Being imprisoned for a crime you did not commit is the stuff of nightmares. Sue Williams talks to the wrongly convicted about their call for justice reforms.
Alexis Keogh is curled up in a chair, looking through a big box of letters. She smiles as she re-reads some, a shadow of sadness passes over her face at others. For the past 15 years, these letters from her dad have kept her going, as well as the hope that he might soon be home again.
Alexis was only nine when her father, Henry Keogh, was taken away by the police and charged with murder. Her mum – Henry’s ex-wife – told her not to worry. It was obviously a mistake and it would all be sorted out and he’d be released in days. Yet Henry has been in prison ever since, despite serious misgivings held by senior lawyers and forensic experts about the quality of evidence at his trial.
“I was always very close to Dad,” says Alexis, now 25. “But I’m beyond being angry. I’m just in complete disbelief – there’s so much doubt now surrounding the evidence on which he was convicted, it’s ridiculous he’s not being freed.”
South Australian Henry Keogh was convicted in August 1995 of murdering his fiancée, solicitor Anna-Jane Cheney, 29, with no direct evidence of any kind connecting him with the death. The entire case was based on circumstantial evidence and medical experts have since stated that the autopsy on the victim, from which most of it came, was “sub-standard”. The pathologist in charge was criticised by the state coroner, with the forensics strongly disputed by high-profile medical scientists.
“The system just isn’t designed to find out the truth and correct mistakes,” says Alexis, who is studying sports massage in Adelaide. “Justice needs to be done. I need my father back.”
She’s hopeful that might happen soon. A new petition has just gone forward to the state’s solicitor-general about the case, with supporters that include senior lawyers and forensic experts. They’re now “cautiously optimistic” that Henry will be the next person, following a slew of other miscarriage of justice cases, to seize the headlines – and freedom.
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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