Fact Sheet.
- Pamela
Lawrence, a popular mother of two, was bludgeoned to death around 5pm
on 23 May 1994 in her jewelry shop on Glyde St, Mosman Park
(Flora Metallica is now a
pizza shop).
- The timeline
of the day that Pamela Lawrence was murdered is far from conclusive in putting
Andrew at the scene.
- Initially the
police had no suspects and 136 persons of interest.
- Andrew was
first interviewed at Graylands. When he gave the Police several alibis that
did not check out (he gave them events of different days, not
23 May), they brought
him in for questioning.
- There is no
forensic evidence against Andrew. No blood, no DNA, no fingerprints, no
footprints.
- The weapon was
never found.
- Andrew had
never met Pamela Lawrence.
- There were no
eyewitnesses who identified Andrew. (The only person claiming to see anyone
in the shop at the relevant time was Pamela Lawrence's co-worker's
schoolgirl
daughter, who helped with an identikit. She did not pick Andrew out of a line
up, or a photo board, and did not identify him in court as the
man she saw.)
- Andrew was
convicted on the evidence of the police alone - a fact conceded by the
prosecution.
- Tricked into
believing he was accompanying police to collect his clothing, and fresh out
of Graylands, Andrew was interviewed by Detective Caporn and
Detective Emmett on 10
June 1994. The interview lasted eight hours - not one moment on tape. Andrew
has consistently alleged that he was stripped naked, twice, and
assaulted during
that interview.
- Released after
being charged with assault police (he bit Caporn's leg, allegedly while in
a headlock).
- Brought in on
a bench warrant from that charge - to CIB headquarters instead of the court
- he was interviewed for a second time by Detectives Brandham
and Carter. Again with
no lawyer, he was there for three hours - 20 minutes of which was on video.
- 20-minute video presented as a "third-person confession" -
the only evidence against him.
- Andrew appointed in-house Legal Aid lawyer Patrick Hogan, who
failed to stop Caporn and
Brandham's accounts of 11 hours of unrecorded, unsigned "confessions" being
allowed into evidence in court.
- Andrew applies
for a QC to help Mr Hogan but is denied by Justice Murray, who doesn't want
to change the trial date.
- November 1995
Andrew convicted of wilful murder.
- Sentenced to "strict security life" - 30 years in
prison.
- First possible
parole application - 2012.
- September 1996
- Appeal by barrister Mark Ritter to the Court of Criminal Appeal denied. Judges
believed that police would not fabricate confessions. Nonetheless,
they chastise
Caporn for not recording the eight-hour interview and instruct to video all
confessions in future.
- 1997 -
Application for special leave to the High Court denied. In the 15 minutes
allocated, Mr Ritter argued that the unrecorded confessions should not have
been allowed. The High Court noted that since WA police were
now required to video
confessions, there was no point of law.
- Andrew has maintained his innocence throughout - even in the
video "confession".
- Andrew has no
history of violence.
- Andrew had one "break-in" on his record - he was
arrested on the day before the murder for posing as an undercover
detective to force the door of a nearby flat in Mosman
Park. He was trying to impress the girl he was staying with by retrieving her
belongings from the flat. That episode was how Andrew came
to be in Graylands,
was one of the factors that led police to him and was heavily exploited at
trial.
- Andrew turned
43 in August 2005. He is in Casuarina Maximum Security Prison
Perth, Western Australia.
- Andrew was
granted a reference by Jim McGinty to the Court of Criminal Appeal so he can
have his conviction quashed.
- Andrew passed
a polygraph test in March 2001 by Australia's foremost polygraph
expert, Bill
Glare and the second with Steven Van Aperen of Polygraph Australia
in July 2003. In both instances the examiners found that Andrew
was truthful in his replies to their questioning."
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