Channel 10 journalist Peter van Onselen has claimed he was sexually abused as a child not because he wants justice and not because he wants to heal but to try to defend and deflect from his relentless public attacks on female survivors of child sexual abuse and rape such as Gemma Carey, Grace Tame and the deceased Katharine Thornton. Peter van Onselen’s vile attacks on these women can’t be disputed, as they are documented publicly, and nor can the fact that he has done it openly with malice and to benefit himself financially as a journalist.

Mr van Onselen’s claim that he is a CSA survivor was published by him on Twitter on Thursday night (31/3/22) during one of his many attacks on Gemma Carey which ultimately led to Mr van Onselen again attacking Grace Tame for defending Gemma Carey.

Peter van Onselen has been under pressure for almost 12 months now for his continual attacks on the credibility and honesty of survivors and alleged rape victims, so we need to look at that for a true picture of what is happening before we look at his latest fight with Gemma Carey and Grace Tame and his claim to be a CSA survivor.

When looking at Peter van Olselen’s claims and his conduct it should be looked at through the prism of his public attacks, with malice, on the 3 women named above and also it needs to be noted that there is a current matter before the Federal Court of Australia where there are untested allegations that Mr van Onselen bullied and harassed fellow channel 10 journalist Tegan George. Quite a few of the untested allegations made by Tegan George are almost identical to the known facts of Peter van Onselen stalking and harassing the 3 other women I named above.

I put Peter van Onselen on notice that I would publish this article with the below tweet. He didn’t respond. I also sent a similar Tweet to Channel 10 News and The Project and they didn’t respond either. (Click here to see)

Dear Mr van Onselen, I will be writing an article that has a working title "Channel 10 journalist Peter van Onselen falsely claims to be a survivor of child sex abuse while he uses his position to attack female survivors" Please respond ASAP so I can publish @vanOnselenP #auspol pic.twitter.com/kxRdtebe1a

— Kangaroo Court of Australia – Shane Dowling (@Kangaroo_Court) March 31, 2022

Peter van Onselen has form on the board for attacking survivors

Gemma Carey – CSA survivor

I published an article on the 6th of November 2021 titled “Christian Porter, Andrew Laming and Channel 10 political reporter Peter Van Onselen gang up to threaten and intimidate one woman“

Canberra politics has hit a new low with Christian Porter, Andrew Laming and Channel 10 political reporter Peter Van Onselen, who also acts as Porter’s personal publicist, ganging up to threaten and intimidate one woman with defamation. They have used the same grubby lawyer, Rebekah Giles, who sent 3 concerns notices, one from each of them, in one email to Gemma Carey demanding she deletes Twitter messages about them and pay their legal costs.

In a Tweet below by Peter Van Onselen, who has poured a lot of his own credibility down the drain defending alleged rapist Christian Porter, he damages his own credibility even further by being a bully intimidating a second woman. (Click here to read more)

Gemma Carey apologised and deleted the Tweet, which was trivial at best, and blocked Peter van Onselen on Twitter. But Peter van Onselen has continued to stalk and harass Gemma Carey on Twitter using either a second account or a friend to see what Gemma Carey has written on Twitter and then to use that to harass, bully and intimidate Gemma Carey which is a breach of the criminal offence of s 474.17 Criminal Code Using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.

Grace Tame – 2021 Australian of the Year and CSA Survivor

Peter van Onselen works for Channel 10 but he also works for News Corp and writes a column for The Australian. News Corp, which runs propaganda for the government, regards Grace Tame as public enemy number one because she has a high profile and has criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the government. So, Peter van Onselen kept the Murdochs happy and his bank balance healthy by writing an article in The Australian attacking Grace Tame for not smiling when meeting Scott Morrison on Australia Day.

Here’s a question for you the reader: Would you write an article publicly attacking a CSA survivor over a trivial issue like not smiling for money?

On the 25th of January, Grace Tame met with the Prime Minister at the Lodge and didn’t smile which some media criticised her for including Peter van Onselen, and that night on The Project journalist Amy Remeikis and host Carrie Bickmore went to town on Peter van Onselen regarding Katherine Thornton and Grace Tame as per below. In the below video you will also hear Peter van Onselen claim at the 4.45 mark that he “survived an attempted sexual assault on him” which he says he had written about before. That would have been an article he wrote on the 22nd  of October 2021 titled “Child sex abuse and the harm it causes” where he said, “To be very clear from the outset, I was not sexually abused, I am one of the lucky ones.”

I remember the above video and how Peter van Onselen also received a hiding on social media and it explains why he would have a grudge against Grace Tame. Onselen even implied he had a grudge against Grace Tame in his tweets Thursday night because of Grace’s previous support for Gemma Carey. Peter van Onselen obviously holds a grudge and will square up when he can.

