Be advised that this matter deals with extreme violence, sexual references and adult
themes.
A message for the REAL backpacker
murderers
It is quite likely that those involved in the backpacker murders in
Belanglo
Forest are reading these articles. I have something to say to you. The
man serving time for these crimes is innocent of them. At the very least,
leave a letter with your attorney to be opened after your demise,
or make a deathbed confession, preferably with plenty of witnesses because
the State of N.S.W. wants this covered up. After all you won't be the 'famous
backpacker murderers' unless you do this, and every serial killer wants
attention. I challenge you to contact the good people who run this site, or me,
and talk about what you have done. I know you are out there. I am not afraid of
you.
Most likely you have an interest in the occult and satanism. So who are you
scared of? Talk.
"Alice Smith"
Please
scroll right down for late
breaking February, 2007 updates on this story which will not go away.
- Belanglo Murderer DNA Found on
Recent Murder Victim
"Ivan Milat was not the only suspect in this case. There were other
suspects, in particular one from Wollongong of European origin whose
children saw him doing suspicious things. The man from Wollongong had a
long history of violence against women and many criminal convictions
including convictions for paedophilia. He was obsessed with guns and had
been in the armed forces overseas. He looks not unlike Ivan Milat in
appearance and is of similar build. This particular suspect's car was
seized by Task Force Air and human bloodstains were found in the back.
If police really want to reopen the case they could start by comparing his
DNA with that found under the victim's fingernails." - JULY 19th, 2005
(SCROLL RIGHT DOWN FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE)
The Making of an Outlaw
by "Alice Smith"
In 1991 my father was killed in suspicious circumstances in Canberra after
speaking publicly in an interview with Jana Wendt about things that were
happening in Telecom that he didn't agree with. My father hated lies and
injustice. He was a proud Scot whose ancestors had fought the English on
many battlefields.
I fought hard to have his death properly investigated and suffered threats
by the Federal Police and staff of the Canberra Coroners' Court.
I was threatened with being arrested for 'contempt of court' if I did not
stop doing my own investigations into my father's death and also with
defamation proceedings if I did not stop publicly calling the investigation
a total farce. In normal cases the coroner welcomes input from the victim's
family but in my case I was persona non grata in the whole affair.
This is where I got my nickname, Cat Ballou. The 'real' Cat Ballou avenged
her father's death, and so did I, though I can't talk about that here. Rest
assured those responsible, though, have had to leave town and will never
sleep well at night again.
In late 1992 I took my children, aged five and six, to Disneyland.
While there they indicated that they did not want to see their father when
they returned. Though we had been separated for four years due to his
drunkenness and violence I allowed him access to the children whenever he
wanted it and we usually went on holiday together. He had a history of
violence against women and children, having been jailed in about 1978 for
nearly killing his wife. She sufferered horrendous injuries. She was blinded
in one eye and her uterus came out of her body. It was a sickening attack
but he was such a good liar I was convinced she had exaggerated. However I
was determined the children would have a father and I had done my best to
keep things civil.
But when the children said "Isn't it good that Daddy is on the other side of
the world and he can't hurt us" as we sat on the balcony of the Dunes Hotel
in Las Vegas, I was worried.
We returned to Sydney airport and their father picked us up. The children,
wearing Mexican hats, refused to go near him. I said "Go on, give Daddy a
big hug", but they hid behind me.
That night I woke up in my mother's house and heard my son saying "You can't
tell her, if you do he'll kill us." My daughter replied "If we don't tell
her I would rather be dead anyway." Then my daughter came and got into my
bed and said "Daddy has done some very rude things to us. He showed us
horrible pictures and movies and he made us touch his rude parts."
I was shocked and sickened but I believed my children right away. Soon my
son came in and confirmed that it was true. I could not handle any more
information than that and in the morning I called in the Bulli Child
Protection police.
Then began days and days of interviews with the children and the police.
Sometimes I would sit and listen, sometimes my mother would, but what we
heard shocked and sickened us. My children had been sexually assaulted ever
since they could remember in horrible and bizarre ways. Their father had
injected them with drugs, made them smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. They
said their father put something in my coffee and I would fall asleep for
hours. I remembered those times and I had thought I just had a bad virus or
something. I did not realize I had been drugged. He had put on a dress on
many occasions, and would take my son every Friday down the main street of
Wollongong while dressed as a woman.
As my children were too young to understand dates and times, the assaults
were narrowed down to four which had occurred on Christmas Eve 1992. I
cannot detail them because they sicken me. My daughter had had a knife held
to her throat and my son, when he said "We are going to tell our mother",
was taken to Woonona Beach where he was held under the water. He said "I was
sure I would die. I thought my lungs would burst."
My children continued to be interviewed by police about other assaults after
he was charged. They were talking about photos and videos being taken and
about other children being present. It seemed their father was involved in a
paedophile ring. I knew that he was friends with Wollongong mayor Frank
Arkell and that there were rumours that Arkell was a paedophile. He was
later charged but was ritually murdered by a professed satanist youth before
he could appear in court.
I tried to get the children into counselling but everywhere they had a
waiting list of many months.
This belies the
perpetrator's current campaign against us on the Internet (look up 'false
memory syndrome' and you will read everywhere of the 'notorious Wollongong
case where a man was wrongfully jailed for seven months') where he claims
counsellors implanted false memories in my childrens' minds. They must have
been clever if they were able to do it before they even met the children.
And of course he never mentions his first family, the two boys and one
stepdaughter who also allege horrendous abuse. He tries to convince people
that my children were the only ones he had because if they find out a total
of five children and two women are all saying virtually the same things
about him, it doesn't look good for him. He's a liar, and a very clever one.
He's sophisticated, educated, worldly and a psychopath. He works part time
in the Wollongong Salvation Army store to avoid being harassed about having
been on the dole for so long.
He is a German citizen who has been in Australia for 30 years and has spent
27 of those years on the dole to avoid supporting any of his four children.
He is a convicted car thief, paedophile and wife basher. He has been
arrested for violent offences on at least 30 occasions. He fled Canada in
the early 1970s following a long jail term during which time he completed
his Higher School Certificate. I have been unable to establish what he
really did in Toronto, Canada, though his only explanation to me was 'It was
just a street fight that got out of control." So why is he still here? Ask
the Minister for Immigration. She seems very good at getting rid of people
who would make good migrants, and even innocent people like Cornelia Rau,
but she allows these kind of bludgers with criminal records to stay. He is
not an Australian citizen. He also dislikes Australians intensely, as well
as his own countrymen, Germans, as he says since World War 2 they have
become weaklings. He idolizes Adolph Hitler.
As the months went by and interviews continued, the children revealed more
and more about his activities. They
told how he liked to dress in a black gown and use a dagger to kill animals.
They said he gave them baby rabbits to hold, told them to give the rabbits
names, then cut off their heads in front of them, saying "This is what will
happen to you if you tell anyone about this." They said there were many
other people present when these terrible things happened and they began to
describe rituals.
