Skip to content
Crime

PRESUMPTION OF EVIL – a journey into one man’s hell

wrongfulconvictionsreport.org < 1 mins read

The 86 year old Noel Greenaway will be eligible for parole in five years. If he is still alive. For now, he is in a maximum security cell, convicted of sexual assaults against five teenagers – when he was in his 30s. The only evidence against him was testimony given by them - now middle aged women then youngsters at the Parramatta Training School for Girls.

 

Their testimony is in sharp contrast to numerous character references presented to the court prior to sentencing that paint a picture of a man of high moral principles, who was never heard to raise his voice or swear.

 

He is in prison because if you are named in the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, you are presumed guilty. Evil.

 

From being so named to later being tried and found guilty is the process of guilt by accusation which does away with the presumption of innocence and the need to prove allegations beyond reasonable doubt. Child sex abuse is today’s crimen exceptum – a crime so exceptional that the established rules of justice need not be applied to it.

 

In his latest book, author Andrew L. Urban traces the Greenaway family’s nightmare from the phone call that alerted Noel that he would be named – the next day - in that Royal Commission, through the 2019 trial and the appeal, to the day he met the ‘evil’ Noel face to face in a supermax jail.

 

Drawing on transcripts, diaries, personal reflections and painful family recollections, PRESUMPTION OF EVIL is a journey into one man’s hell.

 

 

 

  • Presumption of Evil, published by wrongfulconvictionsreport.org, is available on Amazon Kindle, $11.99 - http://tiny.cc/7ffzwz

 

  • Media copies (digital) available on request:

Andrew.urban@wrongfulconvicionsreport.org

 

More from this category

  • Crime, Women
  • 19/12/2024
  • 06:12
Our Watch and No to Violence

Dangerous weeks ahead for women and children, national bodies warn

National organisations working to end violence against women - Our Watch and No to Violence - are warning that women may face increased risks of violence during the festive season. The two organisations are calling on men concerned about their behaviour to seek help and for efforts in primary prevention of both violence and substance abuse to be stepped up. Across the past eight years, NSW police have responded to more family and domestic violence assault incidents on News Years Day than any other day of the year. Similar spikes have been reported by police across the country. Alcohol and…

  • Crime
  • 18/12/2024
  • 14:58
NDARC/UNSW

Australian-first study shines light on why some drug traffickers are more likely to be reconvicted than others

One in two ‘typical’ drug traffickers convicted in NSW between 2000 and 2023 will have no further contact with the criminal justice system after release, according to an Australian-first study published in The International Journal of Drug Policy. The authors also found that people convicted of trafficking heroin or amphetamine-type substances are more likely to commit further offences than those convicted of cannabis, ecstasy or cocaine trafficking. While there is a high degree of persistence in crime, very little of this involves drug trafficking, with fewer than 5% being reconvicted for drug trafficking offences. “In our study, most drug-related reoffences…

  • Crime, Women
  • 12/12/2024
  • 10:30
Monash University

Victim-survivors support criminalising coercive control

Female victim-survivors of coercive control overwhelmingly support making it a standalone criminal offence, groundbreaking national research released today (10 December) reveals. The study, led by Monash University and funded by the Australian Institute of Criminology, is the largest of its kind in Australia and provides critical insights into the potential benefits and risks of introducing coercive control as a stand-alone criminal offence. The report draws on in-depth interviews with 130 victim-survivors of coercive control from across Australia. Coercive control refers to a pattern of abusive behaviours that over time create fear and deny the victim’s liberty and autonomy. People who…

Media Outreach made fast, easy, simple.

Feature your press release on Medianet's News Hub every time you distribute with Medianet. Pay per release or save with a subscription.