NSW: Experts cast doubt on Ngo conviction

AAP General News (Australia)
04-07-2008
NSW: Experts cast doubt on Ngo conviction

Eds: Story embargoed until 1800 (AEST) April 7, 2008



SYDNEY, April 7 AAP - A cold case study of old evidence has raised new doubts about
the conviction of former councillor Phuong Ngo for the political assassination of NSW
MP John Newman 14 years ago.

Corrosion and communications experts have questioned the evidence presented at the
trial of Ngo, and a law professor describes the case as a "miscarriage of justice".

Ngo, a local councillor from Fairfield in Sydney's south-west, was convicted of murdering
Newman outside his home in southwestern Sydney in 1994.

After three trials he was sentenced never to be released and has been in jail for 10 years.

He is currently in solitary confinement at the Supermax jail in Goulburn.

Corrosion expert Dr Ian MacLeod has challenged the Crown's allegation that Ngo left
the vicinity of Newman's Cabramatta house and disposed of the murder weapon in the Georges
River.

Three years and nine months after the murder, police divers found a rusty .35 Beretta
handgun in the river.

Dr MacLeod said he believed the gun should not have gathered so much rust in that time.

"Either the gun was significantly corroded before it went in or there's something,
something very strange about the amount of decay on that gun. It just doesn't stack up,"

Dr MacLeod says on the ABC's Four Corners program tonight.

He said it was "extraordinarily lucky" that police divers found the gun within 20 minutes
of being told to look near a pylon.

"The only way in which these two pieces of evidence can stack up together is that somebody
knew exactly where the gun had been deposited and that it was a gun that had previously
been corroded, and you know it could have been corroded either naturally or artificially,"

he said.

"But the amount of decay on that gun just isn't consistent with what I have experienced
in the corrosion world in the last 30 years."

Also, telecommunications specialist Professor Reg Coutts, of Adelaide University, who
examined phone tower records used by the crown to show Ngo lied about his whereabouts
20 minutes after the murder, says Ngo could have been where he said he was.

"I've spent more time than I thought I was going to spend on this case because it does
concern me that too much is made of too little, that really the way the evidence is presented
and not actually challenged is potentially misleading," Prof Coutts said.

Ngo's co-accused Quang Dao, who was found not guilty of the murder, says Ngo did not
murder Newman.

Tonight's Four Corners program also describes how key witnesses against Phuong Ngo
- "Tony" and "John" - changed their stories, with investigators allegedly offering John
money, overseas protection and an indemnity against prosecution.

Professor of Law Don Greig, who recently reviewed the case, said: "In my view, this
is such a miscarriage of justice - not just from Ngo's point of view, but from the public's
point of view".

Asked if police would revisit the Ngo case as a result of the claims about the strength
of the evidence, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione today told reporters: "I'm not
aware of the claims at this stage, so I haven't revisited anything".

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