Barrister calls for Danny Deacon retrial

THREE Supreme Court judges have been urged to “do something good for society” and grant convicted murderer Danny Deacon a retrial

THREE Supreme Court judges have been urged to “do something good for society” and grant convicted murderer Danny Deacon a retrial.

Deacon, 46, is serving life in jail with a minimum non-parole period of 21-and-a-half years for the murder of his partner, Carlie Sinclair.

Barrister John Tippett QC says Danny Deacon’s jury should not have been shown evidence of his confessions to undercover police

Barrister Jon Tippett QC, for Deacon, told the Court of Criminal Appeal on Monday that Deacon’s jury should not have been shown evidence of his confessions to undercover police.

Deacon’s application for leave to appeal hinges on whether the elaborate police sting – the details of which are suppressed — amounted to “oppressive conduct”.

Deacon, who will first be eligible for parole in 2036, admitted at his trial last year to killing Ms Sinclair on the night of 18 June, 2013, and burying her body in a pre-dug bush grave at Mulgara Rd, Berry Springs.

But he said Ms Sinclair provoked him into killing her in a momentary “fit of rage”.

Deacon’s evidence, if accepted by the jury, would have seen him convicted of manslaughter rather than murder.

Deacon told his jury he dug Ms Sinclair’s grave three weeks before her death, when he had been planning to kill her.

He said he abandoned the plan but used the grave when he “snapped” and killed his partner of 10 years.

Trial judge Justice Peter Barr rejected Deacon’s evidence as “self serving”, and found he killed Ms Sinclair with a “cold and calculated logic”.

Mr Tippett on Monday urged Chief Justice Michael Grant, Justice Stephen Southwood and Justice Trevor Riley to use a “new approach” and discard the “old thinking” other courts have used in allowing juries to hear confessions obtained by the specific type of sting Deacon fell for.

Chief Justice Michael Grant said, “You say that, but there is no ‘new approach’, you’re inviting us (to make it)”.

Mr Tippett said it would be “something good for society” to put limits on certain police undercover activities.

Crown Prosecutor Mary Chalmers said the undercover operation didn’t undermine Deacon’s rights.

“(It was an) authorised operation done by police officers working in undercover police units,” she said.

“(The operation was) not the product of an officer’s (idea) about how to undermine someone’s right to silence.”

Ms Chalmers and Director of Public Prosecutions Jack Karczewski QC have also appealed Deacon’s sentence as being “manifestly inadequate”.

The judges reserved their decisions.