Andrew L. Urban
The trouble with certainty without good evidence in crime investigation is that it easily leads to a wrongful conviction. We have reported on several cases to show this. One former detective has now claimed his ‘certainty’ should prevail; it isn’t enough.
“I am 100% certain of their guilt,” boasts the former detective who charged both Noel Greenaway and Frank Valentine of multiple historical sexual abuse crimes.
His email arrived the same day this week that Steven Fennell, exonerated of a murder conviction, posted a comment which seems, in part, to respond to the claim of certainty: “In my recent police complaint I wrote that tunnel vision begins ‘the moment uncertainty is replaced with certainty in the absence of proof.’ Once that happens, every subsequent act, from interviewing witnesses to cataloguing exhibits — is subconsciously filtered through confirmation bias. It produces what I described as an echo chamber of investigation, where dissenting facts are ignored because they do not reinforce the chosen storyline.”
Tim Paul, the former detective sergeant, went on to insist that “Both men are guilty beyond any doubt whatsoever and Greenaway deserves to die in gaol the same as his fellow putrid peadophile associate did. If the best you can do is bring my credibility into question to satisfy your pathetic deluded theory then your true colours are on show for all to see.”
It is unsurprising that he holds these views as my offer to give him copies of my books exploring the evidence in the two cases was rebuffed: “You are entirely welcome to your opinion, as misguided as it is. I have no interest in reading your conspiracy theories.”
I maintain that bringing his credibility into question is not the best I can do; it is the least. Had he read my books he would realise that I bring into question the credibility of the entire criminal justice system for its failure to deliver justice in these cases. It is not an opinion or a theory; there are no conspiracy theories to be found in my pages. I question the validity of the convictions for lack of reliable evidence to support the verdicts beyond reasonable doubt. The say-so of claimants alone isn’t enough to destroy a man’s life and family, especially when the claims rely on memories buried under almost five decades of time.
What Tim Paul has shown is that once you restrict your investigative vision, it becomes your permanent vision, as it did with other former detectives so infected (former Tasmanian Detective Inspector Peter Powell’s adherence to his ‘vision’ in the Sue Neill-Fraser case comes first to mind). Better not be exposed to the possibility of feeling to have contributed to a wrongful conviction … It is quite understandable.
As a 2015 Griffith University study of 71 wrongful convictions found, police caused or contributed to 55% of them – the most of all cohorts.