Speaker 1: Just before nine o'clock last night, the jury returned guilty
Speaker 1: verdicts against all three defendants. It was absolutely shambles, to
Speaker 1: tell you the truth, just absolutely really. Honoans blood on
Speaker 1: his clothing the day after the alleged a top.
Speaker 2: Selle mud bank and it fits.
Speaker 1: Through a river.
Speaker 3: Basically, I think most of the people are used to
Speaker 3: me are good people.
Speaker 2: I think a really important question we need to ask
Speaker 2: is how many Indigenous prisoners in Australia are innocent.
Speaker 1: This is Curtain, a podcast where we pull back the
Speaker 1: blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of
Speaker 1: our justice system and ask who are the victims. I'm
Speaker 1: Amy Maguire and.
Speaker 2: I'm Martin Hodgson, a senior advocate for the Foreign Prisoner
Speaker 2: Support Service. And a warning this series contains the names
Speaker 2: of deceased peoples and has distressing content that might upset
Speaker 2: some listeners.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to kurtin the podcast for yet another year,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to start by thanking you our listeners
Speaker 1: for chuning in yet again and also hope that you
Speaker 1: had a good holiday period with your family and friends.
Speaker 1: It was a bittersweet one for us because Curtain, Kevin
Speaker 1: Henry has spent twenty six Christmases and twenty six New
Speaker 1: Years behind bars for a crime he didn't do. And
Speaker 1: so even as we celebrated with our friends and family,
Speaker 1: I couldn't help thinking about the facts that Kevin is
Speaker 1: still locked up, and that we've been investigating this case
Speaker 1: for two years and you've been listening for a year
Speaker 1: and a half, and yet he's still there, still serving
Speaker 1: time for a crime that we've shown he did not do.
Speaker 3: To bring you up to date with where we finished
Speaker 3: the year off, you'll remember that we had an alibi
Speaker 3: for Kevin Henry that we were able to show all
Speaker 3: the forensic evidence shows Kevin Henry is innocent, that there's
Speaker 3: witness statements, including eyewitnesses, those who spoke of the people
Speaker 3: who really committed the crime, and no link whatsoever to
Speaker 3: Kevin Henry in the murder of Linda. But despite all
Speaker 3: the evidence that exists, and you can go back through
Speaker 3: previous episodes and pick those out you want to refresh
Speaker 3: your memory on, Kevin remains behind bars. And the most
Speaker 3: frustrating part is that Kevin is quite clearly innocent, and
Speaker 3: yet despite the changes we've talked about in Queensland with
Speaker 3: the parole board being changed and being made more professional
Speaker 3: because the Queensland government themselves could see just how wrong
Speaker 3: things were going. This has not helped Kevin, and it
Speaker 3: hasn't helped Aboriginal prisoners. What we do know since things
Speaker 3: have changed last June is that people are getting out
Speaker 3: and people are getting the chance to move from the
Speaker 3: prison environment into the community environment. But that hasn't occurred
Speaker 3: for Kevin. And it really is frustrating given that all
Speaker 3: this information that we've exposed is on the public record,
Speaker 3: But that just means twenty eighteen is an even more
Speaker 3: important year for us. Kevin cannot spend another Christmas behind bars.
Speaker 3: An innocent man shouldn't spend another day behind bars. But
Speaker 3: we're going to do everything in our power this year
Speaker 3: to make sure that Kevin has spent his last Christmas
Speaker 3: in New Years in Capricornia Prison near Rockhampton.
Speaker 1: But we can't do that without help. Late last year,
Speaker 1: we launched a Patreon page aimed at crowdfunding some resources
Speaker 1: in order to help Kevin Henry's legal fight. If you
Speaker 1: believe in Kevin's innocence, and if you've listened to this
Speaker 1: podcast over the past year and a half and you're
Speaker 1: concerned about what is happening in this country to Aboriginal
Speaker 1: people as a whole. Please consider going onto that page
Speaker 1: page and just supporting us in any way you can.
Speaker 1: Even the smallest bit will help and will add up
Speaker 1: to help us actually work towards that outcome to get
Speaker 1: Kevin out and to pursue justice for him and Flinda.
