Date of Incident: 4-1-1983
Date of Conviction: 1983
Exoneration Date: 1983
Charge: Abduction and Murder
Conviction: Abduction and Murder
Sentence: Life imprisonment
Sentence Served: 1.5 years
Contributing Causes: Unreliable informant testimony
Compensation:
Raymond John GEESING
Raymond John Geesing was convicted in 1983 of the abduction and murder of Louise Bell.
Louise Bell was a 10 year old girl was last seen at 10pm on January 4, 1983 in the bedroom of her family home, in the Adelaide suburb of Hackham West. She was discovered missing the next morning and her body has never been found. Her concerned family ordered immediate action from the South Australian police when they discovered Louise was missing.
At the time of Louise’s disappearance, Raymond John Geesing was serving time in Adelaide Jail for an unrelated crime. The South Australian police charged Geesing with the abduction and murder of Louise Bell. The Crown case relied heavily upon the evidence of four prison informants who had been in prison with Geesing. The informants alleged that Geesing confessed to the crime to them. Based on this evidence, Geesing was convicted of the abduction and murder of Louise Bell, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Geesing had already served one and a half years of his life sentenced when the South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal unanimously upheld Geesing’s appeal. They ruled that his trial was miscarried and the conviction for the abduction and murder of Louise Bell was set aside. Chief Justice King stated that the prisoner informants were unreliable and untrustworthy witnesses, and the Crown should not have relied upon that evidence. One of the prisoner informants had retracted his original statement, while evidence of another prisoner informant was declared inadmissible.
After serving nearly 17 months for a crime he did not commit, Raymond John Geesing was released from prison.
