JoeBloggs
Bluelight Crew
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Alana Buckley-Carr | October 03, 2007
A "BRUTAL and callous" murderer, accused of injecting a prostitute with a lethal dose of heroin to stop her testifying against him, is being retried after the High Court ruled that West Australian police had bungled yet another record of interview.
Along with co-accused Thomas Nicholls and Amanda Hoy, Martin Graeme Coates, 44, was convicted of the 1998 wilful murder of 21-year-old street prostitute Clare Garabedian.
He was sentenced to life with a 25-year minimum. But Mr Coates had his conviction quashed by the High Court in 2005 in a 4-3 decision after the judges found there was no reasonable excuse for police not recording part of their discussions with him, in which Mr Coates was alleged to have made confessions.
The High Court said the police officers did not ask Mr Coates to repeat any of his off-camera statements when the recording started again after a 45-minute break and Coates later denied making them.
No notes were made until the day after the interview and they have since disappeared.
On the opening day of the scheduled four-week trial yesterday, prosecutor Simon Stone said Mr Coates had told a man dubbed Mr X - his identity has been suppressed - that he could clear a debt by giving Garabedian a hotshot of heroin.
At the time, Mr Coates and Hoy had been charged with a string of offences relating to an alleged assault against Garabedian.
Justice Peter Blaxell was told that Mr Coates wanted to silence the prostitute and had organised the contract killing.
Garabedian was lured to a Perth motel on the pretence that she would have sex with a client, he said. Mr X provided her with heroin-filled syringes but it was not enough to kill her.
At about 4.30am on August 23, 1998, Mr Coates and Hoy arrived at the motel room and allegedly held the 21-year-old down as she was injected with a syringe, while being suffocated by a pillow. Her semi-clad body was discovered hours later by the motel's cleaning staff.
Mr Stone told the court that Mr X had made a deal with the state's Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney-General to give evidence. In return, he would be made eligible for parole next year.
The trial continues.
from: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22522498-5006789,00.html
A "BRUTAL and callous" murderer, accused of injecting a prostitute with a lethal dose of heroin to stop her testifying against him, is being retried after the High Court ruled that West Australian police had bungled yet another record of interview.
Along with co-accused Thomas Nicholls and Amanda Hoy, Martin Graeme Coates, 44, was convicted of the 1998 wilful murder of 21-year-old street prostitute Clare Garabedian.
He was sentenced to life with a 25-year minimum. But Mr Coates had his conviction quashed by the High Court in 2005 in a 4-3 decision after the judges found there was no reasonable excuse for police not recording part of their discussions with him, in which Mr Coates was alleged to have made confessions.
The High Court said the police officers did not ask Mr Coates to repeat any of his off-camera statements when the recording started again after a 45-minute break and Coates later denied making them.
No notes were made until the day after the interview and they have since disappeared.
On the opening day of the scheduled four-week trial yesterday, prosecutor Simon Stone said Mr Coates had told a man dubbed Mr X - his identity has been suppressed - that he could clear a debt by giving Garabedian a hotshot of heroin.
At the time, Mr Coates and Hoy had been charged with a string of offences relating to an alleged assault against Garabedian.
Justice Peter Blaxell was told that Mr Coates wanted to silence the prostitute and had organised the contract killing.
Garabedian was lured to a Perth motel on the pretence that she would have sex with a client, he said. Mr X provided her with heroin-filled syringes but it was not enough to kill her.
At about 4.30am on August 23, 1998, Mr Coates and Hoy arrived at the motel room and allegedly held the 21-year-old down as she was injected with a syringe, while being suffocated by a pillow. Her semi-clad body was discovered hours later by the motel's cleaning staff.
Mr Stone told the court that Mr X had made a deal with the state's Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney-General to give evidence. In return, he would be made eligible for parole next year.
The trial continues.
from: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22522498-5006789,00.html
