Standing ovation for cop's protest
Steve Gray |
Organisers
had been expecting 150 people, but instead a rowdy crowd of about 1,000 has
turned up to a meeting on the presence of convicted pedophile Dennis Ferguson
in their
Police
Minister Judy Spence and Acting Police Commissioner Kathy Rynders were shouted
down by the crowd at the meeting in Carbrook, a suburb on
A
police prosecutor, senior constable Heather Steinberg, received a standing
ovation after she said her job was at risk but she had to protest against
"Why
is the commissioner making me protect him and not my children," she said.
Another
woman said she was able to see the house where
"Our
freedom has gone. You have imprisoned us in our own home. My children are
frightened," she said.
Howls
of derision met Ms Spence's attempts to explain that
"Whether
you like it or not Dennis Ferguson has been allowed to be a free man by the
courts," she said.
There
were calls for the removal of Hugh Botting, the District Court judge who
ordered
Child
protection advocate Hetty Johnston came in for criticism as she explained there
were pedophiles in every community in
There
was a significant police presence at the event.
At
one stage the crowd began to chant "Get him out, get him out, get him out."
The
60-year-old convicted sex offender, freed last week after Judge Botting said he
would not get a fair trial in Queensland on new child sex charges, has already
been run out of a community at Miles, in the state's south.
Earlier
yesterday, a 29-year-old man was charged with threatening to harm
Police
allege the man from Munruben, south of
The caller was
charged with using a carriage service to menace and is due to appear in the
Beenleigh