When he was South Australia’s Solicitor General (2003 – 2008), Chris Kourakis made “a disturbing, incorrect decision, which resulted in [Henry] Keogh’s continued incarceration,” wrote Adelade University legal academic Bob Moles. In fact it cost Keogh 10 more years in prison … until his acquittal in December 2014.
When Henry Keogh walked out of jail just in time for Christmas 2014, he had served 10 extra years in prison because new forensic evidence that would have cleared him of murder was kept from him in 2004. “Detailed criticisms of the autopsy were specifically identified by Professor Vernon-Roberts in 2004. This information was not known by defence counsel until late 2013 when it was made available to them,” according to the Appeals Court judgement.
In what was a wholly circumstantial case, the prosecution had argued that Henry Keogh murdered Anna-Jane Cheney by grabbing her by the ankle as she was lying in the bath, forcing her head under water. Forensic pathologist Dr Colin Manock gave evidence that marks on her legs were grip marks that supported the prosecution’s speculation (or drove it).
The possible presence of haemosiderin was first identified in the 2004 report of Barrie Vernon-Roberts. Tissue taken from a lesion on the medial aspect of Cheney’s left leg contained haemosiderin. As a consequence, if the possible lesion was in fact a bruise, the conclusion could be safely drawn that it had been sustained at least 24 hours before death. “The consequence of such a finding is that Dr Manock’s opinion as to the mechanism of murder is materially undermined.”
The 2004 Kourakis report had been the basis of the former Labor Government’s decision to reject a petition for mercy by Keogh, this despite the fact that it included that vital finding by the state’s then head of pathology, Barrie Vernon-Roberts, which was in fact exculpatory, upending Dr Colin Manock’s erroneous forensic testimony that put Keogh in jail. Indeed, this information was the basis for Keogh’s successful appeal in 2013/4.
The contents of the Kourakis report – and why it had not been revealed – had been sought years ago, by then Attorney General, The Hon Vickie Chapman, when she was Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Her many attempts to find out why the exculpatory information was not revealed to Keogh were all left unanswered.
After Kourakis became Chief Justice of South Australia, Bob Moles concluded that his position “is now untenable”. He was Chief Justice from 2012 to February 2026, when he was appointed to his current position as Royal Commissioner into corruption in the Victorian building industry.