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Case Reports - Criminal Law Case Dismissed: Murder, memory and mistaken identity In June 1996, Mr A was charged (along with two other people) with the murder of S. In June this year, his case was discharged by Magistrate Mr Michael Price. The key to our success in this case was the crucial evidence we discovered upon the subpoenaed full police brief. This evidence helped to refute eyewitness accounts and to clear our client of the charge. The victim, S, died several days after a brawl at Kings Cross. Our client had been present for part of the events leading up to the victim’s death. In an interview he admitted he had slapped the victim but was then pushed back. He claimed he was not involved in any other way, denying kicking or punching the victim. He also advised he became upset about what was going on and had left before the attack and walked in the direction of William Street, towards the Illusions Nightclub. However, there were significant problems our client had to overcome. A number of witnesses said that Mr A had been involved in kicking and punching the deceased prior to and during the time he was on the ground. Two other witnesses said that one of the attackers was wearing a blue and white tracksuit top (Mr A had been wearing a blue and white Olympus top). In preparing the case we subpoenaed all of the police brief. This proved crucial. The brief contained statements from witnesses which the police had marked 'not applicable' and had not served. These statements varied substantially from subsequent statements which had been served by them. The brief also referred to a Westpac video, taken of persons using a Westpac ATM in the vicinity of the assault and at the time of the assault. This video had captured our client several times. Importantly, stills from the video placed our client at the back of the crowd observing the incident. It also captured our client leaving in the direction of William Street (as he had indicated). All eyewitness accounts agreed that the attackers left the scene by running up Springfield Mall (in the opposite direction). Two witnesses said that from the time the victim fell, only one or two persons were involved in kicking him. The descriptions given were consistent with the two co-accused, but did not fit our client. Another witness had said that he could recognise a third attacker and that he had been wearing a blue Adidas sweat jumper, one that pulls over the head. In the video images of our client, it was clear that he was wearing a blue Olympus jacket that zipped up. Friends of the deceased said they were uncertain as to whether they had seen Mr A do anything at all to the victim. In fact, both agreed that he may have tried to be a peacemaker in the situation. It was from this memory that they had, in fact, mistakenly identified our client as the attacker. Back to full list of case reports |
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