A pedo restauranteur has had his veil ripped from him by a judge.
Name Suppression is a Burqa for Justice
Judge Jane Farish has lifted what she called “the mask of respectability” from businessman, restaurateur, and grandfather Graham Dixon Catley, jailing him from two years two months for indecent assaults on three boys decades ago.
Catley is now aged 76 and has health problems including depression, but one of his victims said in court that he had been regarded as a pillar of society.
“He has been protected all these years by his money, his lawyers, and his powerful business associates,” the victim said at Catley’s sentencing in the Christchurch District Court today.
Two of the boys – now adult men – read their victim impact statements at the sentencing session, and the third was read on the man’s behalf by crown prosecutor Anne Toohey. The mother of two of the abused boys also read her statement.
The victims asked the court to lift Catley’s name suppression. “It would be the biggest injustice of all if name suppression was to continue,” said the mother.
They also opposed him being granted home detention, but Judge Farish said she would have ruled out home detention sentence even if Catley was within the two-year prison range where it could be considered.
Name Suppression is like the burqa for open justice. We don’t tolerate the wearing of it here, so why should we tolerate the wearing of a burqa over our justice system. Name Suppression is easily accessible to the wealthy, the connected, the famous, and the establishment. They hide under that burqa to provide a mask of respectability and behind the burqa of their victims pain and suffering.
The time is nigh for the end to name suppression in New Zealand.
