NSW: Les Murphy appeals rape conviction

AAP General News (Australia)
08-10-2000
NSW: Les Murphy appeals rape conviction

One of the men serving life for murdering ANITA COBBY has appealed against his convictions
for raping a 14-year-old girl four years before the 1986 slaying of the Sydney nurse.

DAVID WETMORE, for LESLIE JOSEPH MURPHY, told three judges in the New South Wales Court
of Criminal Appeal that the verdicts were not reasonable and his client should have been
acquitted.

But ROBERT HULME, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the findings had been
open to the judge, were not unreasonable and were not unsupported by the evidence.

Last year, a District Court judge - who heard the trial without a jury - found 36-year-old
MURPHY guilty of two counts of having sexual intercourse without consent with a 14-year-old
girl between December 31, 1981 and April 1, 1982.

He jailed MURPHY for a minimum of four and a maximum of six years.

At a separate trial, his older brother DANIEL MURPHY, also was convicted while DEAN
PATRICK CROCKETT was acquitted.

The woman testified that she was raped at a Bondi Junction boarding house, after attending
a Darlinghurst nightclub.

She said the older MURPHY had produced what she thought was a handgun, while his brother
had a knife.

The court reserved its decision.

AAP RTV mss/ah/dmc/jn

KEYWORD: MURPHY (SYDNEY)

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