Sydney 2GB radio announcer Ray Hadley has negotiated some sort of grubby deal with the NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith in relation to Smith protecting his friend the convicted paedophile priest Father Finian Egan. As we will see the net effect is that Hadley is supporting Smith which makes Hadley no better than Smith.

Last year Greg Smith made private comments defending Father Egan and defaming one of Egan’s victims which was leaked to the mainstream media and was widely reported. Ray Hadley made certain comments about it on his radio show so Greg Smith sued him for defamation. I wrote a post that there is no way that Greg Smith will follow through with the defamation suit and as it turned out I was right. The proceedings were quietly discontinued in April this year without any public comment from either party nor was it reported anywhere that I can find.

What the deal is no one is saying as I have contacted both Ray Hadley and Greg Smith by phone and email and neither have responded. But make no mistake a deal has been done which I have had confirmed this week via the Supreme Court of NSW and the office of the Attorney-General Greg Smith.

The deal seems to cover what Ray Hadley will and will not report about Greg Smith and Father Finian Egan who was convicted this month of being a paedophile.

In other words it is media censorship.

This is happening at a time when there is two inquiries currently afoot in relation to the cover-up of child abuse. Nationally we have “The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse” and in NSW we have the “Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the Police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle”. Add that to the recently finished Victorian Parliament “Inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations” and one wonders how two fools like Ray Hadley and Greg Smith think they can get away with their grubby deal.

This is not a complex post but it is an important one and seems to be a scoop for this site although I am sure other media know about it but have failed to report on it for whatever reason.

Background

I will keep it brief as I have covered the background to this post a couple of times and I will copy from that. Firstly in a post in April last year (2012) titled “Protecting paedophiles the judicial way. Justice Ken Taylor and the Attorney General Greg Smith.” and then again in a post this year (2013) titled “NSW AG Greg Smith does a Craig Thomson and sues 2GB announcer Ray Hadley for defamation”.

“Greg Smith is accused of saying that a victim of Father Egan was just after money and that she was “just trying to get $1 million from the church.” This allegation was made by another priest. Greg Smith refused to answer direct questions about those allegations.”

The Director of Public Prosecutions, where Greg Smith previously worked, mysteriously held up charging Father Egan for 7 months as they were “just waiting for a signature.” And it gets worse “Damien Tudehope is now the Attorney-General’s chief of staff. He too knows Finian Egan well. He attended the priest’s church and as a solicitor defended him against sexual abuse allegations.” I wrote this in a post on the 15th April 2012 titled “Protecting paedophiles the judicial way. Justice Ken Taylor and the Attorney General Greg Smith.” (Click here to read more)

Last year ”Mr Smith had threatened to sue Hadley over comments the high-rating radio 2GB  presenter made about the  Attorney-General’s treatment of paedophiles in April and May.” (Click here to read more)

“In September last year Greg Smith did institute defamation proceedings against Ray Hadley which are still afoot in the NSW Supreme Court. This is absolute suicide for the Greg Smith in the same way that Craig Thomson suing Fairfax Media was his downfall because it allowed Fairfax to subpoena further evidence.”

“This all took place before the Royal Commission into child abusewas announced this year. It is my understanding that the Royal Commission will also look at cover-ups of paedophiles which if that is the case Greg Smith is one of the first who should be called to give evidence given the allegations against him. One of the most disturbing things is that Greg Smith as a state Attorney-General had input into how the federal Royal Commission was set up.”

“The defamation proceedings were set down for a directions hearing on the 1st of February which I attended and has been adjourned until the 1st of March 2013. Without a doubt Greg Smith will be trying to settle the matter ASAP. The problem being is that if Ray Hadley was to settle the matter on favourable terms to Greg Smith, Mr Hadley’s reputation would be greatly damaged one would expect. On the other hand if Greg Smith was to just withdraw the matter from court it would look like an admission of guilt. The Royal Commission has made things all the more dangerous for Greg Smith because who knows what evidence it might uncover.” (Click here to read more)

Wind the clock forward to Wednesday (20/11/13) this week and I did a ring around to see where things were at. I had been meaning to do so for a while as it had left the radar of other media. What jogged my memory was that Ray Hadley was giving evidence in court this week for another defamation matter. Before we have a look at the happenings of the last couple of days and the cover-up by Hadley and Smith let’s have a look at the players and what has developed over the last couple of months.

Father Finian Egan

Mr Egan was found guilty this month (4/11/13) of rape and indecent assault of three girls from 1961 to 1987. He will be sentenced in December. I wonder if his friend the Attorney-General Greg Smith will give him a character reference. It is my understanding that Finian Egan is still to be tried in relation to two other victims and that will happen in the near future.

Greg Smith – (Click here to read the email that I sent to Mr Smith)

Mr Smith would be using his settlement with Ray Hadley the same way Craig Thomson used his settlement with Fairfax Media when he sued them for defamation.

