In March 2008, 57-year-old semi-retired schoolteacher Josephine Greensill opened her front door in suburban Melbourne to find three detectives waiting to arrest her. Two men had accused her of sexually abusing them at a backyard sleepover almost 30 years earlier, when they were eight-year-old boys in her class.

No medical experts were ever called, and the jury believed them. Jo spent two and a half years in prison as a convicted child sex offender before her conviction was quashed. The court found the men had colluded and had a financial motive, and that what they described was physically impossible.

Award-winning crime reporter Neil Mercer investigated her case, along with eight others, for his book Falsely Convicted. In this episode he tells Gemma about the common sense failures that sent an innocent woman to jail and what her life looked like once she was released. Neil also looks at the cases of Eric Honeysett framed by NSW police in 1983, and Gene Gibson's case.

LINKS

Purchase Falsely Convicted by Neil Mercer here.

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CREDITS

Host & Executive Producer: Gemma Bath

Guests: Paul Warren

Produced by Ella Maitland

Video Editor: Artemi Kokkaris

Audio Design: Tegan Sadler

Mamamia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we have recorded this podcast.