Victim of sloppy police work still not exonerated

Evidence of this man's innocence has been in the public domain for years but admitting that through their one-eyed approach the police got the wrong man must be resisted to the bitter end, of course

Fresh evidence from three scientists will be the key components of a petition seeking to clear convicted killer Graham Stafford of the brutal 1991 sex slaying of Leanne Holland. The petition for a pardon was hand-delivered to Queensland Governor Quentin Bryce on Friday by members of Stafford's legal team, who had been working on the document since he was freed on parole last year, four months short of the minimum 15-year sentence.

Attorney-General Kerry Shine, who had followed extensive media coverage of the sensational crime and conviction, will initially decide Stafford's fate. "1 can assure you that 1 will closely consider any request on behalf of Graham Stafford, and I will seek legal advice on it," Mr Shine said. The Minister was likely to send the case back to the Court of Appeal, which could either throw out the petition; quash the conviction and clear Stafford; or quash and order a retrial. In the last scenario, police would have to decide whether there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Stafford again, as most of the exhibits have been destroyed.

Sources said homicide detectives recently revisited the files. Stafford, jailed for life for killing his then-girlfriend's 12-year-old sister at Goodna, west of Brisbane, strenuously denied guilt. The Court of Appeal rejected his bid in 1997 on a two-to-one majority verdict, but his legal team has since gathered new evidence which cast doubt on his conviction.

Two forensic entomologists and a biologist will dispute the Crown's key piece of evidence-the alleged finding of a maggot in the boot of Stafford's car, which was said to have come from Leanne's body. They claim it would have been impossible for a maggot to survive away from its food source for the two days after her body was supposedly removed and dumped in bushland at Redbank Plains.

The lone maggot that police claim they found in the boot was longer, fatter and healthier than maggots found on her body. And it was placed in a vial only after the other maggots were collected from the body.

DNA expert Angela van Daal, who gave evidence for the prosecution in the 1992 trial, has provided a statement for the petition which suggests police got the wrong man. She said the fact that tiny drops of Leanne's blood were on items in the boot of Stafford's car was not consistent with him having murdered the schoolgirl.

The petition claims Stafford did not have sufficient opportunity to commit the murder, and it was "highly improbable" that Leanne's body was ever in the boot, it also disputes key section of the case, including a claim there was no evidence that the murder occurred in the Holland/Stafford home and that car tracks near where the body was found were not from Stafford's vehicle.

The petition also seeks to point out that Stafford never lied to police in his interview before being charged with murder.

KEYS TO THE CASE

* Insufficient opportunity to commit the murder.

* It was "highly improbable" that the body was ever in his car boot.

* There was no evidence that the murder occurred in the Holland/Stafford home.

* Car tracks near where the body was found were not from Stafford's vehicle.

* His hammer was never missing - the police had taken it, tested it and found no blood.

* Maggot evidence questionable.

The above article by Darrell Giles appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on December 2, 2007





Major regional hospital needs first aid

Mackay is a lovely small city in the centre of a beautiful tropical area -- but don't get ill there. This report means that all four big hospitals servicing the tropics (Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton) have all recently reported major problems. As tourism is a major industry in the tropics this could well be very destructive economically. Government folly can be very costly even beyond what it takes in taxes



This bursting-apart medical facility is held together with Band-Aids and broken promises. The roof of one operating theatre leaks in tropical storms, damaging vital equipment. Staff cram into shabby pre-1930 buildings and rundown demountables. If it wasn't for dongas, those makeshift construction-site sheds, the place couldn't function for lack of storage. They are everywhere. There's even one on the roof and everyone's worried it will fly off in a cyclone.

Now, this hospital of dongas is not in some remote Aboriginal community or depressed low-growth area of Australia. Not that that would make it any less deplorable. This hospital is the Mackay Base Hospital, the only public hospital that services one of Australia's fastest-growing areas, in this country's most important coal-bearing basins, where they are digging out coal as fast as is humanly possible.

