Neill-Fraser’s lawyer asks for two month delay in appeal hearing

A court has heard why Susan Neill-Fraser’s second appeal against her murder conviction is likely to be delayed and what evidence may or may not go before the court.

Susan Neill-Fraser, 65, is serving a 23-year jail sentence for murdering her partner Bob Chappell on board the couple’s yacht Four Winds on Australia Day 2009.

A KEY witness will be called to give evidence in the high-profile appeal of convicted murderer Susan Neill-Fraser when her second legal fight for freedom is finally heard next year.

Neill-Fraser, 65, appeared in the Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal via video link from the Mary Hutchinson’s Women’s Prison this morning ahead of her second – and possibly last – appeal bid against her 2010 murder conviction.

The unedited footage and transcript of a 60 Minutes interview with witness Meaghan Vass, which was aired outside Tasmania, was recently provided to the court by the Nine Network.

The court heard that Ms Vass, a homeless girl whose DNA was found at the crime scene, will be called to give evidence during the appeal hearing.

FULL DETAILS OF SUE NEILL-FRASER’S APPEAL DOCUMENT

Neill-Fraser is behind bars for 23 years for killing her partner Bob Chappell, 65, on board their yacht Four Winds on Australia Day 2009.

His body has never been found.

Neill-Fraser lodged her second appeal against her 2010 murder conviction in August. Picture: BRUCE MOUNSTER

Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC said a “significant amount” of evidence in the appeal books was contentious.

He described some of the material was inadmissible opinion, not “fresh and compelling”, or “completely irrelevant”.

Her Melbourne-based lawyer Paul Gallbally, also appearing via video link,

said both appellant and respondent teams planned to meet in January to decide on what evidence would go before the court by way of agreement.

He asked the court if an anticipated March 2020 appeal hearing could be delayed until May 25 when Perth barrister Tom Percy QC became available.

Tom Percy QC outside the Supreme Court in Hobart. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

KEY DATES IN THE DECADE-LONG SUSAN NEILL-FRASER CASE

Justice Helen Wood said the court would try to accommodate the request and would notify both legal teams by letter next week.

Justice Wood said an appeal hearing was expected to take two weeks, but could “overrun” that period.

Neill-Fraser’s first appeal against conviction failed, but laws introduced in 2015 gave her another chance to appeal on the ground there was “fresh and compelling evidence”.

Another directions hearing will be held in February ahead of the appeal hearing, at a date to be fixed.