Stephen Milne's lawyers to decide on rape trial abandonment

[stinger]

Seems like a big waste of taxpayers and Milne's money.
Milne walks because whatever he did was not serious enough to get jail time.
The senior police recognised this and told the original investigating officer to pull his head in.

After what happened she was so ashamed she wanted to pretend to herself and anyone who listened - I was not a willing participant.

The original investigating officer went public to settle a score with his seniors.
It became politically too hard to drop the case again so a prosecution had to go ahead
The prosecutors needed to deal there way out of the case by getting Milne to plead to a lesser charge.
The senior police got it right the first time.

That was my take on it too.

The timing of the "re-opening of the investigation" was interesting as well, if I recall correctly.

yep.......had eddie's fingerprints all over it...

[Dave McNamara]

Seems like a big waste of taxpayers and Milne's money.
Milne walks because whatever he did was not serious enough to get jail time.
The senior police recognised this and told the original investigating officer to pull his head in.

After what happened she was so ashamed she wanted to pretend to herself and anyone who listened - I was not a willing participant.

The original investigating officer went public to settle a score with his seniors.
It became politically too hard to drop the case again so a prosecution had to go ahead
The prosecutors needed to deal there way out of the case by getting Milne to plead to a lesser charge.
The senior police got it right the first time.

That was my take on it too.

The timing of the "re-opening of the investigation" was interesting as well, if I recall correctly.

Amazing that Tony Jones broke the story that evidence may have been tampered with the week following Mick Malthouse and Eddie's disgusting attack on Milne. On Channel 9 just to add to the crap.

Come on CURLY, it's not as if Jones is a colonwood supporter.....oh wait,sorry

Yeah what are the chances hey.

Every time Milney was receiving some positive attention from the media in relation to a milestone game Keith Moor would publish a rehashed version of the same old story in the Herald Sun.

This is the same Keith Moor who wrote another story about how outraged he was that a drunk girl dared to accuse Eddie Maguire, Steve Quartermain, and Steve Millichip of Rape in the 1990's. Connect the dots.

The third man Millichip, a B grade actor and a relative unknown took the rap and did jail time.

If Milney wasa bit more 'fiscally liquid', or maybe a bit better connected, then there seem to be ways to make these things 'go away'...

Sex, lies and videotape seducer jailedSeptember 17 2002

He wined her on expensive champagne, dined her at some of Sydney's finest restaurants, and wooed her with love songs on his guitar.

But unknown to the woman, a model, her new admirer had a video camera hidden in his overnight bag and secretly recorded them having sex. Then he threatened to post images on the Internet if she did not withdraw rape charges against a Melbourne businessman.

Yesterday, in sentencing actor-model and seducer Simon Lowe, 36, to six years' jail, District Court Judge Cecily Backhouse said a deterrent was called for, given the seriousness of Lowe's attempt to intimidate and threaten a witness.

While Lowe will remain in jail until at least March, 2005, the train of events dates back to September, 1997, at the South Yarra home of the Melbourne entrepreneur Stephen Millichamp.

The model reported to police that she had been raped by Mr Millichamp.

The case made headlines in Melbourne, as witnesses called to give evidence included the TV celebrity and now Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, and the sports commentator Stephen Quartermain, both at the house that night. In February last year, a Victorian County Court jury found Mr Millichamp not guilty.

In the run-up to the rape trial, an old friend of Mr Millichamp, the private investigator Kenneth Gamble, was instructed by Mr Millichamp's solicitors to make inquiries about the woman.

Mr Gamble asked Lowe to find out if she used drugs. Later Lowe found out that she was at a Bondi cafe with two woman friends. He arranged for a bottle of wine to be sent to their table.

After the waiter pointed out their admirer, he was invited to join the model and her friends.

As the night wore on, the two friends left the model and Lowe to themselves. But the model knew him as Simon White, a songwriter and the son of a wealthy businessman. Later they went to the Centennial Hotel and then to a nightclub, where Mr Gamble, used an infra-red camera to photograph them kissing in a car.

After she turned down the offer of a weekend at the Ritz Carlton in Double Bay, "White" sent a bouquet.

Lunch followed, on July 5, for which he turned up in blue Audi A3 borrowed from a friend. He audio-taped their conversation and got her talking about drug use. They then went to her Neutral Bay apartment, where he played the guitar before having sex. He videotaped the liaison.

He then went outside and gave the video to someone who gave him some cocaine, which he and the model shared.

Outside her apartment that night, he announced that he had something to show her.

It was videotape of their afternoon liaison. If she testified in the rape trial, it would be posted on the Internet.

The court accepted Mr Gamble's evidence that Lowe was never asked to record conversations or sexual activity.

Evidence was given that Lowe received $4500 and reimbursement of some of his expenses for his week-long incursion into the model's life. Mr Gamble paid $1000, with the rest picked up by Kalus Kenny, solicitors.

In a plea bargain, Mr Gamble was given a 12-month good-behaviour bond, with no conviction recorded.

From the dock, Lowe called out to his lawyers to lodge an appeal.

"The sentence is a joke," he said to the judge.

During the trial, counsel for Lowe had argued there was "nothing illicit in engaging in sexual intercourse for a collateral purpose", saying the seriousness lay in the threat to publish on the Internet. Lowe's actions were "overzealous and opportunistic", rather than the product of a pervasive conspiracy.

Judge Backhouse rejected this, saying the offence was premeditated. She said Lowe had shown no remorse, and imposed a sentence of four years on the charge of threatening a witness.

Other charges, including supplying cocaine to the model, and of using a listening device, brought the total sentence to six years and six months, starting from December 26, 2001.

He was given a non-parole period of three years and three months.


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/ ... 60397.html

Could be tweaked into a reasonable plot for a novel or a movie, but, in real life... pretty tacky.

Some say that Milney isn't too classy a bloke, but whatever his human frailties, he's clearly too classy a bloke to stoop to this kind of stuff.

[jamesmc]

" Lunch followed, on July 5, for which he turned up in blue Audi A3 borrowed from a friend. He audio-taped their conversation and got her talking about drug use. They then went to her Neutral Bay apartment, where he played the guitar before having sex. He videotaped the liaison".

Heard Eddie on radio the other day saying he borrowed a mates car to impress the boss of Cannel 9 in a job interview. Funny that!! Join the dots.

[stinger]

i joined those dots a long long time ago.....eddie's a real dropkick...always was...has never changed