Andrew L. Urban.
This past week saw nearly the end (finally) of the seeking leave to appeal process for Hobart’s Sue Neill-Fraser; whether Justice Brett grants her leave to appeal pivots on how the court regards the DNA evidence found at the crime scene. The prosecution has always downplayed it as ‘a red herring’ and repeatedly proposed to the jury and the High Court that it was not a direct deposit but probably transferred on a policeman’s boot. Only if BigFoot is a Tasmanian cop …
In our February 12, 2019 report (Abuse of Power – Tasmania style), we exposed a tendency by Tasmania’s legal system to frustrate the process in which Sue Neill-Fraser is seeking leave to appeal her murder conviction. And how frustrating were the delays that have stretched the process over three years.
Andrew L. Urban’s ‘troubling expose’ (as Margaret Cunneen SC put it) Murder by the Prosecution is now available digitally from the Kindle store, at A$8.55.
Writing in The Spectator Australia (Sept. 22, 2018), Cunneen says: ‘Murder by the Prosecution is engrossing and troubling. Back and forth, the reader is propelled, much as a jury is during the ‘test match’ that a murder trial resembles.
The later stand-alone chapters on other murder trials which have been found to have been unjust stand as sentinels fortifying Urban’s impassioned premise that Susan Neill-Fraser is serving a 23 year sentence for a murder she did not commit. The ethical prosecutor works not for a particular verdict, but for justice to be done. This must be the hope for Susan Neill-Fraser.”
Andrew L. Urban.
With great power comes great responsibility, no? No. Not in Tasmania, it seems, where through the example of the Sue Neill-Fraser case, we see the State’s legal apparatus shown up to be anything but responsible. Police abuse their powers, the DPP dismisses DNA evidence and the leaders of the Government ignore vital new information.
Andrew L. Urban.
It wasn’t only direct, probative evidence of Sue Neill-Fraser’s guilt that was missing in the case that has convulsed Tasmania and concerned the nation. According to Colin McLaren’s new book, Southern Justice (Hachette), evidence went missing during and after the police investigation
It was around 11 am on Wednesday, February 6, 2019, the second day of the cross examination of author Colin McLaren, that Daryl Coates SC, Tasmania’s DPP, made a theatrical gesture with papers in his right hand, almost smacking his junior in the head, angrily accusing McLaren of having made it all up about Meaghan Vass and her affidavit and never having met her. A pack of lies! He threw his words across the bar table. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
There is a special place in hell for women who do things like Sarah Jane Parkinson (pictured), the Canberra woman jailed for making false accusations of rape and domestic violence against her ex boyfriend Daniel Jones – who ended up in jail before a good cop – a female – found Parkinson out. That place in hell is full of furious feminists whose anti-male campaign is undermined if not destroyed by such women’s malicious actions. Indeed, Parkinson’s case shows why ‘she’ must NOT be believed – without evidence.
Andrew L. Urban.
Within two days, a new website, www.savesue.com has propelled interest in a petition calling for a Royal Commission into the case of Sue Neill-Fraser. It has so far attracted over 2,500 signatories. Launched by filmmaker Eve Ash and a dedicated team, the website and the petition mark a further intensification of the campaign for an independent review of the case, coming amidst the launch of two new books and a 6-part TV series**, all examining the case and coming to the same conclusion: the police investigation was woefully inadequate and the conviction is wrong.
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Andrew L. Urban.
At the risk of ‘spoiling’ the hottest yarn on television this year, it can be said that Seven’s new true crime series, Undercurrent (9pm Wednesdays x 6 from January 30, 2019), shows up the most miserable chapter in Tasmania’s crime investigation history, contrasting with a text book case of ‘how to’; it points the finger at the suspects in the decade old cold case of Bob Chappell’s murder. The police and the legal system should rejoice. But they are shitty. (And trigger happy, threatening anyone pursuing this line with legal action. The series is not showing in Tasmania for legal reasons. Even this review is embargoed from the hapless Isle.) Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
Southern Justice (Hachette, Jan 29, 2019, rrp $32.99, ebook $14.99)
by Colin McLaren
Colin McLaren’s cold case book into the 2009 disappearance and suspected murder of Bob Chappell and the 2010 conviction of Sue Neill-Fraser for his murder comes after years of agitation and disquiet about that conviction. It’s an itch that won’t be calmed.