Speaker 1: And we'll have details of that Patreon page on our
Speaker 1: Facebook page and also on our website www. Dot kirtanthepodcast
Speaker 1: dot com. But Martin, I mean, you've worked on cases
Speaker 1: all around the world, and you do it pretty much
Speaker 1: on the smell of an oily rag. But what is
Speaker 1: needed in order to fund cases like Kevin's and where
Speaker 1: would this money actually go towards.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really good question, and I think, as
Speaker 3: you said, the work I do, we run cases with
Speaker 3: virtually no money whatsoever. But where people will know that
Speaker 3: innocent people, men and women are being released and being
Speaker 3: exonerated is in the United States, primarily for two reasons,
Speaker 3: because of the work of the Innocence Project and excellent
Speaker 3: law groups right around the country, and also because of
Speaker 3: the fighting fund that organizations like the NAACP have. They
Speaker 3: literally have millions of dollars at their disposal, all donated
Speaker 3: by men and women in the public, like those who
Speaker 3: listen to Curtin. And what that allows those organizations to
Speaker 3: do is act very quickly when new leads come up
Speaker 3: and new evidence is found as to a person's innocence.
Speaker 3: For us, that's really difficult because we don't have the funds,
Speaker 3: and so where that money goes to is things like
Speaker 3: hiring experts, so whether it be psychiatrists for witnesses, forensic
Speaker 3: experts to analyze new material evidence or re examine old evidence,
Speaker 3: traveling to interview witnesses and take affidavits. We of course
Speaker 3: have a large amount of court processes we need to
Speaker 3: go through. So in the last year we've, of course,
Speaker 3: as you would have heard, litigated some of the refusals
Speaker 3: and issues Kevin has faced along this journey, and we've
Speaker 3: been successful in that. But everything we do costs money,
Speaker 3: and there is no fighting fund like so many groups
Speaker 3: have access in the United States. And I'm sure people
Speaker 3: have seen on Facebook and social media tweets and posts
Speaker 3: and YouTube videos about exoneries walking free and seeing those
Speaker 3: faces of men and women walk out of jail after
Speaker 3: spending decades in prison. For crimes they didn't commit. People
Speaker 3: just like Kevin Henry and other Aboriginal people in Australia
Speaker 3: and jails. But you don't get to that moment without
Speaker 3: fighting the fight to free these people, and you cannot
Speaker 3: do it without the funds. And so as hard as
Speaker 3: we work, we need that money and that support that
Speaker 3: you the public can provide to make this justice possible.
Speaker 1: And it's very interesting you mentioned the Innocence Project, Martin,
Speaker 1: because over the past few months I've been following their
Speaker 1: social media and their cases very closely, and they actually
Speaker 1: just this week had their two hundredth eggonery and that
Speaker 1: was largely due to you all of the support that
Speaker 1: they have received, and that actually was a white woman.
Speaker 1: They're two hundredth person exonerated with the help of Innocence Project.
Speaker 1: But only just recently there was another man who was
Speaker 1: very similar to Kevin's case. He was only twenty two
Speaker 1: when he was wrongfully convicted, who just had hurt his
Speaker 1: murder conviction overturned as well. So over in America that
Speaker 1: you know, this is actually a huge movement. There's actually
Speaker 1: a lot of community support and awareness that this is
Speaker 1: a problem and a deep seat of law in our
Speaker 1: justice system. And I think we have to get to
Speaker 1: a stage in Australia where you know, it's not just
Speaker 1: little pockets of people actually supporting these sort of cases
Speaker 1: and these people who've been so sorely let down by
Speaker 1: the justice system. It's a whole community awareness of what's
Speaker 1: happening in a whole community support to try and reverse
Speaker 1: the enormous damage that this system has caused, predominantly to
Speaker 1: Aboriginal people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's exactly right, And everything you spoke
Speaker 3: about is really what I think we want to replicate
Speaker 3: in Australia, but driven by the Aboriginal community for the
Speaker 3: Aboriginal community. And so we see in America there's been
Speaker 3: a number of cases over the Christmas period where small
Speaker 3: legal organizations have helped not only Zoner eight people, but
Speaker 3: there was a number of cases where African American men
Speaker 3: and women over the Christmas period were found not guilty
Speaker 3: in cases where the police had committed serious corruption. And
Speaker 3: what enabled the lawyers to do such good work was
Speaker 3: access to those fighting funds that communities right across the
Speaker 3: United States, whether they're donating to big groups like the
Speaker 3: NAACP or the Innocence Project or the small organizations that
Speaker 3: exist all over America. It allows lawyers to hit the
Speaker 3: ground running straight away. And what we don't want to
Speaker 3: see is another Derek Bromley, another Kevin Henry, Aboriginal people
Speaker 3: spending decades in prison for crimes they didn't do. We
Speaker 3: hear continuously from the community right around Australia because they
Speaker 3: listened to Curtin and they want to raise these issues.
