Evidence of the crucial witness in the murder appeal of Susan Neill-Fraser has been sensationally abandoned by the Hobart grandmother's legal team.
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Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years' jail for murdering Bob Chappell, who disappeared off the couple's yacht on Australia Day 2009.
This week she began a second appeal against the conviction on the basis there is fresh and compelling evidence not heard at her trial.
On Tuesday, Neill-Fraser's lawyer Robert Richter QC said the evidence of then-homeless girl Meaghan Vass, whose DNA was found on the boat, would no longer be relied upon.
Ms Vass had signed an affidavit saying she was aboard the yacht the night of the murder but on Tuesday recanted her story to say she wasn't.
The evidence of Ms Vass was the leading ground for Neill-Fraser's appeal, with Mr Richter earlier saying she was "our case".
"We are in a situation in which we agree that the evidence of Ms Vass cannot support the motion of fresh and compelling evidence leading to a miscarriage of justice," he said in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
"There doesn't seem to be much point in any of it."
Ms Vass will no longer give evidence at the five-day hearing but Mr Richter said another ground of appeal surrounding her DNA would still be pursued.
Ms Vass gave evidence on Tuesday that she had for years been repeatedly harassed and threatened by people into stating she was on the yacht the night of the murder.
"You can't remember being on that boat can you?" Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC asked.
"No," Ms Vass, who was at times agitated while giving evidence, replied.
On Monday, she told the hearing she was aboard the Four Winds with other men, with one attacking Mr Chappell.
Ms Vass denied being on the boat at the original trial but has changed her story multiple times in the years since, the court heard.
A DNA expert is set to give evidence when the hearing resumes on Wednesday morning.
Neill-Fraser, 66, was granted leave to launch another appeal against her conviction after convincing a judge there was "fresh and compelling" evidence in the case.
The current three-judge panel could still decide to order a retrial or quash her 2010 conviction.
Neill-Fraser was found guilty of attacking Mr Chappell, dumping his body in the River Derwent and then trying to sink the boat.
Neill-Fraser's first appeal was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2012.
Australian Associated Press
