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found, would set in place events that would expose serious flaws in the police investigation into her shocking death and have ramifications far beyond it.
    Claremont Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) started the investigation into Pamela Lawrence's death. Maverick lawyer turned MP, John Quigley would take a keen interest in the Mallard inquiry. 'I am told' – he elongates and leans hard on the word told – 'but have been unable to confirm – that according to high-up police sources there was huge political pressure to get a result in the Lawrence murder. If that is the case, would it be because it fell within the elite electorate of Nedlands – then Premier Richard Court's electorate?'
    The Major Crime Squad appointed five investigating officers to the case: supervising officer, Detective-Sergeant Mal Shervill; principal investigator, Detective-Sergeant Dave Caporn; assistants, John Brandham; and detectives Mark Emmett and Alan Carter. More than 130 possible suspects fell under suspicion but by 10 June – less than three weeks after Lawrence's murder – the team singled out 31-year-old Andrew Mallard for questioning. Mallard, an awkward delusional man with drug-induced psychosis, had come to their attention with his odd behaviour. Discharged on 10 June from a psychiatric hospital to attend a court hearing on another matter, he was taken to the police station and subjected to an eight-hour, unrecorded interview – then legal – by Dave Caporn. During this interview Mallard offered bizarre theories on who may have committed the murder, and how. At his trial, he commented that during that interview he had been in 'total confusion to the point where anything that Caporn suggested to me I would adopt'. He was not cautioned or charged during or immediately before the interview.
    At the end of the interview, a tussle took place between Mallard and Caporn. 'Mallard's story was that he was attacked by Caporn, and Caporn said that he was the victim of an attack by Mallard,' Quigley would later submit in parliament. 'In any event, Mr Mallard was charged with a minor assault and admitted to bail. It is remarkable that the police let him loose on the streets of Fremantle given they thought he had confessed to murder.' Seven days later, Mallard had a second, unrecorded interview with Brandham, now Detective-Sergeant. To the detective's knowledge, Mallard had spent most of the previous evening at a nightclub where he had been assaulted, and he had had little sleep. After recording the end of this interview, Mallard was formally charged with Lawrence's murder.
    However, the police realised there were inherent difficulties in the prosecution case, which was outlined to then-Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), John McKechnie QC. Not least of this was part of Shervill's report, where he noted that,'. . . the rambling admissions made by the accused during interview left doubt in the minds of some investigators as to whether the accused had in fact murdered Pamela Lawrence'. Another problem was the state pathologist's view that the murder weapon – a wrench – that Mallard had hypothesised would have been used to kill Lawrence, could not have caused her injuries. But at no stage during the trial was this mentioned by either police or the crown prosecutor. 'The police must have known . . . that if the evidence went before the court, there was a real chance that the prosecution case would fail,' Quigley said. He also outlines how, prior to the trial, the investigating police changed or excised parts of the witness statements.
    Found guilty in 1995, Mallard was sentenced to life imprisonment. Determined to prove his innocence, his family sought and received help from a team of people, including Perth journalist Colleen Egan and highly respected Perth lawyers. While Mallard languished in prison, the case picked up its own steam. By the time the appeals finished, it had claimed more casualties than a wrongly convicted man and exposed