Guilty verdict ends island's trial

NORFOLK Islanders cheered outside the tiny territory's courthouse yesterday as one of the most divisive chapters in the history of the former penal colony ended in a guilty verdict.

NORFOLK Islanders cheered outside the tiny territory's courthouse yesterday as one of the most divisive chapters in the history of the former penal colony ended in a guilty verdict.

The mystery and the innuendo surrounding the 2002 murder of Sydney woman Janelle Patton, an event that had ripped the island apart, was finally over. Her killer was Glenn McNeill - a New Zealander, not a Norfolker.

Patton's murder, the first on the island since it was claimed by Bounty settlers in 1856, has put the self-governing Australian territory on the map for all the wrong reasons over the past five years. For much of that time, up until McNeill was arrested in February last year, the small, insular community was beset by a climate of suspicion, with several men and women among the 1500 locals rumoured to have been involved in the killing.

But yesterday's guilty verdict finally brought some long-awaited relief to the island. As one local said: "At last, we can look each other in the eye again."

About 80 people cheered, clapped and whistled in the grounds of the courthouse, where the decision was broadcast on closed-circuit TV. McNeill, a 29-year-old father of two, remained expressionless upon hearing his fate.

Patton died an horrific death. She was fatally stabbed on March 31, 2002, after she was either abducted at knifepoint or hit by a car while on her morning walk around the island. Her semi-naked and battered body was found wrapped in a black plastic sheet at a nature reserve on the island, 1600km east of Brisbane.

She had suffered 64 wounds, among them a fractured skull, broken ribs, a dislocated ankle, and several knife wounds, including one that penetrated her left lung. Several defensive wounds found on Patton's hands and legs indicated that she had tried desperately to fight off her attacker.

In the aftermath of her murder, the island was gripped by fear. Many people were scared to go out at night, even though Patton was killed in the middle of the day. Nor was the disturbing irony of Patton's vicious murder lost on the locals.

Norfolk's economy is built almost entirely around attracting overseas visitors fascinated by the dark and murderous history of the one-time brutal penal colony. The idea that there was a killer in their midst shattered the modern-day peaceful idyll of the island, and threatened the tourist dollar.

At a 2004 coronial inquest into Patton's death, 16 locals - men and women - were identified as "persons of interest". McNeill was not one of them. That hearing, which returned an open finding, provided few answers to the mystery, serving only to further fuel the community's suspicion and heighten the fingerpointing at a number of men and women on the island.

McNeill was not arrested until February 2006, almost four years after Patton was killed.

Previously undetected fingerprints belonging to McNeill that were found on the black plastic sheet had led police to investigate the New Zealand chef.

Upon his arrest, McNeill confessed to killing Patton, saying he had accidentally hit her with his car when he took his eyes off the road. He claimed he panicked because he thought he had killed her, and threw her body in the boot of his car. After driving home, he said he played computer games for about an hour, before grabbing a knife and stabbing her "just to make sure she was dead".

But in an unsworn statement made before the jury in the Norfolk Island Supreme Court last week, McNeill said his confession was "complete rubbish".

He said he was mentally ill when he admitted to the murder, and was battling drug and alcohol addictions.

"I told police what I thought they wanted to hear," he said. "I did not kill Janelle Patton."

But Crown prosecutor Dan Howard said McNeill's "backflip" could not be believed.

"That's why he told police that he stabbed Janelle Patton - because he did. And he felt sorry and sick for what he's done. You don't admit to such a heinous crime of this nature just because you have debts or you're depressed. That's just a fanciful notion."

Although none of McNeill's DNA was found on Patton's body, evidence that was ruled inadmissable and was not presented to the jury was that hairs found in the boot of his car belonged to Patton. Curiously though, no traces of blood were found in the boot or in his house.

Patton had made many friends during her 2 1/2 years on the island, having moved there from Sydney in October 1999. But she had also made a few enemies, falling out with a number of women because of the relationships she had formed with local men. On one occasion she was even involved in a physical altercation with another woman at a local watering hole.

McNeill, however, was not among her enemies and strange as it might seem in such a small community, the pair did not even know each other. While Patton was a gregarious presence on the island, McNeill kept a low profile.

It was a popular theory among islanders that the crime must have been carried out by a loner. The only person capable of getting away with it would not have been recognised in a community where everybody knows almost everybody else. On that basis at least, McNeill was a perfect fit.

Outside the court, Patton's mother, Carol, remained stoic as she has since her daughter's battered body was found. "During the past five years we have tried hard to focus on Janelle's life rather than the circumstances of her death," she said.

"We are very relieved and feel satisfied that justice for Janelle has been achieved."

Although an appeal by McNeill is likely, last night the island was celebrating.

Laurie "Bucket" Quintal is a former boyfriend of Patton and a one-time suspect in her murder.

"That's f..king beautiful," he said when told of the jury's finding. "Janelle didn't deserve none of this and the island didn't deserve none of this. Now it's a clear road ahead for the island."