Senior SA Police Union Officials Allegedly Re-enacted Alleged Rape of Brittany Higgins as a ‘Joke’

Independent MLC Frank Pangallo made the new claims under the protection of parliamentary privilege on Wednesday.

He said it was a further example of inappropriate behaviour at the Police Association of South Australia (PASA).

A statement from a former female employee, read by Mr Pangallo, said the union “was – and unfortunately still is” an unsafe workplace for female staff.

Personally, we find Ms Higgins to be a person of dubious character, her story full of holes, and her behaviour on the evening of alleged rape to be downright trashy. We consider it a disgrace that she was paid millions in taxpayer funds for a rape claim that still remains unproven, while genuine rape victims receive no such reward because their cases are unable to help a government win an election.

With that said, rape is no laughing matter. It is no joke, and you would expect members of a police force to know this better than anyone.

Enter the clowns at PASA, the police union of South Australia, who have been making news lately for all the wrong reasons. Between electing a cop guilty of indecent assault as president, to behaving like a pack of misogynistic dickheads, the PASA jokers can’t do anything right.

Independent MLC Frank Pangallo made the new claims under the protection of parliamentary privilege on Wednesday.

He said it was a further example of inappropriate behaviour at PASA.

A statement from a former female employee, read by Mr Pangallo, said the union “was – and unfortunately still is” an unsafe workplace for female staff.

Independent MLC Frank Pangallo has aired allegations about PASA in parliament.

She said the culture was “toxic” and women were spoken about in a derogatory way.

“Examples include … having knowledge that, as a black humour ‘joke’, the former president – that is Mr (Mark) Carroll – and assistant secretary, Mr (Steve) Whetton, re-enacted the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in the kitchen of PASA in front of a female staff member,” Mr Pangallo told parliament.

She also said Mr Carroll had been heard saying “you can do anything you want to a woman as long as you give her flowers afterwards”, and, when speaking about a woman who had been raped, saying “clearly, he didn’t buy her flowers afterwards”.

What a winner.

Mark Carroll Issues PR Statement

In response, Carroll issued a bunch of predictable and self-righteous denials. Our interpretation and understanding of his comments is in bold.

“I understand that Frank Pangallo MLC has once again used parliamentary privilege to publish a series of completely outrageous allegations about me during my time as President of PASA. [That Pangallo bastard is again publicising very embarrassing information about PASA that we were able to previously keep hidden]

“Those further allegations are also wholly unsubstantiated and I deny them entirely. [Always deny, until you are caught on camera, then make up some bullshit excuse about suffering PTSD]

“There are simply too many factual inaccuracies in what parliament has been told to respond to them all. [I can’t factually discredit what he said, so I’ll pretend time constraints make it impossible to reply to his allegations]

“However, it is important to make it clear that the extraordinary assertions about me re-enacting the rape of Brittany Higgins and making comments about raping women are nothing but vile accusations designed to destroy my reputation. [Just like the 100% true assertion that current PASA president Wade Burns was found guilty at a SAPOL hearing of indecently assaulting a female colleague was nothing but “a vile accusation designed to destroy his reputation.” At PASA, we strategically cry defamation every time someone dare expose our behaviour]

“I am disgusted that Frank Pangallo would make these statements in parliament hiding behind his privilege. [How dare Pangallo criticise me, the almighty Mark Carroll!]

“I am also disgusted that Frank Pangallo would consider it appropriate to repeat these allegations without any form of verification or fact-checking with me or with Steve Whetton and the other people at PASA who have been viciously attacked by the statements in parliament. [How dare Pangallo raise these allegations without first allowing us to issue another stream of rhetorical and disingenuous denials!]

“I remain extremely proud of what we were able to achieve during my 16 years as president of PASA. [I am extremely proud that I was able to become rich and get a free car by sitting in an office cracking bad jokes, and complaining that the female staff were too old, fat and ugly for us old, fat and ugly PASA boofheads]

“I find it incredibly sad that Frank Pangallo believes that it is acceptable to use parliament to seek to damage PASA and so many good people who work there. [I find it incredibly sad, not to mention infuriating, that Pangallo believes it acceptable to expose bad behaviour that PASA was previously able to keep hidden from public view]

“If Frank Pangallo considers these allegations to be true, he should repeat them outside parliament and let a court determine the real facts.” [Pangallo should take this to the corrupt court system, where we will use the millions of dollars we have in the PASA slush fund to frustrate and obfuscate him and the rest of the complainants with protracted legal wrangling, like we have successfully done in the past]

Earlier this month, Mr Pangallo aired a series of allegations from another former staff member, Kim York – including that female admin staff were labelled “old, fat and ugly” and some members suffering PTSD were referred to as “broken biscuits”.

Those allegations – also denied “entirely” by Mr Carroll – were repeated in the statement of the second worker, who said Mr Carroll and Mr Whetton also referred to members suffering mental health issues as “f***in crying psychos”.

Members were also called “weak” and “soft” for contacting PASA in an emotionally-distressed state – and it was remarked “if they can’t hack the job they shouldn’t be in the job”.

In her statement, the woman – who began her role as the union’s executive secretary in August 2021 – said she heard the former president “frequently comment” that he “hates police” and “they are all idiots and wankers”.

After years of observing the disgraceful behaviour of SAPOL cops, we are inclined to agree with Carroll’s appraisal. The problem for the self-loathing Carroll when declaring all cops to be “idiots and wankers” is that he himself was a police officer from August 1985 to September 1997. He has since immersed himself in cop bureaucracy, spending 12 years as head of a union representing a bunch of goons that he allegedly considers “all idiots and wankers”.

SA Police said the allegations were being treated as a complaint and investigated as a conduct inquiry under the Police Complaints and Discipline Act.

Parliament has been told Ms York, the second worker and a third woman lodged complaints in the Fair Work Commission but ultimately discontinued them after they endured intimidation.

Mr Whetton and PASA have been contacted for comment.

Source

State parliament hears allegations that senior police union officials re-enacted alleged rape of Brittany Higgins as a ‘black humour joke’. The Advertiser.