STORY: "Karam awarded $535,000 over defamation. The ruling identified some 50 defamatory statements on Mr. Karam by Mr. Parker and Mr. Purkis to which there was no defence," published by The New Zealand Herald on April 17, 2014.
PHOTO-CAPTION: "Joe Karam (right) worked to prove David Bain was innocent."
PUBLISHER'S VIEW: (Editorial): People like Joe Karam who go to bat for dor the wrongfully convicted David Bain's of the world are few and far between, and deserve all of the protection they can get from the courts against pig-headed detractors who are blinded to the possibility of innocence. Sadly, the New Zealand government was, and continues to be, also blind to Bain's innocence - as clearly established by Karam, other supporters, and Bain's dedicated legal team - to the point that it discredited the work of Justice Ian Binnie, a brilliant, highly regarded former Supreme Court of Canada Justice who had been asked to determine if there was a case for compensation - and had returned a report favourable to Bain. Pretty disgusting!
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
GIST: "Joe Karam has been awarded $535,000 in a defamation case against
two men who launched an "all-out assault" on his reputation because of
his support for David Bain. The online comments by Kent Parker
and Victor Purkiss accused Mr Karam of being dishonest in his
motivations for helping Mr Bain after he was cleared in 2009 of
murdering five members of his family. Some of the remarks
compared him to a Nazi leader, and one used his name to coin a word —
"Karamalisation" — to describe how he allegedly misrepresented facts. Mr
Karam said the public campaign against his integrity was the "worst
four years" of his life, and Justice Patricia Courtney said she believed
the former All Black......... Justice Courtney's judgment noted evidence of Mr Karam's "integrity, generosity and altruism". Mr Karam said the men had made "an all-out assault on me [in] an attempt to show that I'm shonky". He
and Fairfax NZ had earlier agreed to settle defamation claims, on a
confidential basis, arising from articles on stuff.co.nz that drew
attention to the websites that contained the defamatory comments by Mr
Parker and Mr Purkiss."
BACKGR0UND: (Wikipedia account); Joseph Francis "Joe" Karam (born 21 November 1951) is a former
New Zealand representative
rugby footballer who played for the
All Blacks, an entrepreneur and a campaigner for
David Bain
who was convicted of murdering his entire family in 1995 but acquitted
after a retrial in 2009.........Karam is known for his many years of
unqualified support for
David Bain,
who was convicted of murdering all five members of his family in 1995.
Karam's research and sustained pressure on the justice system culminated
in an appeal to the
Privy Council in Britain in May 2007, at which Bain's conviction was overturned. The Privy Council found there had been a substantial
miscarriage of justice,
quashed his convictions and ordered a retrial. After his convictions
were quashed, Karam allowed Bain to stay at his house in the
Waikato on bail prior to the retrial two years later. Bain stayed for about three months before moving to
Auckland.
[6] The new trial was held in 2009 and Bain was found not guilty on all five charges.
[7] Without Karam's support it is unlikely there would ever have been a
retrial. His interest in the case began in 1996 when he read a newspaper
article about “an old music teacher and a bunch of young, long-haired
university students” trying to raise money for Bain's appeal by selling
jam.
[8]
He went and gave them money. He began to study the evidence presented
at the original trial and began to feel something was wrong with the
case.
[9] He went to visit Bain in
prison in Christchurch and subsequently visited him over 200 times.
[9] According to media commentator
Paul Holmes, Karam was appalled at the way the family, the Police and the Fire Service arranged to burn the Bain house down.
[10] Based on his extensive research over many years, Karam wrote four books about David Bain's case. The first was
"David and Goliath: the Bain family murders" published in 1997. Karam made accusations against two individual police officers in
David and Goliath
as a result of which he was sued for defamation. (He won that case as
well.) The book created a media furore. Karam appeared regularly on
Holmes and 'did a thousand other media interviews'.
[1] The second book,
"Bain and Beyond" was published in 2000 and the third,
"Innocent!: seven critical flaws in the conviction of David Bain" came out in 2001. The fourth book
"Trial By Ambush: The Prosecutions Of David Bain"
was released in 2012. In this book, Karam accuses Robin Bain of the
murders of his wife and three of their children before shooting himself.
[11]While supporting Bain, Karam spent his 'considerable fortune' on the case.
[12]
He'd become wealthy in various business ventures including hamburger
bars and country pubs and the country's first major independent vending
machine company. He had more than 20 investment properties, a launch and
racehorses and lived on a 10 acre property in
Clevedon.
Karam says the crusade cost him millions and his friends estimated his
personal losses could be as much as $4 million in terms of his time,
loss of earnings and costs of legal and forensic experts.
[13]
He spent it in his pursuit of the case and ended up living in 15 to 20
different rental houses over the past decade while trying to prove
Bain's innocence.
[12]
He received some compensation prior to the retrial by working as a
researcher and investigator for Bain's legal team, where he was paid up
to $95 an hour.
[9][12]
Karam has also taken legal action to defend himself in pursuit of the
case. In addition to being sued for defamation by two police officers,
he also took on the media with litigation against TVNZ, North and South
magazine and the New Zealand Herald.
[12]
He sued journalist Rosemary McLeod over an article that cast doubt on
his motives for supporting Bain. They settled out of court.
[1] In 2011 he sued Trade Me for defamation over 349 posts on the website's public message boards about Bain.
[14] In 2012 he began legal proceedings against Kent Parker and Victor Purkiss for defamation.
[15.........Karam acknowledges that fighting the case has taken its toll on him
over the years. Interviewed in the New Zealand Herald in 2007 under the
headline
Joe Karam: Freedom Fighter, he said "For many years the
mainstream media, judiciary and politicians just thought of me as a
raving redneck who'd lost the plot."
[12]
He stopped socialising with rich-list friends because people would
inevitably "buttonhole him about the case" and he felt compelled to put
them straight – "destroying the dinner party" in the process. He said
that "every morning for two years, he would wake up, sink to the edge of
the bed and cry".
[1]
When asked what motivated him to keep going, he said it was because of
his "innate hatred of unfairness and urge to help those less fortunate".
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Karamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Karam
See previous post of this Blog: Joe Karam honoured with The Charles Smith Blog award:
Publisher's View. (Editorial); "I
am pleased to present the Charles Smith Blog award to Joe Karam of New
Zealand for the courageous battle he fought in pursuit of justice for
since-exonerated David Bain. Mr. Karam wrote many books and articles
about the case in a bid to keep the issues in the face of a government
and police force that were determined to keep David Bain behind bars in
spite of a terribly bungled, police investigation tainted by tunnel
vision, and evidence which showed that he might be innocent - and all of
this at great personal cost, including being the recipient of vicious
personal slanders over many years." Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11239379
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I
have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses
several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of
the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this
powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and
myself get more out of the site.
The
Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible
years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr.
Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of
Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"
section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It
can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
