Wicked riches

The Tribunal determined he did not have standing to make the appeal because he wasn't the original applicant for the award. Their decision included a telling statement that parliament had deliberately designed the scheme "to be a one-way scheme where in the first instance claimants obtain evidence to support their claims and in New South Wales that evidence is not tested against the accused or the convicted perpetrator."

Too right it is one way! It is set up to reward liars, cheats and vindictive parents… anyone who claims to be an alleged victim of sexual assault. Even if the result is that a poor child is now to be told by the state that her father is a child abuser.

Grianger has been mounting a mighty campaign to stop this happening, corresponding with Victim Services, the Attorney General, the police, the Ombudsman…all to no avail.

As part of his lobbying, Grainger recruited assistance from Dr Mandy Matthewson, a clinical psychologist and senior lecturer at University of Tasmania. She provided evidence that the consequences to a child who believes they have been abused when they have not, are just as serious and damaging as the consequences of being abused. "These consequences in adulthood include depression, anxiety, trauma responses, poor self-esteem, feelings of guilt and shame, and increased alcohol and substance abuse. Adults who believe they were abused during childhood when they were not develop a confused self-perception, experience deep insecurity and fail to develop trusting relationships with others," Matthewson wrote.

Mathewson mentioned 2021 research from Nola Webb and associates showing 74% of child sexual abuse allegations made in the Family Court of Australia between 2012 and 2019 were unsubstantiated. Out of these 74% of cases, 49% were genuinely believed by the parent making the allegation, but their belief was mistaken. 23% of these unsubstantiated allegations were deliberately misleading allegations.

Grainger is very clear about why he continues to fight against the compensation being awarded. "The award, if my daughter should receive it, will reinforce in her mind the false narrative of the mother that I abused her as a child. That, in itself, is psychological abuse of a child, and it is being facilitated by the NSW government."

Such cases are to be found across Australia. It is shocking that not only are these women receiving no punishment for making damaging false abuse allegations but they get to keep their ill-gotten gains, compensation paid by our governments for events that never happened.

A dismal postscript to this story is Grainger's ex-wife has recently relocated overseas with the child. She originally left Australia with the child covertly during Covid and then decided to remain there permanently. A Hague Convention case ensued, and she was ordered to return the child to Australia – an order she defied a number of times. In 2022 the mother retrospectively applied to the Australian Family Court for permission to relocate overseas with the child, which was granted last year. So, the mother was given permission to return to the UK, having successfully alienated the child from Grainger after allowing no contact for almost a decade.

To take the cake, a journalist called Amanda Gearing recently posted the following item about Grainger's case on LinkedIn

Our world is full of these malicious loony tunes happy to target innocent men. And a receptive audience keen to believe them.