Bulgaria – One Night In Sofia
22’ 55”
| Publicity: | Every year thousands of young people pack their backpacks, book their EuRail passes and travel Europe, leaving their parents to worry and fret about their wellbeing and their ability to cope with foreign languages and customs. |
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| God forbid anything should happen to them. |
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| Two days after Christmas in 2007, Australian pathologist Simon Palfreeman got the call any parent would dread. His 21 year old, Jock, had been in a fight, another young man was dead and the Bulgarian criminal justice system had swallowed his son. |
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| A year and a half on, with legal machinery groaning and Jock Palfreeman locked up on a murder charge in Sofia Central Prison, reporter Belinda Hawkins travels to Bulgaria with a father desperate to prove his son’s innocence but growing ever more doubtful about the ability of the Bulgarian system to deliver justice. |
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| The dead man, 20 year old Andrei Monov, died from stab wounds on the way to hospital. Jock Palfreeman admits wielding the knife that killed him, but claims it was in self defence. |
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| He says he tried to break up a gang attack on some gypsies when the gang turned on him. |
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| “I was constantly turning in a circle and every time one of them would come at me I would lunge at them with the knife in a swinging movement to scare them. All I remember is being hit on the head and falling down. The thing I remember is right, shit I am gone. This is it. I am finished.” (Jock Palfreeman). |
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| The prosecution disagrees with his version of events, disputes many of the defence statements, and is calling for a life sentence without parole. |
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| Andrei Monov came from a prominent family and his death has become a cause celebre in Bulgaria. In the Bulgarian media, the Australian is portrayed as a heartless killer who was out for blood that night. |
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| Hawkins was on hand inside Sofia prison for many candid moments between father and son and recorded an extended interview with Jock Palfreeman. |
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| “I don’t know if I should have even gone there in the first place, now, but it’s too late for that now... but I mean these are the type of situations where if you don’t go and they kill these guys everyone then says well why did nobody go to help him?” (Jock Palfreeman). |
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| Sofia buildings/Palfreeman at airport | Music | 00:00 |
| Palfreeman in car | DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: [In car] What I want to do today is, as quickly as possible, get to see Jock this afternoon before the prison closes. | 00:11 |
| Travelling to prison | Music | 00:19 |
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| HAWKINS: Dr Simon Palfreeman has just got into the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. It's taken two days to get here from Australia and this is his seventh trip. | 00:26 |
| Prison interior | His son is locked up in this notoriously overcrowded and rundown prison. | 00:39 |
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| DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: It's quite intimidating being in here. Every time I come here | 00:48 |
| Palfreeman inside prison. Visits Jock | all I can think of is Jock is still in there. Will we ever get some resolution to this? Will we ever get him out of there? | 00:52 |
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| HAWKINS: Twenty two year old Jock Palfreeman has been in the Sofia Central Prison almost one and a half years. If he's convicted, he could be here most of his life. The young Australian is charged with murder and attempted murder. | 01:05 |
| Jock | JOCK PALFREEMAN: Most of the times I feel I wish it was me who had died on that street. | 01:20 |
| SUPER: Dramatisation | HAWKINS: lives were altered and ended in a matter of moments. Since then a protracted battle has developed over precisely what happened. | 01:25 |
| Jock leaves visiting room | JOCK: Comrade Tony’s getting a bit pissed off now, so I think we’ve all got to leave. | 01:39 |
| Simon alone in visiting room, leaves prison | HAWKINS: In his trips to see his son and muster a defence, Simon Palfreeman has grown suspicious of a very different justice system. DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: See all my life I've believed in the system, and I think in Australia I think you more or less can do that. And here I am for the first time faced with a system that I don't have confidence in. | 01:50 |