Speaker 3: And what we want to be able to do is
Speaker 3: not just help those in prison, but help those who
Speaker 3: are facing similar fights in their very early stages. We
Speaker 3: want to be able to do what the NAACP did
Speaker 3: in the worst times, which is rolling to town with lawyers, barristers,
Speaker 3: with social workers, with media, with support people, and ensure
Speaker 3: that when things go wrong, when someone is falsely accused,
Speaker 3: when something terrible happens, like the murder and killing of
Speaker 3: young Elijah or misdue in Western Australia, that we can
Speaker 3: be there to get justice and support the families. Otherwise,
Speaker 3: Ooriginal people continue to suffer in silence, and quite frankly,
Speaker 3: two hundred plus years later, it's no longer good enough.
Speaker 3: It's very easy to make small donations, to make small
Speaker 3: contributions and we can put an end to this. We
Speaker 3: see it happening in America, we see it happening right
Speaker 3: around the world. Now we have to do in Australia
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen has to be the year.
Speaker 1: And Martin, you just mentioned some of the outrages that
Speaker 1: we've heard of recently and which have finally created some
Speaker 1: sort of media attention around these sort of issues. But
Speaker 1: we're constantly being approached as well by other Aboriginal families
Speaker 1: around the country who have cases similar to Kevin, or
Speaker 1: similar to other cases that have created that have drawn
Speaker 1: widespread attention, and yet there doesn't seem to be a
Speaker 1: lot of the ground swell or support available to them.
Speaker 1: So I think as well, what we've shown in this
Speaker 1: podcast is that the issues that have affected Kevin and
Speaker 1: have resulted in this massive injustice or replicated all across
Speaker 1: the country. And that's what this podcast is for as well.
Speaker 1: We want to keep doing this and with your support,
Speaker 1: with the listeners support and wider Australia, hopefully in the
Speaker 1: future their support, we hope to continue this journey and
Speaker 1: to continue helping a lot of Aberaginal family who you
Speaker 1: may not have heard of and whose cases are less
Speaker 1: wider known and who are just crying out for some
Speaker 1: sort of justice and for really just to be heard
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: And one thing I just want to add lastly on
Speaker 3: that issue is one of the saddest things making curtain
Speaker 3: and working on Kevin's case for me has been hearing
Speaker 3: from Aboriginal families whose loved ones. And we've also heard
Speaker 3: from former prisoners who have been in the exact same
Speaker 3: position as Kevin and have served their full sentence, having
Speaker 3: never committed the crime, but no one ever came to
Speaker 3: help them. And one of the reasons they support Kevin
Speaker 3: so strongly is because they know exactly what it feels like,
Speaker 3: they know the suffering. So this is why we want
Speaker 3: to work so hard. We shouldn't have to hear from
Speaker 3: people whose lives have been totally ruined by the justice system.
Speaker 3: It's supposed to deliver justice. It's not supposed to be
Speaker 3: ruining lives. And I think we know so many families
Speaker 3: who we've come to hear from, Individuals we've come to
Speaker 3: hear from and speak to who know exactly what Kevin's
Speaker 3: gone through and he's going through because they've experienced it too,
Speaker 3: and so we want to help them and we want
Speaker 3: to make sure that those people don't exist in the future,
Speaker 3: and there's only one way we can do that, and
Speaker 3: that's with your support.
Speaker 1: So mardin. With that in mind, what do you expect
Speaker 1: we'll be looking at this year or what are the
Speaker 1: first plans of attack in relation to Kevin's case more specifically, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: With Kevin's case, the idea is that we continue to
Speaker 3: push down the pardon process and that we continue to
Speaker 3: put the evidence in front of the governor and the
Speaker 3: hope is that soon will be able to start making headway.
Speaker 3: But again, we need people to be spreading the word
Speaker 3: because for a pardon to take place, you need not
Speaker 3: only the evidence, you need the public support. We're talking
Speaker 3: about something that's never been achieved before, and we can't
Speaker 3: just do that to people fighting for one man. We
Speaker 3: need the entire community to rally around. And what we've
Speaker 3: seen is the Rockhampton community has been incredible and that
Speaker 3: people in Wuabinda not just signing petitions but coming forward
Speaker 3: and telling their stories, telling us what they know, telling
Speaker 3: us the history, and that takes a lot of courage
Speaker 3: to do. So going forward, what we really need to
Speaker 3: see is people in high profile places making a stand
Speaker 3: on this issue. So if you're listening to this and
Speaker 3: you know someone who works on radio or in the media,
Speaker 3: get them informed, get them listening to Curtin. That's something
Speaker 3: you can actively do. Try and push for this stuff
Speaker 3: to get a bigger voice. The other thing we're going
Speaker 3: to be doing is we have more evidence that we
Speaker 3: can expose to the public and reveal to the public.
