Qld: High Court rules in favour of man in 30-year-old baby case

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Qld: High Court rules in favour of man in 30-year-old baby case

By Janelle Miles

BRISBANE, Dec 5 AAP - The mother of baby Deidre Kennedy, who was murdered almost 30years ago, broke down in tears today after the High Court ended the legal case againstthe accused killer.

The Full Court of the High Court ruled in favour of Raymond John Carroll, who's twicebeen convicted by juries in the Deidre Kennedy case.

Faye Kennedy left a Brisbane court building visibly distressed with son Derek todayafter learning of the High Court judgement, handed down in Canberra.

Her 17-month-old baby was taken from her cot, sexually assaulted, bitten, strangledand thrown onto a park toilet roof at Ipswich, west of Brisbane, in 1973.

Mr Carroll, who has consistently protested his innocence, was charged and convictedof the murder 12 years later but the verdict was later overturned by the Court of Appeal.

In 1999, Mr Carroll was charged again, this time with perjury, the prosecution arguinghe had lied when he swore at his original trial he had not killed the baby.

A jury again found him guilty but again the Court of Appeal overturned the verdict,concluding it was unsafe and unsatisfactory.

The prosecution appealed that decision to the High Court.

But the High Court today ruled unanimously in favour of Mr Carroll, concluding theprosecution's perjury indictment should have been stayed as an abuse of process.

"It is an abuse of process for the Crown to charge a person with an offence of perjurywhen proof of the charge necessarily contradicts or tends to undermine an acquittal ofthe accused in respect of another criminal charge," said Justice Michael McHugh in a writtenjudgement.

"A perjury charge that has that effect is an abuse of process.

"It is a fundamental rule of the criminal law `that no man is to be brought into jeopardyof his life, more than once, for the same offence'."

Justices Mary Gaudron and Bill Gummow said in a joint judgment the laying of the perjurycharge was "vexatious or oppressive".

"In substance, there was an attempt to re-litigate the earlier prosecution," they said.

Mr Carroll has contended he was on an RAAF training course when Deidre was murdered.

AAP jhm/mg/sb

KEYWORD: CARROLL