Onlookers have gasped in court as one of the men convicted of murdering bank teller Janine Balding was excluded from matching key DNA evidence.
Stephen Wayne “Shorty” Jamieson is serving a life sentence for leading a gang of five youths in the 20-year-old woman’s 1988 abduction, rape and murder, which stunned the nation.
Despite signing a confession, the 58-year-old convicted killer has long protested his innocence, pointing to a bandana used to gag Balding as proof.
Results of DNA retesting of the bandana detailed in the NSW Supreme Court today seemed to help Jamieson’s case that he was wrongfully convicted.
“He is excluded,” NSW Forensic and Analytical Science Service expert Clint Cochrane told the court.
People who appeared to be supporters of Jamieson audibly gasped and some raised their hands to their mouths after the comment.
Supporters of Balding, including her brother David, were unmoved.
The exclusion came from comparing Jamieson’s full DNA profile to a partial profile lifted from the bandana involving 11 genetic markers, Justice Ian Harrison heard.
Assuming the sample from “area eight” came from one person, the partial DNA profile was expected to match about one in five million individuals, Cochrane said.
Jamieson was also excluded from a weaker DNA profile, turned up with a different technique, that matched about one in 10 males.
Cochrane said he could not make a scientific determination about whether the partial profiles constituted multiple people, but there were no clear indications more than two were present.
While giving evidence, the forensic biologist was also asked to compare the “area eight” results to the known DNA profiles of Jamieson’s co-offenders.
Bronson Blessington and Matthew Elliott, aged 14 and 16 at the time of the murder, each received life sentences.
“[Blessington] is excluded from being a contributor to this profile if it’s assumed to be a single contributor,” Cochrane said.
“[Elliott] is also excluded.”
This left open the identity of the person or persons behind the “area eight” DNA.
Elliott was a major contributor to DNA found elsewhere on the bandana, the court heard earlier.
This left open the identity of the person or persons behind the “area eight” DNA.
Jamieson, who was also excluded from matching that DNA profile, contended in his murder trial and ever since that he was a victim of mistaken identity.
He said he was confused with another “Shorty” and applied to the court to allow the other man’s DNA profile to be tested against the bandana samples.
Queensland authorities have the profile from Mark “Shorty” Wells on file, but there is a dispute over the legality of NSW authorities using it for this purpose.
Wells has denied any involvement in the rape or murder and has never been charged over the crime.
Justice Harrison acknowledged some in the community believed the contemporary inquiries were “inappropriate and should not be given a moment’s thought by this court or otherwise”.
“I am alive to the sensitivities [this case] raises,” he said.
“That includes for those who investigated and prosecuted the original tragic case.
“My concern, independently of the merits of this case, is that justice should be served and seen to be served (including whether) there is a possibility – however remote or nonexistent … that an injustice may continue.”
