Neill-Fraser appeal to go ahead in March before new judge

SUE Neill-Fraser’s bid to appeal against her murder conviction will proceed in March in front of a new judge.

Sarah Bowles, the daughter of Sue Neill-Fraser, leaves the Hobart Supreme Court after a directions hearing.

SUE Neill-Fraser’s bid to appeal against her murder conviction will proceed in March in front of a new judge.

In a surprise development, Supreme Court Justice Shan Tennent called a directions hearing in Hobart today at which she said she was concerned by continuing delays in the case.

She said a new judge would be appointed to take over the hearing of Neill-Fraser’s application for special leave to appeal, which would be listed in the Supreme Court sittings beginning in mid-March.

Neill-Fraser, 62, is serving 23 years in prison for the murder of Bob Chappell, 65, who disappeared from the couple’s yacht moored off Sandy Bay, on Australia Day 2009. His body has never been found. Her appeals to the Court of Appeal and the High Court failed and a subsequent coronial inquest also found she was responsible for Mr Chappell’s death.

Neill-Fraser has launched proceedings under new right-to-appeal legislation passed by the Hodgman Government last year.

Justice Tennent said the case had started with a written application in December last year and many of the key issues which needed to be settled before a final hearing could be held remained unresolved.

The judge said despite repeated directions hearings and lengthy and detailed written submissions by Neill-Fraser’s legal team, it was still unclear which witnesses she would call, what evidence her case would rely on and whether it was admissible or not.

She also noted an application on Monday for her to stand aside had come seven months after she had asked if there were any objections to her involvement – and years after it was known she was one of the Court of Appeal judges who had rejected Neill-Fraser’s appeal.

She said that without making any concession on that application, she would order that the case be listed in front of another judge in the court sittings which begin on March 14.

A further — and likely final — directions hearing will take place in front of Justice Tennent on February 1.

She ordered Neill-Fraser’s legal team to provide lists of witnesses, proof of evidence and other material to be relied on, documents to be tendered and facts they sought to admit by consent and an estimate of the time the case would take to hear.

Outside the court, Neill-Fraser’s daughter Sarah Bowles welcomed the latest developments in the case.

”Mum’s innocent and she’s been in a jail cell all this time and we just want to have a full hearing and establish her innocence,” she said.

”We have a strong case and we’re confident in the evidence that we’re going to put before the courts.

“Today has been a step in the right direction.”

Neill-Fraser was convicted by a Supreme Court jury in 2010 and sentenced by the now Chief Justice Alan Blow.

Originally published as Neill-Fraser appeal to go ahead in March before new judge