‘Meaningful relationships with her grandchildren’: Sue Neill-Fraser’s daughter on her imminent release
Sue Neill-Fraser’s family open up about their preparation for her release and reconnecting with her grandchildren who were born when she was in the Mary Hutchinson Women’s Prison. Read more.
Police & Courts
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The family of Sue Neill-Fraser is preparing for her release after 13 years in prison.
Her grandchildren are busily making a cookbook of the recipes they hope their grandmother will cook with them when she is released on parole in the coming weeks.
The grandchildren were born when Neill-Fraser was in the Mary Hutchinson Women’s Prison after being convicted of killing her partner Bob Chappell in January 2009. His body has never been found.
Neill-Fraser, 68, was granted parole on Friday and her daughter Sarah Bowles is relieved she will soon be able to have better contact with her family and has vowed to continue the fight for a Commission of Inquiry to clear her mother’s conviction.
She said she had taken her two children to meet their grandmother when they were little but the visits stopped when they became frightened of the prison environment.
“It was awful because prison is a very confronting place for kids so we stopped going,” Ms Bowles said.
“They have been making a cookbook of her favourite recipes.
“The nicest thing about mum being given parole is she will be able to have meaningful relationships with her four grandchildren.”
Ms Bowles, who convinced her mother to apply for parole, said the family were relieved at the Parole Board’s decision.
“It was a high anxiety, high stakes day and we’ve had so much waiting and so many setbacks and disappointments I was expecting a negative outcome,” she said.
“I have learnt to be resilient and there were a flood of emotions, excitement and joy, but mostly relief.
“The major focus now is on mum’s health and wellbeing and her privacy and security.”
Ms Bowles said she believed a condition of her parole was that Neill-Fraser not speak to the media while on parole.
“We will continue to fight to clear her name and mum has a lot of advocates out there who can speak for her,” she said.
“I keep reminding her that she has to disregard other people’s perceptions and she can’t just give up her life.”
Government Minister Guy Barnett questioned the delay in the Parole Board publishing its reasons for granting Neill-Fraser parole which could take six weeks.
“It’s obviously very topical, a lot of Tasmanians are very interested in the Susan Neill-Fraser matter, it’s been going on for many years,” he said.
“The Parole Board has a responsibility to follow through but they have to act in accordance with their protocols and rules and arrangements. They need to explain how that occurs.
“The Parole Board is aware of community interest and I hope they respond in due course.”
Freedom for Tassie’s most infamous female prisoner
TASMANIA’s most infamous female prisoner is expected to be a free woman within weeks.
Susan Neill-Fraser, who has spent 13 years in prison over the murder of her partner Bob Chappell, has been granted parole.
News of the 68-year-old grandmother’s impending freedom brings to a close one of the most high-profile – and most fiercely-debated – criminal cases in Tasmanian criminal history.
Neill-Fraser has never admitted to murdering Mr Chappell, who disappeared from the couple’s yacht, Four Winds, on Australia Day 2009, his body never found.
To the contrary, she has staunchly protested her innocence throughout her incarceration, with a dedicated supporter base in Tasmania passionately championing her cause, and her case attracting interest through books, television, documentaries and podcast series nationally and even internationally.
Right up until August this year, when her 13-year minimum term ticked over, Neill-Fraser had pledged not to apply for parole, vowing not to leave prison without a full exoneration.
Despite her refusals to admit to the murder, on Friday, the Parole Board of Tasmania decided to release Neill-Fraser – from her long-time home at Risdon Vale – the Mary Hutchinson Women’s Prison.
The development is not entirely unexpected. Neill-Fraser is known for being a “model prisoner” who makes pavlovas for her fellow inmates on their birthdays, provides them with legal advice and helps them with their reading.
Although, her incarceration has not been entirely unblemished.
In September last year, she was sent to solitary confinement for five days, and had her privileges revoked.
It was understood this occurred after she penned a letter about “a day in the life” of a female prisoner, which detailed her daily experiences in prison and was published on a supporter’s website.
The letter was an apparent contravention of the prison’s rules.
Neill-Fraser also apparently staged a hunger strike, according to her family, in 2017 after being moved to medium security following the alleged discovery of contraband in her low-security cell.
The contraband, according to her daughter Sarah Bowles, was a pair of pre-approved kids’ craft scissors and a tube of make-up she’d purchased from the prison canteen.
Before her ultimate exit from prison through the Parole Board of Tasmania, Neill-Fraser had launched two appeals against her conviction in the Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal – in 2017 and 2021.
Both failed.
Last month, she also lost a last-ditch effort to overturn her conviction in the nation’s highest court after the High Court refused her application for leave to appeal.
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