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Collins's victims detail `sex abuse' |
TWO alleged victims of Bob Collins have detailed how they were abused by the late former Labor senator as the federal Government announced a state funeral for the Hawke and Keating government minister in Darwin this weekend. As speculation continued yesterday into whether Mr Collins committed suicide ahead of the scheduled start of a child sex case against him on Monday, one alleged victim accused the former minister of sexually abusing him as a 12-year-old boy while he watched pornographic videos at Parliament House in 1989. Mr Collins was a member of the Film Censorship Board at the time.
Mr Collins's death last week sparked a wave of mourning among senior Labor figures and people he had helped as a politician, including Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, whom Mr Collins campaigned for when she was accused of killing her baby Azaria. But an alleged victim, Aboriginal actor Tom E.Lewis, told The Bulletin in an interview published today that Mr Collins was ``like the spider in the web''.
Lewis said he was 13 or 14 when Mr Collins took him back to his house in Darwin.
``As I'm getting (un)dressed, he got me, I'm down in my underwear,'' Lewis said. ``And then he took me to the bedroom. He humbugged me there (had sex), then let me have a shower. I put on a sarong. I think he took a picture of me.'' The magazine also reports that Mr Collins had beaten cancer when he died last Friday. The Northern Territory Coroner has said there would be an investigation into his death, which is likely to include toxicology tests and examine whether he took his own life on the eve of his court appearance. |
