STORY: "Sharon Mason murder: Bid to clear man jailed for murder of Perth teenage girl," by reporter Tony Barrass, published by Perth Now on December 23, 3017.
GIST: "Eminent
QC Malcolm McCusker believes that “significant evidence” was withheld
from the 1994 trial of notorious child killer Arthur Greer, who is still
in jail for the mutilation murder of schoolgirl Sharon Mason 35 years
ago. Mr McCusker, who
successfully argued to have the High Court quash Andrew Mallard’s murder
conviction, has written a letter to Greer offering to work pro bono
on an appeal. “I have great sympathy for your plight,” Mr McCusker wrote. And
in a separate development surrounding the case, Prisoners Review Board
chairman Robert Cock has agreed to bring forward Greer’s parole hearing
to January which could see him free within weeks and deported to his
native UK. If he is not
granted parole – which must be approved by Attorney-General John Quigley
and Governor Kerry Sanderson — new laws to be introduced next year will
allow Mr McCusker to go directly to the Court of Appeal in a bid to
overturn Greer’s conviction. The
Prisoner Review Board has approved Greer’s release on a previous
occasion only to be overruled by former attorney-general Michael
Mischin, who also refused to refer the matter to the Court of Appeal. A
growing number of respected legal minds are now comparing Greer’s case
to the infamous Beamish, Mallard and Button wrongful convictions that
rocked the State’s justice system. “Apart
from the insufficiency of the evidence which resulted in your
conviction on a retrial, it appears there was a withholding of
significant evidence,” Mr McCusker, a former WA Governor, wrote in a
letter to Greer in October. Now
80, in ill health in Acacia Prison, Greer was convicted of murdering
Sharon Mason at his Mosman Park dress shop in 1983, dismembering her
body and burying her remains under a shed in the back carpark. He was
charged a decade later when her remains were discovered by two bobcat
drivers digging up a carpark behind the old Stirling Highway shops. Greer,
who had a long criminal record, was found guilty of wilful murder in a
1993 trial, but due to a legal technicality, that conviction was
overturned and a retrial a year later convicted him of the lesser charge
of murder, with a minimum of seven years. Since
then, there have been questions about the investigation generally and
the forensic evidence in particular. Two of WA’s most respected forensic
pathologists have theorised Sharon Mason’s remains may have been frozen
for some years before they were buried and then discovered behind where
Greer’s business had once been. Mr
Quigley, who in Opposition expressed concerns about the integrity of
Greer’s conviction, would not comment on the matter yesterday, only to
say new laws would remove politicians from a process that should be
unique to the courts. “If
anyone has viable grounds for appeal, then that should be determined by
the courts, not by a politician. The Attorney-General should not be the
gatekeeper of such things,” he said. Mr McCusker, who did not wish to comment to The Sunday Times, told Greer in the October 26 letter that he agreed with fellow QC Tom Percy, who has long fought for Greer’s release. He
stated the new laws would “enable a person who has fresh and compelling
evidence that there has been a miscarriage of justice, to apply
directly to the Court of Appeal, rather than go ... to the
Attorney-General, the present position”."
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/sharon-mason-murder-bid-to-clear-man-jailed-for-murder-of-perth-teenage-girl-ng-b88698611z
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/sharon-mason-the-teenage-murder-mystery-that-shook-perth-ng-b88699046z
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/c
The entire story can be found at:
See also a related story at the link below: (Sharon Mason: The teenage murder mystery that shook Perth.) " Nine years later, a major murder investigation exploded into life with the gruesome discovery behind the old shops. A
cursory check of the tenants in 1983 turned up Prunella Fashions, a
dress shop owned by Arthur Boycott Greer. Records showed Greer sold the
business five months after Sharon’s disappearance and moved on. It
turned out that “Paddy” Greer, a volatile character who had arrived in
Australia in the 1960s from the hard streets of Belfast, had a
substantial criminal record, including two counts of sexual assault and
an attempted murder conviction in NSW. He was also a known wife-beater. Bingo. Now
a caretaker of a block of Sackville Terrace units in Scarborough, Greer
was arrested and questioned at length. He denied any knowledge of
Sharon or her murder. Detectives
put it to Greer that Sharon, sick of her part-time job chopping up
squid in a fish-and-chip shop, was lured into Greer’s web by a sign in
Prunella’s window seeking a young assistant to work in the dress shop.
Once in there, they believed Greer murdered the youngster before
dismembering her body in the bathroom at the back of the store. Detectives
believed Greer then put Sharon’s remains into plastic bags the shop
used to transport garments and then buried the two separate bundles
underneath a small garden shed that sat a metre or so behind the shop in
the carpark. Arthur Boycott Greer was charged with the wilful murder of Sharon Mason in July 1992. The
Crown presented a purely circumstantial case. Nobody had seen Sharon
walk into Greer’s shop. Nobody testified that the pair had ever met. There
was no forensic evidence linking Greer to the skeletal or decomposing
remains. In fact, the only fingerprint found at the scene — on the
adhesive tape — was not his, the forensic officer Sheridan would later
tell Justice Len Roberts-Smith at Greer’s trial. The
yellow ribbon ties used to wrap up the plastic bags were similar to
those used in the dress shop, but Prunella’s was one of countless shops
that used the same type of ribbon. Greer
said he had never seen the grotesque mask that was uncovered at the
crime scene. However, his son, John, told police that he had seen his
father putting it on and skylarking around the shop. Greer
was convicted of wilful murder in 1993 and sentenced to strict security
life imprisonment, but due to a legal technicality, that conviction was
thrown out. At his
subsequent retrial the following year, he was convicted of the lesser
charge of murder and sentenced to life with a minimum of seven years. He
fought the conviction all the way to the High Court — represented in
May 1997 pro bono by no less a legal mind than the current WA Chief
Justice Wayne Martin. Unless Martin is a very good actor, one could
safely assume he also believes Greer’s conviction is unjust. He, of course, can’t comment in his current position. Since then, major concerns about what could well become WA’s biggest injustice will not go away. Clive
Cooke and Derek Pocock, both former WA chief forensic pathologists,
have over the years cast serious doubts over the Crown’s assertion as to
how Sharon’s remains came to be in the carpark. Dr
Pocock believes there was a notable difference in the “degree of
decomposition between the top part of the body and the bottom part” and
suspects the lower part may “have been frozen for a considerable part of
the nine years” that Sharon was missing. He
believes that “given the evidence stated in the post mortem report, it
is unlikely that the full facts and conclusions were presented to the
jury to enable them to come to a verdict”. There
are also numerous questions about plumbing and excavation work being
done over the crime scene years after Sharon went missing, yet no
remains were found when digging began in the same spot where Sharon’s
remains were eventually found. Paddy
Greer has now been in jail for 25 years. Private investigator Mick
Buckley, the Sellenger Centre at Edith Cowan University and eminent
lawyers Mark Trowell, Tom Percy, Jon Davies and now Malcolm McCusker all
suspect there has been a major miscarriage of justice."
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/sharon-mason-the-teenage-murder-mystery-that-shook-perth-ng-b88699046z
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/c
