Sue Neill-Fraser’s fate to be sealed as final chapter in case plays out in Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal
It’s a case that’s captivated the nation – a woman who has spent more than a decade protesting her innocence over the murder of a man whose body has never been found. HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW >>
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IT’S a case that has captured the national psyche – a woman who has spent more than a decade protesting her innocence over the murder of a man whose body has never been found.
Opinion couldn’t be more divided over Susan Blythe Neill-Fraser, and whether or not she truly did slaughter her partner Bob Chappell, committing his body to a “sea burial” from their yacht to the depths of the River Derwent.
Those who support the jury’s 2010 verdict believe Neill-Fraser is a cold-blooded, remorseless killer who murdered her partner of 18 years for a bite of his $1.3 million estate.
But her supporters argue the grandmother is innocent, that she “loved Bob deeply”, and that her conviction is Australia’s worst miscarriage of justice since the case of Lindy Chamberlain.
There might never be an end to the conjecture.
But one way or the other, Neill-Fraser’s fate is about to be sealed.
A FINAL BID FOR FREEDOM
On Monday morning, the Court of Criminal Appeal will bulge at its seams as one of the most high-profile cases in Tasmanian criminal history plays out its final chapter.
It’s Neill-Fraser’s second – and likely final – bid to clear her name after right-to-appeal legislation introduced in 2015 gave her a chance to try again on the basis of “fresh and compelling evidence”.
Her possible exoneration, or at least her right to a retrial, will hinge on a crucial point – whether or not she can prove Bob was attacked on their yacht in the presence of a homeless teenage girl.
FOUL PLAY
It was Australia Day 2009 and Robert Adrian Chappell spent it working in the engine room of the Four Winds, which he’d recently purchased with Neill-Fraser.
The 65-year-old had been looking forward to his upcoming retirement from his role as chief radiation physicist at the Royal Hobart Hospital’s Holman Clinic, and taking trips out to sea with his life partner.
Neill-Fraser said she visited Bob aboard the vessel that day, but left him alone that afternoon, taking the tender back to shore.
Before the sun had even risen the following day, police received a call about a yacht sinking off Marieville Esplanade.
Officers that stepped aboard the 53-foot Four Winds found blood spatter on the stepladder and a knife lying on the floor.
They also discovered a toilet pipe had been cut and a stopcock opened, allowing sea water to gush in and flood the yacht for up to 12 hours prior.
Bob was nowhere to be seen.
STRANDS IN THE CABLE
In 2019, when Justice Michael Brett granted Neill-Fraser’s second bid for appeal, he described her trial as a “strands in the cable” case.
It’s a criminal law analogy often used to describe circumstantial cases where there is perhaps no body, no murder weapon, no direct evidence and no particular pieces of individually-damning evidence, yet but the totality of each “strand” bound together can build a strong case from which a jury can infer guilt.
In Neill-Fraser’s case, circumstantial evidence was used by then-Director of Public Prosecutions, Tim Ellis SC, to prove she’d attacked Bob in the saloon or wheelhouse of the Four Winds, winched him up to the deck, manoeuvred him onto the yacht’s tender, then dumped him overboard, weighing him down with an old-fashioned fire hydrant.
The case rested on the “wall of lies” she told after his disappearance.
These included a lie she’d told about going to Bunnings on the day in question.
Investigators reviewed hours of CCTV footage but found no trace of Neill-Fraser wandering the aisles as she’d claimed.
She then changed her story, telling police she’d been mistaken, with Mr Ellis proclaiming the truth was “seeping out”.
Neill-Fraser also claimed she’d spent the night alone in the couple’s West Hobart home, but later admitted she’d been to Sandy Bay Road after midnight.
She said she’d gone to check on her partner after his daughter Claire Chappell got a bad feeling that something bad was happening to her dad.
Former friend Phillip Triffett claimed at trial that in the years preceding, Neill-Fraser had asked him to help her kill her brother, then later Bob as their relationship deteriorated.
Mr Ellis argued Neill-Fraser was motivated by greed, as his death would have left her to inherit a large portion of his estate.