The prosperity and population explosion up there is hard to comprehend. Coalmining in this state employs more than 22,000 people, generating about $15 billion in exports last year and delivering $1 billion in royalties to the State Government. Thousands of miners live in the Mackay district and rely on the hospital.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Ross Cartmill, a Brisbane-based urologist, puts it succinctly: "The Queensland Government's income from the Mackay district in coal equals something like Tasmania's entire Budget." Hard to imagine isn't it? All that money going out. And a hovel of a hospital in return.

Now don't take my word for it. "The people of Mackay are being stiffed." The voice at the end of the phone sounds strained and like a man who's been hitting his head against a brick wall for a long while. It belongs to an experienced senior physician at the Mackay Base Hospital. "What has gone on here is a disgrace. I want to stay in this town. I like Mackay and want to deliver quality health service. But I'm at my wit's end."

Now, having an inadequate hospital has far-reaching effects. Top specialists refuse to work there or even visit. So Mackay patients must travel 381km to Townsville or 978km to Brisbane. Some go to Melbourne. Talented junior doctors in Mackay don't get proper supervision. You can't learn when you have no one to learn from. So, if you don't want your career to stall, you have to leave.

There is no cardiologist, dermatologist, urologist, neurologist or vascular surgeon or ear, nose and throat specialist. You live in Mackay and your child needs grommets, usually a basic, run-of-the-mill ear procedure? Too bad. You'll have to get on a plane to Townsville, Rockhampton or Brisbane.

Cartmill says it is embarrassing to walk through the place. "Australia is supposed to be a First World country but there are employees in the office who work in demountables without plumbing. They have to wash their coffee mugs in a plastic bowl of water on their desk." Bet you don't see too many plastic bowls of dirty washing-up water on the desks in Brisbane's Executive Building.

Now, 20 years ago when I worked at the local newspaper, The Daily Mercury, the weekly headlines were about the appalling state of the Mackay Base Hospital. Various state and federal governments have come and gone. Nothing has changed. The paper is still campaigning. The only thing keeping the Mackay Base Hospital going is its staff. Despite the terrible conditions, there are dedicated doctors, nurses and other health professionals who believe in quality health care and are prepared to pay high rents to work there.

Now, what Mackay residents don't want is more government buck-passing. There is absolutely no bank of trust left when it comes to the base hospital. The people of Mackay and staff at the hospital have been screwed by successive state and federal governments. So, here we are in 2007, with a new Premier and a new Prime Minister, both of the same politics, both banging on about fixing Australia's hospitals. Anna Bligh says she will fix Queensland's health system. Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd has pledged $2 billion to overhaul the nation's health system and vowed to seize control of hospitals if states fail to get reform under way by 2009.

Do you realise how little $2 billion is when stretched across the whole country's neglected health system? Take it from Cartmill. It's peanuts. Just remember, there was $30 billion lying around in the coffers for promised tax cuts alone. And 2009? Forget it. Doctors at the Mackay Base Hospital are desperate right now. They feel completely unsupported. They are driving home from their night shift this morning terrified of what they will find when they return for the next shift. They dread the next emergency that could go wrong, not because of negligence by a doctor or nurse but because of the lack of funding, training, resources and supervision. The blame lies squarely at the feet of the Federal and State Governments.

The Mackay Base Hospital does not need some quick-fix or sporadic dribble of cash for a coat of paint or the purchase of more dongas. Little grey men in suits with clipboards will talk of the "cost-effective" option of redeveloping the present site. It's a joke. There's not enough room to swing a cat on the grounds.

Want to know something jaw-dropping? Years ago a local businessman donated a large block of land that adjoined the hospital specifically for future development. Donated. It was just cow paddocks then. So what happened to it? Queensland Health flogged it off for a quick buck and it's now all houses. Do the words incompetent, short-sighted morons spring to mind? Or is that just me?

Let's not fall for bureaucratic talk of redeveloping this hovel of a hospital. No. That would all be too little, too late. Nothing less than a brand-new base hospital is acceptable. A commitment needs to be made immediately. Cartmill says State Government already owns a perfect piece of dirt, smack bang in the middle of town, the Mackay Showgrounds. It's big, flat, empty, with ideal highway access.