The police eventually had all the information they wanted and after about
six months, counselling was finally available at Centrecare Wollongong.
When the children started to talk to the counsellors, they began to tell
more and more of what had been going on. They had confidence that they were
safe and were believed. They said that their father had picked up hitch
hikers and had killed them by stabbing and mutilating them. He had made the
children help him put the body parts in plastic bags and take them to the
bush.
The counsellors called Wollongong Detectives and my children were
interviewed. I was not present during the interviews. Meanwhile the bodies
of the murdered backpackers were found in Belanglo Forest. The bodies were
buried east-west and each one had a circle of stone beside it. These are
occult symbols. A stone altar was found in the forest but quickly dismantled
by police who did not want public panic. An investigative journalist, then
of the Illawarra Mercury and now of the Bulletin, confirmed some of these
things. I got in touch with him and told him our story. He recorded
interviews with my children about the murders on a tape recorder.
My children had stated on occasions their father had killed people both by
shooting them and by stabbing them over and over, in the presence of many
other people, probably in some kind of occult sacrificial ritual. The people
found dead in Belanglo had been killed by the same method, and there were
occult overtones. My children knew how the people were killed before the
facts were released to the media.
My 'ex' then became the chief suspect in the Backpacker Murders. A
Winchester .22 rifle used by the perpetrator on occasions was seized from my
home. I was told though they were mainly looking for a Ruger rifle, a
Winchester .22 was another one which had been fired in Belanglo Forest. I
never saw that rifle again even though it was actually mine.
My children had said that their father had sometimes put bodies in the back
of a blue Mazda station wagon which he had recently made me sell to a
Corrimal wrecking yard. I remember well how he demanded that I drive the car
to the wreckers. I tried to protest. I said "But there's nothing wrong with
it." He could become violent very quickly so I backed down when I saw his
face turn nasty. Forensic police took me to the wrecking yard and then
pulled the car apart panel by panel. They tested for human blood in the back
and the test on several stains was positive. I suggested it could be fish
blood, but the forensic police told me that was not possible with their
testing procedures.
Police showed little interest in interviewing the now-teenage sons and
stepdaughter of the perpetrator. I feel sure they would have had information
about his criminal activities as well. They were absolutely terrified of him
and hated him, just like my children. Yet they have never been interviewed
about what they know. I live in hope that one of them will come forward with
information in time.
Their mother was interviewed and would only say "He was a very violent and
dangerous man".
I was dismayed when Ivan Milat was arrested for the backpacker murders.
I had expected my 'ex' to be arrested. Detective Gae Crea of Task Force Air
had told me my 'ex' was the best suspect they had. I have studied Ivan's
case and I am sure he has been framed. There is in fact not one thing to
link him to the backpacker murders. No murder weapon was ever found in his
possession even though he and his brothers owned several guns of various
types. The identification by Paul Onions was flawed as police had showed him
a photo of Ivan prior to asking him to identify him.
I continue to support Ivan by writing to him and visiting him.
Strangely Ivan has a striking resemblance to my 'ex'. Paul Onions also
identified a car that looked nothing like the one owned at the time by Ivan
Milat.
Police in Wollongong refused to investigate further the other perpetrators
of sexual abuse against my children. The paedophile ring aspect was ignored.
My children had said right from the start that photos and videos had been
taken during the abuse and during the murder of backpackers.
No doubt there are snuff movies around featuring these horrific events.
I complained to the (Wood) Royal Commission which was set up to investigate
police corruption. I gave four hours of secret evidence about the Wollongong
paeodophile ring but my evidence was kept secret. It was never aired. Franca
Arena and Deidre Grusovin bravely brought up the matter in Parliament and as
a result they both lost their positions as M.P.s.
http://www.users.hunterlink.net.au/~derf/acpa/rep/fathacpa.htm
I received numerous threats related to my own investigations into the
paedophile ring. I was at first afraid. I moved to the country and lived in
an isolated shearers' hut, then bought my own isolated property. One day I
found a man hiding in a car behind some trees inside my gate with a handgun
on the seat beside him. I pointed my shotgun at him and told him to get off
my property. He fled, and was caught by local police for driving an
unregistered vehicle.
I attended the court case in Penrith and I know this man's identity. He is
Christopher Mannix. He works as a private investigator. I believe he was
there to kill me.
People have said the abuse of my children may have been punishment for my
loud protests about my father's murder. But I was already with the
perpetrator long before he died. I cannot make a connection at all.
In early 1997 I did an interview with a prisoners' action group relating to
my childrens' revelations that their father was a murderer. I did this to
assist Ivan Milat who is still trying to get his appeal off the ground
despite political interference in the process.
On the way home I was doing nothing wrong in a country town when police came
up behind me with their lights and sirens going. It was midnight and my
children were in the back seat asleep. The police were very abusive towards
me, searched the car for drugs and demanded to see my licence and car rego
papers.
Then they let me go without laying any charges.
On 12th March, 1997 a horrible thing happened. I really can't explain it. My
children and I were alone at our farm at around 10pm and I was talking to a
friend called Debbie on the phone. My children had been outside on the
verandah and they ran inside saying there was 'something strange' outside, a
big blue light.
My friend on the phone heard this and I said "Hold the line while I go and
have a look." I went outside and there was a strange blue light out there. I
did not know what it was so I went back to my friend and tried to describe
it to her. She was afraid for me and said it may be some kind of harassment.
She asked if she should call the police. By then I no longer trusted police
so I said no. Suddenly the line went dead. I went and got my shotgun, loaded
it and went outside to see what was going on. I called my children but they
did not answer. All I could see was the blue light which was the size of a
two-storey building. I walked all over the property near the house, stables
and chicken pens, but could see nothing and could not find my children. I
was about fifty metres from the house when everything went blank.
I woke up at around 3am, fully dressed, still wearing my boots and with my
loaded shotgun on my bed beside me. The phone was ringing. It was my friend
Debbie who I had been talking to. She said "Where have you been? I have been
panicking about you." I didn't know where I had been. I had apparently been
unconscious on my bed. She said "Where are the children?" I went and had a
look. They were asleep in their beds. I went back to the phone. Debbie had
been terrified when the phone line went dead. Thank goodness I have a
witness to the weird happenings on that night.
In the morning my children described and drew pictures of a UFO and told a
typical 'alien abduction' story*.
I could have called the media and made a big fuss, but I felt sure that this
was what 'they' wanted me to do - so I would look completely mad.
Who are 'they'?
Who knows. The paedophile ring, the government covering it up, the police?
I later read in the papers that on the same night a doctor and nurse from
Bathurst, nearby, were followed in their car by a huge blue light that they
thought was a UFO and were very frightened by it.
I don't have any answers to this experience. A few weeks later, I awoke
around 3am to a horrible noise like a thousand huge helicopters hovering
above the house.
