For the town of Perth, Australia there's a tight-knit community of residents who know most of their neighbors by the first name - and almost everyone remembers the trial of Scott Austic, who several people - including his mother - believe was wrongfully convicted.
During a visit with her son at Acacia Prison yesterday, Robyn Austic said that her son's conviction has both “been wrong for too long,” and that she's grateful she and Scott can celebrate “good news” on photo day with the announcement of a potential appeal to revisit his case.
Scott Austic left behind two children when he was sentenced to prison, just 34-years-old in 2009 when he was found guilty in the murder trial over the death of his pregnant girlfriend, Stacey Thorne.
The murder, which occurred in 2007, was horrifying, with Thorne being 22 weeks pregnant, and found stabbed to death a whopping 21 times in her Boddington home.
Supreme Court Justice Peter Blaxell said at the time of the conviction that Scott Austic's motive was to stop the birth of his child, claiming that Austic feared both shame and embarrassment, as well as financial consequences if the child were born.
Austic, along with his family and friends have long claimed he was innocent and argued that law enforcement had no suspects to blame so automatically attempted to look in Scott's direction due to their inability to solve the crime at the time.
After being sentenced to 24-years-old minimum behind bars, both Austic and his family were heartbroken.
Several issues with the conviction have remained prevalent over the years, with even former Governor Malcolm McCusker having advocated for the case to be reviewed.
“A lot of people are probably going to be angry because there’s an appeal but I’m not going to sit back and let him suffer,” Mrs. Austic said, acknowledging the fact that Thorne’s family has continued to blame Austic, a common occurrence in cases where the death of a family member creates a need for justice to be fulfilled.
“He’s already lost more than 10 years of his life and for Stacey’s family it’s the same, they’ve lost somebody but this has been wrong, it’s been too wrong for too long. It’s got to be righted,” Mrs. Austic continued. “We’ve always known her family forever and a day and my heart goes out to them and has done for over 10 years.”
“I guess we would be the same if somebody of authority comes to tell you that someone’s done something then naturally you’re going to believe it but hopefully, they will see that it was wrong too,” she added. “Stacey didn’t deserve to die at all, let alone the way she did but not by Scott.”
Scott Austic is now 43-years-old and has served over a decade behind bars including his trial. Still, to this day, he swears by his innocence.
Attorney-General John Quigley also believes there are questions which remain unanswered in the Austic case, and he's now made a rare move to recommend the case to the Court of Appeal using the petitions from several high-profile Australians who back Austic in the case.
“Every time I see something in a paper about him and his appeal, it shocks us,” Mrs. Thorne said. “They don’t know what we’re going through and how much it’s hurting us.”
Whether or not Austic will see the light of day before his 25 years are up against remains unseen, but for his mother, there's still hope.
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