Arabic version: محكمة تسمانية تُبطل قيدًا إعلاميًا مفروضًا على سو نيل-فريزر

According to ABC News, Tasmania’s Supreme Court has declared invalid a parole condition that prevented convicted murderer Susan Neill-Fraser from speaking to media about her claimed innocence and alleged wrongful conviction. Justice Stephen Estcourt ruled the condition denied procedural fairness, was legally unreasonable and created uncertainty.

Neill-Fraser was convicted of murdering her partner, Bob Chappell, aboard his yacht in Hobart in 2009. She served 13 years in prison before being released on parole in 2022. The Parole Board of Tasmania added the media restriction in December 2024, then replaced it with a condition described by the Human Rights Law Centre as more restrictive in May 2025.

The court accepted that the board’s decision-making had been affected by a document citing case law that did not exist and was likely generated through “AI hallucinations”. Neill-Fraser’s lawyer, Patrick Coleridge, said parole board secretary Ben Hancock used artificial intelligence to prepare a rationale supporting the restriction. Her legal team raised the nonexistent case law with the court in August, and the board withdrew the condition that month.

Outside court, Neill-Fraser said she was “pleased and relieved” that the condition had been quashed and that she would consider her next steps. Human Rights Law Centre legal director Sarah Schwartz called the AI use “deeply troubling” and said the case exposed “serious deficiencies” in Tasmania’s parole system. Attorney-General Guy Barnett said he would seek an explanation from the parole board chair about professional standards and assurances that it would not happen again.