PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the roughly 10 years since I began publishing The Charles Smith Blog some of the issues I have explored - as well as some of the cases I have been following - have become the subject matter of books. This prompted me recently - as I searched anxiously for ways of keeping me occupied during the languid summer hours - other than sitting on the patio, drinking a cool glass of white wine, and reading the latest Steven King - it occurred to me that a book review series based in my previous posts from the outset of the Blog would be just what the pathologist ordered. I would invite my readers to offer me their own suggestions for inclusion by email to hlevy15@gmail.com. Have a great summer.
Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "It is interesting to note that the prosecutor in the Szach case, many years later, sat as the judge in the trial of Lloyd Rayney, the barrister in Western Australia accused of the murder of his wife. The judge said that a careful analysis of the time line of the known occurrences on the evening Mrs Rayney died was not consistent with the Crown case. In Tom Mann’s analysis of the Stevenson case, he makes out a very similar argument concerning the time line of the various actions which had taken place on the evening Stevenson was killed. In retrospect, it seems that Szach, without any training, would have had to combine the skills of a trained assassin, a master of disguise and a highly skilled rally driver to achieve what on Mann’s view would still have been impossible."
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BOOK REVIEW: Dr. Bob Moles reviews "The body in the freezer" by writer Tom Mann, in a CLA ASN publication dated January 13, 2016 - 'Disguised assassin’ rallies for innocence." Dr Bob Moles ACII (UK) LLB (Hons) (Belfast), PhD (Edinburgh), Networked Knowledge, was previously Associate Professor in Law at Adelaide University, Senior Lecturer in Law at the Australian National University and Lecturer in Law and Jurisprudence at Queen’s University, Belfast. Dr Moles was prime mover in the campaign which produced the new ‘Right To Appeal’ ;aw in South Australia in 2013 which is permitting the new appeals shining light into the dark crevises of a state’s ‘justice’ system gone feral."
SUB-HEADING: "Body in the Freezer, Tom Mann: David Szach stayed locked up for murder, refusing to admit guilt, Now, 40 years later, he still fights to secure justice."
GIST: This is the second book by Tom Mann on serious wrongful convictions
in South Australia. The first was the story of Edward Splatt, convicted
of murder and subsequently granted a pardon after a Royal Commission
found that all of the forensic evidence in the case was substantially
flawed. In
this book, Mann deals with an even more intriguing case. It involves
the assassination of a high profile criminal lawyer, and the alleged
wrongful conviction of his young partner for the murder. It is set against a background of drugs, sex and the homophobia which
was undoubtedly part of the reaction to gay relationships in the 1970s.
Adelaide was the town in which a young law lecturer had been drowned a
few years earlier after he was thrown into the river near the law
faculty at which he worked. Although it was thought that police officers
had been involved in the incident, subsequent attempts to convict them
were unsuccessful. So, one day in 1979, Derrance Stevenson failed to turn up to court.
The police are asked to investigate and a short time later they find his
body in the freezer at his home-office. He had been killed by a single
shot to the back of the head. It had all the signs of a professional
hit. Cold, calculated…and with everything done to confuse the
investigation. Remarkably, the pathologist who is assigned to the case subsequently
claims to be able to determine a reasonably precise time of death, which
just happens to coincide with a witness who saw Stevenson’s young
boyfriend at the premises around that time. As the prosecutor said, ‘the
objective and scientific evidence means that he was dead by 6.40, and
the accused was there.’ If true, there can be only one explanation. The
jury accepted that explanation and convicted David Szach of the murder. However, once Tom Mann begins to set out the detailed evidence
surrounding the case, the clarity and confidence in the verdict cannot
be maintained. It is now clear that the forensic evidence relating to
the time of death was unreliable. It is also clear that the person who
gave that evidence, Dr Colin Manock, has been discredited. His evidence
in the case of Henry Keogh was recently determined by the Court of
Appeal to amount to no more than unwarranted and prejudicial
speculation. David Szach has professed his innocence in this matter for over 35
years. He refused to apply for parole. Eventually the government of
South Australia passed special legislation to allow the head of the
parole board to make the application on his behalf. It was hardly
surprising then that the board granted his parole and David was
unceremoniously bundled out of the Adelaide prison in an attempt to
avoid further embarrassment. The timing of the publication of this book has been well-planned. It
comes after South Australia introduced new laws in 2013 to grant a
person claiming to have been wrongly convicted a right of direct access
to the courts for a further appeal. When Szach applied for legal aid to exercise that right, he was
refused. It seems that such funding is only available for those at risk
of going to prison. David had long since finished his sentence. Determined to find justice: However, David is nothing if not determined. Despite the fact that he
has been suffering from motor-neurone disease, he has been a skilled
and persistent advocate in his own cause. He has collated materials, and
worked with media outlets in his attempt to inform the public, not just
of his own case but of the serious systemic errors which have occurred
in the criminal justice system in South Australia. Anyone reading this book by Tom Mann will marvel that it has not as
yet been made into a feature film. Perhaps, after the next few months,
it will be. David has now secured the assistance of Australia’s largest
class-action law firm – Maurice Blackburn – to present his case for a
further appeal. I would encourage any journalist, or other interested
people, who will be covering or following the appeal to obtain a copy of
Mann’s book. It will provide essential reading for what is to come. The Crown’s case is that David, with no history of violence or
criminality of any description, spontaneously and without reason decided
to murder the one person who had shown him some love and kindness.
