SYDNEY - Judges at the appeal of a New Zealand man convicted of a Norfolk Island murder have been asked to consider new evidence relating to the plastic covering the victim's body.
In the Federal Court in Sydney yesterday, Peter Garling SC, for Glenn McNeill, said the Crownhad contended his client told police a detail about the plastic which would only be known to the murderer.
But, he said, the information was contained in a book published in 2005.
The 29-year-old New Zealand-born chef is serving at least 18 years' jail after a Norfolk Island jury found him guilty of murdering 29-year-old hotel worker Janelle Patton.
Her badly battered body was found at a popular picnic spot on the tiny Australian territory on Easter Sunday 2002.
Central to the Crown case was a confession made to police by McNeill who later said it had been "complete rubbish", the product of his mentally disturbed state.
Mr Garling told the court that in the confession McNeill said he had obtained a sheet of black plastic, which covered the body, from "up the back" - said to refer to a building site next to his home.
The lawyer told the Federal Court judges that while people knew black plastic had been covering the body, a police officer told the jury its believed source had not been publicly known.
"From a jury point of view, the Crown made a very powerful point that only the person involved in the murder could have known this," he said.
Mr Garling said this was one of a number of points used by the Crown to support its contention the confession was reliable.
But he referred to a 2005 book published about the case, not known to the parties at the trial, which made a link between the plastic and the building site.
Mr Garling also contended McNeill had been induced into making the confession and the trial judge should not have allowed it to go before the jury.
