{"id":892747,"date":"2026-09-15T10:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892747\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T10:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:02:13","slug":"ai-hallucinations-in-parole-board-submission-scuttles-media-ban-on-convicted-murderer-sue-neill-fraser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892747\/","title":{"rendered":"‘AI hallucinations’ in parole board submission scuttles media ban on convicted murderer Sue Neill-Fraser"},"content":{"rendered":"

A parole condition preventing convicted murderer Susan Neill-Fraser from protesting her innocence to the media has been declared invalid by Tasmania’s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Neill-Fraser was found guilty of murdering her partner Bob Chappell aboard his yacht in Hobart in 2009.<\/p>\n

\"Susan<\/p>\n

Susan Neill-Fraser and Bob Chappell at a wedding on November 24, 2007.\u00a0 (AAP\/Supplied)<\/p>\n

She served 13 years in prison and was released on parole in 2022.<\/p>\n

‘What happened to Bob Chappell’<\/a><\/p>\n

No body. No weapon. Lots of theories and those with a firm opinion either way. This is the case of Susan Neill-Fraser, convicted of killing Bob Chappell and dumping his body into a Hobart river.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, the Parole Board of Tasmania added a condition that she not speak “directly or indirectly with any media outlet to claim (her) alleged innocence and\/or wrongful conviction”.<\/p>\n

This was replaced by a new parole condition in May 2025, which the Human Rights Law Centre said was more restrictive.<\/p>\n

Today in the Supreme Court in Hobart Justice Stephen Estcourt ruled the condition was invalid because it denied her procedural fairness, was legally unreasonable, and created uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Justice Estcourt also accepted that the parole board’s decision-making was affected by a document that cited case law that did not exist, and was instead likely “AI hallucinations”.<\/p>\n

AI hallucinations<\/a><\/p>\n

When a journalist emails a company with questions looking for answers, the least they expect is a real person to feed them the spin, half-truths or outright lies. Not a machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking outside court, Neill-Fraser said she was “pleased and relieved” the condition was quashed.<\/p>\n

“As you will be aware, I have always maintained my innocence, and I am continuing in the quest to clear my name and advocate for the broader issue of wrongful convictions in Australia. I cannot walk away from this,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to take some time now to consider what my next steps will be.”<\/p>\n

AI hallucinations key to condition being ruled invalid<\/p>\n

Neill-Fraser’s lawyer, Patrick Coleridge, told the court today a consensus to void the parole condition had already been reached between the parties; however, the court’s jurisdiction was required for the decision to be officially upheld. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Coleridge told the court that parole board secretary Ben Hancock used artificial intelligence to prepare a rationale justifying the parole condition, citing case law that was “fictitious” and likely “AI hallucinations”.<\/p>\n

He said the document “argued forcefully” in support of the condition.<\/p>\n

The court heard that in August, Neill-Fraser’s legal team brought to the court’s attention that the case law referred to in the document did not exist.<\/p>\n

Mr Coleridge said the parole board met and withdrew the condition that same month, with requests for an explanation of why it was withdrawn refused.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Sarah Schwartz, legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the case revealed “serious deficiencies” with Tasmania’s parole system.<\/p>\n

“Sue’s case reveals that parole should not prevent a person from being able to speak on matters of public importance,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Schwartz said the use of AI by the parole board was “deeply troubling”.<\/p>\n

“It’s really concerning that the Parole Board of Tasmania, a public authority, used AI in generating this document that so severely has restricted our client’s fundamental freedoms, her freedom to speak in regard to her matter,” she said.<\/p>\n

Tasmania’s Attorney-General Guy Barnett said he would write to the chair of the parole board to seek an explanation about its professional standards, which he described as “unacceptable”.<\/p>\n

“I will be seeking assurances around how the Board will ensure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A parole condition preventing convicted murderer Susan Neill-Fraser from protesting her innocence to the media has been declared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[256,254,462155,42422,43,361494,12338,255303,44,39106,367740,462154,1049,462153,2801,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-892747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-bob-chappell","tag-guy-barnett","tag-headlines","tag-human-rights-law-centre","tag-legal-challenge","tag-media-ban","tag-news","tag-parole-board","tag-sarah-schwartz","tag-sue-neill-fraser","tag-supreme-court","tag-susan-neill-fraser","tag-tasmania","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}