EXCLUSIVE: The young, privileged, well-connected man at the centre of a long-running alleged sexual assault and rape cover-up by both the NSW Greens party and state police has broken his months-long silence and is now threatening to take “legal action” against his alleged victims and others.
- JARAH CROOK FINALLY SPEAKS OUT. ALLEGED RAPIST HAS TOLD TRUE CRIME NEWS WEEKLY HE WILL BE “PERUSING” LEGAL OPTIONS BECAUSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST HIM HAVE BEEN “HURTFUL”
- DENIALS COME AS TRUE CRIME NEWS WEEKLY CAN EXCLUSIVELY REVEAL MR CROOK’S POSSIBLY CROOKED LINKS TO NSW GREENS MP DAWN WALKER
- ABC AIRS FEATURE RADIO DOCUMENTARY INTO ALLEGATIONS SURROUNDING MR CROOK ON BACK OF INVESTIGATION BY TRUE CRIME NEWS WEEKLY
- MR CROOK’S DENIALS FOLLOW MAJOR TRUE CRIME NEWS WEEKLY INVESTIGATION INTO CULTURE OF COVER-UPS IN GREENS PARTY WHICH EVEN ALLEGEDLY INVOLVES INCOMING FEDERAL SENATOR
– WARNING: DETAILED DISCUSSION OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT, SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE. FOR HELP, VISIT HERE –
He is the 21-year-old “indefinitely suspended” NSW Greens staffer who has been accused of rape by two young female journalists. One of those survivors reported him to police and other authorities almost immediately. She even courageously showed the world the bruises and marks left upon her, allegedly by her rapist. Up to five other young women are said to have made complaints about the same man’s inappropriate sexual behaviour over a period of six years. But Jarah Crook has now finally spoken in response to the allegations against him and has found the time to take a break from his long European holiday to write to True Crime News Weekly and threaten “legal action”.
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In an email message sent this week to True Crime News Weekly, the former high-flying staffer to NSW Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham warned this publication that he expected for his denials to be highlighted “in the stories published online”.
Mr Crook has been named as an alleged rapist by at least two women. The former University of NSW student is alleged to have sexually assaulted or harassed a further five young women, some of whom may have been possibly underage at the time. The Greens hierarchy have refused to answer questions seeking comment on whether any of the complainants were under the age of 18 at the time.
The multiple allegations against Mr Crook became public in June 2017 after journalist, Lauren Ingram, courageously and publicly outed the aspiring politician as her alleged rapist.
Ms Ingram took the action after feeling let down by inadequate investigations by both the NSW Greens and NSW Police into an alleged rape which took place in April 2015.
Rather than answering any of the detailed and specific questions that have been put to him by True Crime News Weekly since June 19, Mr Crook has instead chosen to threaten possible “legal action” against unspecified persons and parties.
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A number of weeks ago, the Potts Point resident had publicly admitted he doesn’t “have a return ticket” from his overseas holiday. On his own website, Mr Crook has described his long foreign jaunt as his “2017 travels across Europe and Central Asia” during which he will apparently “capture the art of both the natural and built environment”.
Mr Crook has now however told True Crime News Weekly that he will be “perusing” his legal options, simply because of how “hurtful” the claims of rape and sexual assault alleged against him have been to people that know and love him.
On August 4, six weeks after True Crime News Weekly contacted him for the first time in mid-June with a series of detailed questions, Mr Crook finally sent the following response about the allegations made about him:
“I deny all the allegations,” he wrote in an email addressed to True Crime News Weekly.
“I will be perusing legal action because this has been hurtful for my friends and family.
“In Australia, justice is served through our established justice system. It can not be served through social media lynch mob.
“I expect you to include a version of the above in the stories published online.”
The emailed message from the one-time social media enthusiast-turned-naysayer comes within a day of ABC National airing an important story on its Background Briefing program on how sexual assault and rape allegations still tend to be covered up, dismissed or minimised.
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The radio documentary centred on the treatment of Ms Ingram’s public claims against Mr Crook which True Crime News Weekly has extensively covered in a number of exclusive stories since June of this year.
Our investigation has revealed Mr Crook’s close working relationships with a number of sitting Greens MPs as well as claims that his alleged behaviour had been a topic of growing concern and complaints within the party since at least 2015. It is alleged up to seven women in total have made complaints about Mr Crook’s allegedly inappropriate sexual behaviour going back to 2011. The investigation by True Crime News Weekly has as well revealed longstanding support for The Greens from Mr Crook’s family. It has also been discovered that senior elements of the party were grooming Mr Crook for an MP position despite being aware of the various complaints surrounding his alleged behaviour.
RELATED: Accused ‘Greens rapist’ was being groomed as MP & had dreams of becoming Prime Minister
According to the investigation by the ABC program – which has further highlighted issues first broken by True Crime News Weekly – the NSW Greens only formulated a sexual harassment policy in late January 2017, and in specific response to the allegations made against Mr Crook.
“Within two weeks of the policy being put in place, the Greens received seven separate complaints about the man,” it was reported by Background Briefing.
“Some of the complainants described sexual harassment. One alleged the man had groped her at a Greens event — and the last one was Ingram’s complaint.
