Unjust Justice: The Case of Edward Splatt

• The tape lifting and vacuuming collections from the bed sheet showed a number of small spheres of reddish orange paint in addition with a few spheres of dark blue, dark green, pale green, yellow and silver coloured paint particles.
• Particles of wood and metal, black wool fibres, balls of yellow fibres, and hair were identified.
• Investigators concluded that the spheres, particles and fibres came from the clothing of the killer in contact with the bedsheet.
• Further items of interest from Mrs Simper’s lower bedsheet contained seed-like fragments, brown spicules of a foam-like substance, a feather, two sugar crystals, hairs, cotton fibres with reddish orange paint adhered to their surfaces, and fibres with blue and white striations.

Edward Splatt

The Royal Commision

Inadequacies in the case

Inadequacies in the case

Pardon

• The Shannon Royal Commission finished hearing evidence on 1 March 1984.
• Judge Shannon recommended that Splatt should be released from jail because it would be dangerous for the verdict of guilty to stand.
• Splatt was released on 6 August 1984 after six and a half years in jail.
• Splatt later received an ex gratia payment of $300,000.
• The Splatt case and the Lindy Chamberlain case were responsible for the setting up of the National Institute of Forensic Science to improve standards in government forensic laboratories

• BLACK WOOL FIBRES FROM BEDSHEET: Containing one coarse fibre and one fine fibre, matched the black wool fibres in Splatt’s dark trousers.
• SPLATT'S DARK TROUSERS: Composed of 2 sets of fibres - BLACK and DARK GREY.
• NO dark grey fibres were sent to Parybyk from the bedsheet.
• Slide marked ‘CNS’ as one of six tape lifts from the bedsheet which contained about 100 fibres of equal proportions of black and grey, but it was never examined by Ms Parybyk.

• CARPET FIBRES: Very common without unique characteristics and unlikely to be shed by the victim’s carpet. The jury were not informed of these issues. The tape-lifts were not done until 8 months later. The only remaining fragment has no probative value.
• SEED EDOSPERM : cooking test an unreliable test.
• FOAM SPICULES: from the bed and car coat “were similar”. Inevitably, the search was for “similarities”. This was an unjust procedure because of the serious risk of unconscious bias. The proper scientific approach is to look for “dissimilarities”.

• Sergeant Cocks failed to forward to the independent analyst, Ms Parybyk, a larger sample of the ‘black’ woollen fibres found on the deceased’s bedsheet.

- failure to have Splatt try on the dark trousers.

- failure, directly, to prove that the Locard principle necessarily involves a proportionate transfer of materials from one garment to another.

- (alleged) failure to have analysed metal particles on other Wilson employees’ clothes, as thoroughly as those found on Splatt’s clothes.

- the (alleged) causing of Splatt to contaminate his own clothes.

- failure to examine Splatt’s knuckles for sign of injury.

- failure, for eight months, to locate the fish-shaped lolly.

- failure to check washing on other clothes lines in the neighbourhood for trace materials related to the trail.

If the scientific evidence at the trial is shown to be invalid or questionable, then all of the supplementary or additional aspects of the evidence become irrelevant. Accourding to the Moran report in 1978 the primary fault was not with the individuals involved, but with the disciplines which they represented. At this trial the scientific evidence was the only factor to identify and convict Mr Splatt.

Unjust Justice: The Case of Edward Splatt

Scientist vs Policeman

Sergeant Cocks

New Principles to prevent miscarriages of justice

Case Timeline

• Cocks played an extraordinary role in both the police and scientific investigations.
• He was in charge of the scientific section which covered most of the trail. He had a dual role, doing all of the initial microscopic examinations and personally selected the items to go for further scientific examination by the persons he nominated.
• In court Cocks was the principle witness and gave lengthy evidence with regard to the scientific examinations and the Locard principle.
• This system employed in1978 which did not distinguish between scientific observations and deductions by police in their investigatory capacity was a defective and therefore a non-acceptable forensic system.
• Cocks said at the Commission that he had not been aware until the end of the trial that he had neglected to send the ‘CNS’ slide to Ms Parybyk for examination. It was an oversight.

The crime scene

Inconsistencies in metal trace evidence

Appeals, Steward Cockburn and the Moran Report

• Analysis of the techniques employed and the results achieved should be subject to checking by another scientist as an independent observer.
• Such testing should be done in the presence of a control.
• There should be a clear and unbroken demarcation between the investigating police and the scientists involved. Any visit to the crime or suspect scenes should be rare and solely related to some precise scientific operation.
• There are two cardinal rules which must be obeyed at all times whatever technique is being performed.
• 1 - Every operation must be documented on the case notes and documented in such a manner that it will still be comprehensible perhaps years later.
• 2 - All major observations must be checked by an independent observer who must indicate that the proper checks have been made by initialling the notes.
• The role of the forensic scientist is not to assist the police.
• The vital obligation of the scientists is that they spell out in non-ambiguous and precisely clear terms the weight and significance of the tests and analysis

3 Dec 1977 - Rosa Amelia Simper, an elderly lady was murdered in her bedroom at Cheltenham, Adelaide.

3 March 1978 – Edward Splatt, who lived and worked nearby, was arrested and charged with her murder.

24 Nov 1978 – Splatt was convicted of the murder and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

28 Feb and 12 Sept 1979 – the Supreme Court of South Australia dismissed the appeal.

The Commission was issued on 23 December 1982 by JC Bannon, the Premier of South Australia.

