Another chapter in one of Western Australia's most enduring mysteries has closed, with the dismissal of an appeal by the convicted sex offender found guilty of killing teenager Hayley Dodd almost 24 years ago.
The body of the 17-year-old has never been found, but in April 2021, Francis John Wark was sentenced to a record 18-year jail term for snatching her from a remote road near the town of Badgingarra, in WA's Wheatbelt region, on July 29, 1999.
The term was the highest ever imposed in Western Australia for the offence of manslaughter.
Wark has always denied having anything to do with the disappearance of the teenager.
Earring a critical clue
He was not charged until 2015 after a cold case review of the evidence discovered an earring, believed to have belonged to Hayley, in the fibres of a car seat cover, seized in 1999 from the vehicle he was driving.
By that time, Wark was serving a lengthy jail term in Queensland for the violent sexual assault of a 31-year-old woman he had picked up on remote road in 2007.
He was extradited to Perth to stand trial, which took place in the Supreme Court in 2018 before a judge sitting without a jury.
It ended with him being found guilty of murder — he was sentenced to life with a 21-year non-parole period.
Wark then lodged his first appeal which he won in 2020 when three Supreme Court judges found the trial judge had made an error of law in convicting him.
The court ordered a retrial which took place in 2021 — this time before a jury which deliberated for 11 and a half hours before acquitting him of the murder charge but finding him guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Judges dismiss appeal
Wark quickly lodged his second appeal and today in a unanimous decision, three Supreme Court judges upheld his conviction for killing Hayley.
Wark also appealed against the record jail term he received, but the three judges also dismissed that challenge.
Wark will be eligible for release after 16 years, but under "no body, no parole laws" — introduced in WA at the instigation of Hayley's mother, Margaret Dodd — he faces the prospect of serving the entire term if he does not reveal the location of the teenager's body.
With time already served, that would mean Wark will remain behind bars until 2037.
In upholding Wark's 18-year sentence, the Court of Appeal noted he might die in jail but ruled his offences, including his crimes in Queensland, were so serious the term was appropriate.
"Unfortunately, from the appellant's perspective, the extremely serious nature of his offending ... and the necessity for appropriate punishment, denunciation of his criminal conduct and the demands of general deterrence, significantly reduced the extent to which humanitarian considerations could be accommodated in the overall sentencing disposition," the court ruled.
Wark appeared in the Court of Appeal via video link from Acacia Prison.
Appeal dismissal a birthday gift
The appeal was dismissed on Ms Dodd's birthday, and she described the upholding of the verdict as a "great birthday present" before urging Wark to tell authorities where Hayley's body was.
"As far as I was concerned there was nothing unsafe, or unsatisfactory about the case at all, except him [Wark]," she said.
"Seriously, he needs to just tell us where Hayley is and get over it all.
"He needs to accept responsibility, he's guilty as hell, he knows he's guilty as hell and he needs to just stop playing games."
Ms Dodd said she anticipated a further appeal from Wark.
"He can apply to the High Court, but it's not likely to get there," she said.
Ms Dodd said the appeal process had caused her and her other children great anxiety, and said she had not slept a wink before Tuesday's hearing.