| Ext. Palace of Justice | HAWKINS: This is where the fate of Jock Palfreeman will be decided. It's known as the Palace of Justice here in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. This is where notions of just what is a fair trial are being tested. For the family of a law student killed just round the corner there, a fair trial will mean Jock Palfreeman is put away for life. | 02:18 |
| Palfreemans on street | For the Palfreemans it means that he'll be seen as having acted in self defence and is anything but a murderer. | 02:39 |
| Church in snowy village | Music/Church bells | 02:48 |
| Men fishing | HAWKINS: The story begins just after Christmas in 2007, when Jock Palfreeman was holidaying in the Bulgarian countryside with friends from the UK. | 02:57 |
| Travelling in car | One of the group was leaving and they decided to have a night out on the town to farewell her. | 03:11 |
| Apartment buildings | Were you as a group out to cause trouble that night? | 03:22 |
| Lindsay | LINDSAY WELSH: Not at all, no. We were just out to have a laugh, like three friends having a laugh basically and that was it. | 03:25 |
| Streets. Night | HAWKINS: Jock Palfreeman says the Bulgarian capital is a violent place where he's had trouble before - so he took a knife with him. | 03:35 |
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| JOCK PALFREEMAN: I don't know why, I just had a bad feeling about Sofia. There's something about the stress of Sofia that always.... | 03:46 |
| Jock | there's always problems here that I've found in Sofia. | 03:53 |
| Dramatisation. Int. Club | HAWKINS: They all ended up in a downtown club, leaving around one in the morning. Among them was Lindsay Welsh. LINDSAY WELSH: As we were walking down the road, | 03:57 |
| Lindsay | there was a group of men that emerged from the subway, | 04:07 |
| SUPER: Dramatisation | making a lot of noise. I think they were shouting. HAWKINS: They were football fans fuelled up on alcohol. | 04:12 |
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| JOCK PALFREEMAN: Maybe twenty, or even more, maybe twenty five and they were all singing and chanting and people were walking past them and they were pushing them. | 04:20 |
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SUPER: Dramatisation
| HAWKINS: Jock Palfreeman and his friends had been drinking too. They were frightened by the commotion and crouched behind bushes. He says he saw the gang beating up two gypsies. When he went into help, one gypsy got away but the gang continued their attack on the other one. | 04:30 |
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| LINDSAY WELSH: As I looked up, what I remember seeing is | 04:49 |
| Lindsay | Jock running and these guys running towards Jock. | 04:52 |
| Dramatisation of attack | JOCK PALFREEMAN: And then all the group came and surrounded me in a circle. HAWKINS: Jock Palfreeman says he pulled out the knife to keep the attackers away. | 04:56 |
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| The gang then started hurling cement blocks at the Australian, who was calling out for help. JOCK PALFREEMAN: I was constantly turning in a circle and every time one would come to me, I would lunge at them with the knife in a swiping movement to scare them. All I remember is being hit on the head and falling down. | 05:06 |
| Jock | The last thing I remember is right shit, I'm gone. This is it. I'm finished. LINDSAY WELSH: I tried | 05:26 |
| SUPER: Lindsay Welsh Friend
| to grab Jock's arm and as I did so, one of the guys turned round and kicked me in the stomach and so I flew back on the floor. | 05:31 |
| Dramatisation of attack |
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| HAWKINS: After the brawl, one of the football fans lay injured and another lay dying. He was twenty year old law student Andre Monov. | 05:44 |
| Lindsay walks | Lindsay Welsh left the scene terrified, not knowing that anyone had died or that police had charged her friend with murder. | 06:03 |
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| She flew to England the next day as planned. When she found out what happened, she rang British and Bulgarian authorities. LINDSAY WELSH: The Bulgarian Embassy didn't seem interested at all. So I left my details | 06:13 |
| Lindsay | with all these people and also I spoke to someone from Interpol at a later date, they made me sign a form saying that I'd be willing to actually go and give a statement saying what I'd witnessed that night. But after that I hadn't heard from anybody at all. | 06:28 |
| Simon walks. Night. Sofia | Music | 06:46 |
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| HAWKINS: The failure of the police to interview potential defence witnesses is only one of the concerns Dr Palfreeman has with the Bulgarian judicial process. Tonight he's come to the street where it all happened. | 06:54 |