24 Jan 1983 – the preliminary hearings of the Royal Commission commenced.

5 April 1983 – the substantive hearings of the Royal Commission commenced.

1 March 1984 – the hearings of the Royal Commission concluded.

In total there were 196 sitting days of the Commission.

• The constant ratios of metal to paint were mentioned as being 75/25 and 90/10 as being transferred from Wilson’s to Splatt’s clothing, and transferred from work clothes to non-work clothes and then to the crime scene.
• The jury would associate the “constant-transfer” rate with the Locard principle. They thus would see the rates as associated with scientific principle, rather than just being a supposed factual observation.
• Cocks suggested with scientific certainty that the particles could not have been windblown.
• Suggesting that the material must have been brought to the scene by the intruder.
• Wilson’s factory hads a lot of paint dust on the floor like talcum powder.
• Individuals from the Cheltenham community explained that paint got onto the wheels of the forklift and it would leave trails on the pavement and road.
• Green and orange would be particularly noticeable.
• Some pollutants were found in the gutters of nearby houses.

• The side of Mrs Simper’s home, overlooked the twelve-hectare cemetery and diagonally opposite, sixty metres away lay Wilson’s engineering factory
• The intruder had gained entry through the side window, after forcing the outside screen away, before climbing over the window sill and entering her bedroom.
• The house had been turned upside down, with papers and items belonging to Mrs Simper scattered on the floor.
• An unplugged digital clock read 2.48 am.It was a concluded that death occurred between one am and six am.
• A few possessions, including a commemorative coin, personal jewellery, a jewel box, a watch, a red and black torch and some cash were missing, the a total value of about $200.
• Senior Sergeant Barry Cocks, the head of the Technical Services Division of the South Australian police, took charge of the investigation.

Sentenced to life in prison in 1979

• Cockburn wrote several articles arguing that Splatt was innocent, arranging for an independent assessment of the police investigation and also for a Royal Commission.
• The Legal Services Commission of South Australia approached Mr Frank Moran QC to write a report on the case.
• The Moran Report was completed in late 1981 and concluded that the police investigation leading to the conviction of Splatt was “unscientific and slipshod.”
• It called for an immediate examination of the problems in the way forensic evidence was being used in trials, and criticized the methodology employed by the Technical Services Division of the South Australian police.
• Legal Services Commission granted assistance to Splatt for a submission to the Government of South Australia and recommended a Royal Commission.

• The Shannon Royal Commission proceeded over a fourteen month period and was the longest and most expensive in the history of South Australia. The total cost was estimated at $1.5 million

• When Splatt was asked about the dark trousers which he allegedly wore the night of the murder Splatt said that he had not worn them since 1975 when he had attended the Sandown races in Victoria.
• Similarly, Splatt did not wear the dark green car coat to work and could not explain how the various materials linking him to the crime scene had arrived there.
• With the weight of the circumstantial evidence to great on 24 Nov 1978 Splatt was convicted of the murder of Mrs. Simper and sentenced life imprisonment.

• Whils in prison Splatt started writing to Steward Cockburn a journalist who had experience in forensic cases. Below a picture of Splatt with Cockburn

Evidence at the scene

Expert Evidence

The Commital

Expert Evidence

On 9 June 1978 with Anthony Bishop as the prosecutor and defence lawyer, Peter Waye and Ralph Bleechmore.

Metal Particles

Dr Graham Powell : Metal particles.

• Confirming that the aluminium assayed from a sheet of aluminium at Wilson’s factory was different from the aluminium collected from the bedsheet of the deceased and from pieces of aluminium moulding from Splatt’s workbench.
• The aluminium from the factory contained manganese as a trace element; the other two sources lacking manganese.

Mr. Rex Kuchel and Dr. Colin Jenner: Seed particles

• Kuchel analysed seed particle samples found by Cocks in the vacuumings of Splatt’s green car coat, in his dark trousers and in his shirt with samples of seed from Splatt’s aviary.
• Kuchel and Jenner said that the seed particles from the bed matched those from Splatt’s aviary and that those from the bed and had not been heated.
• Concluding that they could not have come from cooked biscuits.

• Cocks had collected wood particles from Splatt’s car coat and his dark trousers.
• Kuchel, examined the vacuumings from the bedsheet, Splatt’s car coat and his dark trousers, material from the windowsill and sweepings from Splatt’s workbench.
• Kuchel found them to be matching types.
• Dr William Heather, examined the slide material and disagreed with Kuchel in regard to the wood.
• Dr Heather also explained that even within an individual tree the colour of the heartwood might vary considerably because the colour depended on the chemical materials that were deposited at the time when the heartwood was formed.

