Killers to appeal

Two teenagers will seek to appeal against their convictions over the drowning murder of two sex workers in a crocodile infested Territory river.

Friends Ben William McLean and Phu Ngoc Trinh, both 19, were sentenced to life imprisonment last month after a jury found them both guilty of two counts of murder.

The unanimous verdicts came after more than 12 hours of jury deliberations at the end of a five-week trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

However, their lawyer, Suzan Cox, QC, said yesterday both men would appeal against their conviction.

Ms Cox said she would file an application seeking leave to appeal the convictions with the NT Court of Appeal today.

McLean’s appeal would seek to overturn the jury’s verdict on the grounds it was not supported by the evidence, she said.

”The verdict was unreasonable,” Ms Cox said.

Trinh would appeal against his conviction on the grounds the jury was not discharged midway through the trial when it inadvertently received information that had been suppressed during the trial.

Ms Cox said the court would likely set a date for hearing, after applications were filed today.

Darwin sex workers Phuangsri Kroksamrong, 58, and Sommjai Insamnan, 27, were bound with cable ties, weighed down with car batteries and thrown alive into the Adelaide River, near Darwin, in March last year.

Their floating bodies were discovered by crocodile-spotting tour operators a couple of days later.

McLean and Trinh originally confessed to the murders after they were discovered hiding in a cupboard of a friend’s Brisbane home.

McLean originally claimed the Hells Angels forced them to kill the women to pay off a drug debt.

The teenagers later agreed the Hells Angels story was a pack of lies.

But in a final twist, Trinh claimed an Asian crime gang was responsible, and McLean was not even present during the murders.

Police found clothing and items belonging to the women burnt in a fire on Trinh’s family property, and a receipt for the rope, tape and cable ties used to bind the woman in Trinh’s wallet.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 15 April 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Karen Michelmore
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/