Mickelberg hopes to untie the stitch
Criminal justice — how aptly named
Wrongly arrested, verballed and framed
Then stuck in a cell to rot there for years
While the ones who arranged it pursue their careers
But we won't get hysterical
Negative and cynical
We're gonna change it —
Get political!
Roaring Jack's "Criminal Justice" refers to New South Wales, but no doubt it has a familiar ring for Western Australian Ray Mickelberg, sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in 1983 after being convicted of the Perth Mint gold swindle.
Now paroled, Mickelberg continues to protest his innocence, and still hopes to expose the convictions of himself and his brothers, Peter and Brian, as an audacious conspiracy and cover-up.
Mickelberg has an application before the Court of Criminal Appeal for access to exhibits from his trial. He expects that new forensic tests will prove his claims.
On June 22, 1982, three shipments of gold were purchased from the Perth Mint, using stolen building society cheques. A courier collected the gold and left it as instructed on the tarmac of the Jandakot Airport, from where it disappeared. The Perth Mint had been swindled of over $600,000 in gold.
Two of the cheques carried the number of an account operated under a false name by Ray Mickelberg. Investigation showed that he had substantial dealings in gold, and that his brother flew regularly from Jandakot airport.
The police had a prime suspect, and as in other high-profile cases, proceeded to disregard and suppress any evidence suggesting innocence, and to distort and create evidence favouring a conviction.
Verbals
At trial, police presented unsigned records of interview (verbals) with each of the Mickelberg brothers, in which they volunteered information that incriminated themselves and each other.
This was despite undisputed evidence that each carried and showed police a copy of a letter from their solicitor indicating their intention to accompany police to a station only if under arrest, and to answer police questions only in the presence of a lawyer.
The most damaging admissions were said to have been made by Peter, whose interrogation took place at an otherwise unoccupied suburban police station. The interview took four hours, although the "complete and contemporaneous" transcript occupies only eight pages of double-spaced typing. One question put by police refers to a visit by them to the seaside town of Kalbarri, a visit now documented not to have taken place until two days after the interview!
The surviving handwritten notes of this interview will be subjected to electrostatic deposition analysis, if the Mickelbergs are given access rt. The analysis, used by Britain's Home Office for several years, enables the detection of additions, deletions and missing pages.
Fingerprint
A fingerprint of Ray Mickelberg found on one of the cheques used in the swindle. Police evidence was that the fingerprint was found on June 24, but not identified until after Mickelberg's arrest on July 15.
However, there is no written or photographic evidence of the existence of the fingerprint before July 15 — the same day that police seized bronze and latex casts of Mickelberg's right hand and right index finger (the products of a modelling hobby) from Mickelberg's house. Mickelberg is certain that the print was made using one of the casts in police custody.
Other evidence suggests that the fingerprint did not exist before July 15. In 1976 Ray Mickelberg had been convicted of obtaining false identification documents. Fingerprints taken at that time should have enabled the fingerprint on the cheque to be identified as soon as Mickelberg became a suspect (around July 9).
The police claim that the fingerprint record was destroyed on Mickelberg's request in 1976. Mickelberg never made such a request, and destruction was not allowed under police regulations of the time. Federal police records show that the prints were not indexed and classified until after the date of their supposed destruction.
The entry in Mickelberg's police file which indicates the destruction of the fingerprint record appears below two entries made in 1982.
An appeal to the WA Court of Criminal Appeal was contested substantially on the grounds of the possibility that the fingerprint was forged. Mickelberg supporters had taken copies of negatives of fingerprint evidence to forensic experts in Britain and the United States, whose opinion was that it could not be determined if the fingerprint was forged or genuine. At appeal, however, the onus of proof is reversed, so that the mere possibility of forgery, sufficient for acquittal at trial, is not sufficient for acquittal on appeal.
The negatives at trial were presented as originals. Mickelberg has requested access to the negatives to demonstrate that they are, in fact, copies. This would show that expert witnesses did not have the best material with which to detect a forgery.
New evidence
Brian's conviction was overturned in 1983 because of the lack of any evidence corroborating the verbals. Brian was released, but died in a plane crash in 1986. The appeals of Ray and Peter in 1987 were unsuccessful.
When new evidence was discovered, applications were made for a further appeal. The application was refused, and the new evidence was taken to the High Court. Despite a sympathetic hearing, the High Court ruled that it did not have the power to hear new evidence in a state matter. Peter's further appeal was dismissed in 1989. He is now on parole. The story of the swindle, the police investigation and the trial, is told in a book commissioned by Mickelberg supporters called The Mickelberg Stitch. Policemen named in it began defamation actions soon after the book was released against the author, Avon Lovell, and against the publisher, distributor and key retailers. An injunction, since lifted, banned the distribution of the book.
Financed by a $1 per week levy on Police Union members, the continuing actions against the author have never been completed. Nevertheless, they have prevented the book from being widely read.
The story of the defamation actions and the various Mickelberg appeals is told in a second book, Split Image. It, too, has been suppressed. Copies of both books are available from the Mickelberg Committee, 81 Mullalloo Drive, Mullalloo, WA, 6025.
[Charlie Brady is a member of the Campaign Exposing Frame-ups and Targeting Abuses of Authority. CEFTAA publishes articles on miscarriages of justice and the criminal justice system in its quarterly news magazine Framed. Annual subscriptions are $8/$15. Send cheque to PO Box K365, Haymarket 2000.]