The cosmetic nurse spotlighted in the Australian media to talk about crime in Alice Springs, despite living in Darwin, has admitted that she created social media accounts to leave false, negative reviews and filed a fake COVID-19 declaration about a work rival.
Rachel Louise Hale pleaded guilty in Darwin Local Court on Thursday to using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence and for making a false declaration.
Hale did not respond to a request for comment.
The charges related to a campaign run by the 45-year-old mother against the 26-year-old victim who started up a competing cosmetic practice after the pair worked together, the NT News reported.
In January 2022, Hale filed a statutory declaration pretending to be her rival, stating she had been infected with COVID-19. This meant that the victim’s business was supposed to shut down while she went into isolation.
The court also heard that police discovered Hale had saved 77 pages of screenshots of fake profiles, reviews and messages smearing her rival’s business.
Despite living in Darwin and working as a full-time cosmetic nurse, Hale became a fixture in the Australian media which was looking to speak to someone about Alice Springs’ crime crisis.
“Rachel told her horror stories of child abuse to Peta Credlin on Sky News, Karl Stefanovic on Today, Daily Mail Australia, Nine’s Darwin reporter Georgie Dickerson and 2GB’s Ben Fordham, among others,” wrote Guardian Australia’s Amanda Meade.
Hale was introduced as being “on the frontline in Aboriginal communities” by Credlin and having spent “14 years of nursing in communities near both Alice Springs and Darwin” by Daily Mail Australia.
The cosmetic nurse defended herself as being misrepresented by others.
“I never said I worked in Alice,” she told news.com.au. “[The abuse] is the same everywhere.”
So another liar given a platform by far Right media exposed as a criminal herself, whilst claiming to be concerned about crime.
Exactly the caliber of authentic witness that you’d expect on the pages and screens of our Right-thinking media.
This woman is just a clumsy amateur. The real contemptibles are the professionals who contaminate our perceptions of reality by seeking out and broadcasting garbage for profit.
I hope that the guilty plea by this woman will not be used by those who seek to downplay and diminish the seriousness of the crime wave that the law-abiding residents of Alice Springs have been forced to endure for such a long time.
The legal outcome, in this case, appears to be heading in the right direction. It is good that Rachel Hale is being held to account for her actions.
Point taken, Robert. I don’t think anyone is trying to down play the seriousness of what Alice Springs residents are facing right now. The broader issue is how these topics are debated (and who gets to speak in these debates) in the national media.
When we look back at things like the influence of the ABC Lateline’s flawed coverage of child sexual abuse in a rural Indigenous NT community over the government’s subsequent action (see Chris Graham’s coverage of the issue there https://newmatilda.com/2017/06/23/bad-aunty-seven-years-how-abc-lateline-sparked-racist-nt-intervention/), it’s easy to understand the importance of ensuring that local issues get covered responsibly.
“Where’d you see it?” ‘Nuff said….