NSW: Irena Hatfield applies for legal costs from DPP

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2001
NSW: Irena Hatfield applies for legal costs from DPP

Lismore art gallery director IRENA HATFIELD has applied for the New South Wales prosecutor
to pay her legal costs after she was acquitted last year of murdering her husband more
than 15 years ago.

Mrs HATFIELD'S barrister, PAUL BYRNE, SC, told Justice CAROLYN SIMPSON in the NSW Supreme
Court the evidence against Mrs HATFIELD was insufficient to prove she murdered CHRISTOPHER
HATFIELD.

He says had the prosecution been in possession of all the evidence in the case it would
not have instituted proceedings against Mrs HATFIELD.

Mrs HATFIELD was acquitted by a jury of murdering her husband at their Maroubra home,
in Sydney's east, in April 1985.

She's applied for a certificate under the Costs in Criminal Cases Act from the Director
of Public Prosecutions for all her legal costs from the time she was charged with murder
in June 1997.

AAP RTV gl/jjs/hn/rsm

KEYWORD: HATFIELD (SYDNEY)

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