Cartmill's got six months left in his AMA role. "I don't want to leave without knowing we've fixed Mackay's hospital problem. I want no other legacy." Only a Federal/State solution will fix Mackay's hospital woes. Bligh and Rudd don't live far from each other in Brisbane. Maybe they could get together over coffee one morning. They are two smart people. And it's really only one little hospital. If they can't fix that, what hope the rest of the health system?

And the solution is so simple. Do I have to write it in Mandarin? Build the bloody hospital. Or it will forever be known that Anna Bligh and Kevin Rudd, in Queensland's biggest economic boom, were just another couple of politicians who couldn't fix one crooked hospital.

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A medical bureaucrat to be finally made accountable?

A FORMER deputy director-general who was protected by then-premier Peter Beattie has been referred to the Health Practitioners Tribunal over the Jayant Patel affair. The newly formed Office of the Medical Board filed a referral notice to the tribunal on Thursday, outlining the case against Gerry FitzGerald, who was the state's chief health officer during the Dr Patel scandal. A seven-page referral notice said that the board believed Dr FitzGerald should face disciplinary action for behaving "in a way that constitutes unsatisfactory professional conduct" between December 16, 2004 to March 25, 2005.

If the tribunal finds against Dr FitzGerald, he faces sanctions, cautioning, fines and deregistration. But former colleagues have asked how he face action when Dr Patel has yet to front a court. Dr Patel, who is living in the US, is facing charges of manslaughter over the alleged treatment of his patients.

The document outlines examples of how Dr FitzGerald was too slow to respond to queries about Dr Patel and failed to assess the serious nature of the allegations put to him. The board said Dr FitzGerald failed to recommend immediate suspension against Dr Patel. It also argued Dr FitzGerald provided a report on the hospital which was misleading and incomplete.

While Mr Beattie sacked former health director-general Steve Buckland in mid 2005, the then premier promoted Dr FitzGerald to deputy director-general despite questions being asked about why it took him so long to act against Dr Patel.

Asked why it has taken more than two years to come to its position, in a statement to The Courier-Mail yesterday, the board said: "The investigation into Dr Gerry FitzGerald followed standard procedures. "It took no longer than other investigations conducted by the Board that have been referred to independent external investigators." Dr FitzGerald could not be contacted yesterday.

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Scientists believe they can reverse dementia

AUSTRALIAN scientists believe they have cracked the code to preventing dementia by restoring the decaying brain cells of a 65-year-old to the levels of an 18-year-old. The research, presented to pharmaceutical chiefs at a closed event last week, offers new hope for the 200,000 Australians suffering dementia - a group of degenerative brain disorders that includes Alzheimer's disease.

The scientists have developed two ways to stimulate stem cells and regenerate the brain, boosting mental functions such as understanding and memory. Leading stem cell scientist Dr Rod Rietze and his team at the University of Queensland believe increasing the number of stem cells in young and middle-aged brains will help stave off dementia. "The idea is not to transplant anything - but to stimulate what we have got," Dr Rietze said. "The job of the stem cell is to do two things: keep the body functioning and regenerate the tissue. "It makes sense that if you increase the regenerative cells, the brain lasts longer."

Dementia is a major health burden, costing more than $1.4 billion per year - a figure that is expected to blow out due to a rapidly ageing population and longer life expectancies. As people get older, the number of stem cells in the brain decreases rapidly and brain function deteriorates.

Dr Rietze's first approach to turning back the ageing clock involves injecting growth hormones directly into the brains of mice. The second approach involves using physical exercise on a treadmill to trigger stem cells to multiply naturally and improve brain function. "When people do regular exercise, they age better," Dr Rietze said. "There is a correlative relationship."

Dr Rietze and his team believe sustained physical activity may prevent or delay the onset of age-related dementia as much as injecting growth hormones, restoring stem cell levels of a 65-year-old back to that of an 18-year-old. The scientist, who funded his team's radical research with a $1 million Pfizer Fellowship he won in 2004, has submitted his work to international medical journals. "I think really the next step is to design treatment strategies, and the prevention of diseases," he said.

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