The whole house shook. I thought, "No, not again." I stayed in bed and hoped
it would go away, and after a while it did.
My daughter had been having trouble with a teacher who had thrown one of her
friends across the room and was verbally and physically abusing children in
the class.
One day she threw all my daughter's books in her face. I went down to the
school and made a huge fuss about it. I reported the teacher to Department
of Community Services (DOCS).
I was also working as a teacher. Within five days, several letters were
handed to my principal alleging that I verbally and physically abused the
children in my class and threw books at them. The same things I had said
about the real child abuser. Words and phrases were copied from my letters
of complaint in the letters of the friends of the other teacher. I did not
know that the abusive teacher's brother was a very powerful man, NSW vice
president of the United Mineworkers Federation, one of many unions known to
hire hitmen to get rid of their enemies. No wonder other parents who had
complained about the teacher in the past had left town in a hurry.
The abusive teacher was not stood down but I was. I believe this was the
chance the NSW government had been waiting for. And because her brother was
a high-profile unionist, my union, the NSW Teachers Federation, not only
refused to support me, but betrayed me.
I had spoken out in support of Franca Arena MP at a public rally against
paedophile rings. I had stated at that rally that Ivan Milat had been framed
and that a better suspect had been protected by police. I had been mentioned
in the media a few times as someone who had complained the Royal Commission
had not done its job properly. During 1997 I had also had 60 Minutes
interview me about the mysterious death of my father, but when they went to
Canberra to ask questions they were told there was a "D-notice" (publication
not allowed) on anything to do with my father's work at Telecom Tower or his
death.
I was ordered to attend a medical examination at HealthQuest in Sydney - the
office of the government medical officer Dr Helia Gapper.
http://www.anti-corruption-network.org/FAQ.htm
I was so glad then that I had never told anyone about the experience with
the strange blue light.
I had confidence that I would be cleared. I saw Dr Pasfield who told me
"There is nothing wrong with you. But I do not make the decisions - Dr
Gapper does." I said "But I have never met Dr Gapper!"
I never did meet her.
I expected to go back to work but weeks later I was ordered to attend
another interview with a psychologist, Hadi Stambouliah. He apparently
certified that I had early Alzheimer's disease - and he is not even a
doctor. He later appeared before the Psychologists Registration Board for
misconduct relating to my case but was cleared and allowed to continue
practising.
Meanwhile throughout the year I received many death threats by phone despite
changing my number. I now welcome any such threats as a chance to tell the
other side exactly what I think of them and what I will do to them if they
dare to show their faces at my house. These phone calls included one from a
recently deceased policeman who was involved with Task Force Air. I recorded
it at the time.
Soon after I attended HealthQuest I received a Certificate of Medical
Retirement in the post.
I had been certified unfit to continue as a teacher due to early Alzheimer's
Disease. I was a bit surprised to say the least.
I appealed against the decision and several friends in Parliament supported
me and brought the matter up in Parliament. Journalist friends wrote about
my case, and other cases of public servants who had been 'certified' and
sacked for speaking up.
http://www.wbde.org/
I withdrew my children from school for the rest of the year and
home-schooled them without a permit. I could not go to town because people
hated me for exposing the abusive teacher who was popular in various
sporting clubs and as a socialite and whose brother was leader of the union
most men in the town belonged to.
My salary was cut off and soon I could not make the repayments on the farm.
Our first calf, called Billabong, had been born on the property.
My kids had all kinds of pets - rabbits, peacocks, hens - the bank
threatened to sell the property so we had to go. We returned to Wollongong
while the appeal was going through. I was now penniless and receiving
supporting parents' benefits. My kids lost everything they had and so did I.
Yet I would not be silenced and continued to speak up against the children's
father and the paedophile ring. He was sentenced to 4 years' jail in May
1994 but appealed and got off on a technicality - that the judge did not
instruct the jury that my daughter's evidence was unsupported, as my son had
fainted while giving his evidence and could not continue. He has NOT been
found 'not guilty.' That would require a retrial or a pardon being granted.
He runs around telling people he was found not guilty and this is nonsense.
In 1998 I became the first public servant to succeed in an appeal against
unwanted medical retirement and was returned to work - but in Wollongong,
not in the country.
We bought another house after the farm was sold but the children's father
soon found out where we were and started to stalk us. We had to sell it.
He went to the media making his claims of 'false memories' and 'lies' told
by his children. He said he wanted his children back. In one Illawarra
Mercury article there was a photo of him and in the background there was a
photo of my daughter on the wall. It is a criminal offence to reveal the
identity of a victim of sexual assault and so the editor of the Illawarra
Mercury was taken to court by the police after I protested, but he was found
not guilty.
http//www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/Parlment/HansArt.nsf/0/ca256d11000bd3aa4a256445001eda4e
Our story appeared on the front page of the
Sydney Morning Herald. The perpetrator made claims that 'someone' fed
stories of satanic ritual abuse to my children and made them lie about him.
I continued to fight back with my own media campaign. The perpetrator tried
to take out an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) against me in 1999 but
failed. Meanwhile he stalked us and harassed us whenever he could. I was not
afraid any more, just angry.
We have now moved again and recently he started to follow us at shopping
centres and around town. Just a few days ago he stalked my son at the place
where he works part time. Last year he followed me in Warrawong and said to
me "I will not hesitate to kill you if you don't shut up." Luckily a very
large Maori biker friend of mine overheard this exchange and came to my
defence. Thank you, brother. The friends that I have are treasures.
I have had a difficult time but I will never give in. My father was murdered
for what he believed in. My children are very brave. I will stand up and be
counted until the day I die. I know I put my life in danger by speaking up
against these wrongs. But I don't care. A life lived in fear is a life not
lived at all.
I do not know if my 'ex' is a 'satanist'. I don't know if the gowns and
things were just props for the snuff movies and pornography that was being
filmed. But I do know I believe my children. And I believe his first wife
and her three children including the perpetrator's stepdaughter who was
sexually assaulted by him. At the very least he is a paedophile, at the most
he could be a serial killer.
As a result of my dealings with corrupt police, the N.S.W. government and
others who have threatened me and my children, I now consider myself an
enemy of the State.
As far as I am concerned, we are at war.
I am now a biker and have a tattoo that says "Live Free or Die".
I will not co-operate with police and would not call on them if I was being
murdered. I will deal with my own problems from now on. I consider myself an
outlaw. Maybe there's a hereditary link to my strength to carry on and be
happy because my great great great grandfather was Michael McGrath, who was
transported to Australia for his involvement in the 1798 Irish Rebellion.
No-one chooses to be an outlaw. We are forced into that position by the
corrupt System. But when freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free.
All people who live subject to other people's laws are victims.
People who break laws out of greed, frustration, or vengeance are victims.
People who overturn laws in order to replace them with their own laws are
victims.
We outlaws, however, live beyond the law.
We don't merely live beyond the letter of the law, we live beyond the spirit
of the law.
In a sense, then, we live beyond society.
