My response to Citipointe church's defamation allegations - heard in a Cambodian court yesterday without my being aware of the charges that had been laid

James Ricketson

316 Whale Beach Road

 Palm Beach 2108

Sydney, Australia

jamesricketson@gmail.com

Pastors Brian Mulheran and Leigh Ramsey

322 Wecker Road

Carindale

QLD 4152      

Directors of the Global Development Group Board

Unit 6, 734 Underwood Road

Rochedale, QLD 4123                                                                                               

David James Pearson

Geoffrey Winston Armstrong

Ofelia (fe) Luscombe

Alan Benson

David Robertson

                                                                                   

13^th March 2014

Dear Pastors Leigh Ramsay and Brian Mulheran (Citipointe church) Geoff Armstrong (Global Development Group) and members of the GDG board.

As you can imagine, it came as something of a surprise to me to learn, this afternoon, that I was supposed to appear in a Phnom Penh court yesterday on charges of having defamed Citipointe by “threatening to damage the reputation of Citipointe Church, based in Brisbane, with accusations that it was selling Cambodian children abroad.”

Needless to say, myriad questions arise in my mind:

(1) Where, in any of my correspondence with the church have I suggested that Citipointe was selling children abroad?

What I have accused the church of is the illegal removal of Rosa and Chita from their family in mid 2008. What I have accused Citipointe of is tricking Chanti and her mother Vanna into signing, with their thumb prints, a document that is, by universal agreement, a fraud from a legal point of view. This is the 31^st July 2008 ‘contract’ Citipointe, pretending to be LICADHO, induced Chanti to sign. I have appended a copy of both the original and of the translation I had made of it in Nov 2008 when this Citipointe scam first came to my attention.

(2) How did Citipointe manage to get a charge of defamation before the court without my being made aware of it, with no summons or warrant issued and without my being appraised of any of the evidence the church has presented to the court of the crimes of which I have been accused? How far back do these charges date? Back to Oct 2012?

Strange that there should suddenly be this sudden flurry of legal activity to shut me down when Geoff Armstrong became, on 24^th Feb, an advocate justifying the Citipointe child-stealing scam with his curt letter? Strange also that this flurry of legal activity should occur after Billie Jean Slott has been brought on to give legal advice to the Global Development Group!

The answer to the above questions (implicit and explicit) is simple and is to be found in Pastor Brian Mulheran’s letter to me of 21^st Feb 2013 in which he threatened to have me ‘forcibly removed’. To refresh your memory Leigh, Geoff Armstrong, members of the Global Development Board and Billie Jean Slott, a quote from Pastor Mulheran’s letter:

“Using the law is the last thing that we want to see happen, because for you to be convicted of a crime and serve a sentence may mean that you will never have the opportunity to re-enter Cambodia again.”

It is statements such as this that give mafias of all different kinds their deserved reputation for intimidation – “We would hate to see your shop burn down or anything unpleasant to happen to your children!”

I will leave it to others reading this to interpret these comments of Pastor Mulheran’s on 21^st Feb 2013 as they choose. As for myself, they are threats made by a Pentecostal thug with the express intention of intimidating me. I hope, Brian, on showing this to your Citipointe lawyer, that he finds, in this last observation (my reference to you as a thug), that I have defamed you. I hope also that you have the balls to sue me in an Australian court and not take the cowardly route of suing me in a Cambodian court in which the legal outcome can be determined by he or she who provides the greatest financial incentive to the presiding Judge.

Having failed to convince Judge Phou Pov Sun that I am guilty of profiting from prostitution and posting porn on the internet Citipointe is now trying its hand, rather clumsily, at a defamation suit in its determination to have me arrested and convicted and banned from coming to Cambodia anymore. Alas, Leigh, Brian, Geoff Armstrong, members of the Global Development Board and Billie Jean Slott, this form of intimidation will not work with me. It is like waving a red flag in front of a bull hoping that this will stop him.

I will be in court on 2^nd April for my sentencing and, believe me, will take full opportunity of the event – a legal farce, to be sure – to make all the points I am making here in this letter and all those I have made in countless letters to you all.

You may have ‘arranged’ for the Judge to find me guilty but, believe me, I will give him pause to think twice about who is the criminal in the court on that day.

best wishes

James Ricketson