(I've been meaning to write about this for a while - its quite interesting I think.)
Sometimes the justice system doesn’t work. It completely fails to deliver the result it should do, and breaks down entirely in terms of providing the formality of a fair trial. Sometimes that’s a terrible thing, ruins lives and in some cases has even meant the death of innocent people. There are far rarer occasions when this is a tremendous thing, to be celebrated. It occurred to me that this particular case was one such case.
At first look, this is a trial that should have seen the acquittal of the accused in a flash – case dismissed even. Ex-policeman Des Campbell stood accused of murder. His wife fell off a cliff during a camping trip while allegedly stepping out for a wee in the middle of the night. She fell to her death tragically, only a short while after they had been wed.No one saw him push her off the cliff, so there were no witnesses. There was absolutely no scientific evidence at all that he did it, and he did not confess. So in theory, with only very weak and tenuous circumstantial evidence to go on, he should be a free man. And could have been.But luckily, there was just so much circumstantial evidence and it was just so convincing that he will now spend most of his remaining years alive – the next 33 in fact - in prison; and as an ex-policeman he’s unlikely to have an easy time of it. (As the victim's brother warned, "don't drop the soap mate".)So essentially - the justice system - the jury and the judge, supposedly entirely impartial and dispassionate, has sentenced a man to a lengthy sentence on the basis of nothing more than a hunch.There’s a whole weight of evidence to the poor character of this man that leaves you believing him capable of just about anything:- He apparently sexually assaulted the victim of a domestic violence case he was investigating as a policeman in England.- He apparently dumped a woman with whom he’d been having a relationship – by text! But wait, there’s more – this was just after she leant him $64,000!- He left the force in 1994 with a string of violent and corruption charges hanging over his head.But its not illegal to be an awful person, and while this string of indictments is not pretty, it’s still not enough to judge him guilty of murder. His defence counsel said as much. But as the Illawarra Mercury explained: “If only he had shown a little affection for his wife, Des Campbell might have got away with her murder”. But he didn’t, quite the reverse in fact, and even when all he needed to do fein decency for only a few weeks in order to get away with her murder (and scoop more than $300,000 in booty!), he just couldn’t help himself but pursue the ways of a dreadful man, which in summary ammount to:- He married his new wife in secret but meanwhile continued to conduct three other affairs.- The day after her death – knowing as a policeman that his relationship would come under close scrutiny in the event of a suspicious death – he visited her solicitor to count up the value of her estate and then booked a holiday with one of his other girlfriends!- He would have missed his wife’s death on account of being on holiday with a girlfriend and her family, were it not for the fact that the couple had a row and he returned home.- He still didn’t attend the funeral, but instead the day before joined a dating site! - Described his wife as “pig ugly” and “a fat ugly slut” and wondered aloud to friends if he could even bring himself to "shag her".It was this litany of stunning arrogance and heartlessness that saw him convicted, nothing else. No carefully constructed conspiracy or assembly of DNA or other forensic evidence. Des Campbell went down for 33 years because he was a very bad person and deserved to go down – even if he didn’t do it.It remains a very real possibility that his wife did step out in the night and did fall off a cliff. It is therefore a very reasonable possibility that this man did not push her, she merely fell, and is an innocent man and does not deserve to be in prison. There’s a very real possibility that this is an immense travesty of justice.But I think everyone agrees - for this is not a controversial decision - looking at his track record that he does deserve it; and while legally this decision is shaky to see the least, morally it is gut-instinct justice in the vacuum of anything else more surgical.I think everyone is willing to take the risk that the system has broken down but in its place some other kind of system has stepping in. Left to the strict letter of the law, this man should be walking free; thankfully there’s the spirit of the law too. Good decision referee!