Elizabeth Anne Turner wins retrial after being jailed for attempting to pervert justice and perjury

A mother jailed for allegedly helping her son buy a yacht he used to flee the country before his drug smuggling trial has won a retrial.

Elizabeth Anne Turner has won a retrial after she was jailed for attempting to pervert justice and perjury.

A woman who was jailed for attempting to pervert justice and perjury, after allegedly helping her son buy a yacht he used to flee the country, before his drug smuggling trial, will have a retrial.

In February, Elizabeth Anne Turner, then 66, was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice and three counts of perjury.

She was sentenced to four years’ jail with a non-parole period of two years.

But the Court of Appeal judges found there was a miscarriage of justice because of evidence excluded from her trial.

The court heard allegations Turner offered $520,000 surety to help her son get bail, then bought him a yacht that he sailed to the Philippines, a month before he was due to face trial.

Markis Scott Turner had been arrested in Mackay in 2011 and accused of heading-up a major cocaine importation syndicate.

He was granted bail after his mother offered $450,000 surety and a $70,000 cash deposit.

The Crown case was that Elizabeth Turner helped her son to escape by buying the yacht for him.

It was alleged that she falsely told police that she believed he had committed suicide, in order to help her son remain in hiding.

It was also alleged that in an affidavit she said: “I am of the view that (Markis Turner) has committed suicide”.

The Crown alleged that Turner made a false statement, knowing her son was alive and repeated the statement in oral evidence.

Turner and her husband had been on a road trip through Western Australia in August, 2015, when her son fled in the yacht.

She claimed she could not have contacted her son because she had forgotten to take her mobile phone on the trip.

During the trial Turner gave evidence that when she made the statements alleged to amount to perjury she believed them to be true.

The appeal court said it was fact that she helped her son buy a yacht he used to escape and she did have use of a mobile phone during her trip.

The real issue in the trial was whether credence could be given to Turner’s explanations for the yacht purchase, her denials about knowing about her son’s escape on the yacht and her misleading answer about the phone.

Saul Holt QC, for Turner, sought to lead evidence from Turner’s daughter-in-law, Magdalena Turner, to the effect that before Markis was found in the Philippines, Mrs Turner believed he was dead.

“She was devastated as I think she was also a bit … She was crying and she said that she lost her child and sometimes she was saying that it’s all police’s fault,” Magdalena Turner told the court.

The prosecutor objected, saying it was hearsay and inadmissable and the trial judge allowed the objection.

Turner appealed against conviction, claiming the exclusion of her daughter-in-law’s evidence was a wrong decision and a miscarriage of justice.

Court of Appeal President Justice Walter Sofronoff said the excluded evidence was relevant to Turner’s credit and a guilty verdict depended on whether the jury was prepared to reject her evidence.

The Court of Appeal unanimously allowed the appeal, set aside the four convictions and ordered a retrial.