The next week it was reported:

Political journalist and commentator Peter van Onselen has conceded his column criticising Grace Tame for being “rude” to the prime minister “probably” didn’t need to be written.

In a podcast interview, Van Onselen said he didn’t resile from his view but said expressing his disapproval of the outgoing Australian of the Year’s actions made him the story and “as bad as Grace Tame”. (Click here to read more)

Katharine Thornton – Alleged rape victim of former Attorney-General Christian Porter

Peter van Onselen wrote many articles to defend his mate and alleged rapist Christian Porter. Mr van Onselen’s main way to defend Christian Porter was to attack the credibility of the deceased Katharine Thornton and Mr van Onselen was criticised widely for that tactic as per below.

Statement from mental health and complex trauma experts on article appearing in The Australian newspaper on March 13, 2021

Rachel Green, CEO SANE Australia said:

“I’m really disappointed to see The Australian publishing this article which clearly stigmatises people with mental illness and disregards the wider community impact of this type of commentary. People with mental illness report stigma and discrimination in the workplace, in relationships and in the broader community. Our work over the last three decades has taught us that reporting like this has the potential to add to this stigma and do great harm.”

“The journalists’ decision to publish deeply personal information and the private writings of a woman who is tragically no longer with us; and their suggestion that the general public should judge her on the basis of her experience of mental ill-health fails every single ethical test.” (Click here to read more)

Peter van Onselen is more than happy to use his position in the media to attack anyone and everyone to defend his mates like Christian Porter and as it says above the article he wrote on Katharine Thornton “fails every single ethical test”.

Channel 10 journalist Tegan George

It was reported on the 2nd of February 2022 regarding a current matter before the Federal Court of Australia:

Peter van Onselen accused of humiliating and belittling colleague in federal court claim against Network Ten

Network managers said Van Onselen was ‘batshit crazy’ and Canberra bureau ‘toxic’, according to claim filed by reporter Tegan George

Peter van Onselen, the political editor of Network Ten, undermined and humiliated the network’s federal political reporter, Tegan George, including by backgrounding other journalists against her, according to a statement of claim filed against the network in the federal court.

She was allegedly told by the network’s executive editor, Anthony Murdoch, “Peter is batshit crazy but we just have to get used to it” and that Van Onselen expected George to apologise for “hurting his feelings” by raising the issue.

The claim says Van Onselen rejected George’s complaint of being “unsupported, disrespected and unwelcome” and news management said the political editor “did not give a shit” about how she was feeling.

George claims Van Onselen backgrounded journalists against her and tweeted about “employees who witness” sexual harassment but did not report it, a tweet she believed was directed at her.

George claims Van Onselen variously used Twitter, Ten group emails and WhatsApp messages to undermine her.

In June last year George told management Van Onselen’s conduct was “belittling and passive aggressive” and that his “bullying and offensive conduct had a corrosive and devastating impact on her mental health”.

After a September meeting with Ten management and the media union at which George was visibly distressed, according to the statement of claim, Van Onselen published a tweet which she felt was directed at her.

George claims Van Onselen undermined her by publishing thinly veiled tweets which some people would understand to be about her. He also directly replied to one of her tweets in a “rude, intemperate, condescending and patronising” tone which implied that she was “inexperienced, ignorant and wrong”, the statement of claim says. (Click here to read more)

What amazes me is that Peter van Onselen is even still on Twitter. There has been a court case afoot for 2 months that accuses Peter van Onselen of using Twitter to bully and intimidate Tegan George and during that time Onselen has been using Twitter to bully and intimidate Gemma Carey and Grace Tame. The lawyers acting for Tegan George would be loving it.

Why haven’t Channel 10’s lawyers told Peter van Onselen to stop stalking, harassing and bullying women online? Is Channel 10 liable? I could say the same about Onselen’s other employer News Corp but they have a long history of stalking and harassing women via their media.

Tweets from Thursday night (31/3/22)

Peter van Onselen says “That’s how I felt when as a survivor myself of child sexual abuse (he was convicted)” which was the first time anyone had heard of it, and it turns out it was a deliberate embellishment. It implies that van Onselen pressed charges and the accused was convicted which Onselen admitted wasn’t true after being called out by Grace Tame as per below. So why did Peter van Onselen lie? Because he wasn’t expecting anyone to call him out on it.

