Dr Simon Palfreeman, a 54-year-old Australian pathologist, believes his son Jock (23), who was convicted on December 2 2009 of the murder of Andrei Monov and the wounding of Antoan Zahariev, is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

The following is an abridged account of an extensive interview Dr Palfreeman conducted with The Sofia Echo. It contains most – although not all – of Dr Palfreeman’s concerns about what he sees as flaws in the judicial process.

Visit to Sofia
Jock Palfreeman, then 21, had spent 2007 in the UK, where he had enlisted in the British army. In October he went to Yorkshire for initial training. He decided to spend Christmas with friends in the village of Madjare (50km south of Sofia in Samokov municipality) where he had worked for six months the previous year. So Bulgaria was a country he already knew well.

Jock and his friends travelled to the capital two days after Christmas. They only visited Sofia because a member of the group was due to fly back to the UK the following day. They booked into a hostel.

Dr Palfreeman takes up the story. "Two people were with Jock early in the hours of December 28 2007, Graham, Lindsay – Graham’s girlfriend – and a young Bulgarian man (we shall call him Tony) whom they had befriended in a bar earlier that evening. Graham felt unwell and went back to the hostel while Jock, Lindsay and Tony continued drinking. Tony said he knew a place nearby with good music. They passed Stamboliiski Boulevard on their way to the club."

First ‘fight’
The three noticed a group of young men running up from Maria Luisa Boulevard towards Vitosha Boulevard. Tony identified them as Levski Sofia football club supporters.

Jock then claims he saw the same group (composed of about 15 young men) chasing two other men – or young boys. One man ran off towards Sveta Nedelya church. The other was thrown to the ground and kicked and punched near Serdika metro station. Jock ran over to intervene while his companions, who were trying to get a mobile phone working, stayed put. Jock later described the victim on the floor as having a "swarthy" complexion.

Many would question Jock’s intervention.

"His actions were foolhardy, precipitous and impulsive," Dr Palfreeman told The Sofia Echo. "But that’s Jock. Two expert reports were commissioned by the court. They conducted psychometric and psychological tests. They concluded he’s not an inherently aggressive or violent person and that he has a highly developed sense of social justice."

Dr Palfreeman continues: "So he ran over. The attack continued. Jock pushed them all away but they started punching him too. Jock took the knife out of his pocket. He had no intention of using it. He waved it around to scare them away. At that point the gang backed off. Jock turned around and attended to the boy on the ground. That’s when the gang attacked Jock in earnest."

The group chased Jock back down towards Stamboliiski Boulevard. "Jock tried to move them away. They picked up some loose concrete blocks – that are still there – and threw them at Jock."