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Wed, Jun 19 2013
Fair cop?
IN: On December 2 2009, Australian Paul ‘Jock’ Palfreeman was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of the first-degree murder of Bulgarian law student Andrei Monov in 2007.
Photo: Georgi Kozhouharov
OUT: Liverpool football club fan Michael Shields, who was convicted in Bulgaria in 2005 of attacking Bulgarian bartender Martin Georgiev during a street brawl, was happy to leave Thorn Cross Young Offenders Institute in Warrington, northern England, on September 9 2009.
Two high-profile cases captivated the media. One concerned a Liverpool supporter, Michael Shields, now a free man. The other involved Paul ‘Jock’ Palfreeman who still languishes in Sofia Central Prison.
Self-defence or unprovoked attack?
To critics, the entire judicial process surrounding the conviction of young Australian Paul "Jock" Palfreeman seemed to embody many of Bulgaria’s perceived shortcomings. These included alleged discrimination against Roma, the purported aggressive behaviour of football fans, reported lapses in court procedures, inconsistencies in testimony and mysteriously "evaporating" CCTV evidence.
Add to that an Australian defendant whom some said bore an uncanny resemblance to Matt Damon - lauded as a hero by his supporters but a "professional killer" by others – and it has the hallmarks of a future film.
The tragedy unfolded on December 28 2007 when Palfreeman, then 21, was involved in a street brawl in Sofia that ended with the death of Andrei Monov, a law student and son of distinguished Bulgarian psychiatrist Hristo Monov, and the wounding of 19-year-old Anton Zahariev. That much, at least, is beyond dispute. The circumstances leading up to the altercation, however, are fiercely contested.
Palfreeman had claimed he was trying to defend himself from a group of football supporters when he intervened after seeing them attack two Roma. Palfreeman claimed that the gang subsequently turned on him, pelting him with bricks, and that he had used the knife in self-defence.
The prosecution said that the alleged Roma "victim" did not exist and that Palfreeman had simply launched an unprovoked and savage attack on innocent passers-by.
Meanwhile, long before the verdict, an Australian TV documentary depicted the Bulgarian capital as a violent city enflamed by racism against Roma. The programme also presented an unflattering view of Bulgaria’s criminal justice system. A prominent Bulgarian political scientist even described it as "normal" that the deceased’s family − and in this case one so prominent as the victim’s father − would "pressurise" the system.
On December 2 2009, despite protests from international observers, Palfreeman was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of the first-degree murder of Monov.
After the verdict, Palfreeman’s father, pathologist Dr Simon Palfreeman, told journalists that the process was flawed. "The sentence was delivered following an investigation marred by a number of procedural violations," he said. Among innumerable grievances, Dr Palfreeman expressed concern that the court had ignored pre-trial witness statements and psychological evaluations of his son.
Andrei Monov’s father, psychiatrist Hristo Monov, said the court had conducted itself properly and "in any other country Palfreeman would have already been handed the harshest sentence".
With an appeal pending, it seemed certain that the Palfreeman case would remain in the public eye.
Self-defence or unprovoked attack?
To critics, the entire judicial process surrounding the conviction of young Australian Paul "Jock" Palfreeman seemed to embody many of Bulgaria’s perceived shortcomings. These included alleged discrimination against Roma, the purported aggressive behaviour of football fans, reported lapses in court procedures, inconsistencies in testimony and mysteriously "evaporating" CCTV evidence.
Add to that an Australian defendant whom some said bore an uncanny resemblance to Matt Damon - lauded as a hero by his supporters but a "professional killer" by others – and it has the hallmarks of a future film.
The tragedy unfolded on December 28 2007 when Palfreeman, then 21, was involved in a street brawl in Sofia that ended with the death of Andrei Monov, a law student and son of distinguished Bulgarian psychiatrist Hristo Monov, and the wounding of 19-year-old Anton Zahariev. That much, at least, is beyond dispute. The circumstances leading up to the altercation, however, are fiercely contested.
Palfreeman had claimed he was trying to defend himself from a group of football supporters when he intervened after seeing them attack two Roma. Palfreeman claimed that the gang subsequently turned on him, pelting him with bricks, and that he had used the knife in self-defence.
The prosecution said that the alleged Roma "victim" did not exist and that Palfreeman had simply launched an unprovoked and savage attack on innocent passers-by.
Meanwhile, long before the verdict, an Australian TV documentary depicted the Bulgarian capital as a violent city enflamed by racism against Roma. The programme also presented an unflattering view of Bulgaria’s criminal justice system. A prominent Bulgarian political scientist even described it as "normal" that the deceased’s family − and in this case one so prominent as the victim’s father − would "pressurise" the system.
On December 2 2009, despite protests from international observers, Palfreeman was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of the first-degree murder of Monov.
