The Guardian has revealed in an exclusive report that Macquarie Bank director, James Hooke, told NSW Police in a signed statement that former Attorney-General Christian Porter bragged about having sex with the woman who accused him of raping her in 1988.
According to the Guardian, James Hooke, who was friends with Porter’s accuser for 30 years and is also friends with Christian Porter, told NSW Police that in the 1990s Christian Porter boasted about having sex with her – despite his adamance that they never had a relationship.
“Mine is just one set of recollections and I am aware of the fallibility of human memory, however unintentional. That said, I have what I consider to be clear recollections of relevant discussions I had with [the woman] over the years from mid-1988 until her death,” Hooke said.
“I also have what I consider to be clear recollections of relevant discussions I had with Christian Porter from April 1992 and through the mid-1990s.”
Since the historic rape allegations were made public, Christian Porter has vehemently denied being in any kind of relationship with the accuser.
“I did not sleep with the victim. We didn’t have anything of that nature happen between us,” he said.
He also said he wasn’t aware of the allegations until November, and that he “hadn’t had any contact from that person, at all, to the best of my recollection in the 33 years since that time in January 1988.”
The woman said that they had dinner together once in 1994, and a friend of hers also said that two saw each other again after 1988, but Porter said he doesn’t recall if that happened.
Dossier detailing Christian Porter rape allegations made public – the 31 page document sent to Scott Morrison, which he said he did not read before passing to police. It’s disturbing, sad reading. https://t.co/xXzxOVgQse
— 💥Dr💥 Julia Baird (@bairdjulia) June 24, 2021
NSW police confirmed in April that they had taken a statement from Hooke, but said that it didn’t actually change their position and that there is still insufficient admissible evidence to open the investigation, which was closed after the accuser died by suicide in June last year.
Now, PEDESTRIAN.TV is not suggesting that the allegations against Porter are true – but we consider that there is a public interest in reporting them and their developments.
In case you haven’t been across this story, ABC journalist Louise Milligan published an article accusing an unnamed cabinet minister of raping a 16-year-old girl in 1988, who has since died by suicide.
Christian Porter ended up identifying himself as the minister that was accused, and tried to sue the ABC and Milligan for defamation, claiming that the ABC subjected him to trial by media. During the case, he alleged that Milligan had coached Jo Dyer (a close friend of Christian Porter’s accuser) to destroy some messages that could have held weight in his action against the ABC.
Things got really messy, but Christian Porter’s defamation case against the ABC has since been dropped, with no damages paid to him.
Yesterday, in the Guardian, Rebekah Giles, Christian Porter’s lawyer, called our criminal prosecution of her client, a stunt. This imputes to me a breach of my barrister’s ethical duties and is therefor defamatory. Here is my letter to her pic.twitter.com/TgWj04m7kG
— Victor Kline (@victorklineTNL) July 2, 2021
“The ABC stands by the importance of the article, which reported on matters of significant public interest, and the article remains online,” a spokesperson for the broadcaster said, and the ABC has since updated the initial article to include a note that says they didn’t intend to suggest Porter was guilty.
Jo Dyer has since threatened her own legal action against Porter, but the investigation into the alleged rape remains closed, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison declaring Porter an “innocent man under our law.”