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| DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: In looking at all the evidence I'm absolutely convinced that it | 07:09 |
| SUPER: Dr.Simon Palfreeman Father | all started with this group of young men accosting these two Roma boys, quite viciously and violently, and the tragedy then unfolded from that moment. | 07:12 |
| Simon walks. Night. Sofia | Music | 07:23 |
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| HAWKINS: Dr Palfreeman believes the official investigation has been inadequate from the start. | 07:30 |
| Simon shows camera | DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: There is a security camera here, which is pointing down to the subway, which is exactly where the boy was being beaten. | 07:36 |
| Subway entrance | HAWKINS: But police didn't get the CCTV camera footage that might have shown what made Jock Palfreeman jump into the fray. When the defence pushed for it, police said a freak blackout wrecked its hard drive. And the original witness statements from the football fans on the night bear little resemblance to what they're saying in court now. They're even denying there were gypsies present. | 07:46 |
| Simon on street | DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: There were independent witnesses across the road that actually saw the boy being on the ground, being chased, put on the ground and severely beaten. | 08:13 |
| Church | Music/Church bells | 08:32 |
| Monov funeral/News excerpt | NEWSREADER: [Bulgarian TV] More than 200 people came to the funeral of 20 year old Andre Monov, son of the famous psychologist, Hristo Monov. | 08:37 |
| SUPER: January 3, 2008 | HAWKINS: The dead man's father is well known in Bulgaria. Among the mourners were judges, politicians and police. | 08:46 |
| Jock arrest. News excerpt | Right from the start, parts of the Bulgarian media painted Jock Palfreeman, who had just joined the British Army, as a trained killer. | 08:55 |
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| NEWSREADER: According to his explanation he doesn't feel sorry for what happened and he doesn't feel guilty. | 09:06 |
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| REPORTER: Are you guilty… HAWKINS: The Australian watched as even the judge refusing him bail cried and called him a hooligan. | 09:12 |
| Jock in prison interview | It's said that you've, you know, pulled knives on other people in Bulgaria. Six times, one news report said. JOCK PALFREEMAN: Mm. HAWKINS: Is that true? JOCK PALFREEMAN: No, no. I was attacked and they pulled knives on me six times. That was probably | 09:24 |
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| a mistranslation or misunderstanding in court at my first bail hearing when I said that. HAWKINS: But did you ever pull a knife on anybody else? JOCK PALFREEMAN: No, no, no, no. | 09:37 |
| Jock led away by police | HAWKINS: The court appointed psychologist says Jock Palfreeman is not violent by nature, but rather is driven by a concern for others. It's a view shared by Jock Palfreeman's friends and family. JOCK PALFREEMAN: I don't know if I should have even gone in the first place now, | 09:48 |
| Jock in prison | but these are the types of situations where if you don't go, you know, and they kill these guys, everyone then says well hang on why did nobody go to help him? | 10:08 |
| Simon Palfreeman travels to Samokov | Music | 10:17 |
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| HAWKINS: Bulgaria is still desperately poor and gypsies are often the target of racial abuse. They're one of Bulgaria's ethnic minorities, often cast as petty thieves. Jock Palfreeman's father and step mother are leaving Sofia and travelling into the countryside where | 10:25 |
| Photos. Jock | the young man lived for eight months after leaving school. SONJA NICOLOVA: I think that Jock is a little bit naive because..... | 0:49 |
| SUPER: Sonja Nicolova Friend | he's a really good guy and he's thinking that everybody are like that. He thinks that anybody would help anybody... and it's not like that. | 11:00 |
| Palfreemans with Sonja, visiting home | HAWKINS: Sonja Nicolova came to know Jock Palfreeman well. She's one of his many friends in Samokov. SONJA'S MOTHER: Welcome guests. Go inside, it's warm. HAWKINS: Dr Palfreeman has discovered that his son had a whole other family here. | 11:16 |
| Sonja’s mother | SONJA'S MOTHER: Jock was like my own child. I watch him on TV when his court case is on. I look at him and I start crying. | 11:39 |
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| HAWKINS: It's perhaps not surprising that these people are some of his strongest supporters. | 11:51 |
