Bromley freedom hinges on High Court

For nearly 40 years Derek Bromley has denied he killed a man in Adelaide and this week the High Court could decide the fate of the nation’s longest serving First Nations prisoner.

Derek John Bromley in 1994.

A jailed Aboriginal man will learn this week whether he has any prospects of being released by order of the High Court after arguing his innocence since a nearly 40-year-old murder on or near the River Torrens.

Adelaide man Derek John Bromley, 67, has been in jail since 1984 for the murder of Stephen Docoza, 21, whose decomposed body was found floating in Adelaide’s River Torrens that same year.

Bromley was sentenced to 36 years’ jail, subsequently reduced to 24 years, but he has remained inside because of his insistence he never committed the crime.

This has rendered him ineligible for parole since 2006.

Bromley and his off-sider John Karpany were found guilty of bludgeoning Docoza to death, allegedly after he refused their sexual advances at what was then a gay beat on the banks of the same river where academic George Duncan was killed in a gay hate crime and his body found in the water in 1972.

The High Court will on Wednesday pass judgment on the case, which many of Bromley’s supporters believe will be his last chance of total freedom.

Legal academic and researcher Bob Moles said the High Court had several options with the leave to appeal yet to have been granted.

Legal academic and researcher Bob Moles. Picture: Matt Turner

Dr Moles said if leave were granted, this could trigger several options including the possibility that Bromley, a trusted volunteer firefighter despite being imprisoned in a low security system, could be freed.

He said the hope was that leave to appeal would be granted and his conviction was set aside.

Dr Moles said the High Court case had been argued on the accuracy of the main witness who led to the prosecutions but a second, related, issue was still hanging over the killing.

This was the role of former chief forensic pathologist Colin Manock, whose work over 27 years as South Australia’s top forensic pathologist led to thousands of autopsies and giving evidence in hundreds of court cases.

As well as his being under-qualified for the role, there have been many questions raised about Dr Manock’s work.

“This is really a big ticket item,’’ Dr Moles said. “He never should have done autopsies.”

Independent state MP Frank Pangallo, who has championed Bromley’s cause, is convinced he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

South Australian independent MP Frank Pangallo. Picture NCA NewsWire/Emma Brasier

Former chief forensic pathologist Dr Colin Manock. Picture: Dylan Coker

Mr Pangallo has visited him in jail several times and believes he should have been released many years ago. “It’s just scandalous. He should have been out 13 or 14 years ago,’’ he said.

Mr Pangallo also said there should be an inquiry into Dr Manock’s work and whether it had contaminated a vast number of cases. “There must be either a royal commission or an independent judicial review into the state-sanctioned conduct of Dr Manock,’’ he said.

“He was the crown’s expert witness in hundreds of criminal cases when the state knew he was unqualified to give that evidence.

“This is truly shocking; jurists around the world have been alarmed by what went on in South Australia unchecked.”

Bromley and Karpany were accused of bludgeoning Docoza to death with a dumbbell in an ­attempted rape at what for many years was a late-night gay beat on the banks of the Torrens.

They both insist they had no dealings with Docoza on the night and that he may have died from natural causes.

The witness in the Bromley case was suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was having audible and visual hallucinations on the night of Docoza’s death, and had described himself to police as “the king of Adelaide” while falsely claiming to be an A-grade state footballer.

additional reporting: DAVID PENBERTHY