Mandatory Murder

Every Australian should read this book.

Whether you’re a true crime aficionado or not, this is a compelling read. Anyone who is interested in social justice and the law in Australia should put this on their reading list.

Katherine, Northern Territory, 2011. Bronwyn Buttery moved from South Australia to Katherine to be with Ray Niceforo, thinking she’d met the love of her life. Niceforo was abusive, leading Buttery to take out Apprehended Violence Orders against him. It appears that the police were ineffective in protecting Buttery, and she eventually moved out of the home they shared. Buttery’s son, Chris Malyschko, joined his mother in Katherine. Chris and his friends, Darren Halfpenny and Zak Grieve, a young Indigenous man, hung out together, doing the usual things that young men do in a town where there’s not much to engage with.

Buttery, fearing for her life, and seemingly left without protection from the police, recruited her son Chris, Darren, and Zak to murder Ray Nicefero. She was willing to pay the young men five thousand dollars each if they did. On the night of the murder, Zak Grieve backed out of the killing. He told his friends that he couldn’t do it, it was wrong, and he asked to be taken home. He was driven to his house by Chris Malyschko. Malyschko testified at the trial that he had driven Zak Grieve home that night. Zak’s DNA was not found at the crime scene. There was never any evidence he was there. Zak had never been in trouble with the police, held down a job in Katherine, was non-violent and came from a stable family.

Chris Malyschko and Darren went ahead with the crime that night. They brutally murdered Ray Niceforo in his home. They were found out, convicted, and charged. Zak was also arrested and charged. The jurors at Zak’s trial were all non-Indigenous. At the trial, the judge reluctantly sentenced Zak Grieve to twenty years in prison, despite the evidence that he was not even present at the murder scene. This is because under the Northern Territory’s mandatory sentencing laws, having knowledge about a crime and not reporting to the police carries this sentence. Malyschko and Halfpenny received eighteen years and Buttery, eight years. She was out in four. The trial judge described Zak’s sentence as unjust, but there was no other option under mandatory sentencing. The judge said that mandatory sentencing brings about injustice. Schubert describes Justice Mildren’s comments at sentencing as being ‘laced with the bitterness of the impotent.’ The judge described Darren Halfpenny as a ‘practised liar and clearly an unworthy witness.’ The prosecution’s case was heavily based on the testimony of Halfpenny. He went on to say, ‘I find that you, Grieve, found the courage to tell Malyschko that you could not go on with it and that he accepted that, and drove you home, where you went to sleep.’

People have asked why Zak didn’t go to the police. Anybody who has spent time in the Northern Territory understands why a young Indigenous man would not present at a police station. In 2017 I sat through a week of the Royal Commission into Protection and Detention of Youth in the Northern Territory, watching and listening to people (mostly white men) who did not have the training, intelligence or cultural competency to look after the inmates (mostly black kids) in their care. The jury at Zak’s trial did not include any Indigenous Australians. Added to that, Glenice Grieve, Zak’s mother, says that there were some young jurors who, in her opinion, did not take the trial seriously. They fell asleep, passed notes, and seemed to find amusement in the proceedings.

This book does not have a tidy ending. There are questions that remain unanswered; questions about the effectiveness of the police in Katherine, domestic violence, the laws in the Territory, the economic, social and racial divides in remote Australia and the tragedy of believing murder is the only option of escaping a violent relationship.