Just before nine o'clock last night, the jury returned guilty verdicts against all three defendants.
It was absolute shambles, to tell you the truth, just absolutely really honous.
Blood on his clothing the day after the alleged.
Attap a shallow mud bank and it fits Roy River. Basically.
I think most of the people are used to me are good people.
I think a really important question we need to ask is how many Indigenous prisoners in Australia are innocent.
This is Curtain, a podcast where we pulled back the blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of our justice system and ask who are the victims.
I'm Amy Maguire and I'm.
Martin Hodgson, a senior advocate for the Foreign Prisoner Support Service. And a warning. This series contains the names of deceased peoples and has distressing content that might upset some listeners.
This week, well this month actually has been a busy one in Rockhampton and me.
And Bega, But I'll tell you more about that very soon.
But first of.
All, let me tell you our listeners what's been going on up and north in rock Campden. I did imagine him before then in April and a major of flood washed through the Fitzroy River. It distructed a few plans because on April tenth, a few days after the flood, advocates to the cabin in Rock Campdens were planning on holding a rally.
April ten marks the twenty fifth year of Kevin's conviction.
To the date.
To commemorate that date, many of Kevin's supporters, including his main advocate Yasmin Johnson, were planning a rally for justice for him down at Tanubah House. Tanubah House was flooded, though, and so the date was changed to May first, So.
This week the final preparations ran up for that rally. It has got only be held in this coming Monday and at the place where Linda tragically lost her life, because it's not just a rally for the cavern, it's also one for Lunda and zequ Coast Guard, which has the office that would previously to move the house. As kindly that members of the.
Aboriginal community used the area around.
The building to host as an event. Earlier this week, I went to the Wall to Read Building, a short walk up the road from Tonuver House, where event organizers were painting banners to use in the rally as were painted banners. We discussed many aspects of the case and I found out something.
I didn't know.
I'm not sure if many of our listeners have wondered that we found out where Kevin Henry got his nickname Curtain from.
Here's Yasin Johnson. I was speaking to haw Or. We were both slighted with light pain.
Well we actually we're asking that. Yesterday My brother asked him when he rang up and he said, I said, yeah, I want to know that answer to you, I said, in the background we had him on lab speaker. He said, no, when I'm one time he said, he said there was no blanket or something like that. Yeah, he said, he just took the curtain off and wrapped up himself, roping the curtain and when they will come mind, he was up and they just called him curtain and stuck.
He's stuck in.
Yes by Dwayne matter Son of the Legendary after this form Matter I spake to him during one of the down lines.
Yeah, I suppose the reasons why Dwayne Mather here you go.
I want the crew here for the May Day rally for Kevin Henry, and what are we doing here tonight?
Where are we and what are we doing?
Walter Reed? Painting up a storm here, getting our message out across in.
The in the banners and yeah, just just going over it and sort of talking about the reasons why we're here and how it's affected our lives. You know, it's I suppose the similarities because the wall suffered injustice of some sort during our lives.
So I I.
Read an article in the paper boy uh Amy you and yeah, that sort of got a FOI gy that probably went in the guys who I've leaving in that cause dad was into was an activist.
He was back in the days of the tenement. See Bob Benza, Oh that's your dad.
Yeah, And that sort of stuck with me. It's always been there to be a part of something or being to rallies in Brisbane and Muskrat Park and.
All sort of stop. And it was the same thing, m real parting for change.
Did you know much about Kevin's case before this?
Aw a little bit, But after I'd read that article that got in my eyes to the injustice and the cruelty and and everything that that was wrong with it. And it's to me it'spie for itself and uh, yeah, that helped me gone again. So I wanna be here a part of this for to get him free.
To make a change and describe for me some of the banners that are gonna be there on the day, Well.
They're pretty full on. We're trying to keep 'em au PG.
That's the hardest part, Yeah cause l all the uh emotions come out and uh when when when you're actually doing it, it's sort of you're living it. It's not just words. Yeah, it's a part of you. It is a party. If you're a black, a black person in this country, these words are a part of you. The victimization, the the the cover up, all this sort of thing, and and it's j and it's a way I suppose that we can now voice voice our our our opinions
through the media of print and through the rally. And yeah cause back in the days when Dad was with the Tandem see back in w Yeah, and that suffered the sort of the same things that would've been on the Asia list and have been black band. They went to the States and got with black power, came back here and and tried to Oh I don't suppose you know, not to to copy what they.
