Henry Keogh to appear before Parliament inquiry into his $2.57m compensation payout for wrongful murder conviction

FREED murder suspect Henry Keogh will face tough questions next week when he appears before a parliament inquiry into the $2.57 million compo payment he received for a wrongful murder conviction. Here’s what Labor intends to ask him.

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FREED murder suspect Henry Keogh will next week give evidence to a parliamentary committee probing the $2.57 million ex-gratia payout given to him by taxpayers.

Mr Keogh, 64, will appear at a Budget and Finance Committee hearing on Monday and is likely to face some tough questioning from Labor members of the committee.

The committee inquiry was established in the wake of the controversial payout to Mr Keogh, who was released from prison in 2014 after serving 19 years for the murder of his girlfriend, Anna-Jane Cheney.

Henry Keogh speaks to the media in 2017. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Lawyer Anna-Jane Cheney drowned in a bathtub in 1994.

A retrial was ordered but the Director of Public Prosecutions opted not to proceed — then earlier this year the multimillion-dollar compensation payout was authorised despite legal advice to the former state government that found the state was not at considerable risk from any lawsuit Mr Keogh might launch.

Attorney-General Vickie Chapman has refused to publicly release the legal information used to justify the payout to Mr Keogh.

While Mr Keogh is likely to be asked about any interaction with Ms Chapman prior to the payout, Ms Chapman has already denied this.

“I have never met Mr Keogh. I have not requested to meet him. To the best of my knowledge he has not requested to meet me, and I have no intention of doing so,” she told State Parliament on July 4.

Opposition government accountability spokesman Tom Koutsantonis said Mr Keogh’s appearance would enable him to “shed some light’’ on many unanswered questions surrounding his $2.57 million payout.

“We would like to know why he did not put in a formulated claim, we would like to know the details of his formulated claim if he had compiled one,’’ Mr Koutsantonis said.

“Mr Keogh wanted $6.5 million from taxpayers, we would like to know how that figure was arrived at.

“We would also like to know exactly what conversations he had with Vickie Chapman before the election, whether in fact they had discussed his claim and discussed what would happen if she became Attorney-General.

“We will also be asking him details of what happened to Anna-Jane Cheney. Her family are still anxious to know that.’’

He said the appearance would also enable Mr Keogh to justify why he was given the payout, despite being the only suspect in an unresolved murder case.

‘You cannot ask to appear at a committee such as this and not be asked details of this incident,’’ Mr Koutsantonis said.

“The public know Mr Keogh was not acquitted. The Full Court found he should still face trial over the murder of Ms Cheney.

“It is appropriate for the public to have more information in order to understand why he has been paid $2.57 million while this course of action is still in play.’’

The Advertiser last week revealed senior police will not seek a reward in the case, despite it being unresolved.

In a previous committee hearing Police Commission Grant Stevens said although the case file remained open, detectives were not conducting any active investigations into Ms Cheney’s murder.

Mr Keogh was released from prison in December 2014 after serving two decades behind bars following his conviction for drowning Ms Cheney in her bath in 1994.

His conviction was quashed because of flawed forensic evidence presented by pathologist Dr Colin Manock, and a retrial ordered, but the DPP eventually decided not to pursue a fresh trial.