Zak Grieve: murder inquiry cop told family ‘Zak wasn’t there’

The family of a young Aboriginal man jailed for murder say a detective told them he believed ‘Zak wasn’t there’.

Zak Grieve was sentenced to a minimum 20-year term.

Family members of a young Aboriginal man jailed for a murder the judge found he did not physically commit allege a detective approached them after Zak Grieve was arrested, saying he believed “Zak wasn’t there”.

Grieve’s parents and brother claim they were approached separately by the same Northern Territory detective after a court hearing, and he expressed doubt over the young man’s role in the 2011 murder of Ray Niceforo in Katherine.

“He said to me that he believed that my brother didn’t do it,” Grieve’s brother Terry said. Asked to clarify what the detective was saying, Terry Grieve replied: “That Zak wasn’t there.”

Grieve’s parents, Glenice and Warren, have since separated but independently gave consistent accounts of another conversation with the same detective.

Shortly after her son was charged with murder, the detective allegedly told Glenice Grieve “I don’t know what Zak has to do with this”, she said.

Asked for his account of this conversation, Warren Grieve alleged the detective “said he didn’t think Zak had anything to do with it”.

Grieve was one of three men found guilty of Niceforo’s murder. Sentencing the 25-year-old to a minimum 20-year term, judge Dean Mildren found “that you pulled out at the last minute, your degree of criminality is much less than (the other two men)”.

“If I were free to do so, I would impose a lesser non-parole period than 20 years,” Justice Mildren said, adding that he was instead compelled to impose the longer jail term due to mandatory sentencing laws in place in the Territory, “which inevitably bring about injustice”.

Grieve appealed against his conviction and sentence without success in 2014, meaning that no further appeal of the court’s decision is possible without a petition to the Attorney-General.

The length of time that has passed since his arrest, and the reluctance of the NT Police to discuss the issue, means it is impossible to know what exactly was said during the two conversations between Grieve’s family and the detective.

Despite a number of phone calls, and a written request for comment sent in June, police have declined to provide any explanation of what took place.

“It is the practice of NT Police not to comment on matters before the court or court outcomes, nor about investigative methodology,” a spokeswoman said. “We will not be offering any comment.”