A previous accusation by Worth accuser
June 6th, 2009 at 5:38 am by David FarrarThe Herald reports:
A prominent member of the Korean community says he was once wrongly accused of inappropriate behaviour by the Korean complainant in the Richard Worth police investigation.
The man told the Weekend Herald the woman’s accusations, made in a Korean newspaper several years ago, were unfounded.
The man, who cannot be named because it would identify the complainant, said he was accused of having an inappropriate or dishonest relationship with the woman.
He said the article distressed his wife and children and he considered legal action but it was too expensive. “If it [the accusation] was true, why did she not go to police and court – why a newspaper?”
I’m not sure this affects the political problems for Worth, but it may well be a factor in whether the Police believe there was criminal offending.
Fran O’Sullivan makes this point:
But even if the police do not lay criminal charges – an outcome Key was hinting at – the allegations that Worth has been leveraging his official position to extract favours cannot simply be swept under the carpet.
This is not a matter of morality. Many marriages break up in Parliament and MPs stray from their partners and find new spouses.
But what doesn’t go with the territory are the allegations – made under Parliamentary privilege – that Worth also tried to extract sexual favours from an Indian woman for government-appointed positions.
The similiarity in both cases is that the role as an MP and Minister has been used to gain a conquest. Now again these are just allegations – and we are yet to hear from Dr Worth.
Tags: Richard Worth
June 6th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Actually the Herald makes more points – including that this woman was actively hunting wealthy men and politicians.
Vote:June 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Worth got the bums rush for being a dick. What labour are now focusing on is the claims by this woman because they can’t bitch about Keys dealing with Worth decisively.
The problem for labour and Goff is they appear to be hip deep in a blatant set up. Worth guilty and gone, now Goff has our complete and undivided attention. Watcha ya gonna do next Phil? Just like Clark bolted herself to Peters and went down with all hands Goff has bolted himself to this woman who isn’t the victim he presented her to be.
He’s got till Monday to cut her loose and back down with minimal loss of face. But he wont.
Vote:June 6th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
There’d be a simple way to reduce a lot of the uncertainty surrounding accusations of various types of sexual misconduct: a law that provides that anyone who makes an allegation that is proven to be false and made with malice (i.e. not genuine cases of mistaken identity etc) automatically serves a term of imprisonment equal to that which would have been served by the accused had they been guilty of the offence, and they are ineligible for name suppression.
Karma made law, really.
Vote:June 7th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Whether she is a mercenary or telling the truth, I don’t think the public will get the real story. I don’t have much faith in the news nor do I have any faith with the police commissioner, Broad. Worth resigned implicating himself for something. What that is, guess we will have to wait and see. The news will protect Goff. They have to because they are the strongest union in New Zealand.
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