JUSTICE PERVERTED

There have been two cases in our courts in the past 24 hours, which bring up a basic point about justice and the safety of law-abiding citizens in this country.

One involves a serial murder trial in Queensland. The other, the so-called “ Society Murders” in Melbourne.

The second one is the more sensational with Matthew Wales being jailed fore 30 years today for killing his wealthy mother and stepfather and his wife Maritza getting a suspended two-year sentence for perverting the course of justice.

And obstructing justice or perverting the course of justice is what I want to focus on.

In Queensland a teenager, Natasha Anne Ryan, could face those charges after she turned up alive when a man was being tried in the Supreme Court for her murder.

It sounds like something out of Perry Mason or the Bold and the Beautiful. Ryan disappeared when she was fourteen. Leonard John Fraser—already serving a life sentence for another child murder – was charged with Ryan’s death and three others.

The fact that Natasha Ryan was still alive – and living with her boyfriend – four years after her disappearance only came out when Police got an anonymous tip-off.

But back to Maritza Wales. She walked free from jail today and I believe she is a very lucky woman.

There will always be suspicions that she egged her husband on. That she nagged him over money matters when her clothing shop, Maritza Imports, kept losing money and was up for sale.

The judge ruled Maritza Wales had no part in the planning or execution of the murders of her mother-in-law and her husband.

But she took part in a cover-up for weeks. Sure she vomited on the night out of fear, disgust, whatever. But she knew what was going on. She saw out the window her husband dragging the bodies round the back. Knew they were in the garage for a couple of days.

Even went off to work. And we are supposed to believe that she didn’t ever discuss how her husband disposed of his mother and stepfather or even where.

Yes, she did go to the police weeks later but a cynic could say it was only because the whole thing was unravelling.

And you are entitled to speculate: If Matthew Wales had managed to get away with it, if the bodies had never been found, would Maritza Wales have gone to the cops? Or would she have enjoyed the blood money… the ill-gotten gains.

And an interesting postscript. Maritza Wales was born in Chile. Is she an Australian citizen? Could she be deported?

A final point: I don’t buy the argument that a person should get a suspended sentence because they have a young child to look after and because they love their child.

On that basis I should have triplets and then go out and rob a bank.

Friday, April 11, 2003

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2002