Justice minister orders new trial in 1990 murder

The Kyle Unger case shows the dangers of undercover police work where tunnel vision takes over and rather than investigating a crime police efforts are turned to convicting a suspect.

There is a natural human tendency to see what you expect to see. Police techniques intended to extract a confession from someone assumed to be guilty usually lead confessions of guilt.

And that's the problem with the infamous Mr Big investigation technique -- it confirms a bias already held -- the guilt of the suspect is a given and all that is sought is material in support thereof.

(Conservative) Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson deserves high praise for taking direct action and ordering a new trial for Unger. There was no ducking of a difficult decision here. I don't always agree with the Conservative Government's positions on crime but here they did right!!!
James Morton