Networked Knowledge - Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

Mallard v The Queen 2005
Andrew Mallard homepage
Article: Australian law on miscarriages of justice
Article: UK law on miscarriages of justice
Article: USA law on miscarriages of justice

On 2 May 2007 Nicolas Perpitch of Sunday Times (article on Perth Now) reported that “Mallard review could be open”

He said that full details of a cold case review that cleared Perth man Andrew Mallard of the murder he spent almost 12 years in prison for could be made public next month. Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission is examining whether public officers engaged in misconduct during the investigation into the murder of Perth jeweller Pamela Lawrence in 1994, for which Mr Mallard was prosecuted.

During a directions hearing today, counsel assisting the inquiry Jeremy Gormley said the CCC was expected to withdraw a previous request to the police to only release the conclusions of the cold case report. Mr Gormley said West Australian Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan would then be free to release the entire review. "It is a matter for the Commissioner of Police,'' Mr Gormley said. Commissioner O'Callaghan has previously said he would release all details of the report. The CCC is expected to withdraw the request to police before the start of hearings at the end of June.

The six-month hearings will be divided into five phases, starting with the police forensic investigation following Ms Lawrence's murder. The inquiry will then look at the investigation leading to Mr Mallard being charged with murder in July 1994 and the conduct of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) during his trial. It will also examine events leading to the quashing of Mr Mallard's conviction by the High Court in 2005 and the review that cleared his name in 2006.

Mr Mallard was convicted of murdering Ms Lawrence in 1995 and lost a subsequent appeal. But his case went back to the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2002 after new material was submitted by Labor MP John Quigley. The case then went to the High Court, where his conviction was overturned. After the DPP decided not to retry Mr Mallard last year, he was finally freed from jail.

The cold case review found the most likely murderer was convicted killer Simon Rochford, who committed suicide in Albany Prison in May 2006, a week after police questioned him about Ms Lawrence's death. Mr Mallard's backers, including Mr Quigley, have alleged police and prosecutors withheld key evidence from Mr Mallard's defence.

Ron Davies, the lawyer for Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Shervill, one of the police officers under scrutiny, told the CCC today there was a formal complaint before the inquiry against Mr Quigley. "He approached (an) undercover officer and said things to him of an inappropriate nature,'' Mr Davies said. Outside the CCC, Mr Quigley said he had not acted inappropriately. "I do not expect these officers to ever stop attacking me in their life because I blew the whistle on what they had done, and that is achieve the false conviction, the false imprisonment of Andrew Mallard,'' Mr Quigley said.

The Colleen Egan Blog on the CCC investigation into the case of Andrew Mallard

Source: 2 May 2007 Nicolas Perpitch Sunday Times on Perth Now “Mallard review could be open”

Top of Page