Jeff was pursued and sent to prison on evidence that was misleading, incomplete and simply wrong.
With Jeff’s appeal now announced for November 28 and all submissions presented to both the court and the Crown, and with parts of the case having been aired on Australian Story, we have decided to release more of the facts here.
Some of these are major points of evidence that form the basis of Jeff’s appeal, while others are facts about the case history and police investigations that haven’t been presented in court.
1. Evidence about stab wounds misleading
The prosecution experts said the stab wounds of Christopher, Helen and Stephen were similar and this implied there was only one perpetrator. This information was wrong but the judge allowed it to be presented to the jury over objections by Jeff’s legal team.
2. Evidence about how the fire spread in the house was misleading
The prosecution said that Jeff had started a fire to destroy evidence that might show he had killed his parents. Jeff said he saw Christopher set his mother’s body alight. At the trial, the prosecution had a fire expert create “demonstrations” which were shown to the jury over the objections of Jeff’s legal team. The demonstrations showed a small, slow moving fire that could have been easily put out. These tests however, left out key factors which effect rate of growth and size of the fire. This evidence made Jeff’s account look like a lie.
3. There is evidence that Christopher was alive at the time of the fire
Christopher’s autopsy results show that he inhaled smoke, indicating that he was alive and upstairs at the time the fire started. This makes the prosecution’s case impossible but it is entirely consistent with Jeff’s account of what happened.
4. Bloodied fingerprints have been seen on the intercom
The Jeff NEEDS Justice team has found a previously undiscovered bloody fingerprint on the intercom just above Helen’s dead body. This demonstrates that she contacted Jeff on the intercom just before she died, as Jeff has consistently stated.
5. Police incorrectly followed a lead related to a cassette tape recording
In 2004, police re-investigating Helen and Stephen’s deaths unearthed some mini-cassette tapes from a police storage unit. From a recording on one of these, they became convinced that they had proof that Jeff hated his family. A copy of the recording was provided to Jeff only weeks before his trial. Jeff NEEDS Justice obtained this in 2010. Not only is there no evidence that links the tape to Jeff, the voice on the recording doesn’t even sound like him.
6. Christopher Gilham had “problems”
The Jeff NEEDS Justice group has uncovered evidence that, just two days prior to her death, Helen Gilham was acting in a way that showed her desperately worried about Christopher. Previously, the prosecution had suggested that Jeff had invented the problems that his parents were having with their elder son.