Gerogery murder conviction stunningly overturned, man freed after four years in jail

Paul Anthony Watson killed William Chaplin at Watson's Main Street property in 2010.

His body was burnt in a large bonfire attended by multiple people, and his bones were buried in a round yard used to break in horses.

The remains went undiscovered until August 2019, after Watson revealed to his fellow inmate, Sacha Priest, "I murdered someone", while serving an unrelated prison term.

Watson had also earlier told others he had killed Chaplin because he tried to rape his daughter, but police believe he may have killed Chaplin to silence him after Chaplin witnessed Watson committing an offence.

Police searched the property for several days in 2019 and found a skull and other items.

Investigators applied for phone taps, which recorded a man who was 16 at the time of the killing making apparent admissions to the murder.

The teen's conviction for murder was overturned on Friday, September 29, after an appeal.

Judges found inconsistencies in the phone calls made by the now adult man.

"Having reviewed all of the evidence, I have a doubt - which I consider to be reasonable - that the applicant was involved in the murder of Mr Chaplin as alleged," Justice Jeremy Kirk said.

"The admissions made by the applicant are not reliable enough to found a sufficiently solid conclusion that he was involved.

"There is, in my view, a significant possibility that the applicant is innocent of the offence charged.

"Given that conclusion, he is entitled to be acquitted of the murder charge."

The judge pointed to Watson telling Mr Priest "I", rather than "we", had murdered someone.

"Watson's admission to murdering the deceased was made in the singular," he said.

Mr Priest's evidence was that Watson didn't mention anybody else being involved, but that his wife knew about it.

Watson's wife, Samone, told a trial she had returned to the home after the killing and found the teen and Watson with the murdered man's body.

She helped dispose of the body.

Justice Kirk noted the intercepted phone calls involving the teen showed he had a tendency to say things which were not true.

"The needless lies told by the applicant are suggestive of someone who is either or both a compulsive liar or a fantasist," he said.

The court heard the police interviews given by the teen to two Albury detectives, in which he gave multiple versions of events, were "a series of rambling falsehoods".

At one point he said "I was forced to kill William" and "I strangled him [with] fishing line", but the story continually changed.

Justice Kirk and Justice Deborah Sweeney agreed that the teen's murder verdict should be overturned, but Justice Desmond Fagan disagreed.

"It was open to the jury to find that the applicant's admissions to his parents in intercepted phone conversations and to police in his second interview established beyond reasonable doubt that he had participated in the murder of William Chaplin pursuant to a joint criminal enterprise with Watson," he said.

Despite Justice Fagan dissenting, the majority decision quashed the murder verdict on Friday and allowed the man to leave prison.

He served about four years in jail before and after being sentenced.

The court heard there was evidence the teen had helped dispose of Mr Chaplin's body, but that he wasn't charged with that offence.

Watson remains in custody.

His earliest release date is in 2038.

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