Have we a common goal, that goal is to turn the tables on the nature of
society.
When we succeed, we raise the exhilaration content of the universe.
We even raise it a little bit when we fail.
I love the trite mythos of the outlaw. I love the self-conscious romanticism
of the outlaw. I love the black wardrobe of the outlaw. I love the fey smile
of the outlaw.
I love the way respectable men sneer and say "outlaw."
The outlaw boat sails against the flow, and I love it.
All outlaws are photogenic, and I love that. "When freedom is outlawed, only
outlaws will be free" - that's a graffito seen in Anacortes, and I love
that. There are outlaw maps that lead to outlaw treasures, and I love those
maps especially. Unwilling to wait for mankind to improve, the outlaw lives
as if that day were here, and I love that most of all. Criminals, because
they're plagued with guilt, often will surrender and go quietly.
Outlaws, because they're pure, never will.
Stolen from Tom Robbins
(Still Life With Woodpecker)
This letter written by gaiaguys in support of "Alice
Smith"
gives just a little idea of the kind of persecution she has been subjected
to in her extensive battle for justice.
*To find out who is really behind the so-called
"alien abductions" terror, please click here and
study
the Disclosure Project.
To learn more about how this abominable protected satanic
ritual abuse functions, please study our files here.
(Friends of Ivan Robert Milat)
Social justice activists are starting to find
each other
within the World Wide Web, as the corrupt
Australian mainstream media launches
a new campaign of vile disinformation
(below) to cover for the REAL
perpetrators of these heinous and ongoing crimes.
Sydney Morning Herald
Milat bisexual
control freak, says investigator
November
8th 2004
Backpacker murderer Ivan Milat was a bisexual control
freak who killed when his relationship with a woman went bad, according
to the man who masterminded his capture.
Clive Small, who coordinated the police team that
tracked down the serial killer, said Milat would murder someone then
calmly attend a family get together.
"Ivan was a control freak ... (the murders) all occurred
when his relationship with a woman appeared unstable," Mr Small told the
second part of Australian Story's feature on the Milat family
that aired on ABC Television on Monday night.
One of Milat's brothers, Boris, who has broken ranks
with the family to speak out against Ivan, told the program his brother
could have been compelled by an urge that was akin to doing stunts in a
car.
"To him (Ivan) it may have been a sexual urge ... it may
have been the urge you get when you spin your wheels and smoke your
wheels up in your car," Boris Milat said.
But the most disturbing assessment of what drove Ivan
Milat to murder seven backpackers comes from Mr Small.
"I'm personally satisfied Ivan was bisexual, that his
interest in sex was not about love or gratification," he said.
"Rather it was about control ... and the release of the
pressure that built up inside him because of that desire for control.
"So having made the killings he then attends a family
function. He's calm, he's normal, he's part of the family.
"He had lost control of his family life once his wife
told him she was going to divorce. His way of asserting control again
was to kidnap or abduct."
The program also features a phone interview with Milat,
in which he said he was amazed when his trial lawyers suggested in court
that someone else in his family may have killed the backpackers.
The interview, conducted from inside Goulburn's Supermax
prison, was about a key part of the defence used at his 1996 trial.
During the trial, Milat's brothers Richard and Walter
both denied any involvement in the murders.
Milat's barrister, however, told the court "blind
Freddie" could see that someone in the Milat family murdered seven
backpackers and attacked another traveller between September 1992 and
November 1993.
But Milat insists that none of his family was
responsible for the murders.
Asked by his sister-in-law Caroline during a phone call
if he was granted a re-trial would he use the same legal strategy to
blame his brothers, Milat replied: "Well I never argued that in the
first place.
"I don't know how that come (sic) in. I was totally
amazed when I was sitting there and I heard that.
"I had no idea because my basic defence in my trial was
(that) it wasn't me.
"I don't know who did it. It was up to them to prove me
guilty, not for me to prove my innocence."
The program also claims that while most of Milat's
surviving 11 brothers and sisters publicly deny his guilt, privately
they describe him as a schizophrenic and say he's in the right place.
Ivan Milat was jailed in 1996 for murdering seven
backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney.
AAP
[gaiaguys comment : - What was most noticeable was the OBVIOUS
Freemasonic symbolism displayed by Clive
Small and his ABC-TV studio interview.]
"My number is 11, as all their
numbers who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the
circle is Red. My colour is black to the blind, but the
blue & gold
are seen of the seeing."
- Satanist Aleister Crowley's
Book of the Law
COMMANDER CLIVE
SMALL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS
Page: 3077
Mr BROGDEN: My question without notice is addressed to the Premier.
Given that in June 2002 Deputy Commissioner Madden received allegations of
criminal conduct and serious professional misconduct about the Government's
special adviser on crime, Clive Small, why was the Bodor investigation
delayed until after the March State election?
Mr CARR: I will seek advice on the Bodor investigation.
Mr Tink: It's your department!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Epping to order.
Mr CARR: Those opposite are always loudest when their case is
weakest. When their case is weak, their substitute is zoo noises. Currently
Commander Clive Small is on secondment from NSW Police to the Premier's
Department. He is a member of the police senior executive service and his
contract of employment expires on 30 September this year. Police
Commissioner Ken Moroney is responsible for matters relating to the
employment of members of the police senior executive. I am not aware of any
current investigation; I will seek a report from the Commissioner of Police
and the Police Integrity Commission. For my part, having observed Clive
Small working in communities in western New South Wales—the so-called river
towns—where there are entrenched social problems, I have been very impressed
by his capacity. I think I am correct in saying that he has gone into
Redfern—
Mr Tink: Will you back Moroney?
Mr CARR: As I have said, zoo noises. I understand that Clive Small
has gone to Redfern, where there are acute social problems and challenges of
community building, to work on practical crime prevention. Clive Small has
been used in other troubled communities, including Cabramatta. He has worked
hard at those tasks and has brought a new dimension to the great challenge
of strengthening communities and fixing up troubled or dysfunctional
families, and therefore bearing down on the underlying causes of crime. It
was a good use of his extensive policing experience to use him in this role.
On the second day we are back in Parliament, if this is the Opposition
members' number two indictment of the Government, they have spent a pretty
lazy time off.
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COMMANDER CLIVE
SMALL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS
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Page: 3202
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Mr DEBNAM: My question is directed to the Premier. Given that Mr
Bodor is giving evidence not only about Mr Small's handling of the
Cabramatta James issue but also about royal commission testimony and Mr
Small's influence over Matthew Appleton and Bruce Newling, will the
Premier instruct his adviser Clive Small to reverse his decision to refuse
to give evidence and now co-operate with the Bodor investigation?
Mr CARR: I stand by my earlier answer.
Close-up photo of Premier Carr and
quote from the official-position, $90,000 glossy magazine
Premier Carr
has got
a lot to answer for
July 19th, 2005
"Alice Smith"
The Sunday Telegraph (18/7/05) reports that police are considering
reopening the Backpacker Murders case.