Craig Thomson settled with Fairfax Media and told people or alluded to people that he had won an out of court settlement with Fairfax Media but could not talk about it because there was a confidentiality clause. The reality was Craig Thomson discontinued his defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media just before the hearing was meant to start because he knew they had the evidence to support the claim that he ripped off the Union. Craig Thomson paid for Fairfax’s legal costs.

Greg Smith would likely be doing the same and telling people that he settled with Ray Hadley and had won an out of court settlement. Ray Hadley would have to be well aware of this.

Ray “Jelly Back” Hadley – (Click here to read the email that I sent to Mr Hadley)

Ray Hadley currently has a number of court cases. He is being sued for two matters, one is defamation and the other is related to workplace bullying by Hadley. Hadley and his wife are also suing their financial advisor.

The workplace bullying has received plenty of media and will receive plenty more if it is not settled before it hits the courts. “The staff member at radio station 2GB who is suing talkback host Ray Hadley for workplace bullying is allegedly suffering from an ongoing medical condition as a result of his treatment and his health has recently deteriorated, a court has heard.”

“But the announcer does not want the basic details of the case released to the media, opposing an application by three media organisations for court documents.”

“Richard Palmer is suing Mr Hadley for damages resulting from the psychological harm he allegedly inflicted during an incident on February 7.” (Click here to read more)

As it turns out Ray Hadley has a long history of bullying and threatening staff with physical violence. When Mr Palmer outed Mr Hadley others came forward as well with their stories of Ray threats.

Mr Palmer’s lawsuit is a civil offence but Ray Hadley is so worried about it that he committed the criminal offence of breaching a court order. “Talkback host Ray Hadley has been accused of failing to comply with a court order by not handing over “damaging emails” relating to his alleged bullying of a staff member at Sydney radio station 2GB.” (Click here to read more)

Ray Hadley gave evidence in court this week and it relates to Hadley allegedly defaming Kim Ahmed “a north-western Sydney fish and chip shop owner whose husband, Emran Ahmed, was convicted in 2007 of the aggravated indecent assault of a 17-year-old HSC student who was working for him.”

“The talkback host called the wife, Kim Ahmed, vile and a grub because she continued to support her husband. He had also called on listeners to boycott the Ahmeds’ Carlingford business” (Click here to read more)

So Ray Hadley is prepared to attack the offenders but buckles to people like Greg Smith who try to cover-up the abuse. Regarding the abuse of children, the people who cover it up are just as big a problem if not bigger problem than the people who commit the crimes in the first place and that is why we are having the current inquiries.

In a recent story (20/5/13) on the ABC’s  show Australian Story after his public bullying coverage Ray Hadley said “Once you start breaking stories you get to be the go to person. Obviously I’m the go to person now for child abuse victims who want support and they know I’ll give it to them.”

And Hetty Johnston of child abuse support group Bravehearts said in relation to Ray: “It did help me to understand that passion that’s in his voice. He’s never betrayed the children by keeping silent, he is a determined fighter he’s a warrior for children and I respect him enormously.” (Click here to read more)

Yep. If you are a small fish and you abuse children Ray Hadley will go after you and stand his ground and fight in court. If you are a big fish and are part of the cover-up Ray will buckle like the “Jelly Back” he is. As for Hetty saying “He’s never betrayed the children by keeping silent”. Well he is betraying the children now by keeping silent about his deal with Greg Smith.

Ray Hadley is not an elected official or politician so is not accountable in the same way as state MP and Attorney-General Greg Smith. Even so his conduct is disgusting and I wonder if he contacted someone and they refused to answer legitimate questions what he would say.

The deal

On Wednesday (20/11/13) I phoned the Supreme Court of NSW and was told that the defamation proceedings between Greg Smith and Ray Hadley had been discontinued on the 16th of April 2013 with the consent of both parties and there was no orders as to costs. I was surprised that it had not been reported in the media.

I phoned both Ray Hadley’s and Greg Smith’s offices and left detailed messages and neither replied. I sent emails on Friday and still have no response.

I did manage to get an answer to one question from Mr Smith’s media advisor and that was words to the effect “Mr Smith did not issue a press release in regards to the deal with Ray Hadley because it was a personal matter.” I pointed out that it occurred during the course of Mr Smith’s role as AG so is was also a public matter.

Strangely Greg Smith was on Ray Hadley’s show on Thursday (21/11/13) which is the day after I called them both. One has to suspect that maybe they also talked about my calls. Something along the lines of “Hey it looks like our dodgy deal is about to be exposed, what should do and say if others start to ask questions”

Greg Smith should have issued a media statement and so should have Ray Hadley. It has allowed Greg Smith to say to others that he won the matter and that it was settled out of court.

The fact that neither will comment on the matter and there was no press release seems to suggest that the deal was a political deal. Hadley swallowed his integrity and Smith swallowed some of his pride (if either ever had any).

Ray Hadley has a duty to make a public statement on the matter and the fact that he has not shows what a “Jelly Back” he is. He talks tough but when it comes time to do the heavy lifting he is nowhere to be found.

I will follow this up and send questions to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and wait and see what his response is. But the next step is obviously the Royal Commission itself and maybe the NSW watchdog, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

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