| Simon Palfreeman shows her photos | SONJA'S MOTHER: There he is.... there he is. DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: One of the special things about Jock is that he, even in prison, he helps the other people. | 12:00 |
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| SONJA'S MOTHER: That's why it happened.... he wanted to save the other person. HAWKINS: Simon Palfreeman has also discovered he's not alone in his suspicion of the Bulgarian justice system. | 12:11 |
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| SONJA'S MOTHER: God is the best judge. He gives justice..... not us, where the courts can be bought with money. And the corruption in Bulgaria is known all over the world. | 12:22 |
| Gypsies in village | HAWKINS: But one thing the Bulgarian friends don't share is Jock Palfreeman's support for gypsies. SONJA NICOLOVA: In Bulgaria we are racist, most of us. | 12:37 |
| Sonja | I'm saying that because even I don't like gypsies and he was not like that. He was saying that everybody's the same, we are all the same. | 12:51 |
| Football game | HAWKINS: There's an undercurrent of violence and racial hatred here. At football matches like this, the catchcry is Bulgaria for Bulgarians. | 13:09 |
| Nationalists with banner | Andre Monov's death has been taken up as a nationalist cause and the anniversary saw football fans on the streets. The banner they carry says 'Nothing is Forgotten, Nothing is Forgiven'. Andre Monov's father is grateful for their concern. | 12:22 |
| Hristo Monov at rally | DR HRISTO MONOV: They don't want to forget the evil and they don't want evil to blacken their lives. | 13:42 |
| Inside court | HAWKINS: In court, Dr Hristo Monov and the prosecutor are blocking original witness accounts that support the defendant's version of events. | 13:51 |
| Nicova | (TO PROSECUTOR) Why don't you want the original witness statements used in court? | 14:02 |
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| PARVOLETA NICOVA (PROSECUTOR): It is not a question of not wanting it to be read, but rather that I believe what the witness states during the court hearing is enough to clarify the factual circumstances. | 14:06 |
| Jock in court/Monov leaves court | HAWKINS: But some witnesses are now changing key elements of their stories in court. Others just aren't turning up at all. Jock Palfreeman's supporters suspect they've' been intimidated both by the ultra-nationalist mood and the high standing of the victim's father. Dr Monov doesn't want to talk to us. | 14:28 |
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| DR HRISTO MONOV: It is forbidden in Bulgarian constitution to photograph me. Dr EVGENII DAINOV: [New Bulgaria University] I don't have to imagine a situation | 14:53 |
| SUPER: Dr Evgenii Dainov New Bulgaria University | where witnesses are harassed and pressured to change their statements, because it happens all the time. | 15:01 |
| Dainov and Hawkins walk | HAWKINS: Dr Evgenii Dainov is a social scientist who's taken an interest in the Palfreeman case which could be a test of the Bulgarian justice system. | 15:09 |
| Dainov | DR EVGENII DAINOV: I would expect the father of the victim to put pressure on the entire structure of the law enforcement and judicial system, and I would expect the judicial system to collapse under that pressure. | 15:20 |
| Military guard outside parliament | HAWKINS: Bulgaria is under serious pressure to get its house in order. It joined the European Union just two years ago, but it's struggling to meet the membership commitments. The EU is withholding two billion dollars in development funding until the former communist country cleans up corruption in its justice system. | 15:37 |
| Court house | DR EVGENII DAINOV: Under normal circumstances you can get justice in this country. Unfortunately, if at any stage anyone puts any pressure on any link in the chain, it seems you are not able to get justice in this country. | 16:00 |
| Dainov | So the rule of law does not apply because the law is different for different people. So this is a completely unsatisfactory situation and we are, Bulgaria is being rightly criticised. | 16:18 |
| Nicova | HAWKINS: But the prosecutor, Parvoleta Nicova, rejects such claims. | 16:30 |
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| PARVOLETA NICOVA: I'm sorry but I can't accept that there has been any pressure at any stage in the proceedings, in any shape or form, on any of the witnesses. I believe he should be given one of the heaviest penalties under our criminal code. | 16:35 |
| Simon Palfreeman at market | Music | 16:59 |
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| HAWKINS: Simon Palfreeman knows his son relies on getting food brought into the prison, which provides next to nothing. | 17:13 |
| Simon with supplies for Jock | He's come to the prison armed with more supplies from Australia and is relieved when they get through security. | 17:28 |