Whatever you may think of a lawyer in his forties developing an intimate
relationship with a young boy in his teens, the two of them had been in
a stable relationship for some years.
https://www.cla.asn.au/News/disguised-assassin-rallies-for-his-innocence/
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/
According to the Crown case, the young David shot Stevenson in the
back of his head using a pillow to muffle the sound. He then, without
assistance, folded the body up and placed it in a freezer. He remembered
to put super-glue around the lid of the freezer before closing it. He
then cleaned up the scene. Later that evening he called a taxi to the
premises, and then left in the taxi wearing a raincoat and glasses
somewhat similar to those sometimes worn by Derrance. The Crown says that later that evening he left town in Derrance’s
sports car and drove hundreds of kilometres, during the night, to Coober
Pedy. In those days, in the late 1970s, parts of the road were no more
than a rough and winding dirt track. He apparently covered the distance
in a time which would have exceeded the abilities of skilled rally
drivers. Mystery man seeks help, disappears: The following morning a young man turned up at the legal advice
centre in Adelaide. He was looking for a lawyer to help him. In speaking
to the receptionist, he mentioned that Derrance Stevenson had helped
him in the past but, he intimated, when he left him the previous evening
‘he was in no condition to act for anyone’. The young man was never
seen or heard of again. There is a clear possibility that the young man may have been the
victim of what became known as the ‘family murders’ in Adelaide. The
killers of Stevenson may have got to him before he could tell what he’d
seen. The family murders were a series of killings involving young men,
homosexuals, and the bizarre mutilations of bodies which involved some
degree of surgical skills or medical knowledge. Murders, which to this
day, remain largely unsolved. They took place within a short time after
the Stevenson murder. The history of wrongful convictions is littered with cases involving
tunnel vision. Police and prosecutors are sometimes keen to reassure the
public that things are under control, especially when particularly
horrific murders have occurred. Sometimes, the most obvious suspect
turns out to be the wrong suspect. It is interesting to note that the prosecutor in the Szach case, many
years later, sat as the judge in the trial of Lloyd Rayney, the
barrister in Western Australia accused of the murder of his wife. The
judge said that a careful analysis of the time line of the known
occurrences on the evening Mrs Rayney died was not consistent with the
Crown case. In Tom Mann’s analysis of the Stevenson case, he makes out a
very similar argument concerning the time line of the various actions
which had taken place on the evening Stevenson was killed. In
retrospect, it seems that Szach, without any training, would have had to
combine the skills of a trained assassin, a master of disguise and a
highly skilled rally driver to achieve what on Mann’s view would still
have been impossible. Fortunately for us, the deficiencies in this case will not be left
hanging for much longer. Following hard on the 2015-16 heels of the
overturning of the Keogh conviction after 20 years imprisonment will be
the further appeals in another two notorious South Australian cases:
Frits Van Beelen convicted of the murder of a young girl in the early
1970s, and Derek Bromley, convicted in 1984 of the murder of a young man
by throwing him into the River Torrens. This was the same river where
law lecturer Dr George Duncan had been killed by being thrown in some 12
years earlier. Along with those cases will be the appeal for David Szach. Having
read Tom Mann’s book, I would be very surprised if it is not determined
that Mr Szach has been the victim of a ‘substantial miscarriage of
justice’. Hopefully, that will re-awaken some desire on the part of the
police in South Australia to identify and apprehend those who were truly
responsible for this horrific and audacious crime."
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PURCHASING INFORMATION: Body in the Freezer: the case of David Szach, by Tom Mann, Griffin Press (2015) ISBN: 978-0-9944162-0-9 – $25. Available from http://booksupport.net.au/ – or contact tom.mann1@bigpond.com $25, including postage, direct from the author."
The entire review can be found at the link below:
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PURCHASING INFORMATION: Body in the Freezer: the case of David Szach, by Tom Mann, Griffin Press (2015) ISBN: 978-0-9944162-0-9 – $25. Available from http://booksupport.net.au/ – or contact tom.mann1@bigpond.com $25, including postage, direct from the author."
The entire review can be found at the link below:
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/
