"Ian Henschke: … we’ve been told by Bob Moles that the petition has been on the desk of the Attorney-General , this is the way he put it, for 18 months and the Solicitor-General is looking at it; he’s wondering why it’s taking so long to get a final decision on it?)
John Rau: Well, if it’s been on there for 18 months it didn’t come to me … it came to my predecessor.
Ian Henschke: … in fact this is why the billboards are out there – ‘We ask that you send an email to the Attorney-General, John Rau, demanding Henry Keogh’s case be sent back to the Court of Appeal’. So I suppose they’re hoping that you as the new Attorney-General will take a look at it but you’re saying you will look at it?
John Rau: I’m saying I’ll be guided by the Solicitor-General but I don’t wish that to imply that I have any reason to believe that something new has been revealed which changes the way the thing is presently.........
Ian Henschke: one of the things I think a lot of the listeners would like to know is who’s paying for these billboards and why are they out there at the moment?
Bob Moles: Okay, there’s a fellow called John Lewis who used to run Bulls Transport; he’s kindly decided to devote his time and some money to setting up these billboards because he’s convinced, like many other ordinary people, that Keogh did not get a fair trial. He knows that the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General have had compelling evidence on their desks for at least eight years."
ABC NEWS;
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PUBLISHER'S VIEW: : This Blog has devoted numerous posts to the conviction and incarceration of Henry Keogh in August 1995 for the murder of his fiancée, Anna Jane Cheney in the face of what Dr. Bob Moles, who has deeply investigated the case, has called "a combination of fraud, deceit and manifest error." Dr. Moles and his colleagues have launched one of the most thorough, intensive attacks on pathology evidence in a criminal case that I have ever seen - and have come up over the years with cogent new evidence destroying the prosecution's forensic case. It is most disturbing to note that the South Australian government has chosen to look the other way while this apparent miscarriage continues to fester and Henry Keogh remains behind bars. All that is being sought, in the face of the mountain of evidence discrediting the conviction is a fresh look by South Australia's Attorney General and an order for a new trial. This, however, appears to be too much to ask. The government's intransigence is all the more reason for the establishment, without delay, of an independent criminal cases review commission.
HAROLD LEVY: PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
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THE FOLLOWING INTERVIEW BETWEEN IAN HENSCHKE AND ATTORNEY ENERAL JOHN RAU WAS BROADCAST ON ABC RADIO ON JULY 27, 2011
"Ian Henschke: … before you leave us … driving around Adelaide recently you might have noticed these mobile billboards; they were around a while ago demanding justice for Henry Keogh, they’ve popped up again … I understand that a petition has gone to you as the new Attorney-General asking you to in effect look at this case again and give … the Keogh case another look and another trial. Your reaction to the petition?
John Rau: Well look, I don’t recall having seen a petition; that doesn’t mean it hasn’t turned up and I am aware that there are people who for a long time have been concerned about this case and from time to time that concern bubbles over into a public debate about the matter. Some time ago I asked the Solicitor-General to have a look at the material and he’s got a number of things to do but he’s working his way through that material. I have to say though my predecessor had this matter looked at and I’m sure it’s been looked at a number of times. At this stage nobody has been able to ascertain that there are things which are so wrong about this case that require some intervention which is outside of the current judicial system. Now, if the Solicitor-General tells me that there is some thing there which others have not found then obviously I’d have a good think about that.
Ian Henschke: … we’ve been told by Bob Moles that the petition has been on the desk of the Attorney-General , this is the way he put it, for 18 months and the Solicitor-General is looking at it; he’s wondering why it’s taking so long to get a final decision on it?)
John Rau: Well, if it’s been on there for 18 months it didn’t come to me … it came to my predecessor.
Ian Henschke: … in fact this is why the billboards are out there – ‘We ask that you send an email to the Attorney-General, John Rau, demanding Henry Keogh’s case be sent back to the Court of Appeal’. So I suppose they’re hoping that you as the new Attorney-General will take a look at it but you’re saying you will look at it?
John Rau: I’m saying I’ll be guided by the Solicitor-General but I don’t wish that to imply that I have any reason to believe that something new has been revealed which changes the way the thing is presently. But if the Solicitor-General said to me ‘I’ve found some matter here that others have not found and it warrants looking at, I would look at it but nothing that he has said to me or anyone else has said to me suggests that there has been any change in that particular regard.
Ian Henschke: Alright, thank you very much for your time.
Introducing Dr Bob Moles, just before we begin, you’ve got an Honours Law Degree from Belfast, you’ve taught at the University of Belfast, the ANU and Adelaide University … you’re a specialist in the law –
Bob Moles: And then we have a PhD from Edinburgh as well.
Ian Henschke: John Rau was just saying if there’s any new evidence – now you’re saying that you’ve just published a book, September last year, that says that the Keogh case is like no other case you’ve ever seen in any jurisdiction like ours?
Bob Moles: Okay, let me just explain the book that we published last year is called Forensic Investigations and Miscarriages of Justice. It examines the law and forensic cases in Australia, Britain and Canada; it doesn’t go into the detail of the Keogh case because we published a book covering that some time before. What I’m saying is there is no other case in Australia, Britain or Canada which has the same combination of errors as the Keogh case has. In the Keogh case we have the prosecution witnesses who have given evidence, forensic witnesses who’ve given evidence before the Medical Board and the Medical Tribunal. On at least 10 issues in their sworn evidence, long after the trial, they have admitted that the evidence they gave at trial was either incorrect or they’ve contradicted the evidence they gave at trial and that makes it a most unusual case. Because normally when you go on appeal you’re merely making allegations of error but now we have admissions of error by the witnesses in the case and it’s given in sworn evidence in other proceedings. And under the law laid down by the High Court, if you only had one such error you’re absolutely entitled to have the conviction set aside and we’ve got at least 10 of them.
Ian Henschke: And why these billboards now then?
Bob Moles: Well, because the thing has gone on for so long. When the Attorney-General says ‘Well if anything new has come up’ – well in fact we don’t need anything new. Within two weeks of the Keogh trial concluding the Coroner issued his findings in the baby deaths case. Those findings were completed before Keogh’s trial took place and were withheld during his trial. At the time at which they were published, that became a conclusive reason and it still is a conclusive reason for setting the conviction aside. Because in those baby deaths findings they cast serious questions about the competence and integrity of one of the prosecution witnesses at the trial and that evidence should have been available at Keogh’s trial.
Ian Henschke: one of the things I think a lot of the listeners would like to know is who’s paying for these billboards and why are they out there at the moment?
Bob Moles: Okay, there’s a fellow called John Lewis who used to run Bulls Transport; he’s kindly decided to devote his time and some money to setting up these billboards because he’s convinced, like many other ordinary people, that Keogh did not get a fair trial. He knows that the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General have had compelling evidence on their desks for at least eight years.
Ian Henschke: How does John Lewis know about the legal matters?
Bob Moles: Because we’ve explained them to him and even he can understand. He says ‘Look, I’m not a lawyer, I’m just an ordinary person’. I frequently give talks at Rotary and Probus and things like that and ordinary people can understand when a fairly basic error has been made - and we have quite an accumulation of them. So John Lewis simply decided that as we’ve got a new Attorney-General we should do some new signs and bring them around the town to let the people in South Australia know that the legal system here in respect of criminal appeals isn’t working properly.
Ian Henschke: Alright, thanks for your time this morning … you’ll see these signs around town … over the next weeks and months ahead and we’ll follow up with Attorney-General, John Rau, what the Solicitor-General says about the petition."
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The story can be found at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/16/2956081.htm
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