| Simon greets Jock in prison. They talk | This is the first time in more than a year that father and son have been allowed to be so close. DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: Mate the point is, in fact I felt the same way because I felt with the Monovs I felt you know... I've still got you, even though…? JOCK PALFREEMAN: Debatably. DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: Well I can still, I can still come here and see you but, you know, I just think.... HAWKINS: Jock Palfreeman says he's haunted by the death of Andre Monov. | 17:48 |
| Jock | JOCK PALFREEMAN: I’d lie on the bed and my heart would beat and it would echo back into the pillow and I would just think about Andre Monov's heart stopping and trying to pump - I don't know. It's just very difficult for me to talk but you get the picture. And so now I can't sleep on my stomach, I have to sleep on my back. | 18:20 |
| Palace of Justice. Ext./Palfreemans go to court | Music | 18:44 |
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| HAWKINS: After months of excruciating delays it's finally time for Jock Palfreeman's next hearing and his father and stepmother are battling Sofia's peak hour on their way to court. | 19:01 |
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| DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: I'm always worried to see how Jock will be.... how his morning's gone before he gets into the court. | 19:15 |
| Jock led into court | Music | 19:24 |
| Jock’s supporters at court/ Jock into court | HAWKINS: Many of their son's Bulgarian friends have come. The court room is overflowing with law students who are here to watch. It's chaotic. Everyone's there, except the people who should be. One witness after another fails to appear. The last hearing day was aborted when one of the judges failed to turn up. It happens again today. If it happens once more, the whole trial will have to start over. | 19:39 |
| Simon to Nun | DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: This is the second one now that they've had to cancel. It's just... it's just outrageous. | 20:17 |
| Jock being led by police | We don't know whether we're going to get true justice from this system, | 20:23 |
| Simon | and as each day goes past, that feeling of dread that we're not going to get there, that we're not going to get the truth out, is getting greater and greater. | 20:28 |
| Lindsay on railway platform | HAWKINS: Eighteen months on, Lindsay Welsh has finally been contacted but her statement hasn't yet been presented in court. | 20:39 |
| Simon walks to prison | DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: I catch the plane out tonight and won't see Jock again for three months and just knowing that I have to leave him in the prison is really hard and... particularly in this circumstance where the trial was postponed. We're no further ahead with the trial. We've got key witnesses missing. It's hard to leave Jock in that situation. And here's the prison. | 20:55 |
| Jock and Simon embrace | HAWKINS: Dr Palfreeman fears for his son's survival in this tough prison and this colours their last moments together. | 21:26 |
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| DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: Listen mate, I love you mate. Just hang in there. | 21:34 |
| Streets of Sofia/ Palfreemans at airport | Music | 21:42 |
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| JOCK'S STEPMOTHER: When I look at Simon now I can just see | 22:03 |
| SUPER: Helen Palfreeman Stepmother | the sadness in him leaving Jock in prison and not being really able to do anything more for him until the next court date. | 22:06 |
| Palfreemans at check-in | DR SIMON PALFREEMAN: Yes, he is impetuous and so on but the more and more I'm with him and see him handling the situation, the more proud I am of him and the more he's actually giving me some strength and courage to continue on as well because | 22:16 |
| Simon and wife at airport | having really got to the bottom of most of the story of what happened, I think he is a remarkable young man and someone who needs to be fought over and to be got out of this situation. He's someone worth fighting for so that's what keeps bringing us back... Next time. | 22:29 |
| Palfreemans walk through airport | Music | 22:50 |
| Possible back-announce | Back home in Australia Palfreeman was implicated in a 2004 incident where three young people sustained knife wounds. Police investigated but no charges were laid. The attack remains clouded by conflicting accounts of exactly what happened. The incident was deemed inadmissible in the Bulgarian case. | 22:55 |
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Palfreeman: The Chatswood Incident |
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| Credits: | Reporter: Belinda Hawkins Camera: Ron Ekkel Editor: Nick Brenner |
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