reply
  3. Ryan A. MacDonald says

    September 15, 2019 at 2:04 PM

    I had the same reaction to this post as Dorothy Stein. The contrast between these two cases is so glaring in their injustice that it boggles the mind. I do not see how anyone can read this without a sense of righteous outrage at the gross bias in the legal system. In a previous post, Father MacRae used a term for the case of Monsignor William Lynn. It was “Trophy Justice.” I do not see how those involved with justice in Australia could explain this any differently. And Catholics should also be outraged at the Catholic news media. I just read the current issue of Our Sunday Visitor. Its news section told us “An Australian Appeals Court upheld the conviction of Cardinal George Pell on five counts of sexually assaulting two choir boys more than two decades ago.” OSV did not even bother to point out the strenuous dissent of Judge Weinberg in the one to three decision. Putting the case of Pornchai Moontri next to this left my head spinning. If all the activists claim that this is all about protecting children, then where are they now? Why have they nothing to say?

    Reply
    • Fr.Stuart MacDonald says

      September 17, 2019 at 10:00 AM

      A press release from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia reports that an elderly priest has been found “unsuitable for ministry” because a 40 year old accusation (the ONLY one) was found to be credible. But wait, there’s more! The incident is alleged to have happened while the priest himself was a minor, yes, the priest himself was a minor. There is no church crime for such alleged sins so no process could be started against the priest so that he could defend his name — he denies the allegation. The complaint was forwarded to the police who did not press charges. But the archdiocese decided the accusation was ‘credible’ and now the priest cannot be assigned and cannot perform, one assumes, public ministry, i.e. saying Mass in a parish. This is justice?! This is charity?! This is reasonable?! The Archdiocese has ruined the priest’s reputation, has barred him from ministry and offers him no opportunity to defend his good name. How do we ever expect the world to get justice right if the Church herself practices “trophy justice”. Simply outrageous.

      Reply
      • Father Gordon MacRae says

        September 17, 2019 at 3:30 PM

        Thank you, Father Stuart, for this eye-opening comment. This nonsense in Philadelphia is what happens in a time of moral panic. Both sanity and civil rights go out the window. Here in Concord, NH there is an even more egregious case going on. The prestigious St. Paul School, with historic ties to the Episcopal church, has been in a moral panic of its own. One of its students who graduated last year was charged with sexual assault. Then some instructors were charged. There is a current trial going on of a 64 year old man who was arrested at his home in Virginia, He is charged with assaulting a student at St. Paul’s School when he himself was a student there in 1972. What is happening in the Church is spreading slowly. Panic reigns while common sense disappears.

        Reply
  4. Helen says

    September 14, 2019 at 5:22 AM

    Oh Fr. Gordon, I have no words. I’m so heart-sick for you, Max, Cardinal Pell, and so many who are falsely imprisoned or accused. I’m so surprised that people are not exploding with anger for justice. If only there was a media who could help along these cases. Unfortunately, most of the media is out for sensationalism, a buck or leftist agendas.

    The longer these stories continue, I find myself, as I’m sure several people reading these posts are, holding tighter and tighter to the promise of Jesus: “…I will build my church, and the the gates of hell will not prevail”.

    God bless you and all who suffer injustice, especially in a land where it it professed to be just.

    Helen

    Reply
  5. Jeannie says

    September 13, 2019 at 7:52 PM

    We have an incredible God that just because we ASK Him to take our trials (and sometimes our rage at injustice) and turn them into something good, He loves us and transforms our feeble thoughts of good into something outrageously powerful for the whole church.

    St.Therese has said that sometimes when she ‘feels’ that she is absolutely empty, has nothing to give…she gives that nothing to God. So when my prayers for these people who are behaving so sinfully feel so shallow, I thank God that I can be confident that the very fact of wanting to pray for them at all is a sign that the Holy Spirit has worked in me. . .otherwise I know that I would feel no such inclination as their transgression so disgusts me.

    Pope Francis from his youth would have learned that freedom is from government and therefore government is responsible for helping children and the poor. Those beautiful homilies of his have one glaring error, they are are praising God, while snatching from God the grace that Americans historically knew was theirs were they to freely follow our laws and recognize with humble gratitude that Judeo Christianity values are the basis for those and our freedoms.

    Conscience, common sense, gratitude, charity… These are Judeo Christian values and only in a free nation are the people free to choose them. As our church is persecuted through history routinely some leadership figurehead self-promote themselves to a position of near deity and presume to impose their version of justice and truth and virtue upon the people, effectively stealing choice and making the people subjects, not self-reliant, free followers who can loyally be faithful to both God and country because the two do not conflict.

