Australian Still Held In Sex Case
The Age
Tuesday April 30, 1996
Bangkok, Tuesday.
An Australian tourist cleared of child-sex charges by a Philippines court last week is still in custody while a legal tug-of-war continues with child-protection campaigners.
Victor Fitzgerald, 66, a former Darwin businessman, has spent more than two years in a squalid provincial prison after being accused of drugging and raping three girls aged seven, nine and 13, aboard his yacht.
Last Friday a court in the northern city of Olongapo, beside the former US Navy base at Subic Bay, acquitted Mr Fitzgerald of all sexual abuse charges involving the oldest of the girls.
A verdict was due to be delivered today on separate charges relating to a second girl. But the matter was adjourned until next week after the judge inexplicably failed to appear at the court. A child-protection activist and Catholic priest, Father Shay Cullen, claimed political interference was preventing the conviction of the Australian.
He told The Age that officials involved in the prosecution had advised him that Judge Leopoldo Calderon was preparing to give a guilty verdict, but was under pressure from senior Government officials.
"The corruption in our political system is eating into this decision," he said. ``They don't want to jail a foreigner, because it would affect tourism and politicians here have big investments in hotels and clubs."
Father Cullen said he and his supporters were planning a Supreme Court appeal against Friday's acquittal.
They have also backed a fresh complaint of rape and child abuse filed with the local courts yesterday by the third and youngest of the girls allegedly molested by Mr Fitzgerald.
But Mr Fitzgerald - and some of the girls' families - claim he is the innocent victim of a witch-hunt by crusading child- protection workers.
He says he openly invited the poor and malnourished girls aboard his yacht and offered them food and vitamin pills out of simple friendship.
© 1996 The Age
