Andrew Carpenter has been dubbed the man most hated by paedophiles in Australia, which is a descriptor he wears proudly.
The South Australian lawyer has devoted his career to pursuing predators and financially milking them dry, to give devastated victims some semblance of justice.
But an infuriating loophole allows child sex offenders to hide their money in superannuation, which is off-limits in civil matters, meaning they can avoid having to pay for their crimes.
“Statistically speaking, people who commit these sorts of heinous crimes are in their mid-50s, they’re cashed up, they have good jobs … so there are assets there,” Mr Carpenter said.
“If you’re an offender and you’re sued for compensation, your superannuation should be up for grabs. Money allows victims to get the best treatment possible and to begin rebuilding their lives.”
Mr Carpenter is waging a campaign to change legislation to allow super accounts to be up for grabs – an effort supported by former Australian of the Year and advocate Grace Tame.
“What happens to you in childhood sets the stage for the rest of your life,” Ms Tame said.
“We know that child sexual abuse is most likely to occur between the ages of three and eight, and that experience creates an indelible imprint on your psyche.”
Ms Tame described the loophole letting predators hide their money from their victims as “shameful”.
Back in 2001, one of the country’s most notorious paedophiles, former magistrate Peter Liddy, was jailed for 25 years for the abuse of multiple children in the 1980s.
Before he was sentenced, Liddy pumped his vast fortune into his super account, deliberately depriving his victims of any hope of compensation.
“He was worth millions,” Mr Carpenter said. “All of his assets disappeared in the final week of his trial, and that became a blueprint for paedophiles everywhere.”
Five years later, serial predator Maurice Van Ryn rushed to squirrel away his millions before being sentenced to 13 years in prison.
When some of his 10 victims sought compensation, they discovered the former Bega Cheese boss was essentially broke on paper. Van Ryn’s hefty superannuation pot was protected, leaving survivors to accept a small compensation offering.
Abuse survivor advocate Howard Brown claimed the paedophile even boasted about the situation, telling his victims: “Everything I have is in my super – and you can’t touch that.”
Not a fringe issue
Research indicates that a staggering one-in-three girls and one-in-five boys will be sexually abused – and the nature of the crime has lifelong consequences.
On average, that equates to roughly a quarter of children enduring sexual abuse before they turn 18.
“To give you an example of how much this happens, I looked at the District Court list in South Australia on a single day, and of the 42 matters, 12 of them were related to child sexual abuse,” Mr Carpenter said.
Statistically speaking, if you were to take an average-sized primary school classroom, where half the kids are girls and the other half boys, eight of them could be victims of abuse.
“That’s five girls and three boys who are subjected to probably the most heinous crime imaginable, getting their own form of life sentence.
“This is not a fringe issue. Those who carry out these monstrous crimes rarely have to pay for what they’ve done. Where’s the outcry?”
Past attempts to close the superannuation loophole have sparked glimmers of hope over the years, and the then-Coalition Government in 2017 began consultation.
It committed in 2017 to legislative reform, but never progressed with the issue.
Ms Tame and Mr Carpenter fought to get the campaign back on the agenda and last year secured the support of the Albanese Government.
In June last year, Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones announced he would introduce amendments to the parliament within the first six months of 2023.
At the start of the year, Mr Jones pledged to “act quickly” and introduce a bill “as a matter of priority”, with Treasury releasing a discussion paper for final consultation.
The department pledged to release its conclusion by 30 June, but campaigners have heard nothing since.
Yesterday, Treasury referred questions from news.com.au to Mr Jones’ office. A spokesperson said there would be progress “very soon”.
“The government received an excellent response from the consultation process and will release something very soon,” the spokesperson said.
“The minister is personally committed to seeing the legislation introduced once the final policy parameters are settled.”
Mr Carpenter said excuses from the government that changes to superannuation are rare and complex are “bull s***”.
“Ten days after Covid hit, the government changed super rules to let people withdraw $10,000 to help them get by. This year, they swiftly changed the rules again to impose tax on people with balances over $3 million.
“They’d rather tax hardworking people than take money off paedophiles – that’s the message they’re sending.”
The cost of child sexual abuse to the taxpayer is estimated to run at more than $30 billion annually.
The Opposition’s treasury spokesman Angus Taylor is supportive of measures to close the loophole and the Coalition will examine any proposals put forward by the government.
More than just money
Researchers say only a tiny fraction of child sexual abuse offences are reported to police to each year, and of those, just one in five proceed beyond the investigation phase.
If taken to court, data indicates only 12 per cent of cases result in a conviction.
A report commissioned by the US Justice Department in 2019 outlined some of the reasons why prosecuting paedophiles is so difficult.
There is usually little or no medical or DNA evidence, meaning the testimony of the victim-survivor is crucial – and subject to fierce cross-examination by defence lawyers.
Given the average length of time between the offending and a disclosure being made is about 24 years, the historic nature of the crime adds an extra layer of complexity.
When convictions are achieved, Ms Tame said “we very rarely see sentences meted out by judges that are proportionate to the offending”.
Take the case of Jeffrey Corfe, better known to AFL fans as Collingwood’s number-one fan ‘Joffa’, who admitted to sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in 2005.
The 62-year-old, who received a glowing character reference from Father Bob Maguire, who described him as a “generous community member”, received a wholly suspended 12-month sentence.
“What kind of punishment is that? That poor kid has lifelong scars,” Mr Carpenter said.
“There is not one legal justification for sexually abusing a child. Paedophiles should be made to pay and closing this loophole is a no-brainer. It will support survivors, it will save taxpayers money, and it will deter offenders.”
Pursuing damages offers many survivors the chance to be heard for the first time and to receive some kind of acknowledgment of what happened to them, Ms Tame said.
“In the civil courts, you can have your case heard on merit and determined on the balance of probabilities,” Ms Tame said.
“For a survivor, compensation is not just about getting money. It’s not winning the lottery. It’s often the only way of getting some kind of financial stability – so often for the first time.”
No amount of money will change what happened, but it will help survivors find their individual healing journeys, she said.
“The science of child sexual abuse – the biological impact – is very measurable. Money helps survivors to heal some of the impacts of that.”
The superannuation industry is broadly supportive of measures, Georgia Brumby, the Executive General Manager of Advocacy at the Super Members Council, said.
“Where offenders exploit and manipulate the system to shield their assets from compensation claims by victims or survivors, they undermine the credibility of the system,” Ms Brumby said.
“For these reasons, SMC supports, in principle, the government’s proposal.”
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