Speaker 3: We're also working to try and get Kevin paroled in
Speaker 3: the meantime, because one of the best ways we can
Speaker 3: prove Kevin's innocence is to have Kevin on the outside
Speaker 3: and so that he can tell his story and people
Speaker 3: can see him telling his story, and I think that's
Speaker 3: the best way for people to understand exactly what went
Speaker 3: wrong in his case. And one thing that's really important
Speaker 3: to us in twenty eighteen is for you to know
Speaker 3: a little bit more about Linda and to understand what
Speaker 3: happens when a family loses someone in this way and
Speaker 3: justice isn't done. And sadly, one thing we do know
Speaker 3: is that a great, many number of Indigenous people, particularly
Speaker 3: Indigenous women and children, are murdered, and not only is
Speaker 3: there no conviction or the wrong person is imprisoned. The
Speaker 3: family never finds out exactly what happened, and they live
Speaker 3: forever with that trauma and experience of losing a mother,
Speaker 3: a daughter, a son and not knowing where they even
Speaker 3: might be. All they get told by the police is
Speaker 3: they're dead, and often the excuse is that they've gone
Speaker 3: walk about. And we know in cases that have since
Speaker 3: been resolved and since been examined by coroners that that
Speaker 3: excuse by the police is a blatant lie. In a
Speaker 3: number of murder cases, police tried to maintain that for months,
Speaker 3: sometimes years, and then a body was found. So these
Speaker 3: are things we're going to be exposing coming in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: There's many more cases we want to focus on, but
Speaker 3: again we need your help to do it, and we
Speaker 3: need more people listening and more people spreading the word.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons why Linda's family have
Speaker 1: told us that they always had concerns and reservations and
Speaker 1: believe now believe that Kevin Henry is innocent because in
Speaker 1: South Australia there have been numerous cases of abrushnal women who,
Speaker 1: as Martin has said, gone missing or being murdered, and
Speaker 1: there has been no conviction. One of the most high
Speaker 1: profile was the case of Karen Williams in nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: who was never found and she disappeared in kuber Peed
Speaker 1: in the late nineties, actually the year before Linda died.
Speaker 1: So you start to realize that in South Australia where
Speaker 1: Linda was from, and in rock Hampden where she tragically
Speaker 1: lost her life, you know, these issues are very similar
Speaker 1: all across this country.
Speaker 3: So that's going to be our twenty eighteen freeing Kevin Henry,
Speaker 3: finally getting justice and answers for Linda and her family,
Speaker 3: exposing the endless number of cases of Aboriginal men and
Speaker 3: women who are in prison in Australia who are innocent,
Speaker 3: Highlighting the number of Aboriginal women and young children in
Speaker 3: particular who have gone missing and been killed, who have
Speaker 3: never had justice, whose families have never had answers, And
Speaker 3: we can only do this with your support. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 3: we want you to become more involved, to join this
Speaker 3: journey with us. We have to make this the year
Speaker 3: we deliver justice for all Aboriginal people who are suffering
Speaker 3: in this way and who have experienced this trauma. So
Speaker 3: please log on to curtinthepodcast dot com. Like the Facebook
Speaker 3: page Curtain the Podcast, follow us on Twitter, Curtain the Podcast,
Speaker 3: and spread the word. And finally, please support with what
Speaker 3: you can at our Patreon website, which will have links
Speaker 3: to on all our social media and our website. Any
Speaker 3: small amount makes a massive difference, and encouraging others to
Speaker 3: support us helps us do all those things we want
Speaker 3: to focus on in twenty eighteen, freeing Kevin, justice for Linda,
Speaker 3: justice for all Aboriginal people in the justice system, and
Speaker 3: bringing closure and truth to those Aboriginal women and children
Speaker 3: who have been missing and murdered and never had any
Speaker 3: answers for them and their family relies heavily on you
Speaker 3: and your contribution in twenty eighteen. That was Curtain the
Speaker 3: Podcast