Two brothers who allegedly gang raped a 16-year-old girl, and who previously claimed that they were victims of a police conspiracy, have had their convictions overturned, due to what very well may have been a juror conspiracy.
A gang rape victim faces a new ordeal after two jurors who disobeyed the judge’s directions caused the gang rape convictions of Bilal and Mohammed Skaf to be overturned and a retrial ordered.
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The elder of the two brothers, Bilal, is serving 55 years in jail for a string of gang rapes in Sydney’s west in 2000. Mohammed Skaf is serving a maximum of 32 years behind bars.
As a result of today’s decision, the brothers will have their sentences for the Gosling Park rape removed from their overall sentences.
Bilal Skaf’s sentence will be reduced by nine years and Mohammed’s by eight years pending the outcome of the retrial.
President Keith Mason and Justices Brian Sully and James Wood upheld the brothers’ appeals on the ground that two jurors miscarried the trial by conducting their own experiment at the crime scene while deliberations were taking place.
The three court of appeal judges found the two men disobeyed the instructions of the trial judge who instructed the jury not to “go and do your own research”.
But despite the warning, the 64-year-old jury foreman rang another juror the night before the verdict was delivered and they went to the park where the alleged rape occurred about 8.15pm.
The two jurors went to Gosling Park for about 20 minutes to check the lighting conditions, the judges said.
“The foreman said he only went to the park to ‘clarify something for my own mind’,” they said.
However, as identity was an issue in the trial, the judges found the experiment was a miscarriage of justice.
“In our view there must, regrettably, be a new trial because of this ground,” the judges said.
What were these jurors thinking? If they want to conduct an experiment, how about attaching electrodes to their nether regions? Because of their stupidity (or deliberate actions, for those conspiracy buffs amongst you), the victim of the crime will suffer more anguish.
Having said that, the legal system is really flawed. It is stories like this that remind me why I was correct to refrain from practicing law after completing law school. After all, it is not like the jurors tampered with evidence.
