Article-Neill-Fraser turns over a new page
Article | The Mercury | 24 August 2023; pgs 1 & 5.
Convicted Tasmanian murderer Sue Neill-Fraser has made a rare public appearance, almost one year after she was released on parole to attend the launch of a book written in her honour.
Author Andrew Urban launched his novel The Exoneration Papers: Sue Neill-Fraser at Fullers Bookshop.
A crowd of more than 70 people attended the event – which featured a speech by former premier Lara Giddings.
Urban described the book which makes the case for exonerating Neill-Fraser – as “kind of like an appeal on its own”.
“There is still so much appealable error that needs to be addressed, and I think it’s really important,” Urban (below) said.
“Despite all that, and a dozen requests from lawyers and barristers, the Attorney-General [Elise Archer] is making excuses: not to investigate, not to have an inquiry into the case and that is where the book begins. The book goes through the second appeal and all the errors that still exist, so it’s kind of like an appeal on its own, taking the place of a courtroom.”
The launch comes days after Tasmanian MP Meg Webb voiced her support for an independent inquiry into Neill-Fraser’s conviction.
Neill-Fraser was paroled in October 2022 after serving 13 years for the murder of her husband, 65-year-old Bob Chappell, on January 25, 2009.
Neill-Fraser, now 68, has always maintained her innocence – but multiple attempts to appeal her case have been unfruitful.
In her speech Ms Giddings said the book would take the reader along Sue’s journey through a legal system that “seems incapable of writing the wrong”.
“[The Exoneration Papers] joins a mounting num ber of books, podcasts and television programs that have been produced about this extraordinary case,” Ms Giddings said.
She gave note to those who had maintained support for Neill-Fraser from the start.
“The Sue Neill-Fraser case has been more about a system determined to maintain a conviction, than a system looking for the truth,” she said.
“But what the system hasn’t accounted for is the drive and determination of many people to see this wrong, righted. And we, and many of you here tonight, are not giving up.” Urban told the Mercury that Neill-Fraser had read a “raw file” of the novel before it had been published, and said he hoped the book would put “public pressure” on the AttorneyGeneral to instigate an inquiry.
“Now that doesn’t require an admission or acceptance of her innocence. It just means, ‘let’s have a look’,” he said.
“The Sue Neill-Fraser case has been more about a system determined to maintain a conviction, than a system looking for the truth.”
