Frederic Arthur Martens

In October 2006 a cairns jury convicted pilot Frederic Arthur Martens under sex tourism laws of raping a 14-year-old girl in Port Morseby, Papua New Guinea. This was the first conviction under the new laws.
Martins claimed that he was not in Port Morseby at the time, and flight records could prove this.
The AFP failed to find refused to retrieve those records despite numerous requests, and Martins could not retrieve them himself as he was in jail.
When the records were eventually retrieved by Martin's partner Rose the convictions were quashed.
A family member of the alleged victim also stated that the girl had been pressured into making up the story by Martin's former partner.
Justice Chesterman strongly criticized the handling of the case saying that it was
: A poor reflection upon the two organisations that one should have failed to find them, and denied their existence, and the other object to their use ... on the grounds that the petitioner should have obtained then earlier.
Mr Martens' solicitor Chris Rose said that he believed the AFP had been overzealous in pursuing his client because they were looking to validate the new sex tourism laws which the AFP polices. They had failed to look for evidence that would exonerate the accused.
The AFP also froze all of Martin's funds while he was in custody, which prevented treatment for his daughter in Port Moreby who died as a result.
In November 2010 Martens filed a compensation claim against the Australian government. He claims negligence because four documents were missing. They were the alleged victim's passport application, Plane refueling records, Aviation flight invoices and Australian Immigration records. The latter proved that he was in Australia at the time of one of the alleged offenses.
The AFP asserted that the passport application was missing, but PNG officials claimed that the AFP had removed their application for the information. A Doctor's statement confirming the alleged victims location was also withheld from the defense.
Martins also claims that an internal complaint to the AFP's ethical unit was investigated by an officer involved with the alleged misconduct.
 
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