Friends of Ivan Milat say this would be a good idea, given that there
is so little to link Ivan to the case and given the alleged planting of
evidence at Ivan's home and the original description of Paul Onions'
attacker as a man of some six feet tall driving a car with a spare wheel
attached to the back having been conveniently 'lost' by Bowral police
and replaced with a new description fitting Ivan Milat, following Paul
Onions being shown photos of him by police.
Could it be a co-incidence that the sudden interest by the media in the
case has been manipulated by persons behind the scenes keen to see
Ivan's latest appeal, a 474 Appeal for a judicial review, quashed as
soon as possible?
Police could start by trying to find the perpetrator whose DNA was found
under the fingernails of one of the victims. This DNA is not linked to
Ivan Milat or any member of his family. This fact is conveniently left
out of media reports of the case. In effect Ivan Milat has been cleared
by the DNA evidence. As for him attempting to escape from gaol, this has
never been proven in court. Ivan says he did not make any escape plans
and that swallowing objects was not an attempt to be taken to an outside
hospital but to draw attention to the fact that he was receiving no
assistance with preparation of his appeal.
Around the time of the attack on Paul Onions, a young man fled from a
four wheel drive south of the Belanglo turn off. The vehicle had stopped
, and he saw 3 men and a woman emerge from the bush. They were armed and
coming toward him. He escapes and records the details to Bowral police.
Task Force Air later dismiss his evidence as not being relevant to their
backpacker inquiries. There is clear evidence that the police were
reluctant to embrace the group killer theory. Was Paul Onions a victim
of the group and fortunate to escape the tragedy of what had happened to
the other travelers?
However, this attack is the first inkling placing a woman at the crime
scenes. It does go some way to explain the sexual nature inflicted upon
some of the victims. Female jewelry had disappeared from the victims.
Only commonplace camping items were discovered in later police searches.
These items appeared to be new and unused and Ivan Milat says they were
planted on him.
Candace Sutton from the Sun-Herald reported concerning a strange blonde
man who picked up a male hitchhiker in a 4wd. In the rear of that
vehicle were chainsaws and other forestry type tools. There were
assorted knives. The man fled from the vehicle when the driver began
talking about "bodies in the forest" just after passing the Belanglo
turn off. The driver had slowed down allowing the fellow to jump from
the vehicle.
Task Force Air had a swag of information from drug raids in the local
Sutton Forest and general Southern Highlands areas. The police were well
briefed on the Who's Who of the local villains.
Police focused initially on the local area when forensics proved what
sort of weapons had been used. As early as 1993, the investigation was
confining the search to the Southern Highlands. This line of attack
changed after the assault on Paul Onions, and the single theory
perpetrator took hold. Anything outside that scenario was dismissed. The
police had fixed a rough pattern to the movements of the backpackers.
This fixation was flawed. It did not leave open the finding of further
information on backpackers movements after leaving Sydney.
An 18 year old's body was found in a local forest area during 1992. He
was from Bathurst, NSW. It could easily have been assumed that this
victim was to be a part of the backpacker case investigation. Task Force
Air said no. To place this victim with the others would have meant
problems of defining the patterns of the murders. The police did not
mention this case in their original brief, although the killing was
similar to those at Belanglo.
Bicycle riders Stephen Mangan and Michael Jones found dumped property
belonging to the backpacker Gibson. A Ricoh camera was passed on to
police on 31st December, 1989. Backpacks belonging to Gibson and his
partner were later found by a motorist and passed on to police.
The significance of these findings was closely similar to the finding
at Bright, Victoria. The items were discarded to throw any later
investigations away from the Southern Highlands.
The crown attempted to prove that Ivan Milat had been working in the
Dural-Galston Gorge area and that he had the opportunity to place the
items there. But then, there was the problem of the Items discovered at
Bright. All of the items were dumped from the police case. The Casula-Liverpool
link to the killers was entrenched in the police mind set, that they
refused to take into account the possibility they were mistaken. Vital
clues and witnesses were being dismissed.
If police did investigate properly they would find a cesspit of lies
cooked up by the prosecution which conveniently ignored the facts that:
1. The Bennetton top allegedly taken from one of the
victims was purchased from a Sydney retail outlet.
This evidence was known to both the crown and the
defence.
2. Property belonging to Simone Schmidl were taken
from the home of a Ms Murphy at Guildford.
3. Property belonging to Simone Schmidl was found at
Bright, Victoria. Some of these items were later found
at the home of Ivan Milat. How they got there should
be a matter for the Police Integrity Commission.
4. The blue day pack allegedly belonging to Simone
Schmidl discovered at Walter Milat's home could not
have belonged to her. A family photo of the backpack
at Walter's home was taken prior to Simone's death.
5. Arresting detectives were captured by the
television news carrying fully formed cartons into the
Milat home.
6. Ivan and Richard Milat explained to police the
origin of some items at both their homes. Backpacks
held up in court as 'evidence' appeared to be new and
unused. Statements that those brands could only be
purchased in Europe were fabrications.
7. Simone Schmidl's mother was not examined nor a
statement taken from her regarding certain items that
she had earlier identified and were found in Victoria.
8. The incompetent handling of the DNA evidence was
detrimental to the defence case. No description was
led as to the colour of the hairs found in the hand of
one of the victims. Recent re-examination of the DNA
evidence has cleared Ivan Milat and all members of his
family. This should be making headlines - but still
Ivan Milat remains incarcerated.
9. The loss of Paul Onions' original statement coupled
with the original Joanne Berry statement raises
suspicions. These statements were made at separate
police stations. Neither the police nor the witnesses
retained a copy of the original staements. This is
suggestive that there was hiding or destruction of
these documents. In his original statement Paul Onions
had described a man around six feet tall with a spare
wheel mounted on the back of his car. This does not fit
the description of Ivan Milat at all.
10. To depict sightings by credible witnesses as false was
designed to undermine and mislead the evidence that
supported a different pattern to the police theory.
11. The police failed to video record the search of
the Milat residences. This reflects on the integrity
of the police searches.
12. If the second statement by Paul Onions was so
credible, why was Ivan Milat not arrested sooner?
13. Only one item of evidence was produced with a
fingerprint on it. For the police and crown to suggest
that Ivan wiped all of the items free of prints or
wore latex gloves was ludicrous considering the amount
of property concerned.
14. Forensic evidence showed neither the Bowie knife
or the blunt sword found at Ivan's mother's place
could have been used in the attacks on the victims. Of
all the guns seized from Milat family members not one
of them was ever fired in Belanglo Forest. Ivan Milat
maintains a Ruger rifle part was planted in his home
and recent sackings of corrupt police suggest they
were indeed capable of such acts.
15. A vital witness, Jock Pittiway, gave Alex Milat a
backpack. PIttiway also gave a trailer load of items
to Richard Milat. Pittiway should have been
investigated by police.
