Lawyer defending alleged rapist denies sending complainant personal messages
A lawyer defending a man charged with rape has been thrown off the case after being accused of sending the complainant personal messages on social media. Paul Francis Chambers denies the allegations and says he has been caught up in a web of fabricated documents designed to have him removed from the case. In November 2019, Chambers, who is best known for defending serial rapist and murderer Malcolm Rewa , was representing a man charged with sexual violation, male assaults female, burglary and perverting the course of justice. In a decision from the same month, released to Stuff , Judge David Sharp said he had no way of verifying if the messages were from Chambers but that Chambers position as counsel in the case was untenable, and he should find his client a new lawyer. READ MORE: * Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa's appeal against Burdett murder conviction adjourned * Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa to appeal conviction of Susan Burdett's murder * Malcolm Rewa trial: Susan Burdett's family gets justice as serial rapist found guilty of murder Mr Chambers position was that he was subject to a police investigation for attempting to pervert the course of justice and that he saw this as an attempt by the police and the prosecution as a means of having him removed as the defendants counsel, Judge Sharp said. I have suggested to the Crown that this needs to be investigated and the body which would seem appropriate for that would be the Law Society. The messages Chambers purportedly sent to the complainant were attached to the complainants sworn police statement and have been seen by Stuff . In April 2019, a Facebook Messenger account in the name of PF Chambers, with a profile picture showing a caricature of a lawyer in a wig, messaged the woman asking: Can I come see you? Strictly confidential. The woman agreed, and the person operating the PF Chambers account asked: Do you want me to bring anything? She responded with haha before PF Chambers replied: Im serious. You need someone to help you. You need to be able to trust someone. Ill do both. Ill come see you tonight and explain if you want. Two days later more messages were exchanged. This time, PF Chambers wrote: I might have a way to help you, trust me ... I can give you something on me that could ruin me ... Sometime later, PF Chambers responded to a message from the woman, saying: ... I know youve got trust issues, and Ive got a thick skin. The reason why Im doing this is because I was in your shoes once and had no-one. I took a huge risk contacting you ... Chambers told Stuff he did not send the messages. He said they were part of a web of fabricated documents created by the complainant to have him removed from the case. At the risk of pushing the boundaries of what Im allowed to say as former counsel, the evidence before the court [of the rape accused and the complainant] has them both accusing each other of doctoring Facebook and ... Instagram postings to back-up the accusations that theyre making against each other. Asked if he was still practising law in New Zealand, Chambers said he was going through some difficulties with the Law Society, which regulates lawyers. He has since moved to Perth. The Law Society couldnt confirm if it had received a complaint about Chambers. A spokeswoman said legislation prevented it from commenting on complaints or investigations it may be working on. She confirmed Chambers was no longer a registered lawyer in New Zealand, but said she could not give details on the reasons due to privacy. Police would not confirm if it was investigating, due to privacy reasons. The Facebook messages came to light after police approached the complainant about a message sent to the man accused of raping her. The message purported to be from her Facebook account and says she will just keep making s... up. It ends with the words: I am going to kill you. The woman denied sending the message. She said the man who attacked her had repeatedly threatened to kill her and bury her in the Woodhill forest, north-west of Auckland. She claimed he hacked into her Facebook account to send the message to himself and that he had hacked her account before. The woman declined to comment to Stuff . A lawyer by the name of Paul Allan Chambers works for the firm Anderson Creagh Lai. He is completely unconnected to this story.