NSW: Irena should never have been prosecuted, court told

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2001
NSW: Irena should never have been prosecuted, court told

SYDNEY, April 30 AAP - The star prosecution witness in the murder trial of flamboyant
art gallery director Irena Hatfield had so little credibility she should never have been
prosecuted, a court was told today.

Atticus Busby, Mrs Hatfield's former lover who claimed she confessed to him that she
murdered her husband, was a person "whose credit in the end was non-existent", her trial
barrister, Paul Byrne, SC, said.

Mrs Hatfield has applied to the NSW Supreme Court for a certificate requiring the Director
of Public Prosecutions to pay her legal costs from the time she was charged with Christopher
Hatfield's murder, in June 1997.

Mr Byrne told Justice Carolyn Simpson the "financial detriment" to Mrs Hatfield in
defending her case was "substantial indeed".

A jury acquitted Mrs Hatfield of her husband's murder following a six week trial which
heard details of her sex life, which included extramarital affairs, as well as her relationship
with the younger Mr Busby.

Mr Byrne said that had the prosecution had evidence relating to Mr Busby's credibility
they would have reached the conclusion that it was unreasonable to institute proceedings
against Mrs Hatfield.

"If the Crown had been in possession of that material, the decision that it was required
to make regarding the credibility regarding the man Busby ... if fully analysed, shows
in my submission that it would not have been reasonable to institute the proceedings,"

he said.

Mr Byrne said a conviction based on Mr Busby's evidence would have been overturned
by the Court of Criminal Appeal because it was so "contaminated by inadequacies".

Mr Hatfield was shot four times in the right temple and once in the chest on April
19, 1985, at the Maroubra home in Sydney's east he shared with Mrs Hatfield and her two
daughters from a previous marriage.

His murder remains unsolved.

Barrister John Kiely, SC, the prosecutor in Mrs Hatfield's trial, said there were reasonable
grounds to prosecute her.

He said she had a motive, the opportunity and capability of carrying out the murder.

"She was a woman of intense emotion who would not have suffered being deceived by a
man in her life," Mr Kiely said.

Justice Simpson reserved her decision.

AAP gl/cjh/br

KEYWORD: HATFIELD NIGHTLEAD

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