Numerous people responded including me and I Tweeted: 

Channel 10 reporter Peter Van Onselen now claims to be a survivor of child sex abuse. Why should anyone believe him when he didn’t believe Katharine Thornton and attacked her, and he defended his mate Christian Porter, and he regularly attacks Grace Tame? (Click here to see the Tweet)

And then Grace Tame called him out and Tweeted:

And then News.com.au’s Samantha Maiden wrote an article on the matter that only told half the story given it ignored Peter van Onselen’s ongoing abuse of several women over the last year and ignored the current court case with Tegan George as I wrote above (Click here to read more) And Grace Tame responded:

I stood up for a friend whom Peter demeaned unsolicitedly. He then used “convicted” paedophilia survivorship as a defence, in a tweet he copied and pasted several times—to me a paedophilia survivor. Prior, he publicly asserted he was “not sexually abused”, so I called him out. (Click here to see the Tweet)

And she also Tweeted:

Facts matter. I stand firmly by my belief that all survivors of rape and abuse deserve compassion. Appropriating those experiences, however, as a tool of moral license, is not OK. That is what was done. That is what should be printed. (Click here to see the Tweet)

Is Peter van Onselen lying about being a survivor? I have no doubt he is.

Peter van Onselen has used his position in the media and his social media accounts to attack and knowingly trigger CSA survivors and in the 10 years or so that I have written about the issue I have never seen that and to me, no CSA survivors would do that to other survivors. Add that to the timing of his claims, while he was under attack on social media for his treatment of CSA survivors, then he is definitely not a CSA survivor which explains the embellishment of his story in his first Tweet claiming to be a CSA survivor.

News Corp tactics 101: Start a fight then play the victim

News Corp and its propagandists (alleged journalists and commentators) have a long history of attacking minorities or individuals and then claiming to be the victim if they are called to account by other media or social media.

There is a term called DARVO which News Corp specialises in:

DARVO stands for “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.” The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behaviour, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim — or the whistleblower — into an alleged offender. (Click here to read more)

Peter van Onselen’s claims that he was sexually abused as a child don’t stack up to scrutiny and I have no doubt he is lying. Lying about being a survivor is very rare and some estimates put it between 2% and 5% but it does happen. I personally think it is about 1% if that but it does happen.

Accusing someone of lying about being CSA survivor is not something that is done lightly and in the 10 years that I have written about CSA survivors, I was the first Australian website to name Rolf Harris was under investigation in 2013 when other media refused to name him, I have only ever done it once and that was a scammer who claims she was raped by 3 Prime Ministers, a US President etc and she has been outed by most media and never provided a shred of evidence or a witness to support her claims and she often gets caught lying. Other survivors claim the scammer spoke to them, listened to their stories, and then stole their stories to use as her own which I think is relevant to this article. I haven’t named the scammer as I don’t want to promote her as others might fall for her lies.

Not only have I written about CSA survivors for about ten years but I also covered the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse extensively and I published a book in 2021 titled “Australia’s Paedophile Protection Racket” so I have written about and spoken to many survivors so I am in a better position than most to have an informed view on this matter.

What I think happened on Thursday night (31/3/22) is this:

Peter van Onselen was defending Christian Porter from March 2021 by attacking Katharine Thornton and he was getting attacked himself by other journalists and social media users for doing so. So, in October 2021, he wrote the article about sexual abuse claiming he was almost a victim to try and get some sympathy. It didn’t work. Then Onselen was abused on social media regularly at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 for his attacks on Gemma Carey.

Then on Australia Day (25/1/22), Peter van Onselen was attacked on his own show, The Project on Channel 10 which he hosted once or twice a week, by 2 other panellists for his attacks on Grace Tame for not smiling which would have been the ultimate humiliation for him.

Then a week or so later it hit the media that a court case was afoot accusing Peter van Onselen of bullying and harassing a fellow female employee, Tegan George, which would have been hugely embarrassing for him. 

Then late on Thursday night, Onselen would have been kicking back at home, probably had a few, and he decided to enjoy his favourite pastime of stalking and bullying women online and he decided to attack Gemma Carey again on Twitter. But this time Grace Tame came to Gemma Carey’s defence. The same Grace Tame which resulted in him being humiliated on The Project only a few weeks before when 2 other panellists defended her on the show from his attacks. 

The pressure had been building for nearly 12 months and it would have been too much for Peter but he had no ammunition to fight back against Grace Tame so he decided to lie and claim to be a CSA survivor and play the victim and claim Grace Tame triggered him which is the old News Corp routine as I outlined above.

I’ll leave you with 2 quotes that have been put on one of my latest tweets:

I’ll keep following up on this matter and likely do a video on the KCA YouTube channel in the next few days.

Please use Twitter, Facebook, email and the other buttons below and help promote this article.

Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and is reliant on donations to keep publishing so please click on the Patreon button below and support independent journalism.

If you would like to support via PayPal use the button below or for other donation options click here to go to the Donations page.

Thank you for your support.

For the KCA t-shirt shop click here.