Stephen Stone refused bail, despite Crown admitting he was wrongfully convicted of two murders
Sunday, 18 August 2024
Stephen Stone, the man jailed for two murders in the Gone Fishing case, has been denied bail, even though the Crown admits he was wrongfully convicted.
On Friday afternoon, the Court of Appeal dashed Stone’s hopes of being released from prison after 26 years.
Stone was convicted in 1999 of murdering Auckland tyre-fitter Deane Fuller-Sandys, and raping and killing sex worker Leah Stephens five days later in August 1989, in what has become known as the Gone Fishing case, following a Stuff/RNZ podcast.
In court this week, the Crown conceded Stone, and three others, including mother-of-five Gail Maney, were wrongfully convicted, because police hadn’t disclosed crucial documents at their trials and appeals.
Despite this, the Crown wants to retry Stone and Maney, even though 25 years having passed since their first trial, and virtually all the evidence against them having collapsed.
Maney spent 16 years in jail, but Stone has never been released.
His lawyers applied for bail at this week’s Court of Appeal hearing, with minimal opposition from the Crown.
But the three judges initially said they wouldn’t rule on Stone’s bail until they issued their decision whether he should face a retrial.
However, after Stone’s lawyers said this was unfair, the Court issued a brief memo late on Friday, saying bail had been denied, with its reasons to follow.
The result is that Stone will remain in prison for an indefinite period, until the court issues its judgement, which could be months away.
Stone’s lawyer Annabel Maxwell-Scott said they were disappointed, but she couldn’t comment further without seeing the court’s reasoning.
Stone has been denied parole 12 times, and spent almost half his life in jail.
He had been crossing off the days on his calendar till he was freed, Maxwell-Scott said.
“On Friday he rang me up and said, ‘Shall I unpack my bags again?’”
Investigator Tim McKinnel, whose work led to the Crown capitulating and recommending Stone and Maney’s convictions should be quashed, said the court’s decision to deny Stone bail was hard to understand.
“I find it unfathomable that the state can create a case based on lies, a man serves 26 years, a miscarriage is confirmed, and our system says, ‘Stay where you are, in your cage, until we decide what to do.’
“It’s difficult to find the words, in terms of what that means on a human level for him.
“I don’t understand how you can indefinitely delay somebody’s liberty, knowing they have been wrongfully convicted of two murders.”
What made Stone’s situation extraordinary was that the Crown had already conceded he had been wrongfully convicted of both murders, and urged the court to quash his convictions, McKinnel said.
“There was enough heard in the Court of Appeal hearing about the state of the evidence, and how it was engineered, for even the most conservative adjudicators to be troubled.”
If the Court of Appeal ruled Stone should be acquitted, and not face a retrial, he would walk out of prison immediately, McKinnel said.
And if they did order a retrial, then the case would go back to the High Court, where a decision on Stone’s bail would be made almost immediately.
“So for the Court of Appeal’s position to be that he should stay where he is, until they’ve made all their decisions, when there are very real concerns about the integrity of the trials, is deeply troubling to me.”
What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz. Please include your full name and address.