Christian Porter: Former Attorney General to represent Ryan Darken accused of luring a nine-year-old girl to his ute and tying her up
Christian Porter: Former Attorney General representing Ryan Darken accused of luring a nine-year-old girl to his hand and tying her up
Former Attorney General Christian Porter has agreed to represent a man who allegedly lured a little girl into his home and kidnapped her.
Ryan Ashley Darken, 37, appeared before Rockingham Magistrates Court on Monday morning via video link from Hakea Prison.
He has been held there since his arrest on Friday 21 July when he allegedly tried to lure a nine-year-old girl into his silver ute outside the girls’ school in south Perth at about 08.40am.
A parent witnessed the alleged incident and alerted the school. According to police, the girl was later found in distress at a shopping center in Port Kennedy.
Mr Porter told magistrate Janelle Scutt in court on Monday that he will be Darken’s lawyer in the case.
Former Attorney General Christian Porter (pictured left with Karen Espiner) has agreed to represent a man accused of luring a nine-year-old girl into his car in July and tying her up
Mr Porter told the Rockingham Magistrates Court that he had agreed to take up the case of Ryan Darken (pictured) after being charged with holding another with intent to harm, deprivation of liberty, assault and making threats.
Porter, 52, retired from politics and the government of Scott Morrison in December 2021, nine months after revealing he was the anonymous man referred to in media reports about a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly in 1988 raped.
Mr Porter strongly denied the allegation and sued the ABC for libel, eventually dropping the case and awarding no damages to the former Attorney General.
Magistrate Scutt granted a six-week adjournment to allow Mr Porter of Geoffrey Miller Chambers and Darken to discuss the matter before appearing in court.
After granting the adjournment, Magistrate Scutt told Mr Darken directly that ‘cases will have to move forward because of the type of charges these are’.
She instructed him to enter a plea at his next hearing or inform the court of how his case would go at his next appearance on October 23.
“They must be dealt with quickly,” the magistrate said.
Mr Darken has been charged with holding another with intent to cause harm, deprivation of liberty, assault and making threats.
At his first hearing at the Perth Magistrates Court on July 22, he did not apply for bail, nor tried on Monday.