After the verdict, Palfreeman’s father, pathologist Dr Simon Palfreeman, told journalists that the process was flawed. "The sentence was delivered following an investigation marred by a number of procedural violations," he said. Among innumerable grievances, Dr Palfreeman expressed concern that the court had ignored pre-trial witness statements and psychological evaluations of his son.
Andrei Monov’s father, psychiatrist Hristo Monov, said the court had conducted itself properly and "in any other country Palfreeman would have already been handed the harshest sentence".
With an appeal pending, it seemed certain that the Palfreeman case would remain in the public eye.
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According to an interview Palfreeman gave to Gabriel Hershman of the Sofia Echo, one of the arresting police officers said to Palfreeman: ‘Why did you do this? You’re a good boy. Roma is monkey. White boy should not be friends with monkey.’ This priceless piece of advice must have made Palfreeman wonder how his defence of the monkey/Roma would go down with the Bulgarian justice system. As it turned out, they mostly shared the non-multicultural beliefs of the cop. If the Roma didn't exist it's hard to understand why the cop went to so much trouble to explain why they [...]
Read the full comment were monkeys and why white boys should not be friends with them.
The Judge’s “Statement of Reasonings” on the verdict also refers to the CCTV footage:
“Disks were not immediately seized with recordings from the cameras located in the building of Ministry of Health and holding within their scope the accident (sic) site. This is one of the most serious deficiencies of the investigation because later when the body of the investigation (presumably the police) had finally acted to gain access to these disks, for not entirely clear reasons, even now, the information on them WAS REMOVED and later the whole computer configuration had been changed” (p. 9, “Judge’s Statement’).
But if we read the court testimony of Viktor Georgiev,who worked for the security company VIP Security at the Sheraton Hotel and witnessed the entire event, (close enough to hear that Palfreeman was speaking English to his attackers when he got up off the ground) we can get a good idea of why this footage disappeared:
"Someone hit him on the head with a rock or some object and he fell down." Viktor Georgiev
“After a minute we noticed a boy (Palfreeman) running in the opposite direction from Vitosha Boulevard towards the underground” he testified. “We saw the same group (Monov’s group) chasing him… they pulled him to the ground and started hitting him. I mean kicking him…he was waving the knife and was trying to pull back towards the underground.”
This is completely different to the version that the court accepted and on which the guilty verdict was based: that Palfreeman attacked Monov’s group with “hooligan’s motives”, that his actions were “inexplicable” and that Monov’s group had offered no violence to him. The fact that he was trying to “pull back towards the underground” means that Palfreeman was attempting to escape his attackers and according to Georgiev’s eyewitness testimony was not the aggressor. Georgiev also saw Palfreeman struck on the head with a rock or other object and knocked to the ground and he describes in further testimony the way in which Monov’s group “surrounded” Palfreeman to prevent his escape. The story used in the trial was in complete opposition to the facts and evidence was destroyed, altered and ignored to get a guilty verdict. The sentence is grotesque but then so was the charge of premeditated murder. Palfreeman is a victim of Sofia's fascist underbelly and those conducting his trial have themselves flagrantly violated the law in order to rig his trial.
This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained off-topic content
1. Why was Jock carrying a knife? Its not as if he hadnt already been in trouble with the police for stabbing someone...
2. Parents here in Australia "pressure the system". Its called victim impact statements.
3. Jocks case might look better if the victim had not been stabbed in the back. Nice one Jock, just defending yourself were you????
Let the maniac die in jail. He isnt safe to be let out.
Valeri obviously isn't a parent (thank goodness) & is obviously not a well person & one would assume is on medication & maybe needs to have his prescriptions reviewed. Not a nice person at all.
"The conditions for everyone, Bulgarian and foreign are deplorable in Bulgarian prisons."
All the more incentives not to go around stabbing folks....
Jock will be very happy... Pray say - what does it matter what conditions are like, if there is LOVE?:)
The conditions for everyone, Bulgarian and foreign are deplorable in Bulgarian prisons. Not even enough food is provided to live. See my story about spending a few weeks in one:
http://www.kudzuworld.com/Help/bulgaria.aspx
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit Valeri.
Valeri comments about Jock are those of an uneducated person. Valeri needs to go to Church and learn to be a human. His remarks are nasty and if he lived in a civilized country he would be charged with a hate crime. Shame..Shame.
btw, I don't mean to be cold hearted... I truly hope he'll find real love... in our prison.
I understand he is found of Roma... frankly, a good looking blond, Matt Damon look-a-like will be quite popular with our Roma prison population... may the strongest win....
Well, he is Australian and he did stab (for a second time if you count the incident in Australia) so that would make him Australian stabber, wouldn't it?
I haven't been able to take 'reporting' such as this seriously ever since you and your fellow Bulgarian media decided to label him 'the Australian stabber'. Objective stuff, as always.