Wrongful Convictions Report

Andrew L. Urban.

Journalists (including this one*) have been saying it for years: the 2010 Sue Neill-Fraser murder conviction is wrong. Meaghan Vass’ DNA found at the crime scene (the yacht Four Winds) should have been urgently & thoroughly investigated. In the 7 Network’s 6-part series, Undercurrent (last ep aired yesterday, March 6, 2019), a traumatised Vass reveals her years-long torment of knowing what really happened and how she has thought of convicted and jailed Neill-Fraser every day since, wishing she could “go and unlock the cell door for her”.

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The final episode of Undercurrent (7 Network), delving into the case of Sue Neill-Fraser, will be showcased at the Australian International Documentary Conference in Melbourne tonight (March 5, 2019), followed by a Q&A with producer/director Eve Ash and Executive Producer Andrew Farrell (CJZ Productions). Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

At around 6 minutes from the start of the final episode of Undercurrent (7 Network, Wednesday, March 6, 2019), a nervy Meaghan Vass arrives for a crucial tell-all interview with Colin McLaren in a Hobart hotel room, cameras rolling. She almost immediately turns round and tells McLaren she’s going out to her ‘family’ for 10 minutes “just so I can get a quick thing to calm me down.” In a nutshell, this moment captures the essential drama at the heart of the documentary series investigating the 2009 Bob Chappell murder – of which Sue Neill-Fraser has been convicted: getting a terrified Vass to tell the whole truth.

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Andrew L. Urban

Death on the Derwent – by Robin Bowles
Scribe Publications, February 19, 2019, 384 pp, $32.99
ISBN:9781925713176

Robin Bowles has been writing crime books for 20 years. She lived and worked in Tasmania from 1977 to 1987; her parents lived there and children & grandchildren still live there. Her connection to the place is deep. And the man for whose 2009 Australia Day murder Sue Neill-Fraser was jailed for 23 years, Bob Chappell, once saved Robin’s widowed mother’s life after a bad fall at her home. So her connection to this story about the case is also deep.

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Andrew L. Urban.

In the view of some, it seems the ‘defence’ perspective of the murder conviction of Sue Neill-Fraser is a ‘tainted view’.  Tainted with the facts, perhaps? One reader has articulated this in the comments thread under my recent article, Who killed Bob Chappell? The cops don’t know but we do…

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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 …

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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.

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