    You and your fellow suffering priests and consecrated are early, visible (and yet courtesy of media, nearly INvisible) victims of this once again upon us persecution of Christians. I have some hope that this purgatory upon earth will permit you to go right into God’s arms upon passing into eternity.

    Not one century is ever safe from it.

    God keep you strong and keep our hearts open to grace.

    Jeannie

    Reply
  6. Maria Stella says

    September 13, 2019 at 2:53 AM

    I did not have the chance to watch Robert Royal’s interview with Raymond Arroyo. |Fr. G’s paraphrase of what Royal said left me nonplussed. Obviously, Mr. Royal is not following American politics. As a Canadian, I’ve been following the “Muh Russia” accusations against President Trump, & the over-the-top expensive Mueller investigation…

    I encourage TSW readers to listen the interviews I post below as the principles violated apply to Fr. Gordon’s case.

    American thought leaders, had an interview with former Texas Prosecutor Sidney Powell, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=udRqsEa2N9E ).
    I quote from the video’s introduction: “When special counsel Robert Mueller formally closed the Russia investigation on May 29th,…in the eyes of Former Texas Prosecutor Sidney Powell, Mueller’s words stood the rule of law & the presumption of innocence on their heads.”

    Personally, I think this has already been happening to Catholic priests in America …for many years…

    In about 3min 15 seconds in the interview, Powell explains that the American system of justice depends on the presumption that a person who is charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. That clearly did not happen in Fr. MacRae’s …as pointed out in the TSW post by Criminal Lawyer Vincent Sanzone’s post of April 12, 2015.

    Since that interview with American Thought Leaders, Sydney Powell has become the attorney for General Flynn, one of POTUS’ former advisors who has been charged with lying to the FBI. She has filed a “motion to compel” – as per the video in the link below:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EpDJnC85ao

    A quote from the video about the Brady rule at about 3 minutes into the interview: “ there is a long standing rule in criminal prosecution …if you are the prosecutor, & if you have any evidence what so ever that …might help the person you are accusing, you must, MUST, turn it over to the defense attorney…Brady rule violations are very, very serious”…

    This did not happen in Fr. MacRae’s case; My understanding is that there was exculpatory evidence about Fr. Gordon, which was not turned over to your defence attorney.

    Robert Royal is not aware of the injustice within the American Justice System…& he should be, because American Catholic priests have been the victims of this injustice; Fr. G’s case is a prime example.

    Reply
  7. Dorothy R. Stein says

    September 12, 2019 at 3:56 PM

    Having read this article, one is left having to juxtapose multiple ironies. The first one, and perhaps the one most magnified, is what has taken place behind those stone walls. You, Father MacRae, falsely accused, end up sharing a cell for 13 years with Pornchai, a victim of horrendous abuse, the same for which you stand wrongfully convicted. The next is the case of his abuser and that of George Cardinal Pell. Our minds simply cannot toggle between them with anything even remotely reminding one of justice. I must spend some time ironing the wrinkles in logic and fairness that you lay out here so justly. Where is the outrage? This article should evoke plenty.

    Reply
  8. Peter Haas says

    September 12, 2019 at 2:45 PM

    This is so sad… I pray for all of you and so many other falsely accused priests. may Our Blessed Mother and St. Michael the Archangel be with you all and protect and comfort you.

    Reply
  9. Lupe Gwiazdowski says

    September 12, 2019 at 2:18 PM

    Fr I pray for you. I never thought how Jesus must have felt when the crowd chose Barabas instead of releasing Him – who was innocent. How vile it was and how painful it must have felt to him. Just so similar to Richard Baily , the Barabas of this story. God have Mercy on us.

    Reply
  10. Lorraine says

    September 11, 2019 at 4:52 PM

    It is so painful to witness the suffering of the falsely accused and their unjust punishments. I will be praying continually for them. Their vindication will come, and their sacrifice rewarded. My prayer includes the assertion: I believe you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living(psalm27:13) God bless you Father Gordon. May the Lord’s love vanquish all your sorrow and pain. …And the same for dear Cardinal Pell and Pornchai.

    Reply
  11. MaryJean Diemer says

    September 11, 2019 at 1:59 PM

    Hi Father G
    How sad that the guilty are set free and the innocent are in chains.
    This is as it was for Jesus also. You share in His passion but will also be resurrected to His glory.
    Sending love and prayers as always, Jeannie

    Reply
  12. LaVern says

    September 11, 2019 at 10:19 AM

    Fr. Gordon, will continue to send prayers heavenward for all three of you men confined to prison because of such injustice in the Court System–and others walk free or nearly so, when they are guilty as !!!!

    Reply

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