Convicted killer in Janine Balding case has win in DNA fight
The NSW Police commissioner will be ordered to facilitate fresh forensic testing sought by one of the men convicted over Sydney woman Janine Balding’s rape and murder, in a move that may open the door to an inquiry into his conviction.
Balding’s abduction from Sutherland station and murder in Minchinbury on September 8, 1988, shocked Sydneysiders and devastated her family. She was 20.
Janine Balding, 20, was murdered in 1988. Stephen Wayne “Shorty” Jamieson at the time of the murder.
Stephen “Shorty” Jamieson was convicted in 1990 over the abduction, rape and murder of Balding, along with Bronson Blessington and Matthew Elliott. Jamieson was 22 at the time, while Blessington and Elliott were 14 and 16. All three were jailed for life.
Jamieson is seeking a court order that a partial profile from a part of the bandana found at the crime scene should be compared with the DNA profile of a bandana-wearing man with the same nickname, Mark “Shorty” Wells. That DNA profile is held by Queensland authorities.
Jamieson contends the other “Shorty” was at the scene.
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In a decision on Monday, NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison said he considered that “a compliance order should be made by me … requiring the commissioner of police to comply with Mr Jamieson’s request” for the testing to be carried out.
Harrison said Jamieson was seeking an order for the NSW Forensic and Analytical Science Service to test a biological sample derived from seven areas of the bandana “against the DNA profile of Mr Wells”.
Harrison has not yet formally made that order, but it is expected to be made after lawyers for Jamieson and the NSW attorney-general agree upon the terms.
