Jury Convicts Attacker, Again

The Age

Tuesday May 22, 2007

Steve Butcher

AFTER more than eight years and three bitterly contested trials, a Victorian jury yesterday took just 47 minutes to convict a man - for the third time - of a brutal assault on a defenceless inmate in a Melbourne prison cell.

The family of Michael Tully, the now-deceased, intellectually disabled victim, embraced the case's investigator, Detective Sergeant Michael Wells, after the verdict in the Supreme Court.

The jubilant scene has been enacted twice before after guilty verdicts against Ali Ali in 2000 and 2003.

The jury in the last trial took two days to deliver its verdict.

But the smiles had vanished each time when Ali Ali's convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal, which found errors of law in the previous trials.

Yesterday's verdict followed a third trial that began last month.

"It's great that justice has stood up, three times in a row," Mr Tully's brother Rod yesterday told The Age with his partner Glenda Patton.

Detective Sergeant Wells spoke of an "emotional roller-coaster" and of his faith in the jury system.

Ali Ali, 33, who pleaded not guilty to intentionally causing serious injury, spat on and kicked Mr Tully and then stamped on his head in a crowded cell at the Melbourne Custody Centre in April 1999.

Ali Ali, who wrongly believed Mr Tully was a sex offender, had been sentenced twice before to jail terms of 16 years with a minimum of 13 years.

Prosecutor Mark Dean, SC, with Marcus Dempsey, warned the jury that the events of the unprovoked attack on Mr Tully were brutal and horrifying.

Mr Tully, who was described by other inmates as helpless and vulnerable, suffered a fractured skull, bleeding in the brain and permanent disabilities.

He had been in custody on an armed robbery charge relating to a packet of cigarettes and $20.

The crucial prosecution evidence came from six witnesses, fellow inmates in the cell who broke the criminal code to implicate Ali Ali.

Defence barrister Remy van de Wiel, QC, argued that they were liars and manipulators who had blamed Ali Ali to protect themselves.

He told the jury the Crown had presented witnesses with despicable histories who had behaved only to "gratify their own needs".

A plea hearing for Ali Ali will be held today.

© 2007 The Age

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