Dr Harding and Dr Rogers gave evidence with regard to the hairs from the bed being similar to the head and pubic hairs from Splatt - with there being “no inconsistencies”.

Ms Anna Parybyk : foam spicules as being “similar” and “not dissimilar”.

• Parabyk examined a ball of approximately fifty fibres, taken from the bedsheet and compared them with yellow fibres taken from a car seat cover belonging to Splatt. She found the same ratio, half cotton to half rayon from each source on microscopic and chemical testing.

• Eight months after the murder, Parybyk went to the Simper home and retrieved some sample carpet fibres from the passageway and the main bedroom. She compared these carpet fibres with a fibre obtained by tape lift of the left knee of Splatt’s dark trousers and another fibre from the vacuuming of the trousers themselves. Cocks had given Ms Parybyk these trouser fibre samples on 29 August 1978.

• Accourding to Parabyk the fibres from the bedroom carpet and the two fibres from the trousers were all similar. She examined fibres from floor coverings of the Splatt household and concluded that these were not consistent as the source of the fibres on the trousers.

• Cocks had passed on to Parybyk the fish-shaped lolly. Two fragments of cotton fibres adhered to the lolly, about a half a millimetre long, and with a blue and white coloured gradation, similar to the fibres found on the bedsheet and Splatt’s blue and white shirt.

• 2nd Witness : Sergeant Cocks explained that, Wilson's employees' clothing revealed a large percentage of metal spheres and metal particles.

• Splatt's clothing : 50/50 metal and paint combination: that is, orange paint spheres and metal particles.

• Splatt's clothing: a very high percentage of orange paint spheres, 90 per cent was orange, about 10 per cent made up of blues, greens, yellow, silver-grey, some white, and mixed.

• Splatt’s non-work clothing revealed higher a percentage of paint - in excess of 75 per cent - to metal. This evidence distinguished Splatt from the other employees.

• The metal transferred in similar proportions to Splatt’s non-working clothes and to the windowsill and the bedsheet of the deceased’s home.

• All the other materials found on the bedsheet had a common source with Splatt’s environment and added to the circumstantial weight of evidence.

Expert Evidence

To establish relevant similarities the Crown used experts to whom the material was referred by Cocks.

The Trail

In late September 1978 in the Criminal Court with new lawyers, Jack Elliot and Mr Hugh Rowell as junior counsel and solicitor including Justice Roma Mitchell as judge

• Splatt attracted police interest initially because of paint and metal particles that they found on the bedsheet as he was a spray painter at Wilson's Engineering factory.
• Detectives searched Splatt’s house and requested he, still in work overalls splattered with orange over-spray, to place onto the bed all the clothing from his wardrobe.

• Police collected:
• 1. Dark trousers.Splatt claimed to have put on two stone and was not able to fit in the trousers anymore.
• 2. A blue and white checked shirt
• 3. A spicer parka car coat
• 4. A woolen car coat
• 5. Yellow fibres from his car seat cover
• 6. Aluminium moulding, nails and sweepings from his garage.
• 7. Bird seeds from his aviary.
• 8. Red and black torch

• On the third of March 1978 Splatt was arrested, following an interrogation linking him to the scene of the crime from various items of clothing and objects retrieved by police.

New Evidence

• 8 months after the crime a pink fished shaped lolly was found, which revealed tiny blue and white striated fibres adhering to the it.

• Youths testified that just before midnight of that Friday night eight of them had decided to go to the cemetery opposite Mrs Simper’s home.
• They saw: Male of average height and with short dark hair.
• Wearing a dark-coloured parka jacket and long dark pants.
• The man carrying a bag and a torch.
• Torch: a seven inch long Dolphin type with a handle on top.
• Aged between forty and fifty years of age, whilst another youth noticed the white rim of a collar around the man’s neck.
• In court none of the youths claimed that Splatt was the man they witnessed that night.

Dr Barry Collins Paint Particles, Cotton fibres and Metal particles.

• From the vacuumings of the BEDSHEET : numerous small reddish-orange particles combined together with numerous small dark particles, also a few particles of a dark blue colour and some of dark green, pale green, yellow and white, including fragments resembling aluminium and brass and one metallic fragment.

• Samples from the vacuuming from the DARK GREEN CAR COAT contained reddish-orange spray-paint particles together with numerous small, shiny black spheres typical of weld spatter, some flakes of brass-like metal and silvery metal resembling aluminium, and some pale greenish or brownish particles representing plastic foam.

• Reddish-brown spray-paint particles were found on the pair of DARK TROUSERS and the BLUE AND WHITE CHECK SHIRT, along with some dark metal particles, spherical in shape.

• The aluminium particles from the BEDSHEET did not match the aluminium from Wilson’s factory, however matched the aluminium taken from SPLATT'S WORKBENCH and a piece cut from the aluminium extrusion in his garage.

• The particles of zinc coatings from the deceased’s source were considered to be more compatible with an origin in Splatt’s garage, a galvanised nail taken from his garage to make the comparison.
• The sweepings from Mrs Simper’s windowsill also contained reddish-orange spray-paint and black spheres resembling weld spatter.