Rob_N_Son,
It really goes back to the late 70s with his corruption allegations against the NPWS which he also attempted to pursue, unsuccessfully, through the courts. He continued his articles and allegations but things seemed to go downhill after he published Smuggled in 1993. The allegations contained therein were mind boggling and I suspect the success of such a controversial publication probably went to his head. He showed an early propensity to bend the truth by simply omitting critical information, so it is impossible to tease out of his publications what is truth and what is fiction.
What is clearly evident over the past decade is the ever-increasing lack of ethics he has demonstrated in his activities which seek self–promotion, fame and immortality. It is this unethical approach more than the actions themselves that have gotten under the skin of the wider herp community. I personally see the venomoid debate as more of a smoke screen that he pulls out to take the heat off his more odious actions.
Unfortunately he seems unable to distinguish between fame and infamy and has chosen a path that can only lead to increasing self-destruction. He has done so of his own volition and with an unimpaired comprehension of right from wrong, as evinced in many of his own arguments. Whatever the underlying condition is that compels him to be this way, there appears no mitigating reasons for not condemning the wrongs and the doer. Where once the scales of his accomplishments may have weighed on the positive side, today the balance has gone woefully in the other direction, effectively obliterating anything that was of worth.
I’ll happily PM you a couple of statement he has made in the last week or so to illustrate what I am saying. Just let me know.
Blue