Qld: Conviction quashed for murderer who killed rival lover

AAP General News (Australia)
04-01-2005
Qld: Conviction quashed for murderer who killed rival lover

By Johanna Leggatt

BRISBANE, April 1 AAP - The Queensland Court of Appeal has quashed the murder conviction
of a man jailed for life for stabbing his girlfriend's former lover.

In a judgment handed down today, the court upheld the appeal by Michael James Corry,
37, and ordered a retrial on the basis that wrong instructions were given to the jury
on the law surrounding self defence.

Corry and then partner Lori Dayon Smith, 39, of Goodna west of Brisbane, were charged
with murdering Smith's former lover Robert James Hingst at his home at Caboolture, north
of Brisbane, on March 26, 2002.

Both Smith and Corry were convicted by Supreme Court juries and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The appeal court has only dealt with Corry's case.

Corry's trial heard he went to Hingst's house to "scare him" but that things turned
ugly and a fight ensued.

Corry maintained in a police statement that Hingst attacked him first and he was forced
to defend himself.

Hingst died in the Caboolture Hospital of 14 stab wounds delivered by a meat cleaver and a knife.

While Smith denied any involvement, it was later revealed that she had gone to the
house with Corry and delivered some of the blows as Hingst pleaded for his life.

In a written judgment, Justice Bruce McPherson said the trial judge did not adequately
direct members of the jury on the law surrounding self defence to a provoked assault.

The judge only directed the jury on the law surrounding self-defence if it is unprovoked,
Justice McPherson said.

"It was therefore not correct to say that if (Corry) provoked or commenced the assault,
that was the end of his claim of self-defence," he said.

"This ground of defence or exculpation was never put to the jury, and the appellant's
trial therefore miscarried."

AAP jtl/sc/jt/jlw

KEYWORD: CORRY

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