The police detectives, prosecutor, judge and $1000 prize money are real, but the suspicious death of a university professor that 60 QUT law and justice students are investigating is (thankfully) fake.
The annual QUT Crime Club that begins this week is the only university unit of its kind in the world, says QUT lecturer Dr Claire Ferguson, and this year the students will put their forensic and legal skills into solving and prosecuting a murder most foul.
It will see ten teams of six students painstakingly piece together the circumstances of "Professor Megan Morte's" death after her body was found in the disabled toilet.
"It's a tragic case, just after the well-known criminologist Professor Morte has reached the pinnacle of her career, the launch of her book, How not to get murdered, she is found dead by a security guard after a party for her book launch. Only a guest or guests at the party could have committed the murder," Dr Ferguson said.
"Our students will spend the semester investigating and prosecuting this crime with training and participation from Queensland Police Service officers and barristers from the DPP and Legal Aid Queensland.
"This is as realistic a competition as we can make it to give the students the chance to practise their criminological and legal skills with the same pressures and setbacks as a real life investigation.
"The students work on the simulated crime investigation to deliver a credible body of evidence and an extensive and detailed legal brief to take to court to be in for a chance to win $1,000 from Suncorp."
Dr Ferguson said the students get to work with industry mentors, undertake police interviewing in the presence of Queensland Police Service officers, present an intelligence brief to a panel of academics and industry professionals.
"They must then submit legal findings to a magistrate and deliver oral arguments in the Banco Court (Queensland's ceremonial Supreme Court on George St) with a senior homicide prosecutor before a judge and jury," she said.
Along the way the students learn to:
- collaborate and work in teams with people in different professional fields
- interview
- strategise an investigation
- gather evidence
- prepare a legal brief
- prosecute the case in court.
Dr Ferguson said Crime Club was introduced as a unit in the Bachelor of Justice degree this year or could be taken as a non-law elective in the Law degree (or associated double degrees).
"This is the fourth year Crime Club's been run and the first time we've had a murder to solve and prosecute," she said.
"Each year we have more students keen to take this real world unit and test their knowledge and skills from the course in a realistic scenario with the support of real world professionals."
Crime Club 2015 is sponsored by RACQ and Suncorp.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au