Were doing there in America, but to do it our way here, you know, black fell away here and from there.
Well, and yeah, I'm excited just to be part of this, not to get out there and fight the coppers or anything like that, but to get the message out there's been an injustice and we won't set.
The records straight.
And did you grow up here in Rocky from.
Kents Sell, My mom from Nana Roan's from here Rocky. Yeah, so we sort of came here from Nana Roan, my nana and I stayed. They compared to build a minor standwy we end up staying.
Yeah. Yeah, that was twenty five or six years ago, I think.
Yeah, so you've been here like probably around the time this murder took place. Did it surprise you when you heard about the things that were going down with the police.
Yeah, it did actually because it was all over the media, but we only saw what they wanted us to see, you know, invisible media for the Black Father one more again. Yeah, so yeah, the positives weren't coming out. Was all the negativity, And so I suppose true that everyone readymore at the time until now quarter of a century later, which way the truth comes out.
It's interesting because it seems that Kevin Henry was pretty much locked up for being a black man, so it could have happened to anyone when you think about it.
That's right, that's right.
They did something wrong and they covered it up and hopefully someone will pay for that life that went down.
And you said you studied to be a journalist. How would you describe the media blackout? You sort of said before, But the fact is that media never really follow up these sort of cases when it comes to Aboriginal victims.
That's right, and that's why I say that word invisibility. You know, they're invisible to anything good that's being done by the let's say the black man. But now it's changing, you know, change is coming. Thank God for that. Change has come and we can see it now because of the passion that some have in the media to stand up and fight for it without being without being biased. And that's and that's what we need to be biased
in this case. Well, the evidence has been presented, be a mind about it, have a look.
And then make your judgment. I here today.
The evidence, and you've been helping organize this rally. Do you reckon that many people are going to turn up.
Yeah, yep.
The word's gone out with throwing fliers everywhere social media.
You're handing amount at the flaws and the other Apparently.
Yes, someone said that.
You're not going to get in trouble.
Yeah, no, it was good. It was good. You know.
It's that there's no shame in it. Maybe there would have been, but there was no shame in it because this is this is for a good reason. This is for a good cause. This is not to attack the justice system. This is to prove a point that harong has been done to Kevin Henry and.
The lies are going to stop. The truth must come out.
That was Dwayne Mather who was holding to organized at rally, and another said before The rally is being held on May one from ten am to four pm at Nuber House. There were several speakers including Aboriginal activists and dancer Grender, Stanley tax Chatman, who has been on this podcast before one served time with Kevin, and also Lexwatan from Palm Island.
Lex Wotten was a two time counselor on the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council. When Mulrounji was tragically killed in police custody wouldn't led approximately one thousand people in the Palm Island riots, well, that's what police called them. They were demonstrations against what had been done. Wooten was arrested, but on his release he was hailed as a hero by many of the local residents. He continued to act as a leader and even ran for the mayor of
North Queensland Aboriginal Community. Approximately four years after the riot, Wooten was found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to seven years in prison. He later successfully sued the Queensland Police Service for unlawful racial discrimination and he knows all too well about police brutality, being imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, and what's happening on the ground in Queensland now.
I did mention that it hasn't just been a big week for us up here and Robbie, it's also been a big one for Martin down in Beager Martin, what are the updates on Kevin's cave?
So as listeners might be aware, there's multiple things going on in Kevin's legal battle. As we've explained before, Kevin's appeals process has been exhausted long ago by his initial law. So what we're working on is a getting Kevin paroled and b applying to the Queensland Government and the Queensland
Governor for an official pardon. It's quite a lengthy process to get a pardon and you need to remember that if and when we are able to free Kevin Henry, he will have served longer in prison than any other person in Australian history who's been wrongfully convicted, and that forms part of the complexity of this case. One of the things that also makes it difficult in showing the Attorney General and the Governor the problems and the flaws in this case is the simple fact that there are
so many. In a lot of cases, an unfair trial or a wrongful conviction will be the result of one piece of evidence or one witness. But as those who have listened to the podcast extensively understand, Kevin Henry was forced to give a confession and he maintains his innocence.
