Granting of bail to the Epping Murderer

Man accused of Lin family killings to remain in jail as prosecution appeals decision to grant bail

 

Min "Norman" Lin and Yun Li "Lillie" Lin.

The man accused of the Sydney Lin family killings, Lian Bin "Robert" Xie, has been granted bail by a Sydney magistrate.

However, Xie will remain in custody after crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) would be appealing the decision in the Supreme Court.

In the Central Local Court on Thursday, Magistrate John Andrews said the Crown case against Xie had been weakened "substantially" in evidence that emerged during the committal proceedings.

"In my view, the case falls well short of being a strong Crown case," he said.

Mr Andrews said he was satisfied Xie had met the exceptional circumstances required for granting bail and he ordered him to put forward security amounting to $900,000.

He said if a jury found the DNA evidence was not blood, that would prove "fatal" to the Crown case.

Xie, 48, is charged with murdering his brother-in-law, Min "Norman" Lin, 45, Mr Lin's wife, Yun Li "Lily" Lin, 43, her sister, Yun Bin "Irene" Yin, 39, and two boys, aged nine and 12, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Their bodies were found in a North Epping house, in Sydney's northwest, on July 18, 2009.

They had been beaten to death with a hammer-like object, while the cause of death for four of the victims also included asphyxia.

He was committed to stand trial on Wednesday and applied for bail immediately afterwards.

It was his third bail application.

After Mr Tedeschi indicated the DPP would be appealing the decision, Mr Andrews granted a temporary stay on his decision.

It will expire on Thursday, December 27 at 4pm (AEDT), meaning the matter will have to be heard in the Supreme Court before then.

AAP (Sydney Morning Herald 20 December 2012)

I wrote numerous blogs to comment on the strength of evidence of the Epping murder. I read from the news this week that the defendant was committed to the High Court for trial. I was not surprised at all because to let him go at the committal stage needs a lot of guts. Now that the magistrate hearing the case and deciding to commit him to the High Court has granted bail to him. It means the magistrate also feels that the scanty evidence does not suffice to proceed to a conviction in the end. People may use the cliche "presumption of innocence" to explain and in reality the yardstick is the gravity of the offence and likelihood of absconding which are taken into account. In the 2 previous attempts to apply for bail, the defendant was denied the freedom but after hearing the preliminary evidence, he re-applies and gets it this time. It sheds some lights on the strength of the prosecution case.  That said, I am in no way sided with the defendant. The reality is cruel. The rule of law is rational so it may not give you the desired result of getting the atrocious murderer convicted. After the amendments of the law allowing double jeopardy, Robert Xie will not get loose so easily. Even if he were to be acquitted in the first trial, he would be facing a few re-charge and re-trials in the end. Philip Leung, who faced the murder of his partner and after two no case acquittals, was eventually convicted by the jury in his third trial on the same facts last month in Sydney.