DAY 3: Inside knowledge of Four Winds too much for teenage homeless girl, lawyers say
Sue Neill-Fraser’s dramatic appeal of the 2009 murder of Bob Chappell has been years in the making and involved fundamental changes to Tasmania’s laws – but has ended days early. RECAP THE EVIDENCE + EVERYTHING WE KNOW >>
Tasmania
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Day 1: ‘All I remember was seeing a lot of blood and arguing
- Day 2: Vass threatened, told she would be ‘put in a boot’
- Final chapter plays out in Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal
- Sue Neill-Fraser pens letter from prison ahead of appeal
***Sue Neill-Fraser’s appeal hearing has concluded.***
THE fate of Tasmania’s most famous female prisoner now rests in the hands of three of the state’s most senior judges.
Sue Neill-Fraser’s murder appeal hearing came to an abrupt end on Wednesday, two days early, following the loss of key witness Meaghan Vass.
On the first day of the appeal, Ms Vass had nominated her former boyfriend as having carried out a bloody attack on Bob Chappell, a claim that seemingly had potential to exonerate Neill-Fraser.
But when she recanted that evidence the following morning, Neill-Fraser’s appeal team was left to thrash out a case questioning the veracity of DNA evidence raised at her 2010 trial.
The Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal will now consider whether or not it should order a retrial based on “fresh and compelling evidence” that shows Neill-Fraser suffered a miscarriage of justice.
Speaking outside court, Neill-Fraser’s daughter Sarah Bowles said she was still “very optimistic”.
“We have demonstrated there are facts of the case that are unavoidable that weren’t available at trial that cast a lot of doubt on the evidence for the jury,” she said.
“One of the major defence pillars of the case that the jury could well have relied upon was unfortunately torn down at trial by the (former) Director of Public Prosecutions. Now we can examine whether that was actually appropriate and fair.”
Key Neill-Fraser supporter Rosie Crumpton-Crook said the case was “not straightforward, it is not black and white”.
“Today especially has shown that there were some major issues with the original trial and I think it’s clear that the original verdict was unsafe,” she said.
She said the wait for a decision from Justices Helen Wood, Robert Pearce and Stephen Estcourt would be “very tough”.
“Who knows how long it will be, and I hope for Sue it’s not too long, she’s waited too long,” she said.
“This case … has had so many twists and turns.”
Neill-Fraser’s case, as outlined in a closing address by Chris Carr SC, now relies on the fact Ms Vass’ DNA evidence was found on the Four Winds yacht after Bob Chappell’s disappearance.
At trial, then-Director of Public Prosecutions Tim Ellis SC argued her DNA could have been transferred on to the yacht on the bottom of an investigator’s shoe days after the murder.
But on Wednesday, Mr Carr said there was no evidence to support that theory and was “simply not possible” given the subsequent claims of Victoria Police forensic specialist Maxwell Jones.
“His evidence destroys the ability of the prosecutor to do what he did at trial,” he said. “It inexorably follows in our submission that with the replacement of that pillar, the verdict might have very well been different.”
Mr Carr argued a dinghy seen attached to the Four Winds on the night of Mr Chappell’s disappearance was not the yacht’s tender.
He said those two pieces of evidence supported the hypothesis that someone else was on the boat on the afternoon or evening of Australia Day 2009.
But current DPP Daryl Coates SC rejected those claims, arguing the crime scene had been taken to docks at Goodwood – and trodden on by dozens of people – after it was seen sinking off Marieville Esplanade.
He said there was evidence Ms Vass had been in Goodwood and that there had been break-ins at the docks around that time.
He also argued the evidence wasn’t “fresh” so couldn’t succeed in an appeal based on fresh and compelling evidence.
Justices Wood, Estcourt and Pearce reserved their decision to a date to be determined.
READ THE RE-CAP OF DAY 3 AS IT HAPPENED:
UPDATE 2.45pm: SUE Neill-Fraser’s appeal case has wrapped up in Hobart.
Originally set down for five days, the hearing concluded after closing submissions from appellent and respondents in the Supreme Court in Hobart shortly before 2.45pm.
The case was originally set to be decided largely based on the testimony of witness Meaghan Vass, who on Monday said she was at the crime scene with others.
But she recanted the following day and her evidence is being disregarded by the three judges considering the appeal.
Instead, the case that there is fresh and compelling evidence that there been a substantial miscarriage of justice will rest on evidence about Ms Vass’ DNA on the yacht the Four Winds.
