Andrew L. Urban.
Should we call them mis-convicted murderers, perhaps, those poor unfortunate souls who have suffered the catastrophe of a wrongful conviction? As we prepare to leave 2020 behind and look across time into 2021, we must hope along with them that the criminal justice system will correct those wrongful convictions, in many cases far too long after the verdict was delivered. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
British author, journalist, and a consultant in forensic evidence, Satish C. Sekar, believes it is “only a question of time before a special inquiry is established” into the trail of unsafe forensic reports generated by Dr Colin Manock over his decades long tenure as Chief Forensic Pathologist in South Australia, not least the case of Derek Bromley, still in jail after 37 years. In a letter to the SA Attorney General Vickie Chapman, Sekar urges a proactive approach, echoing earlier calls. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
After 13 years in jail, 45 year old Scott Austic has finally regained his freedom and his official innocence last week, when a WA jury acquitted him after two hours of deliberations. As we reported in May this year, Austic had lost his first appeal against his conviction for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Stacey Thorne, 35, Continue reading
Robert Farquharson was convicted of killing his three little boys by driving them into the dam and letting them drown inside the car. Farquharson insists he blacked out, it was a terrible accident. The prosecution insisted it was deliberate. But, if so, did he intend to die with them? Continue reading
Chris Brook’s new book, Road to Damnation, is the result of a two year investigation into the case of Robert Farquharson, and the science of the evidence that convinced two sets of juries that he murdered his three children by drowning them in the family car in a dam, contrary to his claim of having blacked out and losing control of the vehicle. In this our third and final exclusive excerpt Brook exposes the failures of much ‘scientific expertise’. (See our preview of the book, Excerpt 1 and Excerpt 2) Continue reading
Chris Brook’s new book, Road to Damnation, is the result of a two year investigation into the case of Robert Farquharson, and the science of the evidence that convinced two sets of juries that he murdered his three children by drowning them in the family car in a dam, contrary to his claim of having blacked out and losing control of the vehicle. In our second exclusive excerpt Brook finds the tyre marks evidence corrupted by bias. (See our preview of the book and Excerpt 1) Continue reading
Chris Brook’s new book, Road to Damnation, is the result of his two year investigation into the case of Robert Farquharson, and the science of the evidence that convinced two sets of juries that he murdered his three children by drowning them in the family car in a dam, contrary to his claim of having blacked out and losing control of the vehicle. Our first exclusive excerpt sets the scene. (See our preview of the book.) Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
In his important new book, Road to Damnation, Chris Brook takes the reader on a gripping journey to the darkest reaches of human experience – the drowning of three children – when it intersects with the law. Brook places the case of Robert Farquharson – their father – at the interface between law, science, society and psychology. We invite our readers to ‘hit the road’ in a series of extracts, starting next week. First, we preview the book, which is destined to be controversial. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
An observer at the 2010 murder trial of Sue Neill-Fraser has confirmed that early in the trial, the prosecutor, then DPP Tim Ellis SC, held up a large knife – flourishing it inside a plastic bag as if it were evidence – eliciting a gasp from the court. But he never tendered it in evidence, leaving it lying (pun intended) on the bar table in front of him throughout the trial. Continue reading
This Wednesday 14 October, at 8.40pm Channel 9 will broadcast ‘Bodies of Evidence’ as part of their Australian Crime Series. It will focus on the appalling failures in relation to the work of Dr Colin Manock, former chief forensic pathologist in South Australia for nearly 30 years. Continue reading