Ivan Milat was not the only suspect in this case. There were other
suspects, in particular one from Wollongong of European origin whose
children
saw him doing suspicious things. The man from Wollongong had a long
history of violence against women and many criminal convictions
including convictions for paedophilia. He was obsessed with guns and had
been in the armed forces overseas. He looks not unlike Ivan Milat in
appearance and is of similar build. This particular suspect's car was
seized by Task Force Air and human bloodstains were found in the back.
If police really want to reopen the case they could start by comparing
his DNA with that found under the victim's fingernails.
Sydney Morning Herald
Milat case stalked by uncertainty
Date: July 21 2005
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/07/20/1121539033488.html
Speculation about an accomplice has inflamed the mystery of the backpacker
killings. Les Kennedy separates the facts from conjecture.
The Brisbane lawyer
Andrew Boe had long, jet-black flowing hair past his shoulders when he took on
the task of defending Ivan Robert Marko Milat, accused of Australia's worst
serial killing spree: the backpacker murders.
He's now bald for a young fellow, and won't talk publicly about the case,
or the bad karma which he is still trying to distance himself from through
other legal aid works.
Nor, as he said told the Herald last Sunday, will he speak ill of a
dying man.
He's talking about the flamboyant Sydney solicitor, John Marsden. But he
agrees Marsden's recent extraordinary statement is wrong: that Milat had a
killing partner in the Belanglo State Forest, but it wasn't a brother, but his
now deceased sister, Shirley Soire.
Boe won't say why, only just that Marsden never saw, or got to read, the
police brief of evidence against Milat.
Last Saturday Marsden reared the long-debated spectre of the one, two or
more killers theory that has haunted the disappearance and murders of seven
hitchhikers between 1989 and 1992.
Boe should know. He was Milat's lawyer throughout his committal hearing and
trial. He'd been appointed at Milat's request shortly after Milat sacked
Marsden (within a few weeks of his arrest at the house he jointly bought with
Soire at Eagle Vale).
On that cold, sunny Sunday, May 22, 1994, Soire, whose marriage had
collapsed and who was not at home when police raided the house, jumped to
Milat's defence. She phoned Marsden at his home, where he was hosting a
barbecue, and asked him to go to Campbelltown Police Station where Milat was
being held.
At that point Milat had been charged only with the robbery and attempted
abduction at gunpoint of an English backpacker, Paul Onions - the one who got
away and whose identification of Milat had led to his arrest.
MILAT and Soire were fifth and sixth in the order of the 14 Milat children
born to Margaret and Stijphan Milat. Soire turned to Marsden because in 1974
he had successfully got Milat off the charge of raping at knifepoint one of
two young women hitching to Melbourne in 1971. Court transcripts say there is
no "genius" in Marsden's defence as he has since bragged.
[The rape victim, "Margaret", who had been in and out of clinics receiving
counselling and felt guilt for what had happened, bought the case crashing
down under Crown cross-examination when she said she secretly wanted to have
sex with Milat at the time and agreed to have intercourse.]
In the Onions case, and another case where two women came forward after
Milat's arrest and revealed their unreported abduction and escape in remote
Wombeyan Caves bushland by a man fitting Milat's description, Milat was alone.
These cases have long been held up by the Backpacker Task Force commander, the
now former assistant commissioner Clive Small, as supporting the lone killer
theory.
But last Saturday he and Marsden came to loggerheads when Marsden spoke of
a female accomplice.
Marsden has since told the Herald's Kate McClymont he was doped to
the gills with a double hit of morphine when he named Shirley Soire. Initially
he named another female member of the Milat clan, made some extraordinary
statements about other people unrelated to the case, then named Soire and
ended the interview believing he had been speaking to a police officer.
When the Herald asked Marsden this week what was his evidence, he
said he had none, that Soire never told him anything, and that it was simply a
"gut" feeling because Soire lived with Milat when the murders occurred.
He is wrong. Soire never lived with Milat during his killing spree, but
moved into their new home in July 1992, four months after the last of the
known murders — the Easter killings of Britons Caroline Clarke and Joanne
Walters.
Throughout that killing period Milat lived with his elderly, ailing mother
Margaret, his crippled younger brother DavidJohn and another brother, Richard,
and his fiancee and son at the family home in Campbell Hill Road, Guildford.
Shirley Milat was born on February 21, 1946, 14 months after Milat was
born. At the time the family lived in Quarry Road, Bossley Park, in a big shed
divided down the middle with a curtain. The bedroom side was divided by
another curtain — Mum and Dad on one side, the children on the other. The
living area had a wooden floor, the kitchen had dirt. Dad was a market garden
labourer with his father-in-law, and also laboured on the docks.
She married Gerry Soire, a German, and, says her older brother, Boris, had
fired a gun only once in her life. They came to live in Thunderbolt Drive,
Raby, a suburb adjoining Eagle Vale. (Ironically Joanne Walters had given
Immigration on arrival in Australia an address in Thunderbolt Drive of distant
family friends as a potential place of residence, but never visited them
during her time in Sydney.) Shirley, who died in 2003 after a long illness,
had moved from there before the British girls arrived in Australia.
It has long been held by police (members of the backpacker taskforce are
divided on the one- or two-killer theory) that some family members feared
Milat had returned to his old ways — raping hitchhikers — following the
break-up of his marriage to Karen Duck on Valentine's Day, 1987.
What is known is that Milat took the opportunity to renew an affair with
Marilyn, the former wife of his brother Boris, with whom Milat had a daughter.
For this liaison Boris twice tried to kill Milat. (Likewise, his brother,
Wally, had taken off with a rifle in search of Milat in the late 1960s
believing he had had an affair with Wally's then first wife.) When the affair
with Marilyn ended in 1988 and Milat found himself without a partner, the
killings began.
Did Soire suspect Milat of being up to more than serial rape?
During the time I covered the case, Detective Sergeant Steve Leach and I
would debate the one- or two-killer theory and who in the family had an
inkling. Leach, who has since died, said he believed Soire had no idea, and
had collapsed over him in a flood of tears in Campbelltown Local Court the
morning police introduced the fresh murder charges. Leach was sitting beside
her. He had to carry her from the court.
It was Soire who introduced her colleague, Chalinder Hughes, to Milat when
he was living in Guildford, after the British girls were murdered.
Soire was never called to give evidence in Milat's defence or by the
prosecution. She refused all attempts by police to be interviewed about who
owned what in the house or to reveal where the green-and-white striped
Benetton shirt believed to belong to Caroline Clarke came from.
Milat said on the witness stand it was in the washing and he thought it was
Soire's. He gave it to Hughes to wear on a bike ride because she was cold. No
one has ever said what happened to it. Hughes, who now has nothing to do with
Milat, initially believed he was innocent, as do all of Milat's former
sisters-in-law, who told interviewing police that some of his brothers were
capable of far more violence.
