An Adelaide man convicted of murdering a teenage girl 44 years ago is appealing the verdict, claiming the forensic scientist who gave evidence during the trial was untrustworthy.
Frits Van Beelen was sentenced to life in jail for murdering 15-year-old Deborah Leach, who was found buried in seaweed at Taperoo Beach on July 15, 1971.
A post-mortem by forensic pathologist Colin Manock found Ms Leach had been raped before she drowned.
Van Beelen, who had prior convictions for attempted rape and indecent assault, told police he had been walking at the beach that day and was later charged with Ms Leach's murder.
The carpenter was the first man in South Australia to be convicted of a crime solely on forensic evidence and he served 17 years in prison, all the while maintaining his innocence.
In appeal documents recently filed in the South Australian Supreme Court, Van Beelen's lawyers say Dr Manock's evidence was inadmissable.
They say Dr Manock had since been found to be unprofessional, incompetent and untrustworthy.
Defence counsel Kevin Borick, QC, on Monday said there was no precedent for such an appeal in SA but there was in other jurisdictions including Canada and the UK.
Dr Manock's reliability was called into question in the appeal case of Adelaide man Henry Keogh, whose murder conviction was set aside in December last year.
Keogh, who is facing a retrial, spent two decades in jail for the drowning murder of his fiance Anna-Jane Cheney in 1994.
The SA Court of Criminal Appeal found the autopsy in Keogh's case was inadequate and Dr Madock had failed to consider other possible causes of Ms Cheney's death.
Van Beelen, like Keogh, is appealing after new SA legislation allowed a verdict to be challenged on the basis of fresh and compelling evidence.
Share
