CASE AGAINST HAGUE ‘DESPERATE,’ SAYS DEFENCE:
Accused innocent and prosecution ‘desperate’, defence tells jury
KARL Hague is an innocent man accused of Geelong’s 1995 Market Square murder because a procession of “crooks, thieves, addicts and drug dealers” lined up to fabricate evidence against him, his lawyers say.
In closing the defence of the accused killer yesterday, Felicity Gerry, QC, said the police investigation and prosecution of her client were dodgy, “stale” and “desperate”.
She said new witnesses who came forward last year were liars lured by the promise of a “life-changing” $1 million reward and a TV show that unfairly painted Mr Hague as the murderer.
She said they added no substance to a case that was deemed unfit for trial more than 20 years earlier, and was now tainted by the passage of time and publicity.
Mr Hague, 44, was 21 when he first became a suspect for the brutal stabbing of Ricky Balcombe at the Geelong shopping centre on May 5, 1995.
But Ms Gerry said police had no idea who the killer was, and it was doubtful the community would ever find out who knifed Ricky Balcombe or why.
But she said his membership of Geelong street gang the Main Stream Criminals could provide a clue.
She urged jurors not to be “duped” by the case presented by the prosecution over the past six weeks, saying they should have reasonable doubt he was the killer.
The fact DNA and fingerprint examinations failed to provide any evidence that linked the accused man to the crime, should bolster that doubt, she said.
“Given the level of dishonesty, the delay, the lack of co-operation from the Main Stream Criminals and all the other problems for the prosecution, the opportunity to identify the real killer is long gone,” Ms Gerry told the jury.
“There is a much greater likelihood that the attack on Ricky Balcombe was collateral damage in some sort of gang conflict (than carried out by Karl Hague).
Ms Gerry pointed to the fluctuating evidence of key witness Paul Bellia, who told the jury he saw Mr Hague stab his friend to death, but told a Geelong court in 1997 the murderer “could have been anyone”.
She said this was the only time Mr Bellia had given reliable evidence about the case over the past 23 years.
Mr Hague’s defence team also critiqued the performance of the two Homicide Squad detectives that led the murder investigation, Ron Iddles, now retired, and Detective Senior Constable Lisa Metcher.
Ms Gerry said a not-guilty verdict would put a “dent in officer Iddles’ CV” that was deserved because of the holes in the investigation, while Sen-Const Metcher should have done more to protect the integrity of the reopened investigation last year.
Ms Gerry said the fact Channel Seven’s Million Dollar Cold Case program identified her client as the only suspect and spruiked the increased reward for information as a “life-changing” sum exposed Mr Hague to an unfair trial with tainted witnesses.
“Mr Hague was not a fugitive and the last time I looked Melbourne is not the Wild West,” she said.
With closing arguments complete, Justice Lex Lasry will start directing the jury. That will continue to Monday, when it’s expected the jurors will begin deliberating.