‘Duped’ witness jailed
Neill-Fraser case turns
A MAN duped into providing false evidence to try to help secure a retrial for convicted killer Susan Neill-Fraser has been sentenced to one year in jail.
Stephen John Gleeson, 59, pleaded guilty to two counts of perverting the course of justice.
Neill-Fraser was convicted in 2010 of murdering her partner, Bob Chappell, on board the couple’s yacht, Four Winds, moored off Sandy Bay.
In the Supreme Court in Hobart yesterday, Acting Justice Shane Marshall said Gleeson was in prison serving a sentence for a crime of violence when he falsely identified a 16-year-old boy as being near the yacht on January 26, 2009, the night Mr Chappell was killed, and gave false evidence in an affidavit in May last year.
“Your offending is extremely serious,” Acting Justice Marshall said.
“You made a false identification for the purpose of seeking a retrial for Ms NeillFraser.”
Acting Justice Marshall said Gleeson was visited in prison on 14 occasions by various people in connection with Mr Chappell’s murder.
He said the Crown con- ceded Gleeson was “duped” by one of those people and was vulnerable to suggestions.
Acting Justice Marshall said photos falsely identified by Gleeson from a photo board shown to him in prison last June were important evidence in support of Neill-Fraser’s application to lodge a second appeal.
He said Gleeson spoke to police about the murder in January 2009 and again in September 2014. Both times he told them he was asleep in his car, which he was living in near the yacht, on January 26, 2009. He confirmed those statements in an affidavit taken from him in September 2016.
Police installed a camera and listening device to record a meeting at which Gleeson was to be shown photo boards to identify people he said he saw on the night of January 26.
Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years behind bars for murdering Mr Chappell.
Her last-ditch appeal returns to court later this month.
Gleeson was sentenced to one year in jail. Half of the sentence will be served concurrently with the sentence he is already serving.
He will be eligible to apply for parole after serving the first half of the new sentence.