REASONABLE DOUBT
At her 2010 trial, Neill-Fraser’s defence barrister, the late David Gunson SC, said her case was “based entirely on suspicion and nothing else.”
He robustly attacked Mr Triffett’s credibility, arguing he faced unrelated criminal charges at the time, and had asked police whether his evidence would help with his case – but told it wouldn’t.
Mr Gunson argued Neill-Fraser’s lies didn’t come from a guilty place, but from shock at losing Bob, and had told mistruths about not visiting Sandy Bay that night in a bid to protect Claire.
The defence case also attacked the police investigation, claiming they’d developed “tunnel vision” that led them to exclude all other possible suspects.
Since her conviction, a large band of supporters have continued to rally in her support, including high-profile backers like Andrew Wilkie MP and Robert Richter QC.
In 2017, Mr Richter met with then-Premier Will Hodgman in a behind-closed doors meeting in which he requested the government launch an independent inquiry into the case.
In a surprise development on Friday, the prominent silk – who has previously represented Cardinal George Pell, underworld figure Mick Gatto and Hoddle Street massacre perpetrator Julian Knight – announced he would lead Neill-Fraser’s appeal in court next week.
FRESH AND COMPELLING
Neill-Fraser’s appeal will be argued on a singular ground, that there is fresh and compelling evidence, and this will be broken up into three key parts.
The first part will be the most powerful and important element and is based on claims that then-homeless 15-year-old girl Meaghan Vass was on board the Four Winds yacht when Mr Chappell was attacked.
The appeal will also look at evidence led during the 2010 trial, including questions over evidence surrounding DNA testing, luminol testing and a winching reconstruction Neill-Fraser’s team say is misleading.
Lastly, Neill-Fraser’s lawyers will argue a dinghy seen near the Four Winds at the time Bob was attacked was not the Four Winds’ tender.
Ms Vass, whose DNA was found on the Four Winds, previously gave an interview on 60 Minutes – an episode not aired in Tasmania – in which she claimed Bob was attacked by one of her male associates.
The program may be played in court during the appeal.
WIN OR LOSE
If her appeal fails, Neill-Fraser will be eligible to apply for parole in August 2022.
But her supporters say she won’t accept parole as it would be an acknowledgment of guilt, and that her only way out of the Mary Hutchinson Women’s Prison before her 23 years is up is exoneration.
Key supporter Rosie Crumpton-Crook also says that no matter the outcome, her backers won’t stop fighting for justice.
She said supporters would campaign for an independent judicial inquiry or commission of inquiry “to make sure this doesn’t happen again”.
WHAT IS THE FRESH AND COMPELLING EVIDENCE?
Sue Neill-Fraser’s second bid for appeal, which begins on Monday, will be argued on the singular ground she has fresh and compelling evidence in support of her innocence.
MEAGHAN VASS: Neill-Fraser’s team will argue that “persons intent on criminal activity” travelled by boat to the Four Winds in order to commit burglary on the night of Bob’s death Meaghan Vass, a 15-year-old girl whose DNA was found on the yacht, denied at trial that she’d ever stepped foot on the yacht. But she has since made a statement – and given interviews with 60 Minutes and a former detective-turned-investigative journalist – recanting that. Ms Vass, now 27, says she went aboard the boat with two male associates and was present when one of the men attacked Bob. Ms Vass says Neill-Fraser wasn’t present at the time. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Ms Vass.
DNA: It was argued at trial that Ms Vass’ DNA could have been left onboard by “secondary transfer” – such as via the sole of a someone’s shoe while the case was being investigated. Neill-Fraser’s team has since enlisted a forensic scientist employed by Victoria Police to say this scenario was unlikely, and Ms Vass’ DNA would have been a “primary deposit” from her body when she was aboard the yacht.
LUMINOL: Neill-Fraser’s team will argue that evidence at the 2010 trial about luminol – a forensic chemical that glows in the presence of blood – was misleading. They will also argue a winching reconstruction on the Four Winds during the trial was misleading.
THE DINGHY: Finally, the appeal team will argue a dinghy seen near the Four Winds about the time Bob was attacked was not the Four Winds’ tender. They will argue it was not Neill-Fraser that made the fateful journey to the Four Winds on the night of Bob’s death.