In summary, Ms Neill-Fraser’s legal team submits that the discovery of the DNA on the yacht gives rise to a credible alternative possibility suggestive of Neill-Fraser’s innocence.
The Crown case is that the DNA was likely a “secondary transfer” deposited by some other means and there is ample additional evidence Neill-Fraser is guilty of murder.
In his closing remarks, DPP Daryl Coates, SC, said the court could not be satisfied there was a significant possibility that Neill-Fraser would have been acquitted based on her legal submissions.
In reply, Mr Carr highlighted further aspects of the DNA evidence relating to the applicant’s case: mainly expert evidence about the longevity of samples on various surfaces.
Justice Helen Wood said the judges would reserve their decision and the court was adjourned.
UPDATE 1pm: THE Crown has poured scorn on the suggestion there was a credible alternative theory for Bob Chappell’s disappearance.
DPP Daryl Coates has told an appeal hearing the presence of Meaghan Vass’ DNA on the yacht the Four Winds did not give rise to a reasonable doubt.
“The jury doesn’t have to determine this by the light just on the scientific grounds, and your honours don’t either,” he told the three judges determining the case.
“They can assess the likelihood of a 15 or 16-year old homeless girl from the northern suburbs going down to the Sandy Bay Royal Yacht Club marina, picking the same dinghy as The Four Winds dinghy,” he said.
“The unlikelihood of her picking that dinghy, going 450m offshore where the Four Winds was docked, past numerous other yachts, and also getting the motor going, at the very time that Ms Neill-Fraser was at that beach.
“And two seacocks were opened, one of them was visible but you’d still have to know something about yachts to do it, the other one was disused and you had to have an intimate knowledge of that yacht to know where that seacock was.
“Then Ms Vass somehow found that and sunk the yacht, she then had to know how to use the winch to get the body off the yacht and dispose of it.
“Then, also by coincidence, Ms Neill-Fraser begins a series of lies to the police,” he said.
“If it was Ms Vass on the boat, why did Ms Neill Fraser say she went to Bunnings, that she didn’t go back to Sandy Bay?”
Mr Coates also pointed to a fresh injury to Ms Neill-Fraser’s hand the day after Mr Chappell’s disappearance and her denials of owning a jacket found at the scene as evidence the jury could have relied on to reach its verdict.
And Mr Coates said none of the evidence raised on behalf of Neill-Fraser was new.
UPDATE 12.30pm: DISCUSSION of the mystery DNA deposited on the Four Winds continues to dominate submissions from Director of Public Prosecutions, Daryl Coates, SC.
He says the yacht was taken from Sandy Bay to Goodwood, where it was stored at a Cleanlift facility, where there was no security and break-ins had been known to occur.
He said Ms Vass was known to have been in the Goodwood area at the time.
“The Crown’s hypothesis is that she didn’t get on the vessel, or that she got on the vessel at Cleanlift,” he said.
Mr Coates said the trial jury may not have relied on the DNA evidence either way.
“The jury didn’t have to discuss whether she got on the boat at all,” he said.
“They could have looked at all of the objective evidence that the appellant committed this murder.
“They didn’t have to decide how the DNA got on the boat.”
UPDATE 12pm: SUE Neill-Fraser’s legal team have closed their appeal case before the Court of Criminal Appeal after three days of evidence and submissions.
After the decision not to rely on the oral evidence given by Meaghan Vass, the case relies largely on the unexplained presence of her DNA on the yacht from which Bob Chappell disappeared.
The defence says it gives rise to a reasonable alternative hypothesis about who was responsible for Mr Chappell’s death.
But Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates, SC, said expert evidence about Ms Vass’ DNA found did not advance the case that a miscarriage of justice has occurred.
“It’s the Crown submission that Mr Jones’ evidence is not substantial,” he said.
“It could not have led to the possibility that the accused would have been acquitted.
“And thirdly it’s not fresh.”
Mr Coates said the yacht was not initially treated as a crime scene and at least 21 people had been aboard the yacht between Mr Chappell’s disappearance and the taking of the DNA swab.
UPDATE 11.30am: SUE Neill-Fraser’s legal team has attempted to undermine the Crown case about DNA found on the Four Winds yacht.
Mr Carr said evidence that the DNA arrived on the yacht by way of secondary transfer – for example on the sole of a police officer’s shoe – was only a remote possibility.
He said the chances of a secondary transfer was greatly overstated by the prosecution at the trial, despite it being described by expert witnesses as only a possibility requiring a series of coincidences.
