GIST: "A man who was wrongly convicted and
jailed for nearly 20 years for drowning his fiancée in the bath has
spoken for the first time about his new-found freedom, and how he is
rebuilding his life after one of Australia’s worst miscarriages of
justice. Henry Keogh, now 60, has spoken out for the first time about his first taste of freedom and falling in love again behind bars. Keogh
was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for the drowning of Anna-Jane
Cheney based on the now discredited autopsy findings of Chief Forensic
Pathologist Dr. Colin Manock. The conviction was quashed in December 2014 but to make
the injustice even more shocking, Sunday Night can reveal an
independent report could have freed him in 2004 but gathered dust on a
shelf for nearly 10 years. Keogh’s conviction was not overturned until
December 2014. "Henry Keogh was convicted for
something that never happened, that is abundantly clear. There is no
evidence of a criminal event having occurred at all," long-time advocate
for Keogh, Dr Bob Moles, said.........Keogh says the
biggest tragedy of the case that saw him wrongly imprisoned is that no
one knows exactly what happened to Anna-Jane that night. His memory of finding her still brings him to tears. "Because
the autopsy was so deficient and so defective we will never know what
it might have been and that has to be one of the biggest tragedies of
this whole case, you know, we will ever know exactly why Anna died." Reporter
Graham Archer who would later present more that 60 stories about
Henry's case said it appeared Anna-Jane's death was simply a tragic
accident. "From the scene there was no suspicion
raised. Henry had no injuries on him, Anna-Jane had none to speak of,
there was nothing there that suggested this was a murder," Archer told
Sunday Night. But days later police thought they had found compelling circumstantial evidence pointing to a motive for murder. There were alleged affairs, and Henry had taken out five life insurance policies in Anna-Jane’s name and forged her signature. He admitted to the suspicious nature of the insurance
policies, explaining them away as an insider industry practice, but
believed the physical evidence would rule him out. "I'm thinking, well, this madness is going to stop as soon as the results of the autopsy are going to come in." However,
the autopsy performed by South Australia's chief forensic pathologist
Dr Colin Manock generated a theory that would be the smoking gun in the
case against Henry Keogh. He
began his autopsy two days after Anna-Jane was found drowned in the
bath but revisited the body when he learned Henry was under suspicion. The theory he presented was that bruising on her legs indicated they had been gripped and raised above her head. What
Henry didn’t know at the time was that Dr Manock was appointed to South
Australia’s top forensic position without all the necessary
qualifications. Dr Manock presented his theory to a
jury, claiming the bruises he found were newly inflicted and that
Anna-Jane had been conscious when she was drowned. "You're
just struck with disbelief that this is even happening, I couldn't
believe it. Could not believe it," Keogh said about his two trials. After two weeks of evidence, the jury could not reach a verdict. The result was a hung jury and a retrial was ordered. Henry was found guilty. "I
felt sick, I was numb, I was bewildered, there's this disconnect;
intellectually you might hear what they are saying when in your heart
you know you haven’t done anything." His daughter Elise was just 12 when her father was sent to prison. "When
he was in prison we couldn't call him, he could only call us. When dad
called us we knew that he was doing well. When we didn't hear from him
we knew he wasn't doing well," she said. It
would be five years before experts discovered the serious flaws in the
evidence Dr Colin Manock presented at Henry’s trial, Bob Moles among
them. "One can be quite confident that there was no murder," Dr Moles said. "Henry Keogh's conviction is probably the worst of the wrongful conviction cases that we have ever had in Australia." More
disturbing still is the fact that Dr Manock performed 10,000 autopsies
in the 30 years he held his position, presenting expert evidence at 400
trials. Alarm
bells about his competency had already been raised in the early 1990s,
surrounding the deaths of three babies in separate incidents. All of them showed horrendous signs of abuse with one even suffering fifteen fractures. "[Dr Manock] said they died of bronchopneumonia," Dr Moles said. Graham Archer said, "It so shocked police and doctors that they demanded an inquest be held." The
coroner was scathing of Dr Manock during the inquest, saying he had
made serious errors and had even been 'spurious' in some of the answers
he gave. Dr Manock later retracted key parts of his
evidence from the Keogh case when appearing before the Medical Board of
South Australia. Furthermore, in 2004, an
independent review of Henry’s case by a government appointed medical
expert, Professor Barrie Vernon-Roberts, found there was no evidence
Anna-Jane had been murdered. The report was shelved in a government office and was not discovered until 2014. In a meeting with Sunday Night, Dr Manock did not accept there was any problem with his evidence. Henry and his family stand alongside those who helped free him as staunch advocates for change in the justice system. "Something has got to be done to make sure I am one of the last," Henry said."
