Kevin Patrick Hanley to remain behind bars after losing appeal against murder conviction

A Millmerran grandfather convicted of murdering a man in October 2016 will remain behind bars after losing his appeal.

Millmerran grandfather Kevin Patrick Hanley will remain behind bars after losing an appeal against his conviction of murdering Matthew David Morcus in October 2016.

Hanley is serving a life sentence for the murder of Morcus, who he shot and killed at close range at Morcus’ partner’s residence outside Millmerran.

He was convicted by a jury of seven women and five men in Toowoomba in November 2018.

The appeal was made on three grounds – that the verdict was unreasonable or could not be supported by evidence, that the verdict was unreasonable or not supported by evidence capable of establishing “intent to cause death or grievous bodily harm”, and that there “was a miscarriage of justice in leading evidence of lies told by the Appellant regarding the whereabouts of the firearm that was later ruled inadmissable during the trial”.

The Court of Appeal dismissed all three grounds.

Explaining his reasons for dismissing the appeal, Justice Peter Davis said the court found it was open to the jury, on the evidence, to accept that Hanley deliberately shot Morcus, causing his death, and that he “intended to kill or do grievous bodily harm to (Morcus) at the time he pulled the trigger”.

The third ground of the appeal related to a recording of a conversation between Hanley and a police officer in which Hanley lied about throwing away the rifle in the scrub.

Justice Martin Burns had directed the jury to disregard that evidence because the disposal of the rifle had “nothing at all to do with this trial”, informing them Hanley could have lied about the rifle to protect himself from a charge of possessing an unlicensed weapon.

In his appeal, Hanley argued the conversation “damaged (his) credit” and “there was a danger that improper inferences could be drawn, namely that the lie had been told from a consciousness of guilt”.

However, Justice Davis said “there was no danger of miscarriage if the jury faithfully followed his Honour’s direction to disregard the evidence”.

“There is nothing to suggest that the direction was not followed.”