Andrew L. Urban
An article compiled by AI states that “Steven Fennell is suing the Queensland government and police for malicious prosecution, misfeasance in public office, and abuse of process. Fennell was wrongfully convicted of murdering his grandmother, Mrs Watson, and spent time in prison. In September 2019, the High Court of Australia quashed his convictions.” But Mrs Watson was not his grandmother. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
There should be an equivalent of the first principle of the doctors’ Hippocratic Oath for lawyers and judges – the entire legal system in fact: ‘first, do no harm.’ But there isn’t. For example, in the case of R v RB, NSW District Court judge Sean Grant explained that section 293 of the Criminal Procedure Act prevented a jury from being told that a complainant in a sexual assault prosecution was a compulsive liar. Continue reading
England, Wales, Scotland, New Zealand and Norway have one, and now Canada will have one too. Stubbornly rebuffing the many calls for a body like the Criminal Cases Review Commission (England), Australia remains without an independent body to review potential miscarriages of justice, as DR BOB MOLES reports. Continue reading
“The lawyer who may knock over one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Australia may not even need to be a criminal lawyer… just a basic understanding of civil procedure may be all that is necessary.” Flinders University legal academic DR BOB MOLES examines a simpler way to overturn wrongful convictions in the Colin Manock scandal. “And when that is successful, it will lead to the overturning of another 400 similar and very important cases. In addition to a class action for another 10,000 cases.” Continue reading
In an interview with former NSW police prosecutor Richard McDonald, BETTINA ARNDT hears about “a system captured by ideology, where police are discouraged from properly investigating sexual assault and domestic violence claims.” Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal against his failed defamation case against Ten and Lisa Wilkinson will raise over 700 inconsistencies in Justice Lee’s judgement and more than 300 alleged lies told by his rape accuser Brittany Higgins across the criminal trial (abandoned), the defamation trial, Network 10 Project interview and her $2.4 million payout from the Albanese Labor Government. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
Federal Court judge Wendy Abraham has dismissed the Ten Network’s application to force Bruce Lehrmann to put up $200,000 ahead of his appeal being heard; she also set aside the $2 million legal bill Lehrmann was ordered to pay Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson until after the appeal concludes. It won’t be payable if he wins the appeal. Continue reading
You can skip the tables but you can’t skip the conclusions in this detailed, gripping investigation by an interested party (prefers not to be named) of the ‘expert testimony’ by (now retired) Associate Professor Rod Cross presented by Mark Tedeschi KC for the prosecution at the 2008 trial of Gordon Wood for the murder of his fiancée Caroline Byrne. It is in the form of a letter to the editor and is published in full in the interests of debating reforms needed in the criminal justice system. Wood was found guilty but the verdict was quashed on appeal in 2012. (See more stories on this case by link from the menu on the right.) Continue reading
Andrew Urban, creator and presenter of Front Up, the award winning social documentary program, is speaking at the Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga, on October 16, 2024. Continue reading
Paperback and hardcover editions of Andrew L. Urban’s exposé, Presumption of Evil – Noel Greenaway, sexual abuser or collateral damage? are now available on Amazon, coinciding with the August 31, 2024 conference in Sydney, Restoring The Presumption of Innocence. Continue reading