Derek Bromley in final bid for freedom after nearly 40 years in South Australian jail for murder | A

High court appeal this week is Bromleys last chance to walk free after being jailed for life A man who has spent almost 40 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit will have his final chance at having his conviction overturned by the high court this week.

Derek Bromley will have his final chance at having his murder conviction overturned by Australia’s high court this weekDerek Bromley will have his final chance at having his murder conviction overturned by Australia’s high court this week
Australia news This article is more than 8 months old

Derek Bromley in final bid for freedom after nearly 40 years in South Australian jail for murder

This article is more than 8 months old

High court appeal this week is Bromley’s last chance to walk free after being jailed for life

A man who has spent almost 40 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit will have his final chance at having his conviction overturned by the high court this week.

Derek Bromley and his accomplice, John Karpany, were jailed for life for the murder of Stephen Docoza, whose body was found floating in Adelaide’s River Torrens in 1984.

Bromley and Karpany were accused of bludgeoning Docoza to death after he refused their sexual advances at what was then a gay beat on the banks of the river.

Derek Bromley to make one last bid for freedom after nearly 40 years in jail for murderRead more

In 2004 Karpany was released on parole.

Bromley has been eligible for parole since 2006, but his applications have been denied as he will not accept he committed the crime.

The high court will hear Bromley’s appeal this week, giving him a chance to walk free after four decades.

Bromley’s quest for freedom has been spurred on by legislation passed in 2013 that allows prisoners to appeal again if they have “fresh and compelling” evidence.

The case has been referred to the full court, which will hear the leave to appeal and the substantive appeal together over two days.

The Flinders University legal academic Bob Moles, who has extensively researched the case, said there had been no other case in Australia where a prisoner has had their conviction overturned after 40 years.

He said the appeal hung on two arguments – that the eyewitness was unreliable and the forensic pathologist did not have adequate training to determine the cause of death.

“The problem with the eyewitness was that he was suffering from what’s called a schizoaffective disorder,” Moles said.

“He was suffering from visual and audible hallucinations on the evening that the incident occurred. He thought he was the king of Adelaide and a top league footballer.”

In his 2018 application to the court of criminal appeal, Bromley’s lawyers argued that on the same day the witness said he saw Bromley murder Docoza, he was also hospitalised for several months because of his severe mental health illness.

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Bromley’s lawyers also questioned the evidence of the forensic pathologist Colin Manock, whose work in some cases had since been challenged.

The journalist Drew Rooke wrote a book on Manock and had extensively researched his life. Manock only had a medical degree, but was given the job out of desperation to fill the position, he said.

“[Manock] had the qualifications on paper but they had been more or less been gifted to him … he didn’t have to undergo the five years of training that his peers had to undergo, nor did he have to sit a very extensive and detailed, written exam,” Rooke said.

Docoza’s body had been submerged in the water for several days after he died and had undergone serious decomposition – yet Manock found he had been grabbed by the neck and drowned.

“After that amount of time and that amount of decomposition, particularly in water, it’s widely recognised in the field of forensic science that it becomes very difficult to provide conclusive findings about the cause of death,” Rooke said.

Moles said Bromley’s case could be one of the worst miscarriages of justice in history.

“I have every reason to believe that the high court will do the job properly, will apply the law correctly and the conviction will be overturned.”

Manock could not be reached for comment.

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