The music has stopped playing in the corrupt ALP government of WA. A man who was sent to prison on trumped up charges has issues that the government desperately needs to pin it on. The serving second to Deputy Public Prosecutor, Mr Ken Bates, is standing and the music has stopped.
The question is not 'Why might police plant evidence' in a state which sees a 1% conviction rate for rapes, but why didn't the DPP know that police might have planted evidence.
Perhaps that talented lawyer, Penny Easton, might help with some wisdom, but the WA ALP did for her a long time ago.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The Music Stops And There Is No Chair
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Charges looming for WA DPP's prosecutor
By Elizabeth Gosch
WESTERN Australia's second-most senior prosecutor has been accused of lying to the state's Corruption and Crime Commission and faces a raft of misconduct charges against him.
As the CCC's inquiry into the wrongful conviction of Andrew Mallard switched its attention to Perth's legal fraternity, the commission's lead counsel recommended at least 13 findings of misconduct against Ken Bates, the lead prosecutor at Mr Mallard's 1995 trial and now Western Australia's Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.
Mr Mallard served almost 12 years in jail for the 1994 murder of Perth jeweller Pamela Lawrence before his conviction was quashed by the High Court in 2005.
In the final day of his closing statement to the CCC, Jeremy Gormly SC suggested that Commissioner John Dunford QC should consider Mr Bates's evidence about gold jewellery allegedly planted by police on Mr Mallard with "nothing but the greatest scepticism".
Earlier this week, Mr Gormly recommended findings of misconduct against two top police officers for their roles in helping plant jewellery from Lawrence's shop on Mr Mallard.
The jewellery was mentioned in the police briefing but, in Mr Bates's evidence to the CCC, he said he had no recollection of being told about it.
"Mr Bates must have known ... that the section on suspicious jewellery held out the prospect of a link between Mr Mallard and the crime scene and that's why he has put a pencil mark down the side of it," Mr Gormly said.
"It is not plausible that there was no debate, discussion or inquiry between (lead detective Mal Shervill) and Mr Bates about that section ... In my respectful submission, Commissioner, you would have nothing but the greatest scepticism about the evidence of every witness concerning suspicious jewellery when they say to you, 'I remember nothing about this'."
Asked by Mr Dunford if that left only a "nasty smell" on which to make a decision, Mr Gormly said: "Yes, a nasty smell, but also a reasonable inference that there is no innocent explanation for the suspicious jewellery issue. Mr Bates, I submit to you, is not telling you the truth."
Mr Gormly also suggested Mr Bates "fatally and totally" failed in his obligations as a prosecutor.
"In my submission, Mr Bates had lost sight of his obligations as a prosecutor and conducted this case to achieve through civil adversarial means a victory," Mr Gormly said. He said Mr Bates did not actively consider not prosecuting the case and deprived Mr Mallard's defence counsel of key material.
The CCC also heard that Mr Bates misled the judge and jury at Mr Mallard's 1995 trial.
Mr Bates admitted to the CCC he knew the wrench had been eliminated as the murder weapon but told the Supreme Court judge and jury in his opening address that the wrench had been used to kill Lawrence.
"Mr Bates opens (the trial) in a strong and unequivocal way, asserting that the weapon that was used was a wrench," Mr Gormly said.
"Mr Bates misled the jury and the judge as to the evidence concerning the weapon."
Mr Bates and other lawyers and police officers who have been mentioned in the closing submissions will have a chance to address the CCC next week.
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