The entire story can be found at:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/a/32015794/love-death-and-a-miscarriage-of-justice-how-henry-keogh-was-locked-up-for-20-years-for-a-crime-he-did-not-commit/#page1
See related news.com.au story at the link below; (Henry Keogh spent 21 years in prison for a murder he never committed); "Was she murdered? Things took a sudden turn. Questions
started being asked and there were facts that raised suspicions. Alleged
affairs didn’t look good. Either did the five life insurance policies
Keogh had taken out in Anna-Jane’s name — forging her signature [for
which he was never charged]. Reports suggest the combined pay off from the policies would have totalled $1.2 million. The
court was told the numerous policies he’d taken in his wife’s name is
known as “tombstoning” — a common practice in the insurance world that
usually involves agents submitting names of dead or fictitious people to
earn commissions. Two days after Anna-Jane’s death, South
Australia’s chief forensic pathologist Dr Colin Manock performed an
autopsy and didn’t raise any concerns. But after hearing about the
suspicions over insurance policies, he examined the body again. His
re-examination lead him to form a “grip theory” — which he says
explained faint bruises on the outside of her left leg. He said there
was a key thumb bruise on the outside of the left leg and suggested her
legs had been lifted over her head in the bathtub which ended in her
being drowned.
Keogh only realised the trouble he was in when he was arrested. Dr
Manock insisted all the slides he’d taken showed signs of bruising and
told the jury Anna-Jane’s death was an assisted drowning — concluding
she’d been conscious when she went under water. Two trials later, a jury agreed. Keogh was found guilty in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison. “I felt sick. I was numb. I was bewildered,” he tells
Sunday Night.
“There’s this disconnect. Intellectually you might hear what they’re
saying but in your heart, when you know you haven’t done anything, you
can’t switch that off.” The holes:
“Henry Keogh was
convicted for something that never happened,” law professor Dr Bob Moles
tells the program, adding “one can be confident no murder no physical
assault” took place. Dr Moles began scrutinising the Keogh case in the
late 1990s and found substantial flaws in Dr Manock’s evidence. It was discovered Dr Manock did not follow proper procedure and did not have sufficient evidence to back up his conclusions. When
he was made South Australia’s chief forensic pathologist in 1968, he
had no formal qualifications as a pathologist. His reputation began to
unravel and now many cases involving evidence he provided are now in
question.
Ten
years after Keogh’s conviction, Dr Manock admitted there was no thumb
bruise to support his “grip theory”. It’s pointed out in the
Sunday Night investigation
there’s a test that would’ve concluded if the bruises on Anna-Jane’s
leg occurred when she drowned. Dr Manock didn’t do the test. In 2014,
the conviction was squashed after it was found there had been a
miscarriage of justice due to flawed forensic evidence. And in
Sunday Night’s investigation
tonight, evidence is revealed that could have set him free earlier.
Instead, it sat on a government shelf for 10 years."
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/henry-keogh-spent-21-years-in-prison-for-a-murder-he-never-committed/news-story/e2a55287eefdf598f7a8e198bee2c44b
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses
several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of
the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this
powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and
myself get more out of the site.
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
Please
send any comments or information on other cases and issues of
interest to the readers of this blog to:
hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
