An application to simultaneously hear the murder cases of Colleen Walker-Craig, Clinton Speedy-Duroux, and Evelyn Greenup from Bowraville, NSW, has not yet been made by Attorney General Brad Hazzard.
An Attorney General must make an application for a case to be heard in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
“He shouldn’t be making decisions. He should be sending it to the court,” said Professor Behrendt, a UTS professor of Indigenous research and director of documentary Innocence Betrayed that explores the case.
“If the judge turns around and says there’s not enough evidence, at least [the families] had a hearing in court.”
In 2006, significant amendments to the NSW double jeopardy legislation brought new hope that the children's families may have the three murders tried together.
A NSW parliamentary inquiry report about whether to reorder a trial for the murder of the children in northern NSW in the early 1990s is expected to be handed down next month.
“There is some hope,” she said. “My hope is that [the families] could finally have some champions in parliament to ensure this case gets into court.”
A white man was previously brought to trial for the killings of 16-year-old Clinton, and 4-year-old Evelyn within a five-month period between late 1990 and early 1991 on Bowraville Mission. He has not been convicted and consistently asserts his innocence. No prosecution has taken place for the murder of 16-year-old Colleen.
“I want for [the families] what they want for themselves, which is to get justice for their children – and they say the only way they can get that is to get the person who murdered their children behind bars.”
Behrendt asks for more awareness about the impact that the search for truth and justice has had on the families and the Bowraville community.
“One of the things I think that compounds the injustice in this case is the failure for any official recognition of what the families have been through,” she said.
Leonie Duroux, the sister-in-law of Clinton Speedy, says in a forum discussing the case on National Indigenous Television: “It’s just devastating, it’s devastating that these children have been murdered and no one’s ever been held accountable for it, and it appears that no one really cares.”
Experts have been concerned that the legal system was not employing proper measures to ensure Aboriginal witnesses were correctly understood.
In May 2014, Doctor Diana Eades, who specialises in language in the legal process and intercultural communication at the University of New England, recommended that this case uses “Mildren’s directions” – assistance to jury to assess evidence given by Aboriginal witnesses to prevent cultural and linguistic differences leading to misunderstandings when interpreting evidence from Aboriginal witnesses.
Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, head of the ANCUD Taskforce that began in 1997 to investigate the murders, agrees.
“Having worked on the matter for quite some time, I realised that the witnesses weren’t comfortable first of all in a courtroom environment and some of what [was said] was confused or misinterpreted,” he told the forum about witnesses giving evidence in a courtroom environment after the coroner's inquest in 2004.
The unsolved murders are affecting people around the country. “For the life of me I can’t figure out how three kids on one street can be murdered and you can’t bring the perpetrator to justice,” says equal rights activist Ken Canning who has been following the case since it started.
Innocence Betrayed screens tonight (Sunday 10 August) on NITV at 7pm followed at 8pm with the Justice ‘Just Us’ Bowraville Special that takes an in-depth look at the case and is moderated by NITV News’ Malarndirri McCarthy.
