Australia: Crooked policing costs a life -- but the crooks escape any penalty

Police misconduct that led to the wrong man being jailed for nearly 12 years on a murder charge may have allowed the real murderer to kill again.

West Australian Andrew Mallard was convicted in 1995 of killing Pamela Lawrence, who was bludgeoned to death at her central Perth jewellery shop.

In 2006, Mr Mallard was released from jail after the Australian High Court quashed his conviction after it deemed the only evidence linking him to the crime were his "bizarre and fanciful statements" to police.

The court noted that only one of the police interviews was recorded and another was conducted while Mr Mallard was a patient at a mental hospital.

A cold case review of Ms Lawrence's murder found a previously unidentified bloodied palm print at the crime scene belonged to Simon Rochford. Rochford killed his girlfriend nearly six weeks after Ms Lawrence's murder.

He committed suicide in jail in 2006 within days of being questioned over Ms Lawrence's death, after the new evidence emerged. He is now the chief suspect.

WA's Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) recommended disciplinary action against WA Police Assistant Commissioners Mal Shervill and Dave Caporn, who investigated the case as detectives in 1995.

The CCC also recommended disciplinary action against senior Director of Public Prosecutions lawyer Ken Bates. But all three officers resigned and so avoided the public service disciplinary process.

Mr Mallard has told ABC's Australian Story program that the officers need to be made accountable for their actions and he believed there was a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. "Had the police done their job properly from the beginning, I would have been eliminated as a suspect. "They would probably or likely have arrested Rochford before he killed his girlfriend. So they're responsible for another death," Mr Mallard said.

WA's shadow attorney-general John Quigley, who as a lawyer helped expose Mr Mallard's wrongful conviction along with journalist and author Colleen Egan, agrees a second murder could have been prevented. "Another woman's life in all likelihood would have been saved."

Mr Quigley said the prosecutor, Mr Bates, had repeatedly said that Mr Mallard murdered Ms Lawrence by beating her about the head with a wrench. But at the same time he had a report which said a test done on a pig's head had convinced the pathologist that a wrench could not have inflicted Ms Lawrence's injuries, Mr Quigley said. He said this was crucial evidence Mr Bates wrongly kept from the court.

WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said it was frustrating there had been no outcome for Mr Mallard. "There was no positive outcome for the WA Police either because we were never able to bring it to a resolution in a way that would have boosted the community's confidence in what we do."

Mr Mallard was awarded $3.25 million in compensation by the WA government and is moving to London to start a Masters degree in Fine Art.

Original report here




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