By Daniella Miletic
January 28, 2006
JOHN Patrick Ford, the Victorian prisoner who testified at the original Bali trial of Schapelle Corby, has been found guilty of stalking and rape.
A County Court jury last December found Ford guilty of 11 charges, including one count of rape, three counts of intentionally causing injury and two counts of threatening to inflict serious injury.
Details of Ford's trial were suppressed until yesterday.
Ford, who has already spent more than 700 days in remand, was found guilty of one count of false imprisonment and one of threat to kill and of stalking.
He was also found guilty of one count each of aggravated burglary and burglary.
The offences occurred between March 2003 and February 2004.
Ford's lawyer, Tom Danos, yesterday told a pre-sentence hearing that as a result of giving evidence in Corby's trial, his client had suffered, and would continue to suffer, onerous prison conditions.
Mr Danos said he believed two violent attacks on Ford were a result of testifying in Bali and told the court his client deserved a discounted jail sentence in exchange for his evidence.
He also said Ford's trial was delayed due to the media coverage Corby's case had attracted.
Ford, 41, told a Bali court that the marijuana found in Corby's bodyboard bag was placed there without her knowledge by criminals involved in a drug-trafficking ring operating at Australian airports.
The pre-sentence hearing, before Judge Margaret Rizkalla, was adjourned until a later date.
John Patrick Ford, the  Australian prisoner who testified at  Schapelle Corby’s Bali drug trafficking trial, has been convicted of 11 charges relating to the rape and assault of a woman.

Ford’s trial was postponed to allow him to travel to Bali in the custody of  Australian Federal Police officers to testify that he had overheard a jailhouse confession. Ford alleged he had heard another prisoner claim ownership of the  marijuana found in Corby’s possession. He told the Balinese court that Corby was the victim of an Australian domestic inter-airport drug-smuggling operation. She is currently serving a 20-year prison term after being convicted in that case.   

In December 2005, a County Court jury convicted Ford of 11 charges, including rape, intentionally causing injury, threatening to inflict serious injury, false imprisonment, aggravated burglary, burglary, making threats to kill and stalking, but a suppression order issued by the court prevented publication of the convictions until the pre-sentencing hearing on Friday, January 27, 2006. 

Ford’s lawyer, Tom Danos, told the hearing that Corby had written to Ford thanking him for risking his own welfare by agreeing to testify. Danos urged the court to be lenient in sentencing Ford, claiming that his victim had effectively forgiven him for his crimes and that he deserved a lighter sentence for co-operating with authorities investigating the Corby case.

Ford has been attacked twice in jail since testifying at Corby’s Bali trial. Since returning from Bali in March, 2005, Ford has remained in protective custody, to prevent further attacks. Danos claimed that this would make any jail sentence particularly difficult for his client.

County Court Judge Margaret Rizkalla adjourned the pre-sentencing hearing to a date yet to be set.