Leahy-Arnold case could still go to trial

August 27th, 2013

A Supreme Court judge has overturned a decision to commit Alan Leahy to stand trial for murder.
Source: AAP

QUEENSLAND man Alan Leahy could still stand trial over the 1991 deaths of his wife and her friend, despite the Supreme Court overturning a coroner’s ruling that he face trial.

Cairns Supreme Court Justice James Henry on Tuesday overturned the state coroner’s decision.

However, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) can still commit Mr Leahy to stand trial.

Earlier this year, former state coroner Michael Barnes committed Mr Leahy to stand trial over the deaths in a case previously deemed to be a murder-suicide.

Mr Leahy was accused of the shooting murders of his wife Julie-Anne Leahy and her friend Vicki Arnold, but he denied any wrongdoing.

The women’s bodies were found in a four-wheel drive in remote bushland in the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns on August 9, 1991.

Mr Leahy applied in the Supreme Court to have the coroner’s ruling overturned.

Justice Henry upheld his appeal on Tuesday afternoon, saying in his written judgment that the coroner erred in committing Mr Leahy to trial.

He found that the coroner didn’t apply the “correct test of admissibility” when considering allegations that Mr Leahy had lied during police interviews.

“His findings suggest he elevated his adverse opinion of Mr Leahy’s credibility to providing evidence going to guilt rather than merely credibility,” his judgment said.

“This is the very mischief which the correct test is calculated at avoiding.”

The coroner’s other finding that the deaths weren’t a murder-suicide still stand.

Despite the coroner’s ruling being overturned it will be up to the DPP to decide whether a trial takes place.

This decision was due about six months after the coroner’s ruling – September 22 – but it’s understood this deadline no longer stands following the Supreme Court ruling.

University of Queensland legal expert Heather Douglas has said the DPP can still commit Mr Leahy to stand trial, even though the coroner’s decision has been overturned.

Last week she told AAP that if the ruling was thrown out it could make it difficult for prosecutors to justify committing Mr Leahy to trial.

“But it doesn’t constrain them,” Ms Douglas said.

“The coroner is not making criminal law findings beyond reasonable doubt, so it’s a different process that’s going on in the coroner’s court.”

In deciding to charge Mr Leahy over the deaths, Mr Barnes overturned previous coronial findings that Ms Arnold, 27, had shot and killed her 26-year-old friend before turning the gun on herself.

Mr Barnes said the evidence indicated the gun, which was found near Ms Arnold’s hand, was planted.

The shooter would have had to have been a third person.

Mr Barnes was able to commit Mr Leahy to stand trial under laws covering inquests that are heard for cases that arose before 2003.

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