Australia: Police sued over murder charge

About time police got sued for arresting people on suspicion only!

POLICE had no evidence against a man they arrested for a 2001 murder and had merely been trying to satisfy a theory they'd concocted, a court has been told. The case – which looms as a test of the standard of evidence required by police to arrest and detain suspects – stems from the arrest of Toowoomba university student Neil Ferguson in 2001 after police alleged he had killed and dismembered a local drug user, Nicholas Moore.

Police made the grisly discovery of the headless, limbless torso at Helidon on May 5, 2001. Ten days later, police arrested Mark Ferguson. Believing the crime must have involved two people, police also arrested Mark's brother Neil Ferguson. Mark Ferguson's first trial ended in a hung jury and he died of an overdose before a second trial could begin. The case against Neil Ferguson was thrown out nine months after he was charged, when a Toowoomba magistrate found there was no evidence against him.

Neil Ferguson, 24, is suing the State Government and police officer Detective Senior-Sergeant Marc Hogan over his arrest, arguing that police made a quantum leap from believing he was at the crime scene about the time of the murder to believing him to be a murderer. He is claiming general damages of $250,000 and a further $200,000 in economic loss.

Senior police officers have admitted in evidence at a civil trial in Toowoomba Supreme Court this week that they had only circumstantial evidence against Neil Ferguson. Barrister Peter Nolan, for Neil Ferguson, said police had nothing more than a theory, and set about arresting two people who fitted their scenario. "That mindset makes the arrest of my client unlawful," he said. Justice Ann Lyons reserved her decision to a date to be fixed.

Report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)