“Two days later, the Greens suspended him indefinitely.
“Background Briefing has independently verified that the policy was formulated in response to complaints about the man who allegedly raped Ingram.”
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Another young Greens volunteer told the radio program of her own harrowing experiences on being warned about being alone with Mr Crook.
“I was first told about this person very early on into being associated with the Young Greens,” she told Background Briefing.
“I was approached privately by a friend, someone high up in the Young Greens who just wanted to warn me before I’d met this person that they were a known rapist, they were a known harasser of women, and if I come in contact with him just to be very cautious of that and to limit my contact with him as much as possible.
“I was told very explicitly that he had raped people. I was told that he had harassed and touched people that I’m friends with without their consent.”
The ABC Radio program has also discovered that police most likely lied to Ms Ingram when it was told to her that hospital records relating to her alleged rape had been lost or destroyed.
NSW Police have come under severe criticism over their handling of the case, with one detective from Kings Cross police station assigned to the criminal investigation telling Ms Ingram that Mr Crook was likely innocent because he was “just a kid who didn’t know how to have sex yet”.
“These records were not in fact destroyed,” the ABC radio documentary revealed.
“In a phone call with Ingram, the hospital sexual assault coordinator confirmed a record of her examination and her DNA samples still existed.
“Ingram feels it vindicates her decision to name and shame her alleged rapist, even if her case never ends up in court.”
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Mr Crook’s denials over the allegations come at a time when further information related to his behaviour during his time as a political campaigner has been leaked to True Crime News Weekly. Screenshots provided to True Crime News Weekly seem to show Mr Crook engaging in some sly political manoeuvres on behalf of now-sitting NSW Greens MLC, Dawn Walker.
Ms Walker was already under a cloud upon entering NSW Parliament earlier this year after a preselection that was bitterly fought and ended with accusations of broken rules, irregularities and tricky backroom strategies.
As reported six months ago by the Sydney Morning Herald, in December 2016 “Ms Walker won a preselection ballot by 13 votes amid claims she had broken party rules by accessing party email lists for campaigning purposes”. Supporters of the more left-wing candidate, Kelly Marks, had alleged campaigners and supporters of the more conservative campaign run by Ms Walker were involved in some allegedly dodgy shenanigans. The preselection was held following the retirement of Greens MLC Jan Barham.
True Crime News Weekly can now reveal this week that one of Ms Walker’s key staffers and campaigners was none other than Jarah Crook – the man alleged to be a serial sexual abuser and possible rapist.
Screenshots of ‘WhoIs’ searches provided to True Crime News Weekly reveal Mr Crook to have been listed as the “registrant” and domain owner for Ms Walker’s official personal website: www.dawnwalker.com.au.
Mr Crook had listed his own name and his own ABN under the official details for the site. The website itself is now no longer accessible.
Of concern, Mr Crook was the owner of Ms Walker’s website right around the time he was in the running to be a returning officer in the very same preselection battle that Ms Walker would end up winning. Mr Crook did not reveal the links when he initially threw his hat into the ring for the role. He ended up withdrawing from the position. Numerous sources have confirmed that Greens officials and party members knew about the serious allegations regarding Mr Crook’s alleged inappropriate sexual behaviour since at least 2015.
Ms Walker refused to speak about the claims with True Crime News Weekly, nor did she wish to discuss her longstanding political relationship with Mr Crook. When confronted by the allegations her office would only offer a weakly-spoken “no comment” when finally reached by telephone this week.
There has been some debate whether the allegations could be worth being referred to a body such as ICAC, with questions over whether the actions could be construed as corrupt or criminal.
One internal NSW Greens party source told True Crime News Weekly that the behaviour was at the very least immoral and unethical.
“All of it is fucked up dodgy behaviour internally, trying to corrupt the process, but it isn’t corruption that could go to ICAC sadly,” the source said.
“Perhaps illegal, breaching data laws, which is a criminal offense.”
The source suggested Ms Walker’s staff may have sounded stiff and reticent when questioned because it was likely many of her ministerial employees were knowledgeable about Mr Crook’s ownership of the website, as well as the allegations about his inappropriate sexual behaviour.
“They would of clammed up because her staffers were in on it too before they were staffers. One of them ran her preselection campaign,” the source told True Crime News Weekly.
“Her being linked to an alleged rapist is bloody awful. She is trying to distance herself from Jarah now.”
Earlier this month, True Crime News Weekly exclusively revealed that The Greens’ new incoming federal senator, Jordon Steele-John, has been at the centre of an internal investigation and ensuing alleged cover-up over allegations of “persistent” sexual harassment against multiple women dating back over 12 months. The scandal surrounding Mr Steele-John in Western Australia comes at a time when Greens members have made official complaints of sexual harassment or abuse about other members, employees or volunteers within the party in NSW, Victoria, ACT and Tasmania.
Apart from the solitary email message that was sent from Europe, Mr Crook would not answer further questions sent to him by True Crime News Weekly this week which largely queried his relationship with Ms Walker.
NOTE: True Crime News Weekly has elected to identify the alleged offender due to apparent systemic failures in organisations that are meant to protect and serve the community, as well as the alleged offender’s plans to leave Australia indefinitely.
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