Will Albo be called?

Posted on May 4, 2026 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban

It starts today. Witnesses will be heard at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, starting with Alex Ryvchin,  co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Ever since the release of the Terms of Reference, we have been concerned at how probing Commissioner Virgina Bell will be to examine how Labor’s actions generated the environment in which antisemitism flourished since October 7, 2023. Are we heading for a case of wrongful conviction, wrongfully blaming failures of the security services while ignoring the grave mistakes – commissions and omissions – of PM Albanese and Team? See our full submission to the Commission. Continue reading →

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The Lawyer X Scandal: Rule of Law or Necessary Evil?

Posted on May 3, 2026 by andrew

STEVEN FENNELL explores both sides of the Nicola Gobbo debate, wrongful convictions and the fracture of Australian justice.  Continue reading →

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Marco Rusterholz: the ‘maybe’ case that courts found ‘sure’

Posted on May 1, 2026 by andrew

Convicted of a 2012 double murder, Marco Rusterholz believes he is (like Sue Neill-Fraser), a victim of Tasmania’s discredited legal system. To avoid an apprehension of bias, we have sought an independent, structured, adversarial analysis of his case by LIA (Legal Intel AI); a stress test. Continue reading →

Posted in Case 19 Marco Rusterholz | Leave a comment

The Cost of Appellate Complacency — a personal account

Posted on April 27, 2026 by andrew

In his post on April 25, 2026, The Record and the Reality:  What Transcripts Don’t Show in Criminal Appeal, STEVEN FENNELL argued that transcripts are an incomplete reconstruction of a trial. In this companion piece, he provides a cautionary tale from personal experience of what occurs when an appellate court doesn’t struggle with an incomplete record but actively adopts a mistaken narrative from the prosecution as part of its legal architecture. 
 Continue reading →

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From the archives: Justice cast to the Four Winds

Posted on April 26, 2026 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban*

The Australian featured this extensive article in the March 25, 2015, edition.  It was  the first detailed mainstream media analysis of the Sue Neill-Fraser case and serves to inform those new to the subject – and a briefing to those who have recently become interested. Continue reading →

Posted in Case 01 Sue Neill-Fraser | 10 Comments

The Record and the Reality:  What Transcripts Don’t Show in Criminal Appeal

Posted on April 25, 2026 by andrew

There is an unspoken assumption at the heart of the criminal justice system: that the written record is an accurate and sufficient representation of what occurred in court, writes STEVEN FENNELL. It is not. Transcripts are treated as authoritative. They are relied upon by appellate courts, journalists, legal academics, and, ultimately, by the public in forming judgments about the fairness of proceedings. They are, in effect, the official memory of the justice system.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 11 Robert Xie | 8 Comments

Ben Roberts-Smith: principle of legal equality trashed

Posted on April 24, 2026 by andrew

Some have mistakenly asserted that the prosecution of Ben Roberts-Smith proves the principle of legal equality is well-respected in Australian law. It proves the reverse, writes CHRIS MERRITT in The Australian. Continue reading →

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Meaghan Vass was on the yacht, Sue Neill-Fraser was not. OK?

Posted on April 21, 2026 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban

 I just have to share this with readers who may have missed it. In recent weeks, a number of comments have turned up on previous stories about the Sue Neill-Fraser case. It’s been 16 years since the abomination of her trial and wrongful conviction (and she is now out of prison on parole), and still there are those who are obsessed with some aspects of the case. None more vividly than to continue the prosecution’s fevered attempts to ‘keep Vass off the boat’, as I first called in March 2021. The most recent yesterday. The only reason I raise it again is to share my amazement at the repeated but irrational efforts to save the prosecution from the massive embarrassment of having been found out about how this sausage (wrongful conviction) was made. Continue reading →

Posted in Case 01 Sue Neill-Fraser | 43 Comments

A high profile bar for bail?

Posted on April 21, 2026 by andrew

Writing from bitter personal experience after spending 1,400 days on remand, STEVEN FENNELL explains why he should have received bail, especially given the High Court’s indignant, virtually instant quashing of his conviction. Perhaps he wasn’t sufficiently high profile – like Ben Roberts-Smith?  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 10 Steven Fennell | 7 Comments

Crimen exceptum – sex crime allegations a challenge for justice and society

Posted on April 20, 2026 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban

Dealing with tendency evidence in my book Presumption of Evil about the Noel Greenaway conviction (arguably wrongful) for historical sexual abuse, I refer to another man who was convicted of sexual abuse on tendency evidence. He and Greenaway (and Frank Valentine, my sequel to Presumption of Evil) are not the only ones, of course. Tendency evidence is the iceberg in the path of HMS Justice Titanic.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 22 Noel Greenaway, Case 26 Frank Valentine | 2 Comments