TIMELINE
TWISTS AND TURNS: THE SUE NEILL-FRASER CASE
JANUARY 27, 2009
Royal Hobart Hospital chief radiation physicist Bob Chappell, 65, is reported missing from his yacht after it is found sinking in the River Derwent off Marieville Esplanade.
JANUARY 28, 2009
Police say the damage to Four Winds was a “deliberate act of sabotage” and foul play could not be ruled out. They reveal items have been taken from the boat and small traces of blood have been found.
MAY 2009
Police cancel further diving searches for Mr Chappell’s body.
AUGUST 2009
Sue Neill-Fraser, then 55, is arrested and charged with murder. She pleads not guilty in the Hobart Magistrates Court.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2010
Her trial begins in the Supreme Court of Tasmania.
OCTOBER 15, 2010
A jury delivers a unanimous guilty verdict after deliberating for 18 hours.
OCTOBER 27, 2010
Justice Alan Blow sentences Neill-Fraser to 26 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 18. He describes her as a “clever, very cool-headed” woman who killed not out of passion, but concocted a plan to do so “long ago” for the purpose of financial gain.
MARCH 2012
The Tasmanian Criminal Court of Appeal dismisses Neill-Fraser’s appeal against conviction but reduces her sentence to 23 years, with a non-parole period of 13.
APRIL 2012
Her new legal team lodges an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court.
SEPTEMBER 2012
Her High Court appeal bid is dismissed.
JANUARY 2014
Coroner Glenn Hay finds Mr Chappell was murdered by Neill-Fraser.
SEPTEMBER 2015
New right-to-appeal legislation is tabled in parliament by the late Vanessa Goodwin, then Attorney-General, allowing people convicted of serious crime to appeal in circumstances “where there is fresh and compelling evidence”.
FEBRUARY 2016
Neill-Fraser uses the new legislation to lodge a fresh appeal. A series of hearings is held over the coming years.
MARCH 10, 2019
Meaghan Vass, whose DNA was found on the Four Winds, gives an interview to 60 Minutes – an episode not screened in Tasmania. She claims she was on the yacht when Mr Chappell was attacked by one of her two male associates and says she saw “a lot of blood”. She says Neill-Fraser was not onboard the yacht at the time.
MARCH 21, 2019
Justice Michael Brett grants Neill-Fraser’s application, saying he is satisfied she has a reasonable case and it is in the interests of justice that leave be granted for a second appeal.
AUGUST 2019
Neill-Fraser’s notice of appeal is lodged with the court. It is expected the hearing will proceed in March 2020, but it is delayed until May due to the unavailability of counsel. That hearing, along with dates in August and November, are subsequently vacated due to COVID-19 restrictions impeding the travel of Neill-Fraser’s interstate legal team.
MARCH 1, 2021
Second appeal in the Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal due to start.
THE KEY PLAYERS
THE WOMAN BEHIND BARS
Sue Neill-Fraser, who will turn 67 on Wednesday, has spent more than 11 years in prison for the murder of her partner Bob Chappell.
THE MISSING MAN
Bob Chappell, 65, was last seen aboard the Four Winds – the yacht he had recently bought with Neill-Fraser – on Australia Day 2009. It is widely accepted that although Bob’s body has never been found, he met with foul play that night.
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS
Daryl Coates SC will be acting for the State of Tasmania during the appeal, taking the reigns from former DPP Tim Ellis SC and fighting to keep Neill-Fraser behind bars.
THE GUN QC
Robert Richter QC, pictured, has made a surprise, eleventh hour appearance in Neill-Fraser’s bid for exoneration. One of Australia’s leading silks, Mr Richter will lead her case during her five-day appeal.
THE HOMELESS GIRL
Meaghan Vass was 15 and homeless when Bob Chappell disappeared in 2009. Her DNA was found on the Four Winds. Her evidence will be crucial in the appeal.
THE JUDGES
Neill-Fraser’s fate will be sealed by the Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Justices Helen Wood, Robert Pearce and Stephen Estcourt.
Originally published as Sue Neill-Fraser’s fate to be sealed as final chapter in case plays out in Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal
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