Why manslaughter victim's parents visited their son's convicted killer in jail
On the surface it seems like an open and shut case.
Philip Mather was convicted of the brutal killing of his fishing buddy, Jimmy O’Connell, whose mutilated body was found in a creek in the Northern Territory in 2006.
Mather confessed to police in what the sentencing judge described as “a severe case of violent manslaughter”.
But Jimmy’s parents never believed Mather was the person who killed their son and visited him fortnightly in jail, and continually vouched for him.
Now Mather says he is in fact innocent and only confessed to avoid a harsher jail term.
The case is due to be back in the spotlight with the release this week of a new true crime podcast series produced by Audible called Blood Territory.
The investigation is led by Walkley Award winning journalist Mark Whittaker who says – like other popular true crime podcasts – the ultimate goal was “absolutely” to bring new attention to the case, and perhaps a greater sense of justice.
“When you hear the parents of the victim have gone to visit the guy who has pleaded guilty to killing their son – and quite brutally too – it makes you wonder what’s going,” he told Yahoo News Australia.
“And then you start to get wind of the people they suspect who actually did it.”
Friends fell out after fight over esky
Mather and O’Connell were best friends, but had a heated argument over an expensive $400 esky before Mather allegedly took his victim into the bush and bashed him to death.
"Mr O'Connell accused you of stealing his Esky – a very large and quite expensive article of 160 litre capacity," Justice Angel said during sentencing in 2009.
"You wished to settle things once and for all with him."
The 23-year-old's decomposed body was found weeks later in a creek bed, 40 metres from the shell of his burnt-out car in bushland at Noonamah, southeast of Darwin.
Despite the documented acrimony between the pair before O’Connell’s death, there were other people who could’ve had a motive, Whittaker said.
There was a key character, referred to as “the vigilante” in the podcast, that was promising to dish out “territory style” justice in an apparent spat with the deceased.
There was also a policeman O’Connell was suing at the time who was reportedly looking for him.
And then there was the fact the victim’s father was involved in uncovering government corruption.
“There are all these layers to the case,” Whittaker said.
“It’s a lot more complicated… things seem a lot more clear from afar.”
While there were arguably holes in the prosecution’s case, the podcast hits a crucial moment when it tracks down and interviews a person who claims to have been there when O’Connell was killed.
Mather, the man convicted of the heinous crime, has since been released from prison after serving nine years of a 15-year jail term.
He also features in the podcast and maintains his innocence.
While Audible is a subscription service, the Blood Territory podcast is free to listen to.
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