Accused pedophile’s legal bills paid for by Australian taxpayers
A Melbourne man accused of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl in the Philippines has received $500,000 of Australian taxpayer money for his legal bills.
Peter Gerard Scully – who has been charged with 75 offences, including abduction, rape, and murder, as well as allegedly making child exploitation and torture videos of babies and toddlers – has been given the half a million dollars for legal aid under a federal government program, reports The Australian. He has denied all charges.
The Serious Criminal Matters Scheme provides legal funding for Australians facing serious charges overseas. It is only available to Australians facing more than 20 years imprisonment or the death penalty and who cannot afford the costs of a lawyer.
Notable past recipients include Schapelle Corby, Cassie Sainsbury, David Hicks and Bali Nine members Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
Attorney-General Christian Porter said the decision to fund Scully's legal defence was made when his predecessor George Brandis was in charge.
"I had already asked my department for information on the scheme, including this particular case, with a view to considering changes to the scheme, so that persons in circumstances similar to Mr Scully, or those with histories of sexual offending and ¬relevant convictions, would no longer be eligible," he told Nine News.
Scully is believed to have left Australia for the Philippines in 2011, fleeing from fraud charges in Victoria.
When he was arrested in the Philippines, two teenage girls were allegedly found naked and shackled in another of his apartments.
Scully's alleged crimes were so gruesome that Philippines prosecutors pushed to reinstate the death penalty. Although capital punishment has been restored for serious drug offenders in the nation, Scully will not face execution.
It took a global manhunt of Dutch, Australian and Filipino police to track down Scully in 2015 after an Australian accent was recognised in one of the abuse videos.