“That explanation is entirely inconsistent with the way the matter was put to the jury on this critical issue by the learned prosecutor at trial,” he said.
Addressing the case law that applied to the appeal, Mr Carr said Neill-Fraser’s legal team needed to demonstrate that the chances of her being found not guilty should have been somewhere between a possibility and a probability.
He said subsequent expert evidence restored one of the key pillars of the defence case.
“It inexorably follows ... that with the replacement of that pillar the verdict might very well have been different,” he said
“The defence hypothesis that somebody else was on the boat on the afternoon or evening of the 26th of January, supported by what we describe as the negative identification of the dinghy on the afternoon … would properly – or at least there is a significant possibility – that it would have left the jury with a reasonable doubt.
“In our submission, there was a significant miscarriage of justice and the appeal should be allowed and a retrial ordered.”
UPDATE 11.00am: MR CARR said the Crown Prosecutor at the trial, then Director of Public Prosecutions Tim Ellis, SC, had dismissed defence contentions about Ms Vass’ DNA on the yacht as “a red herring”.
He said that under the circumstances of the original trial, the defence could not reasonably have been expected to counter the DNA evidence presented to the jury with little or no advance warning.
“It would be untenable to suggest that counsel – towards the end of that trial – should be able to go and seek out a forensic expert to assess the evidence that had been given,’ he said.
He said that the appeal case evidence from Victoria Police forensic specialise Maxwell Jones was therefore fresh and compelling in the circumstances of the appeal.
Neill-Fraser sat in the court, flanked by a police officer, taking notes and occasional nodding during submissions on her behalf.
UPDATE 10.30am: ROBERT Richter, QC, opened proceedings telling the court the evidence in Neill-Fraser’s had concluded and barrister Chris Carr, SC, would make closing submissions on her behalf.
Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates, SC, told the court the Crown would lead no evidence.
Mr Carr told the court the evidence given by Meaghan Vass would be irrelevant to the court’s task of assessing the appeal and outlined the key elements of the original trial.
“The case presented by the prosecution at trial was a circumstantial case,” he said
“The real issue at trial was whether the prosecution had excluded any reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence.”
Meaghan Vass, key witness in the Susan Neill-Fraser appeal arriving at the Supreme Court in Hobart this morning. pic.twitter.com/qKVHJiMgFM
— Luke Bowden (@stilllukebowden) March 2, 2021
He said that the defence had raised evidence at the trial, including of a dinghy seen because the Four Winds on the day Bob Chappell disappeared.
The dinghy was not the yacht’s tender.
And he said the presence of Ms Vass’ DNA on the yacht was key to the appeal.
“One of the critical aspects of the defence case – advancing the reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence – is the DNA of Meaghan Vass found on the yacht,” he said.
He said that the evidence the appeal team brought to the court were fresh and compelling evidence Neill-Fraser had suffered a miscarriage of justice.
“We will ultimately submit that the two reports and the oral evidence demonstrate that the way the prosecution dealt with the reasonable hypothesis and demolished it as an unreasonable hypothesis at trial was untenable or at least sufficiently impugned.
“It was one of two critical issues in the case: that Meaghan Vass’ DNA was found on the yacht and that was relied on as founding a reasonable hypothesis that she, her associates or and friends were on the yacht late afternoon or on the night of the 26th of January.”
UPDATE 9.40am: THE third day of Sue Neill-Fraser’s appeal hearing will open at 10am in the Supreme Court in Hobart.
After two days of dramatic evidence from witness Meaghan Vass, Wednesday’s hearing is expected to focus on an examination of forensic evidence.
Neill-Fraser is serving a 23-year sentence for the murder of her partner Bob Chappell on Australia Day 2009.
She has protested her innocence.
Her legal team is using new laws which allow a convicted person a right of appeal based on the presentation of “fresh and compelling” evidence.
The hearing, before three judges sitting as the Court of Criminal Appeal, is set down to run until Friday.
O’Byrne pulls plug on support for Ferguson, says Premier must act
The survival of key Liberal Michael Ferguson hangs by a thread after key independent David O’Byrne declared he had lost confidence in the beleaguered Treasurer and Deputy Premier. What Mr O’Byrne said >>
World-leading program which has reduced dementia risk by 25%
A five-year dementia study run out of UTAS is showing drops of 25 per cent in the dementia risk of its study participants. Here is what they are doing to stay healthier for longer.