There was no forensic evidence ever presented against him, So challenging that forensic evidence is very difficult when even the initial trial had no evidence against him, and there was no eye witness that actually saw Kevin take part in any of the crime as it was laid out by police. So we're basically having to do a full investigation of the case ourselves and then present that as entirely new
evidence to the Attorney General and the Governor. Now in this process, we're also updating many federal and state MPs and senators and various Members of Parliament as to what we're doing in the case. It's vital that they apply pressure to the Queensland Attorney General to ensure that this matter is not left to sit in a draw for years to come. Kevin Henry served twenty five years too long for a crime he did not commit. A single
day waiting is unacceptable. So that's why we'd ask you to write to your local MP, federal and MPs in the State of Queensland and urge them to contact the Attorney General and speed up the process in this case. In regards to Kevin's parole, we also have ongoing applications submitted on Kevin's behalf and we have to thank the Werabinda and Rockhampton community for their extensive support in assisting Kevin with housing, a job and the support he'll need
when he's finally released. So that's where it stands at the moment.
So Martin, you mentioned you're putting together applications for the Attorney General to call for a parton what's the timeframe for that.
Well, the timeframe is quite complex in the sense that this is a very rare process that's been conducted and that really it's at the discretion of the Attorney General. So this will happen as quickly or as slowly as the Attorney General of Queensland a Vet Darth chooses it to. She could have her office fast track the events here and examine all the evidence that we've supplied so far and start to ask the vital questions that she needs to to get to the bottom of this case. Now.
In terms of the Governor as well, it's a very similar process in that with the materials provided to them and the material that can be provided to them by the Attorney General. And remember there's nothing stopping either the Governor or the Attorney General looking at the initial trial transcripts and looking at all the media and everything that's been said on this podcast, so there really is no
excuse for any delay on their behalf. It's purely a matter of how quickly they will choose to take a look at this case and how quickly they'll choose to act, and one would hope that that's done very quickly. In regards to the parole Generally, once we've filed a parole application, we hear back within a matter of about twenty eight days and a letter is sent by the Parole Office
to Kevin after that date. But if he is rejected for parole, then each and every time we will challenge that rejection on the grounds as to why he was rejected. And I can confirm we've done that in the past and that was successful in having the parole re looked at. And we're waiting for the outcome of that parole decision.
So you mentioned before about public support and manners of the public can actually get onto their local representatives to advocate and Kevin. But what sort of public support do you think there needs to be, And given your background and uthers, this is what other cases, What has public support being like in other cases?
Well, to look at other cases of Australians, high profile Australians, we can look at the case of Henry Keo, who right now served twenty one years and holds the record for the longest imprisonment wrongful conviction until he was freed only a matter of years ago. And the support he got came largely from the media, from the legal fraternity, and that included the head of News and a current affair from Channel seven. So that is really high profile
support and that's what has to happen now. There's been other Australians such as Andrew Mallard who had members of Parliament advocating on his behalf, as well as a well
known journalist and media organization. In terms of the most high profile cases I've worked on, if you think about the case of Peter Gresta, who was wrongfully held in Egypt, remember the level of support that he had from the government, from all facets of the media, all across social media, from the public and people getting out and rallying and marching and constantly holding the Egyptian government to account. And that's really what we need here in this case, and
sadly we don't see it enough in Australia. We've seen it in many of the cases I've worked on where Australians are held overseas, such as Peter grest David Hicks and the Bali nine. But particularly as it relates to Aboriginal prisoners. We never really see the outrage that these cases warrant and I would talk about a number of cases I've worked on in America, one being Tookie Williams,
who was on death row. Now, as we were working on that case, we had support from Winnie Mandela, Jamie fox Snoop Dogg, and many politicians, lawyers and businesses right across America and around the world. We also had support from European parliaments. So the excuse that there's nothing that can be done just doesn't fly. We really need all
members of parliament who believe in justice. All people who have a platform like Jamie fox Snoop Dogg and Winnie Mandela had to use that platform to raise their voice for Kevin Henry, and we need members of the public to do the same. It's not good enough to just do it once. It has to be an ongoing call. Every day Kevin Henry sits in prison is another day that's too long. He's already served a lifetime a generation twenty five years long before any of us had mobile
phones or the Internet. Kevin Henry was wrongly imprisoned, and you really need to think about that and ask whether what you've done, what those who do have a platform, and what your government representatives have done, is enough. And I would say it's not, and that that pressure needs to be applied much more broadly and much harder if we're to free Kevin Henry. We cannot do this on our own.
