AUSTRALIAN MEDIA CONNED BY LAST-MAN-HANGED-ACCOMPLICE IMPERSONATOR
December 23rd 2007 01:14
A top rating radio station, 3AW in Melbourne, was conned by a man pretending to be the accomplice of Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Australia.
The radio station ran a lengthy interview with a man pretending to be Peter Walker who was involved in a prison escape attempt with Ryan in 1965, during which a prison warder George Hodson was shot to death, a crime for which Ryan was hanged in 1967.
The fake Walker said Ryan was innocent and could not have shot the warder because his gun was jammed.
The interview was widely reported by other Australian media outlets.
But he also agreed that Ronald Ryan was innocent.
The radio station claimed they had spent a week checking the bona fides of the man before airing the interview.
- From MediaBlab
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Comment by ACADP
Ronald Ryan was hanged an innocent man.
There was no scientific ballistic forensic evidence to prove Ryan's rifle had fired a shot. There were also serious ambiguities in the case, dire inconsistencies of all fourteen eyewitnesses' for the prosecution, and a prison officer's testimony that he fired one single shot, which was heard by all persons.
Ryan was convicted based solely on unsigned, unrecorded and unproven allegations of verbals/confessions, said to have been made by Ryan to police. Under Australian Law, police must record all interviews in association with a crime.
Ryan had intentionally kept his rifle in the event of capture by police, as he knew scientific examinations and testing of his rifle, the fatal bullet and any spent catridge would have cleared him of murder. Mysteriously all went missing and could not be scientifically tested for proof of who's rifle fired the fatal shot. Ryan's rifle had been hidden in the boot of a police vehicle where it had been subjected to dirt and dust. Police testified that Ryan's rifle ... " looked as if " ... it had been fired but there was no scientific evidence at all to prove this.
The following are just some of the facts that cannot lie, cannot be disputed and cannot be rewritten, altered, manipulated, deleted and therefore can never be ignored.
· For unknown reasons, ballistic forensic experts never scientifically examined Ryan’s rifle.
· There was no scientific proof and no conclusive evidence that Ryan's rifle had fired a shot at all.
· It was never proven by forensics that the fatal bullet came from the rifle in Ryan's possession.
· Despite extensive search by police, the fatal bullet mysteriously went missing and was never found.
· The missing fatal bullet was never scientifically examined by ballistic forensic experts, to prove which rifle fired the fatal bullet.
· Despite extensive search by police, the spent cartridge mysteriously went missing and was never found.
· The missing spent cartridge was never scientifically examined by ballistic forensic experts, for evidence.
· If Ryan had fired a shot, a spent cartridge would have spilled out of the rifle. No spent cartridge was ever found.
· All fourteen eyewitnesses for the prosecution testified different accounts of what they saw - there were widespread inconsistencies.
· All fourteen eyewitnesses testified seeing Ryan armed with a rifle.
· Only four of the fourteen eyewitnesses testified of seeing Ryan fire a shot.
· Two eyewitnesses testified seeing Ryan recoil his rifle. In fact, ballistic experts testified that type of rifle was recoilless.
· Two eyewitnesses testified seeing smoke coming from Ryan's rifle. In fact, ballistic experts testified that type of rifle contained smokeless cartridges.
· All fourteen eyewitnesses testified of hearing one single shot. No person heard two shots.
· Prison officer Robert Paterson, admitted and testified he fired one single shot, from a distance at an elevated position.
· If Ryan had also fired a shot, at least one person among the dozens of people surrounding the scene of the crime, would have heard two shots.
· Every person heard only one single shot.
· Forensic experts never scientifically examined prison officer Paterson’s rifle, to prove it had fired a shot.
· Forensic experts never scientifically examined any prison officers’ rifles at the scene of the crime, to prove if their rifles had fired a shot.
· Ballistic evidence at trial indicated that prison officer Hodson was shot from a distance, at an elevated position in a downward trajectory angle.
· At the time one single shot was heard, armed prison officers' had already surrounded the scene of the crime. They were on low prison walls, on prison guard towers and on the streets.
· Eyewitnesses testified seeing prison officers aiming their rifles.
· Ryan #a shorter man# could not have fired at the prison officer #a taller man# in such a downward trajectory angle, as both were on level ground.
· Ryan could not have fired from a distance as ballistic evidence indicated, because Ryan, Walker and prison officer Hodson were all within close proximity.
Ryan could not have fired from an elevated position as ballistic evidence indicated, because Ryan was on level ground.
.....