DECISION DAY

Judgment is ‘due to be delivered’

A DECISION on whether convicted murderer Susan Neill-Fraser’s last ditch appeal will be allowed to go ahead is expected to be delivered today.

Justice Michael Brett heard from the final witness in Neill-Fraser’s appeal application last month, and has been considering whether there was enough “fresh and compelling” evidence to allow a new appeal. The Supreme Court registrar late yesterday revealed the case was “listed for delivery of judgment” this afternoon in Hobart.

Neill-Fraser, 65, right, was convicted in 2010 of murdering her partner Bob Chappell. She is using new laws to try and mount a lastditch appeal against her conviction.

A DECISION on whether convicted murderer Susan Neill-Fraser’s last ditch appeal will be allowed to go ahead or not may be made today.

Justice Michael Brett had heard from the final witness in Neill-Fraser’s appeal application last month, and has been considering whether there had been “fresh and compelling” evidence presented to allow an appeal.

Neill-Fraser, 65, was convicted in 2010 of murdering her partner Bob Chappell, 65, on the couple’s yacht Four Winds off Sandy Bay on Australia Day 2009. She is serving a 23-year prison sentence.

In 2012, the Court of Criminal Appeal rejected her appeal, the High Court declined to hear her case and a coroner’s inquest found she was responsible for Mr Chappell’s death.

Last week, Justice Brett reopened the appeal case after a TV documentary was broadcast the previous weekend. Neill-Fraser’s lawyer Chris Carr asked for further affidavits to be tendered before Justice Brett made his decision.

“There was an episode of a current affairs program 60 Minutes on Sunday evening, which showed an interview with Meaghan Vass and revealed that she had made an affidavit concerning the events on the Four Winds on the night of January 26, 2009,” Mr Carr said.

Ms Vass was a 15-year-old homeless girl when Mr Chap- pell was killed. Her DNA was found on the yacht and when she gave evidence at Neill-Fraser’s trial in 2010, Ms Vass said she was not on the boat.

In April 2017, Ms Vass signed a statutory declaration that she had been on the yacht on the day of the murder.

Mr Carr said last week he also hoped to obtain an affidavit from the person who took Ms Vass’ affidavit, sworn in Sydney on February 25, “to explain the circumstances of the taking of the affidavit”.

Justice Brett agreed to receive the further evidence and adjourned the case until today.

The case has been listed for further hearing at 4pm in the Supreme Court in Hobart.