ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 360/16: PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

When Corrie and I arrived in Perth late in 1981 after travelling through Asia and Europe and back, we camped at the wonderful Scarborough Beach Caravan Park, where swimming in the Indian Ocean was a great highlight. We didn't have enough money left to buy any travel tickets across Australia, so we hitchhiked across the Nullabor.

Perth is a wonderful city in many ways. Kings Park, Botanic Gardens and the Swan River are fantastic, as are the parks and grounds around the Supreme Court of Western Australia, where I spent most of my time in Perth during my next ten trips - Supreme Court Gardens, Stirling Gardens, Council House Gardens and Government House Gardens.

We like to think that Australia and other western countries follow the Rule of Law and everyone is entitled to, and receives, justice. But that hasn’t been the case throughout most of Australia’s history, nor even during most of my own lifetime. The Perth Mint Swindle is one example, involving convictions of the Mickelberg brothers based on evidence fabricated by the police.

After hitchhiking across the Nullabor Plain on the final leg of a London to Sydney overland in late 1981, my next trip to Perth was six years later to act as Barrister for Peter and Ray Mickelberg, who had been framed by the Western Australian police, wrongly convicted of the Perth Mint Swindle without a fair trial, and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

I didn’t act as the Mickelbergs' Barrister because I was the best Barrister in Australia. To the contrary, I acted as their Barrister because no Western Australian solicitor or barrister would, or could, act for them. As soon any Western Australian lawyer started to act for the Mickelbergs, they were immediately threatened with defamation proceedings and the threat of being struck off the Roll of Solicitors and Barristers in Western Australia. As a Victorian Barrister, I could prepare a Notice of Appeal for solicitors to file, but I couldn’t file one myself.

I prepared a Notice of Appeal for the Mickelberg prisoners which stated, in essence, what they had told me – they were framed, beaten up, verballed by WA police, and the police evidence against them was fabricated. The problem was that no WA solicitor would file the Notice of Appeal, as they were threatened with defamation proceedings and being struck off the Roll of Solicitors and Barristers in Western Australia.

In one week, the Mickelbergs arranged for three different solicitors to act for them and brief me as their Barrister. Each, in turn, resigned, saying they would be sued in defamation and lose their Practising Certificates.  Doom and gloom was everywhere. Even the prison cell below the WA Supreme Court was gloomier than usual, as the Mickelbergs and I grasped the reality that no WA solicitor would file their Notice of Appeal.

Finally, I realised that the Mickelberg prisoners could sign their own Notices of Appeal in their prison cell, and Corrie, the bravest person I ever met, filed it on their behalf upstairs, in the WA Supreme Court Prothonotary’s Office.

Later, on the day I was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Western Australia, I was sitting in an empty Supreme Court courtroom awaiting the Mickelberg case hearing, when Assistant Commissioner Don Hancock arrived, walked straight up to me at the bar table, and pointed his loaded gun at my chest. Fortunately, the Supreme Court staff arrived shortly thereafter, followed by a Supreme Court Judge. The threats from the WA police were very real, and we were constantly followed by WA police in unmarked police cars.

Disciplinary proceedings were initiated by the WA Barristers Board personally against me, including the threat of being struck-off the Roll of Solicitors and Barristers in Western Australia. The serious  offence alleged against me by WA Barristers Board, was drafting a Notice of Appeal which alleged that the Mickelberg prisoners had been framed by WA police.

For about two years I fought off this charge before the WA Barristers Board, while continuing to act as Peter and Ray Mickelberg’s Barrister. Our first Appeal in the WA Court of Appeal over six hearing weeks was unsuccessful, but we won our appeal to the High Court of Australia in 1989. By that time, McCusker QC had joined the Mickelberg legal team of “Wise Men from the East”.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/1989/35.html

Our second Appeal in the WA Court of Appeal over another six hearing weeks was also unsuccessful, even though Peggy Mickelberg treated me like her son Peter at the Mickelberg family home in Mullaloo, where I slept in Peter’s bedroom, and was woken up at dawn every morning by Peggy with a lovely cup of tea. One highlight was the magnificent Mullaloo Beach on the Indian Ocean, where I swam every morning before appearing in the WA Court of Criminal Appeal.

Over 15 years of fighting for justice for the Mickelbergs, but there was no justice in Western Australia until after the death of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Donald Hancock, in a bomb explosion at Kalgoorlie.

The sergeant-at-arms of the Gypsy Jokers motorcycle gang in Western Australia was charged with the murder of Assistant Commissioner Donald Hancock. That case proved that “reasonable doubt” exists, even in Western Australia, especially when the victim has no sympathy with the jury, as was the case with a Western Australian jury and the late Don Hancock. Hancock had previously framed the Mickelberg brothers for the Perth Mint Swindle, and was so feared by fellow Western Australian police, that they would not tell the truth about police corruption in WA while he was alive.

The truth finally came out of the WA police force after Hancock’s death, when Detective Sergeant Lewandowski made a confession of his involvement in fabricating the evidence which framed the Mickelberg brothers. Lewandowski's senior officer during the investigation was Don Hancock. The two were the only people present at the brothers' “interviews” following the Mickelberg arrests:

"Don Hancock came into the room and told me to make Peter strip naked. Don then went up to Peter and gave him two or three quick punches in the solar plexus. The statements purportedly taken from Peter Mickelberg on 26 July 1982, were in fact not taken in Peter's presence that day, but were a fabrication made by Don Hancock and myself shortly after 2 September 1982. I gave evidence at the trial and numerous appeals. All that evidence in relation to the so-called confessions was false." —Statement of Tony Lewandowski

After the High Court of Australia had allowed our appeal in 1989, we were given a second appeal during which I was permitted to cross-examine Lewandowski about his fabricated evidence. I knew he was lying and he knew that I knew he was lying. I thought he wanted to tell the truth. But the WA Court of Appeal interrupted my cross-examination just enough to prevent Lewandowski admitting the truth under cross-examination.

I have always believed the truth will eventually come out, but the wheels of justice turn very slowly. The Mickelbergs were finally acquitted after Lewandowski’s confession, and after serving about 20 years in prison.

Never take justice or the Rule of Law for granted. It’s better to do something about justice and the Rule of Law in your own backyard and/or for your own citizens, rather than lecturing others in other countries about their citizens.

After spending many months over many years in Perth, I highly recommend the WA Supreme Court gardens, the Perth beaches, Rotnest island and Margaret River. 

But I don’t recommend the prison cells, nor Fremantle Prison cells (although it is open for tourists instead of prisoners now, having been open for prisoners since 1850).

To rub salt into the wounds, after one WA Supreme Court hearing in Perth, the Ansett Airline pilot strike left me stranded at the airport watching the last flight depart from Perth without me. Fortunately, I didn’t have to hitchhike back across the Nullabor again, as my father was in Perth on one of his around-Australia trips, and we drove across the Nullabor together.

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