Before a convicted child sex offender is sentenced in New South Wales, they have the opportunity to mitigate their sentence by securing a credible person to tell the court that they are of "good character".

It has always been a moment of searing and ultimately damaging cognitive dissonance for all who heard these testimonies from supporting grown-ups and wondered: but hasn't the fact that you now know this friend of yours is a murderer, or an abuser, or a child sex offender changed your mind?

Which brings me to this week's horror.

In order to write this week's column, I have had to — like all of you — steel myself, contain my horror and disgust, and roughly brush aside the blinding tears of fury that still come fully a week after the maw of hell that is the Epstein files opened beneath our feet.

Looking into its foul, open mouth we saw men we knew, or feared, or trusted, or loathed or admired writhing in the agony of being found out at their most weak, venal and immoral. Men who had chosen to look beyond the horror of a sex trafficking conviction in order to wet their beak in the fountain of Epstein's money or privilege. Men who had decided he was a "good enough bloke" to justify the qualms they surely (surely?) repressed so they could curry favour with the man and his lifestyle.

Let's be clear about the kind of people we are discussing: Larry Summers, former US treasury secretary and Harvard president; tech billionaire Peter Thiel; Virgin founder, Richard Branson; political strategist, Steve Bannon; self-help guru, Deepak Chopra, who bantered in an email with Epstein that "god is a fiction; sweet girls are real". There is the greatest grifter of her time, Sarah Ferguson; the UK politician Peter Mandelson and, of course, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, about whom there are daily so many new Epstein horrors that they cannot be listed here.

These are just some of the international figures who maintained connections with Epstein after he was released from jail for procuring a child for prostitution.

Men, and some women, who were palling around with this convicted felon in planes and hot tubs and on islands and at breakfasts and dinners who appeared not to care that Epstein harmed children and that in 2005 had been identified by federal officials as the abuser of at least 36 girls.

Since the files have been released we really still only know a small amount about the millions of documents available, but we do know for certain that there is a separate "Epstein" class in the world of distinguished, powerful and wealthy people who are immune from prosecution and who live in an echelon of protection that migrants being chased through icy US streets by masked thugs could only imagine. The worst of the consequences, for one of the key figures, seems to be moving from 30 bedrooms at the Royal Lodge to five on the Sandringham Estate.

What is there to learn about the nature of a very broad range of men who sought to make this monster a friend? And what does it reveal about the stories men tell each other when they want access to perceived power?

The files comprehensively shatter the fundamental attribution error of believing that if you make your way to the top, to the most elevated status, that you are a good and deserving person. Our own power biases attribute "good bloke" status automatically to judges, doctors, self-help gurus, priests… well, once upon a time… because we assume that if you are entrusted with these important positions then you must be fundamentally "good".

But it's an old story: men raised in patriarchy with power, access and no consequences.

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse ripped the veil from this fallacy, when it showed that paedophiles sought positions of status and power precisely because of the appearance of unimpeachable integrity it afforded them, and therefore unquestioned access to children. But what on earth do you say about the adults who remained supporters of them, friends with them even after they learned what they did?

NSW is about to abolish the use of "good character" evidence as a mitigating factor for offenders during sentencing proceedings which the government says will reduce trauma for victim-survivors. Days after the Epstein file release, the friends of this monster now declare their regret at maintaining connection with him. Where was that moral code before?

This weekend you can learn about the women taking a break from their marriages and the moral dilemma of keeping your garden green… these days I flinch every time we need to water.

Have a safe and happy weekend and here's some gorgeous Australian soul from Melbourne singer songwriter Ella Thompson: this is from 2024 and is a perfect Saturday morning soundtrack — so is the whole album. Enjoy — and go well.