Boe ran a defence of trying to confuse the trial jury, that Milat had been
loaded up by a bitter brother or someone close to the family, so close as to
be able to gain access to his Eagle Vale home. Richard and Wally were
bushwhacked by Milat's defence, but denied any involvement.
Yet after Milat's arrest, police mounted a secret operation to see if he
had had an accomplice; a forensic psychiatrist , Dr Rod Milton, who examined
the Clarke-Walters crime scene, believed two killers were at work and they
were brothers, one dominant.
A forensic pathologist, Dr Peter Bradhurst, who conducted the autopsies,
felt two killers were at work from the different manners in which couples came
to die. Clarke was shot 10 times and stabbed once while blindfolded. Walters's
murder was a frenzied knife attack; more than 20 wounds in the back and at
least 10 in the chest.
Police used a Milat family friend, Phil Polglase, in a unsuccessful bugging
operation on Richard Milat, who had been targeted after bragging at his work
that "stabbing a woman was like cutting a loaf of bread". Polglase died in a
car accident before he could give evidence at Milat's committal. But in
statements to police after Milat's arrest he said had been staying at the
Milat Guildford home on the Easter holiday long weekend in 1992 (the period
when the British girls were murdered) as a guest of DavidJohn.
He had been sleeping in the lounge and was woken by Milat and another male
family member returning home carrying guns and a large hunting knife. He was
admiring the knife, and noticing a black, sticky substance on the hilt, asked
if it was goat or kangaroo blood. The male relative with Milat allegedly said
it was "human" in a joking manner, then added: "Ivan can cut your head off
with one blow. I've seen him do it."
Milat, Polglase said, then remarked: "[The relative] can't stab anyone. He
has to shoot them."
On another occasion Polglase was asked by DavidJohn if he could return
several boxes of Winner brand subsonic .22 ammunition he had given him the
previous day. That type of ammunition was made in South Australia for rabbit
shooting and was ideal for snipers because it doesn't make a crack - almost as
if a silencer has been used - when the bullet discharges. DavidJohn said he
gave Polglase the boxes by mistake, that they belonged to Milat and that the
brand was no longer made.
Empty boxes of the Winner brand subsonic ammunition with the same
production batch sequence numbers were found at the murder scenes of Clarke
and Walters and of Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauer, and a number of full
boxes were found in Milat's room at his EagleVale house.
Polglase told police DavidJohn told him the family was worried that Milat
was up to his old tricks. Polglase remarked something like: "What, robbing
people?" DavidJohn allegedly said: "No, worse." Then DavidJohn added: "And we
think he's taking [the relative] with him."
Even Justice David Hunt accepted Milat did not act alone. In sentencing him
to seven life terms, he said the case was overwhelming. "In my view, it is
inevitable that the prisoner was not alone in that criminal enterprise, but I
do not take that fact into account either in aggravation or mitigation when
considering what sentence should be imposed," he said.
Les Kennedy is co-author of the book Sins of the Brother - the
definitive story of Ivan Milat and the Backpacker Murders (Pan Macmillan).
Belanglo Murderer DNA Found on
Recent Murder Victim
Parramatta police are hushing up news that DNA matching that found under
the fingernails of one of the Belanglo Forest murder victims has been found
on a body recently discovered in bushland.The difficult testing on
the Belanglo DNA in England was only completed two years ago due to advances
in technology.
Ivan Milat's family were officially informed that the DNA did not match
Ivan Milat or any member of his family, nor did the DNA match any of the
known victims. Police explained this by pointing out that the judge in his
summing up of the case against Ivan Milat stated that there was no way one
person committed these murders alone, and that the murders had a
ritual-satanic aspect which would suggest a group of people being involved.
Detective Sergeant Michael Ashwood today led a raid on the late Mrs
Milat's Guildford home where one of the Milat brothers, who is handicapped,
still lives. Mrs Milat died some time ago. Police were allegedly looking for
any weapons, clothing or other objects related to the recent discovery of a
woman's body in a shallow grave, a fact which has not been reported in the
mainstream media. This murder happened in about 2004, ten years after Ivan
Milat was jailed so he certainly was not involved.
A Parramatta detective has admitted to one of the Milat brothers that
photos are in the possession of police of two of the Belanglo murder victims
visiting an area shortly before their abductions which does not fit the
scenario of Ivan Milat picking up victims on the Hume Highway in N.S.W.
These photos were kept out of the evidence during the trial deliberately
because they confirmed sightings of the girls by railway employees in Albury
and confirmed the finding of Simone Schmidl's belongings near the highway in
Victoria, where Ivan Milat could not have been, due to the fact that his
employer's records placed him at work during that time.
It is hoped that the DNA will match a known criminal whose DNA has been
obtained. Useful samples of the DNA of the other Belanglo Murders suspect
are held by his ex partner in the form of old type postage stamps on letters
he wrote to her, one being a letter from prison denying that he sexually
assaulted two children aged four and five years.
Picture:
Gabor Neugebauer, whose leather jacket and watch were found in the
possession of a policeman who committed suicide after harassing the wife and
children of a second backpacker murders suspect, the details of whom have
been kept secret even though the ex partner of the suspect gave four hours
of evidence into the Royal Commmission into Police Corruption.. The jacket
and watch were said by his fiancee to have been obtained by him before the
bodies in the forest were discovered.
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/node/37040
I was picked up hitchhiking on the Hume Highway by a
dangerous man and it wasn't Ivan Milat
Anonymous 2006/05/18 - 8:31pm.
It was the early 1990s. I walked from Campbelltown railway station to
the Hume Highway. I needed a lift. I was standing under a light near the
on-ramp when a four wheel drive pulled over for me. The driver was good
looking and looked out of place in a four wheel drive. His hands and
face were so smooth he looked like a bank teller. He was an eerie type
of person, around 6 foot tall and fit, broadish shoulders. This would
fit with Paul Onions' original description of a man of 6 foot which he
later changed at the request of police because it did not fit Ivan
Milat's description. I believe the real killer had me that night and it
was not Ivan Milat.
He asked questions that unnerved me. The further we drove the more
terrified I got and the more certain I was that he was going to kill me.
Nearing the Mittagong off-ramp he reached under his seat apparently
for his weapon. He kept feeling around under there for it and he could
not find it.
I believe for this reason, that the gun was not there, he decided to
let me out. As I was getting out he said "This is the luckiest day of
your life" in a way that made my skin crawl.
I stood by the road and tried to get another lift. I felt as if
someone was watching me. A car stopped for me. I looked behind me and
there was the driver whose car I had just got out of. He had been
stalking me and had somehow come around behind me.
If that second car had not stopped I believe I would not be here
today. I believe this incident was related to the Belanglo murders and I
believe this was the same person who picked up Paul Onions who he
described quite differently before the police asked him to alter his
description to fit Ivan Milat.
I am 6 foot tall and very solid, not easily frightened but I was very
shaken and still white and shaking when I reached my sister's house in
Canberra.
