Man loses bid to appeal murder conviction after 30 years behind bars. Source: News.com.au
A man who has spent more than 30 years in jail for allegedly bludgeoning a man to death with a dumbbell in an attempted rape has lost his bid to appeal his murder conviction after maintaining he didn't do it.
Derek John Bromley, now 62, and an accomplice, John Karpany, were jailed for life for the 1984 murder of Stephen Docoza after the man's body was found floating in Adelaide's River Torrens. Bromley has always maintained that he never committed murder and a court has previously heard that Docoza might have died from natural causes.
Bromley recently launched a fresh appeal, relying on new state legislation which allows for another look at the case if fresh and compelling evidence has emerged. His counsel last year questioned the reliability of evidence given at Bromley's trial by the schizophrenic eyewitness who implicated him, Gary Carter, and South Australia's former Chief forensic pathologist, Dr Colin Manock. On Tuesday, the Court of Criminal Appeal denied Bromley's application to appeal against his murder conviction.
To date, Bromley is one of Australia's longest-serving prisoners. If he was acquitted, he would have the unenviable title of the longest serving exonerated prisoner in the country's history.
Derek John Bromley was convicted of the murder of Stephen Docoza who died on April 4, 1984 at Torrens River. Photo / News Corp Australia
The court was previously told that Manock's findings "could not be made out in the light of modern technology". It also heard that Manock was not properly qualified as a forensic pathologist when he conducted an autopsy on Docoza.
Manock found that he had died by drowning and determined that bruises on Docoza's body had occurred in the 24 hours leading up to the man's death.
But his findings were called into question by three expert witnesses at the application for leave to appeal last year. All three pathologists gave evidence that the determination of drowning could not be substantiated.
Bromley previously questioned the use of the doctor's findings to back up evidence from schizophrenic witness Gary Carter, who the court heard had serious mental health issues and was delusional when Docoza died.
On April 3, 1984 Bromley was released from jail after serving more than three years for being present when a male was sexually assaulted. To celebrate his release, he ventured into Adelaide for a night on the town, on his first day back as a free man. Five days later, Docoza's body was found by rowers in the River Torrens.
When news of Docoza's death broke, Carter told police that he was with Bromley and a man called John Karpany at the time of the alleged killing.
A taxi driver supported his story and claimed to have dropped the men, who had been drinking, close to the Morphett St bridge, near where the alleged murder took place.
Carter claimed that once there, Bromley made sexual advances towards Docoza and became enraged when he was rejected. He said Bromley and Karpany attacked Docoza, punching, kicking and bashing him with a dumbbell. Carter alleged he tried to help Docoza but "freaked out" and ran off, leaving the men with the bashed and naked body.
Stephen Docoza, 21, was found dead floating in the River Torrens, east of the Morphett Street Bridge in South Australia, in 1984.
Five days later, Docoza's fully clothed body was found by rowers in the river.
Carter was committed to a psychiatric hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia the day after the alleged murder. He went on to stay there for the next three months. Carter was known among locals as "Reverend Beau" because he would preach about the Bible, talk about martians and karate-kick trees.
Bromley has served more than 10 years over his minimum sentence — upon which he could have been released on parole had he pleaded guilty to murder. But he has previously said that he didn't want to be released with the taint of being a convicted murderer. Admitting guilt is a prerequisite for release. His co-accused walked free on parole in 2004. Karpany later told TV's Today Tonight Bromley was innocent, and that he believed there had been a miscarriage of justice.
In a scathing assessment of a report authored by Manock, Professor Anthony Thomas last year told the Supreme Court the evidence could not discount the possibility Docoza was already dead when he fell into the River Torrens in 1984.
Prof Thomas said the bruising found on Docoza's head could have been the result of decomposition or the autopsy process itself.
"The examination could not have excluded all forms of natural death," Prof Thomas said.
"There are 101 causes within the heart of sudden cardiac death which have yet to be excluded.
"He (couldn't) exclude a brain tumour because he didn't have enough sections."
Thomas said Manock did not "adequately" rule out natural death as a possible cause of death.
He also told the court there was no evidence to suggest Docoza died from blunt-force trauma, after being shown photos of the dumbbell which was initially posited as a weapon used to bludgeon the alleged victim.
Bromley exhausted his appeals in the 1980s, at which his lawyers disputed the veracity of witnesses. However, state laws enacted in 2013 allow second appeals by an accused if there is fresh and compelling evidence.
Australian Lawyers Alliance criminal justice spokesman Greg Barns told the Adelaide Advertiser that "if it [was] found that he was wrongly convicted, there needs to be a major compensation package because his life had been removed from him by the state". But it seems that's a route that will no longer need to be explored.
