BEGA Cheese has responded unequivocally to deny rumours it supplied Maurice Van Ryn with a character reference for his sentence hearing on child abuse.
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Rumours reached the ears of the Bega District News over the weekend that a document was tendered in court on official Bega Cheese letterhead.
However, Bega Cheese executive chairman Barry Irvin said “there was absolutely no reference provided by Bega Cheese”.
“There is no way the people around me would lift a finger to do anything other than condemn his actions,” Mr Irvin said.
While the exact nature of the document tendered as a character reference is unknown, Mr Irvin said one possibility was a general staff notice dated 2012 from when Van Ryn left the company.
“I don’t know if that was the document in court, but the only thing human resources can find in our files is the letter he received when he left our employ,” Mr Irvin said.
“It was a staff document, complimentary to him, acknowledging his 25 years of work with the company.
“Until these charges were made public, we had absolutely no suspicion of any wrongdoing.
“It goes to show how we, along with the rest of the community were deceived by him.”