So we talked about public support, but I lovely rock Campton with this value coming up.
All of our local representative were.
Since an invitation and all of them have knocked it back, either said they had other arrangements or didn't even really give an excuse or anything. So locally here in rock Anton, our local representatives haven't supported Kevin Henry at all. Has there been other government support or other interests shown, particularly on a federal level.
No.
I mean we've made contact with all the relevant federal MPs and ministers, those in opposition. We made a particular point of reaching out to the indigenous representatives at a federal level, who are the MPs and senators, and we haven't had anything back. All we've had is generalized form responses which really don't do anything for us, and they've
shown no support in any way for Kevin. We also really haven't had any support from anyone in a position of high profile, any ex politicians, anybody with a public platform who could amplify this message that we're trying to send out. So I think, on the one hand, I am very grateful of the people who listen to this podcast, the people in Rockhampton and Warabinda who are organizing this protest, who are supporting Kevin, and the people like Yasmin who
have done so for years and years. We also need to give a special thank you to those who are supporting us through Patreon, and I'll place the link again on our website so that if more people would like to support us they can do that. But really, we have had no support from any federal or state politicians, and we've had no support from high profile people, and I think the public who have listened to this podcast will be very disappointed to hear that, and so I'd
urge them to contact those people. And I think it's very disappointing given the support that has been given to people in the past, such as David Hicks and Peter Gresta, and that support was rightly given and should have been given. That Kevin Henry absolutely deserves the same. He's spent far longer in prison than anyone else has for a crime
he didn't commit. And if we're to take justice seriously and have a justice system that particularly Aboriginal people who are the most victimized by the justice system, can have any faith in this process, then Kevin Henry needs support and he needs it now.
You mentioned before the Patreon what will a lot of that funding go towards, Because obviously you're doing a lot of work for Kevin Henry in the legal sense, what can our supporters, what does that support actually go towards?
Okay, so the support goes to basically producing this podcast. It's quite expensive to host the podcast online and that's a monthly fee that the support so far doesn't cover. But we're grateful for that assistance all the legal work.
It will now be used as well for that too, because to free Kevin Henry, there's a huge amount of legal work, as we've discussed, to do with both the pardon lodged with the governor and the Attorney general, to do with Kevin's ongoing parole applications, and this just really helps cover some of the administrative costs that we are
financing ourselves. So that's where the money is going. It certainly won't cover all the costs, but it's greatly appreciated the money that does come through just to help support that and keep that fight going, both in terms of keeping this podcast afloat and assisting with the legal battle for Kevin.
So there are many ways you can show your support to Kevin Henry's ongoing fight for justice, but one of the big ones will occur on May first, and if you're in Rockhampton or Central Queensland or even able to get to rock Hampton, it'd be great to see you there.
So the rally begins at ten am to four pm. It'll be held at Chanuba House, which is currently the CQ Coastguard Office. We'll have speakers again like Lex Swoden, a lot of supporters of Kevin Henry, including members of his family and also activists like Gwender Stanley, and we'll also have a smoking ceremony conducted by one of our Durumble elders.
And we'll also.
Be thinking of Linda as well.
So I urge everyone if you want to show your support for Kevin Henry down to New House on May first from ten to four and if you can't if you're geographically distant. You can also join us next week for another episode of Curtain where we'll have a special episode profiling a lot of those.
Voices from that rally, and also on May one, at one pm Eastern Time, across the social media platforms that supports Kevin Henry, so that's Kurtin the Podcast, Facebook and Twitter, I'll host a one hour question and answer where any listener, any member of the public, even politicians or well known people if you can get them to do so, can ask questions about the case, ask questions about Aboriginal injustice in the legal system, and anything that comes to mind
that's been raised in Curtain the Podcast and that you'd like to add. So join us on social media on Facebook and Twitter at Curtin the Podcast and will return next week for another episode of Curtain