|
Location |
Defendant(s) |
Date of Alleged Crime |
| Australia (NSW) |
Ananda Marga Trio |
Feb, June 1978 |
|
At 12:40 a.m. on February 13, 1978, a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel
on George St. in Sydney, Australia. The explosion occurred during a prime ministers' conference
attended by 12 prime ministers
of Asian and Pacific British Commonwealth countries. All were staying at the hotel. The
bomb had been placed in a trash bin in front of the hotel and exploded after
it was emptied into a trash truck. It killed two trash collectors and
a policeman who was standing in front of the hotel. It also injured
eleven others.
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Clicking Here
|
| Australia (NSW) |
Ljube Velevski |
June 1994 |
|
Ljube Velevski was convicted of murdering his wife, Snezana,
his daughter, Zaklina, age 6, and his twin
babies, Daniela and Dijana, age 3 months. The throats of
all the deceased had been cut. At trial, Velevski's defence argued
that Snezana had killed her three children, then herself. The killings
occurred in a three bedroom suburban house in Berkeley, Wollongong, New
South Wales. Velevski's parents lived with Velevski and his family at
the time of the killings.
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by Clicking Here
|
| Australia (SA) |
Frits Van Beelen |
July 15, 1971 |
|
Frits Van Beelen was convicted of
the murder of 15-year-old Deborah Leach. Leach was last seen near her
home in Adelaide at 4 p.m. on July 15, 1971. She was crossing a
paddock and heading towards the beach. The beach was covered with
seagrass that was up to 2 meters (6-7 feet) high. Her
partially clothed body was found at 4:20 a.m. the next morning in the seagrass. There were no signs of bruising to
her body
and a medical examiner ruled that she had been drowned.
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by Clicking Here
|
| Australia (SA) |
Raymond Geesing |
Jan 4-5, 1983 |
|
Raymond John Geesing was convicted of the abduction and murder of
10-year-old Louise Bell. Bell was last seen at 10 p.m. on Jan 4, 1983
in the bedroom of her family home at 5 Meadow Way in Hackham West, an
Adelaide suburb. She was discovered missing the next morning and her body has never been found. Geesing was convicted of the crime in
1983 due to the testimony of four prison informants who alleged he had
confessed to them. One informant later retracted his original
statement and the testimony of another informant was declared inadmissible.
In 1985 an appeals court overturned Geesing's conviction after ruling that the
prison informants were unreliable and untrustworthy witnesses. The
court also ordered that there be no retrial. Geesing was released
after serving 17 months of a life sentence. (JD33
p30) (Sydney
Morning Herald) (Video)
(Video
Part 2) [11/09] |
| Australia (SA) |
Henry Keogh |
Mar 18, 1994 |
|
Henry Vincent Keogh was convicted of the murder of his 29-year-old fiancée,
Anna-Jane Cheney. Cheney was found dead in the bathtub of the home that the
two shared on Homes Ave. in Magill, an Adelaide suburb. On the day of her death, Cheney finished work and met
Keogh in a local hotel where the two had wine and potato wedges. Both of
them went home to Anna's house, but drove there in separate cars. Cheney then took her dog to her sister-in-law's
house and the two women walked their dogs in a local park. After Cheney returned
home, Keogh went to visit his mother. Keogh returned home around
9:30 p.m. and found Cheney slumped in her bathtub
with her face underwater. He claimed he tried to resuscitate her, but
neither he nor paramedics were successful. Cheney's blood alcohol
level was later determined to be .08%, a moderate level of intoxication.
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|
| Australia (VIC) |
Tomas Klamo |
July 2005 |
|
Tomas Klamo was convicted of manslaughter in the alleged shaking death of his four-week-old
son, Izaiah. Klamo admitted to having
shaken Izaiah a little harder than normal a week or two before his death.
Izaiah subsequently died of a brain hemorrhage. At trial the crown's medical expert was unable to say what caused the
hemorrhage, but said he did not believe it was caused by shaking as Izaiah
had no other injuries consistent with shaking. Klamo was sentenced to
5 years of imprisonment. On appeal in 2008, the Victorian Supreme Court of
Appeal found the evidence against Klamo was insufficient to convict. It
quashed his conviction and ordered his acquittal. (R
v. Klamo) (Herald
Sun) [11/09] |
| Australia (WA) |
Walsham Three |
Feb 28, 1998 (Stirling) |
|
Salvatore (Sam) Fazzari, Jose Martinez, and Carlos Pereiras were convicted
in 2006 of the murder of 21-year-old Phillip Walsham. The three
allegedly pushed Walsham off of a pedestrian bridge that spanned a highway
onramp.
At approximately 2:12 a.m. on Feb. 28, 1998, Walsham had gotten off a train
at Stirling station with two friends, Craig Betts and Spencer Toogood.
Betts walked ahead of Toogood and Walsham. When Toogood realized that
Walsham was not following, he went back to the station and found Walsham
there. Walsham was heavily intoxicated and not feeling well.
Toogood then set off to catch up with Betts.
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|
| New Zealand |
David Bain |
June 20, 1994 (Dunedin) |
|
David Cullen Bain was convicted of murdering his mother Margaret, 50,
his father Robin, 58, sisters Arawa, 19, and Laniet, 18, and brother
Stephen, 14. All had died from .22 gunshot wounds to their heads.
The murders occurred at 65 Every Street, Anderson's Bay, Dunedin.
Twenty-two-year-old David was arrested four days after making a frantic 111 call from the family
home. Police responding to the emergency found him huddled in the house
babbling incoherently. At trial, David's defense argued that his
father Robin killed the family then himself while David was out doing his
early morning paper run. David has consistently maintained his
innocence.
The evidence
against Robin appears to be greater than that against David, but since none
of it is especially strong, one can assume that the evidence against both is
evenly divided. Depending on the
weight one puts on various pieces of evidence, it is possible to believe
either one of them is the likely perpetrator. However, reasonable doubt
attaches to David because a plausible case can always be made that Robin is the
perpetrator. The motive evidence is stronger against Robin.
Other
evidence shows the perpetrator had fought with Stephen, and Robin had six
recent abrasions on his hands. These abrasions were alleged to be due
to Robin's replacement of spouting at the family home.
After exhausting his appeals in New
Zealand, David appealed to England's Privy Counsel, and in 2007 it
quashed his conviction as a miscarriage of justice, based on new evidence
that the Crown reportedly disputes. David was subsequently released on bail
by the Christchurch High Court. Two 1997 books were published on the
Bain case, the pro-defense David and Goliath by Joe Karam, and the
pro-prosecution The Mask of Sanity by James McNeish. (NZCity)
(NZ
Herald) (FJDB)
[10/08] |
|