Andrew Bolt: Crazed witch-hunters won’t rest until Christian Porter is gone

For a foul mob of journalists and politicians, suspicion is enough to ruin Attorney-General Christian Porter and drive him out of his job.

Attorney-General Christian Porter looked shocked, teary, bewildered and scared when he outed himself as the man accused of raping a girl 33 years ago — possibly even killing her.

No wonder. Porter is actually innocent under our law, but a foul mob of journalists and politicians will not rest until he is driven out of his job.

For them, suspicion is enough to ruin him. It’s already enough to force him to now take time off to get psychological help.

What sick times. Crazed witch-hunters infest our media and our politics. Some of Wednesday’s press conference made me disgusted with journalists.

“The Attorney-General needs to be beyond reproach,” called out one. She added this was for “the court of public opinion”, not courts, to decide.

By that standard, none of us is now safe from being torn down by any wild allegation. Who needs courts? Needs proof?

Last year a mentally ill woman went to NSW police, claiming Porter raped her in 1988.

She never made a sworn statement, and later told police not to proceed. The next day she killed herself.

Friends then went to politicians and the media of the left, demanding Porter be investigated. That started the kind of ABC-led pack attack that saw Cardinal George Pell wrongly jailed for rapes he could not possibly have committed.

Facts that cast doubt on the allegation were played down or omitted. Facts like these: the woman had battled mental illness for years, and the woman’s own impression of what allegedly occurred in her bedroom seemingly changed.

She wrote: “It was OK, I reassured myself, because we were going to get married one day.” Only they didn’t.

Finally, there’s no chance of ever knowing what “really” happened. These events occurred 33 years ago; the woman first complained to police only last year; his mentally ill accuser cannot now have her story checked.

And Porter denies all the allegations — denies even sleeping with the woman, back when they were student debaters visiting Sydney, she 16, he 17.

That is why NSW police this week closed its investigation for lack of “admissible evidence”. No other inquiry can get over these hurdles

Given that, Porter is innocent under our law. But that’s not good enough for some people now whipping up the mob.

Here are three of the worst examples that tell me Porter will get no justice from them.

First, there’s the missing sentence.

The ABC broke this story last week, quoting from the letter sent by the dead woman’s friends.

But it was only this Wednesday I read this letter included this telling line about the woman’s parents: “They worried that she may have confected or embellished the allegations due to her mental illness.”

Attorney-General Christian Porter. Picture: Sharon Smith

Why was that line, reported by The Australian’s Paul Kelly, missing from all other reports until then?

Second, beware agendas.

Malcolm Turnbull has co-operated extensively with the ABC in stories attacking the Liberal Party which dumped him as prime minister, and particularly ministers such as Porter.

On Tuesday, Turnbull went on the ABC again to demand Porter out himself. Worse, he five times hinted — as it seemed to me — Porter could be a killer, too.

“Now it’s said that (his accuser) suicided. Did she?” he demanded, claiming she’d died “just as she was about to sign the final witness statement”.

“I have a question mark in my own mind about the timing of it because it seems counterintuitive.”

What a disgusting smear. Far from dying “just as she was about to sign the final witness statement” accusing Porter, the accuser died after withdrawing her complaint.

Far from her death being “counterintuitive”, it was tragically predictable. She’d tried to kill herself several times before.

Third: no proof needed.

On Tuesday, Sydney Morning Herald commentator Jessica Irvine was asked on TV why she wanted Porter out of parliament when Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten was allowed to stay.

Like Porter, Shorten has been accused of a rape decades earlier and insists on his innocence. Police also closed that investigation, ruling he had no case to answer. Shorten, too, must be considered innocent.

But Irvine’s response was to demand Shorten be booted out, too: “We do not want people who have been accused of such things.’”

So innocent people — innocent under our law — must be ruined on a mere allegation, however unlikely and unproven? Save us from such pitiless crusaders, without proof, doubt or pure motives.

Porter is innocent under our law. It’s many of his accusers who are guilty.