John Marsden and Judicial Officers Conduct
Page: 773
Reverend the Hon. FRED NILE [11.10 p.m.]: Tonight I speak on the subject of officers of the court and the understanding of our society that officers of the court—solicitors, barristers and especially those who become judges—have a responsibility to uphold the law. Because of some recent controversy I cannot be silent on putting on the record some of my concerns, particularly about the recent death and funeral of John Marsden, whose role as a solicitor caused controversy for many years. As I have stated, solicitors are supposed to uphold the law as officers of the court.
In spite of his extensive knowledge of the law, Mr Marsden blatantly broke the law during his life and acted as if he were above the law. He even called himself "a pot-smoking poofter". In spite of his successful defamation case against Channel 7, which televised interviews with young men who claimed that Mr Marsden had sex with them when they were solicited at the wall at Darlinghurst, Sydney, as underaged male prostitutes, I heard Mr Marsden clearly say on television on at least one occasion, with a grin, "I never asked the young men their ages." However, that is no defence to underage sexual offence cases. So the question is, did Mr Marsden deliberately break the law?
Mr Marsden also boasted of his homosexual lifestyle and his frequent same-sex acts of intercourse, which, before the law was repealed in 1984, was an offence in New South Wales known as "the abominable crime of buggery" in the Crimes Act. He also openly boasted that he broke the law against the use of marijuana. He even requested that a quantity of marijuana and amyl nitrate be placed in his coffin when he was buried. As we know, the authorities said that could not be done because it would have been illegal.
In spite of his deliberate flouting of the law, various organisations seemed to endorse his actions, given that he was elected to many high positions. For example, he was president of the New South Wales Law Society from 1992 to 1993, and in 1992 he was also appointed by Ted Pickering as a member of the New South Wales Police Board, on which he served from 1992 to 1994. The role of the police board was to supervise the New South Wales Police Force, and particularly to make decisions about all senior police promotions. I understand from my contact with police officers that that appointment had a harmful effect on police morale as Mr Marsden often used his skills, as we know, in many court cases—including the Milat rape cases—to succeed against the Crown, who brought those charges. He was also appointed to the prestigious Anti-Discrimination Board from 1988 to 1994. Ironically, it did not seem to have any effect on his life and professional appointments when he openly acknowledged his lifestyle and the fact that he was breaking the law. Because he was breaking the law I believe he should not have been appointed to those very important influential positions.
At the funeral service at the St. John's Catholic Church at Campbelltown, unfair attacks were made on a number of journalists, including those from Channel 7. A senior judge, who gave the eulogy, sought to whitewash Mr Marsden's character and ignore his lawbreaking behaviour, which was pointed out in a number of articles by Paul Sheehan in the Sydney Morning Herald and by Piers Akerman and other journalists. The question is whether that senior judge has also ignored some of the requirements of the law in his own lifestyle, because he boasted in a recent newspaper article that he himself had a sexual male partner for many years, from 11 February 1969—again, prior to the repeal of the law against buggery in 1984. I believe it is important that solicitors, barristers, and particularly judges should uphold the law by their example as well as their words.