We're in! How the Raiders got the nod

Raiders founder Les McIntyre defied weather, distance and the lawyer for Ivan Milat and Saddam Hussean to win Canberra a spot in big time Sydney rugby league.

JOHN MARSDEN was a lawyer from Campbelltown who was sacked by Ivan Milat and recruited by defence counsel for Saddam Hussein. An articulate, intelligent gay man and activist, Marsden was described by Paul Sheehan in The Sydney Morning Herald as “a serial liar, a proven perjurer, a flagrant illegal drug-user and drug provider, a professional who had sex with his own clients, a wealthy man who boasted about sodomising young men he picked up on the streets, a standover man who was vexatious and constantly at war, a bully who used the law as a weapon.”

Sheehan – who would know fame as an advocate for ‘magic water’¹* – wisely waited until Marsden was dead before making this opinion public. For Marsden was also widely admired and respected. And he had clout.