Cops slammed for false conviction

A Darwin QC has slammed a police investigation that led to a public servant being falsely convicted on drug charges.

John Tippett, QC, said the investigation that led to Ann Hanning’s conviction was “hopeless”.

“They failed to speak to important witnesses and they failed to conduct a forensic investigation,” Mr Tippett said.

“All these things were pointed out by Ms Hanning at the time.

“The judge found the police investigation was just hopeless.”

Mr Tippett, who represented Ms Hanning on appeal, said his client “was not served at all by the investigation or the first hearing”.

Ms Hanning was suspended without pay from her Justice Department job after magistrate Jenny Blokland last December found her guilty of supplying cannabis.

Darwin Magistrates Court was told Ms Hanning took a box of nappies to the Air Nguiu terminal at Darwin airport on June 2003.

A man had dropped off a similar box a few days earlier.

A box of nappies, bound for Milikapati, was later found to contain 420g of cannabis.

Ms Hanning, 38, of Malak, was fined $2500 and had a criminal conviction recorded.

But she was acquitted at an appeal on August 17 on the basis the convictions were “unsafe and unsatisfactory”.

Supreme Court judge Dean Mildren said the Crown had based its case on Air Nguiu employee Jock McIndoe’s identification of Ms Hanning.

He said police had failed to conduct forensic tests on the nappy box and had failed to rule out “a mix-up”. “The sole evidence connecting the appellant with the nappies was Mr McIndoe’s circumstantial identification – there was no forensic evidence,” the judge said.

“The onus is on the Crown to preclude the possibility of a mix-up.

“There could have been two boxes of nappies presented for dispatch at the same time.”

Ms Hanning said she did not want to discuss the case for fear of jeapardising her reinstatement at the Justice Department. But she said the mistake had caused humiliation to her and her family.

“I just want to clear my name and I want to go back to work,” she said.

Ms Hanning has had to survive on a pension since being stood down. She did not apply for costs, despite being eligible, because she feared the case would “drag on for months”.

It is unclear whether she will be backpaid by the Justice Department.

Justice Department spokeswoman Lorelei Fong Lim said the department was “considering the court decision” and would look at reinstating Ms Hanning.

“As the criminal proceedings are now concluded, it will be necessary for the chief executive Richard Coates in consultation with the Commissioner for Public Employment John Kirwan to consider the court’s decision and the circumstances surrounding the matter generally,” Ms Fong Lim said.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 25 Aug 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Rebecca Hewett
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283