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| NEWS > 26 February 2006 |
Other related articles:
Police arrest 12-year-old for
Police in Rock Hill South Carolina arrested an eager teenager for opening his Game Boy Christmas present early. The 12-year-old kid had taken the present that had been placed under the Christmas tree by his 27-year-old mother. On Sunday, the mother and the boy's great-grandmother couldn't find the present and threatened to call the police.
The boy fessed up, but the mother called the police anyways. Two Rock Hill police department officers arrived and arrested the boy for petty theft. While most people would say that it's impossible to steal a gift, the mother argued that the gift h... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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NEWS.com.au - Australia
26 February 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Police 'botched' murder probe
THE police case that resulted in the conviction of Andrew Mallard for the murder of Pamela Lawrence was deeply flawed, raising questions over whether the real killer will ever be known.
The decision this week to drop a wilful murder charge against Mr Mallard means highly contentious evidence may never be tested in court.
Mr Mallard, 43, this week walked free after almost 12 years behind bars. His conviction was quashed by the High Court in November because crucial evidence was withheld from the defence during his 1995 trial.
Mr Mallard's lawyers, working pro bono to exonerate him of the vicious 1994 killing, were preparing to allege a litany of police blunders at the re-trial scheduled for July.
They included that:
Police did not take a detailed statement, bloodied clothing or a vehicle from a person before he left the scene, contrary to accepted practice.
Clothing and a blood-stained vehicle were not seized for two days
Clothing was examined by a chemist, but not by a police blood-spatter expert
Mr Mallard could not have been wearing those clothes
Evidence suggests a member of Mrs Lawrence's family was at the scene before the ambulance arrived, but evidence has never been taken from her to ascertain if she saw anything relevant to the crime
Several witnesses saw someone suspicious fitting the description of a bearded man in a bandanna, which a schoolgirl gave to police, but those leads were not followed up
People offering information about men wearing bandannas were not interviewed by investigators
Mr Mallard's lawyers have been told that bloodied items have been destroyed, as has the property book that should have recorded who ordered the destruction
The statement of a witness at the scene was not taken for three days
There was an unexplained 20 minutes on the evening of the murder in one crucial recollection of events from a person of interest
A person handled Mrs Lawrence's handbag, pointing out that her purse was missing, after being told by a constable not to touch anything
Police did not search Mrs Lawrence's house in the days after the murder to see if her purse, which was the only item allegedly stolen, was there
A large drop of blood at the foot of a copper bath, capable of cleaning a murder weapon, in a shed at the back of the shop, was never explained
A wrench allegedly used by Mr Mallard (which was proved not to be the weapon) was reported missing more than two weeks after the murder, at the same time Mr Mallard was in police custody giving an unsigned, unrecorded "confession"
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Deputy Commissioner Chris Dawson refused to answer questions about the investigation.
"WA Police do not propose to debate the details of the Mallard case in the media," he said. "The proper forum for that now is the Corruption and Crime Commission inquiry instigated by Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan on 21 November, 2005. If the CCC so choose, WA Police would support any hearings into the Mallard case being held in an open forum."
Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock QC said in court this week that Mr Mallard was still the "prime suspect", despite the case being too weak to be retried.
Mr Cock said the charges were dropped because of a change in the law regarding video confessions.
He was confident of re-convicting Mr Mallard if 11 hours of unrecorded, unsigned police interviews could be admitted in court and if a 25-minute video interview was not of a "highly leading nature".
He said he was unimpressed by the blood-spatter report of Canadian expert Joe Slemko because there were credibility problems with Mr Slemko's work in the recent case of Rory Christie.
Mr Cock said: "In Christie, there were to be a number of very considerable anomalies capable of being exposed (and) I was warned that for these reasons his conclusions were not reliable," Mr Cock said yesterday.
Mr Mallard and his family want interstate police to conduct a cold-case review. "We don't want to point the finger at anybody, we just want the investigation to finally be done properly," Mr Mallard said
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