I am not a heroin smuggler, peer says

Press, 29 August 1980, Page 6

I am not a heroin smuggler, peer says

NZPA-Reuter Manila A British peer diving in the Philippines has challenged an Australian judge who accused him of involvement with drug smugglers to repeat his allegations outside Parliament or withdraw them.

Lord Moynihan, aged 45, was accused in a Royal Commission report tabled in the New South Wales Parliament this month of having connections with a big Sydney drug ring involved in the smuggling of heroin from the Philippines to Australia.

The report by the Royal Commissioner, Mr Justice Woodward, on drug trafficking in New South Wales said that Lord Moynihan was a “shadowy figure” linked with a Sydney drug syndicate known as the “Double Bay Mob.”

Mr Justice Woodward said he was prepared to conclude from evidence before the commission that Lord Moynihan “is, or was, in some way involved in, or assisting, the importation of heroin from Manila.” . In an interview with NZPA-Reuter, Lord Moynihan — who went to live in the Philippines in 1969 — said the judge’s remarks were an abuse of Parliamentary privilege.

He wanted to “throw a challenge to him to repeat what he said outside of the area of Parliamentary privilege or to withdraw it. It seems to me to be the only gentlemanly thing he can do, one way or the other.”

Lord Moynihan complained that he had been “clearly tried and found guilty in absentia, without being given the opportunity to defend myself, without being asked my views, without even being aware that [the trial was in process.” He maintained that he had always taken a hard line on drugs, expressing the view that “anyone who dealt in heroin would be a murderer, not just a single murderer, a mass murderer.”

I If any of his associates ’had been shown to be involved in any way with drugs, “they would cease to be associates of mine.” ; Lord Moynihan, who was married to>a Filipino woman 'until this year and has three children in the Philippines, said that a number of business negotiations had fallen through as a result of the accusations against him. He was engaged in many different businesses such as import-export, food processing, and farming.