A CEDAR Vale man whose brother spent 19 years behind bars in a New Zealand prison for a murder says justice has not yet been fully served.
School teacher Robert Hall has been helping his family fight the case for 36 years, and was last month vindicated when Alan Hall was acquitted by the New Zealand High Court.
Alan, who has autism, was wrongly convicted of killing Arthur Easton in 1985.
The New Zealand solicitor general Una Jagose QC called it a significant miscarriage of justice. Police were accused of tampering with critical evidence.
Why that is will be the cornerstone of two national investigations to occur over the next 12 months, including one which will explore compensation for Alan who is expected to be awarded the country’s highest ever claim.
Robert, who lives on a property in Cedar Vale, told this week how his mother – who died in 2012 – was forced to sell the family home to hire investigators and pay legal bills for Alan’s appeals.
Robert too, was heavily invested in the war against a justice system that seemingly couldn’t see common sense. He took loans to help his mother out, as a young family battling to keep up with mortgage payments, school fees and day-to-day expenses.
“Importantly Alan has won this important battle,” Mr Hall said.
“The war unfortunately continues.”
Still, nobody knows who tampered with evidence and witness statements, nor why or under whose instructions. New Zealand police have refused to answer questions from numerous journalists.
Mr (Robert) Hall said his family in New Zealand, including his two brothers, were at the coal face and worked hard to keep Alan’s story in the news.
The lowest point for Mr Hall was when his mother died in 2012.
Alan had already served 10 years in maximum and medium-security prisons before being allowed to stay with his mother on parole.
His mother’s death was remarkably regarded by the authorities as a breach of bail, for which Alan was forced to spend an additional nine years behind bars. He was released earlier this year.
“Alan’s trial conviction was a low point for me,” Mr Hall said.
“Knowing that he could not have fought three six-foot, reasonably fit adults by himself and escaped the scene without a scratch on him.
“Each unsuccessful appeal created an overwhelming sense of defeat considering significant evidence of tampering by police or crown prosecutors was uncovered.”
Mr Hall says he hopes inquiries would reveal why evidence of statement tampering was not accepted by the courts as new grounds for hearing during the appeal process.
“The family surrounded Alan with a good legal team, a dedicated good investigator and investigative journalists that could clearly see that a great injustice was handed out to Alan,” he said.
“Why were the police efforts and resources switched from the prime suspect ‘A’ to Alan with blood evidence and alibi anomalies found on suspect ‘A’ not investigated?
“And who authorised the police questioning tactics on a vulnerable person with ASD, without a support person or solicitor?”
The family is expected to be involved with inquiry investigations over coming months.
In the meantime, Alan has shown a desire to visit his brother Robert in Logan, to see the sights of Southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales.
“We’ll just have to organise him a passport,” Mr Hall said.
