A prominent Victorian barrister has renewed calls for a royal commission into the police handling of the Susan Neill-Fraser case.
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Robert Richter QC said Neill-Fraser's leave to appeal was only the first step in the court process.
In the Supreme Court in Hobart Justice Michael Brett recently granted leave for her to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Neill-Fraser was convicted by a jury in 2010 of killing Bob Chappell, her partner, on board his yacht moored in the River Derwent on Australia Day 2009. His body has never been found.
Mr Richter said he had been "agitating" since 2013 for a judicial inquiry into the conduct of the investigation and prosecution of Neill-Fraser.
"For my part, I say that curial - that is court based - adversarial process is not and never was intended to be a search for the truth as such. It is but an adjudication on the evidence presented," he said.
"That is why I agitated for an investigatory inquiry in 2013 and in 2017 which would get to the bottom of issues relating to the extraordinarily incompetent and blinkered investigation by Tasmania Police into the death of Bob Chappell.
"What has struck me most since we presented evidence to the Premier, the Acting Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General in 2017 has been the single-minded activities by the Tasmanian Police and the DPP to justify past conduct by shooting the messengers who questioned the conduct of the original investigation.
"The most pernicious part of those activities has been the involvement of persons who had a stake in upholding what was done 10 years ago.
"This is what an independent inquiry would have avoided."
Deputy Police Commissioner Scott Tilyard believes the police investigation was "thorough".
"Tasmania Police fully supports the legal process and remains confident in the integrity and thoroughness of the original and subsequent investigation teams," Commissioner Tilyard said.
Mr Richter, who recently represented Cardinal George Pell, maintains a royal commission is needed.
"Whatever the outcome of the appeal, there still needs to be an accountability for Sue spending some of the best years of her life in gaol by way of an independent and inquisitorial royal commission which would look at the adequacy and propriety of those involved in the charging and prosecution of Sue Neill-Fraser," he said.
A support group has called for Neill-Fraser to be immediately released from prison in light of the "fresh and compelling evidence".
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