Man jailed for life for murder of parents has conviction quashed

AN Australian man sentenced to life in jail for the frenzied 1993 murder of his parents has had his convictions quashed, having always maintained his brother did it.

Jeffrey Gilham, 41, was granted a new trial and released on bail after the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal said there were serious flaws in the forensic evidence used to convict him.

His parents, Helen, 55, and Steven, 58, were repeatedly stabbed at their riverfront family home in Sydney with their eldest son Christopher, 25, knifed to death in the same incident.

Gilham has always claimed his brother killed the parents then set fire to their bodies.

He had said he found Christopher standing over his mother’s body with a lit match and his brother’s confession provoked him to fatally stab him in a fit of rage, a crime he admitted.

During the trial, Gilham was described as a “consummate liar and brilliant actor”, but yesterday Justices Peter McClellan, Elizabeth Fullerton and Peter Garling overturned the convictions and ordered a retrial.

“We are of a unanimous point of view that the appeal will succeed, at least to the extent of quashing the conviction and ordering a new trial,” McClellan said in ordering his release.

His barrister, Clive Steirn, had put forward numerous grounds of appeal, including the finding, after the trial, of an apparent blood-stained fingerprint on an intercom.

Gilham said from the outset he was summoned from the boatshed of the family home via an intercom, as his mother called out for help, only to find her dead when he arrived. Steirn said the fingerprint corroborated his client’s account.

The father-of-three pleaded guilty in 1995 to the manslaughter of his brother, escaping with a five-year good behaviour bond. He was eventually charged with the killing of his parents in February 2006 after 13 years of campaigning by his paternal uncles who believed he was responsible. He was convicted in 2008.

Gilham was greeted by his wife, who has stood by him, as he left the court to applause from supporters.

“I’d really just like to take this chance to say ‘thank you’ to the people who have supported us, who have stood by us and have put in an enormous amount of hard work to get to where we are today,” Gilham’s wife said. “We never would have got there without them.”