Double killer’s bid fails

A CONVICTED double murderer has lost an appeal that centred on Tasmania Police’s Mr Big technique — a covert procedure used to bring down Daniel Morcombe’s killer.

Stephen John Standage was found guilty in August 2014 of the shooting murders of Ronald Jarvis, at Nugent in 1992, and of John Thorn, at Lake Leake in 2006.

The then-62-year-old was sentenced to 48 years in prison with a non- parole period of 24.

The coldblooded murders of people who had trusted him were carried out for financial gain. Standage immediately appealed against the verdicts, which came after Tasmania’s longest trial in history.

Central to the appeal was police use of the Mr Big procedure, also known as the Canadian method. The technique involves undercover police creating a fictitious crime gang and inducting the suspect into the group in the hope of eliciting a confession.

The technique was used to bring Daniel Morcombe’s killer Brett Peter Cowan to justice in 2014, more than a decade after he murdered the 13-yearold. In the Standage investiga- tion, Victorian police posed as underworld figures and enlisted the killer’s involvement in multiple staged crimes.

Some of the faked scenarios in 2010 were drug deals involving “ecstasy” and an arrangement for Standage to be involved in a gun deal in Melbourne.

In a Melbourne hotel room he was interviewed by a purported crime boss, who sought details on the murders so he could make any case against Standage go away. Hours of audio recordings between Standage and the “crime gang” were submitted as evidence.

Despite no explicit confession by Standage the conversations revealed he sold drugs, owned guns, threatened people for money with firearms in bush locations, and had knowledge of Mr Jarvis’ and Mr Thorn’s murders.

Standage’s appeal lawyer, Melbourne barrister Justin Hannebery, told the Supreme Court in Hobart the Mr Big evidence presented “a severe risk of unfair prejudice” to his client.

Mr Hannebery said the jury would have been unduly influenced by the material which portrayed Standage as willing to engage in crime.

But the appeal judges, justices Helen Wood and Robert Pearce and former justice Shan Tennent, found the admission of evidence did not lead to a miscarriage of justice.