I contacted police regarding the backpacker murders and was
interviewed. They told me it was not related to the Belanglo cases. I
believe this is because it would throw doubt on their case against Ivan
Milat.
I have been in touch with the ex wife of the other major suspect in
the Belanglo murders who lives in Wollongong and the photo of that
suspect does not fit the man who picked me up that night either.
I hope Ivan remains strong and I hope the truth comes out. http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/node/37039
Ivan Milat a prime suspect again
Date: May 22 2006
By Les Kennedy
IVAN MILAT is expected to be named today as a prime suspect in the
disappearance 26 years ago of two Sydney nurses - the third time since his
1996 conviction for the murders of seven backpackers that he has featured as a
"person of interest" at a coroner's inquest.
A deputy state coroner, Carl Milovanovich, will hear police evidence about
the women, Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balken, last seen at a Parramatta
hotel in 1980.
Milat was previously named at inquests into the disappearance of young
women and couples from the North Shore and the Hunter dating back to the late
1970s. Unlike on those occasions, Milat, 60, will not be given a day out of
Goulburn's high-security Supermax prison to give evidence.
The parents and other relatives of the two nurses are expected to attend
the day-long hearing at the Westmead Coroner's Court.
Detectives are expected
to detail for the first time undisclosed information on police efforts to find
the women, who were both 20 when they disappeared.
In 2001 Milat angrily denied at an inquest at Toronto Local Court that he
was responsible for the disappearances of Robyn Hickie, 17, Amanda Robinson,
14, and Leanne Goodall, 20, all from Newcastle, who vanished separately in the
Hunter in 1978 and 1979.
In August he was named by police at an inquest before Mr Milovanovich as
the person most likely to have killed the Berowra schoolgirl Michelle Pope,
18, and her boyfriend, Stephen Lapthorne, 21, who vanished along with their
green van from northern Sydney in August 1978. Neither the vehicle nor their
bodies have been found.
For the past three years a team of Parramatta detectives has re-examined
the disappearances of Ms Balken and Ms Jamieson. They were last seen with a
man wearing a floppy black cowboy hat in a back bar of the Tollgate Hotel in
Church Street, Parramatta, at 7.30pm on June 12, 1980.
Detectives interviewed Milat a year ago inside the Supermax prison, where
he is serving a life sentence for the abduction, stabbing and shooting murders
of five women and two men in the Belanglo State Forest in the Southern
Highlands between 1998 and 1992.
Milat, who was working in 1980 at the Granville depot of the then
Department of Main Roads, is understood to have been interviewed about his
movements and vehicles he owned, including a lime green Valiant Charger sedan.
As in previous investigations into other missing women or couples in which
Milat has featured since 2001, police have been frustrated by the fact that no
bodies have been found.
Today's inquest is the first time the coroner's court will be asked to rule
formally on the fate of Ms Balken and Ms Jamieson, who shared a flat at Dundas.
The reopened investigation, headed by Detective Inspector Ian McNabb,
examined whether Milat was the man in the cowboy hat and dirty work clothes
seen talking to the women by a bistro worker at the Tollgate Hotel.
At the time Milat was living in Guildford with his mother.
The women had planned to return to their unit, where another nurse flatmate,
Susan Gilchrist, was to host a dinner party. But 90 minutes after the pair
left the hotel, Ms Balken made a brief call from a pay phone to tell Ms
Gilchrist they would not be home and were in Wollongong.
Police were told at the time that Ms Balkan said she and Ms Jamieson had
gone there for a party with a man she called the "gardener fellow" and asked
Ms Gilchrist to tell their respective hospitals they were too sick to go to
work and would not return for six days. Both women left full pay packets
behind in their flat.
In 2000 Milat was one of several suspects in a reinvestigation of the
disappearance of five teenage girls and young women in Newcastle and the
Central Coast.
That inquiry by Strike Force Fenwick revealed there had been serious flaws
in police investigations of many missing persons cases in the '70s and '80s,
and that those matters had not been brought to the coroner's attention.
After Milat's conviction for the Belanglo Forest murders and the abduction
and attempted murder of an eighth backpacker, Paul Onions, police revealed
that he was also the prime suspect for the unsolved murder of Peter David
Letcher. The 18-year-old disappeared hitchhiking from Liverpool to his
parents' Bathurst home in November 1987. His body was found in Jenolan State
Forest. He had been bound and blindfolded, then shot in the head.
FORMER assistant police commissioner Clive Small quit his post
with the Independent Commission Against Corruption reluctantly, believing his
looming court battle with radio king Alan Jones made the job untenable.
In his first public interview since his resignation from the ICAC,
the man best known for putting backpacker killer Ivan Milat behind bars said
his move was disappointing but "the right thing to do".
Mr Small, 60, and Jones are preparing to face off at a trial in
the NSW Supreme Court. At stake is whether Mr Small will receive a damages
payout after a jury found he was defamed by Jones during a morning editorial
on his top-rating 2GB radio program in 2004.
The four-member jury concluded that listeners to Jones's morning
editorial would have gained the impression that, while he was still a serving
officer, Mr Small failed to act on an explosive report about Lebanese gang
activity in south-western Sydney. The imputation was that he was therefore to
blame for the bloodshed that followed.
The jurors also concluded that, in the course of the broadcast,
Jones implied Mr Small had improperly attacked the reputation of
whistleblowing Cabramatta detective Tim Priest.
Yesterday, Mr Small said he would quit as director of strategic
operations of the ICAC on March 2. He said he would have liked to have stayed
on in the position, which he would have held for three years in May.
But as he would be required to give evidence, for the first time
in the legal battle, he thought it best to leave.
He would not be drawn on what that evidence would be, but sources
expect he will be highly critical not only of Jones but of Mr Priest, former
police minister Michael Costa and others.
"I believe the nature of the comments which I will make in the
upcoming defamation matter would represent a conflict of interest with my work
with the ICAC," Mr Small said.
"I have the highest regard for the ICAC and do not want it drawn
into this legal action. Resigning was the right thing to do."
The trial, which will be held at the end of May, will enable
Jones and 2GB parent company Harbour Radio to present their defence. Mr Small
will be represented by barrister Stuart Littlemore, who, in his former role as
host of ABC TV's Media Watch, often sparred with Jones.
In earlier hearings Mr Littlemore described what had been said
about his client as being "about as subtle as a train crash".
Guy Reynolds, SC, for Jones, did not deny the comments were
critical but said they were not as serious and complex as had been made out.
Mr Small said the legal battle, and his resignation, had placed
great stress on his wife, Alison, and two adult children. "I am very
appreciative of the support they have given me over the past three years as I
pursued this matter with Mr Jones - and throughout my career, where I have
been subject to constant criticism" he said.
The legal battle is the latest twist in Mr Small's high-profile
career.
He joined the police in 1963 as a 16-year-old cadet and was sworn
in as a constable in 1965, rising to become the head of Crime Agencies and an
assistant commissioner.
While he was touted as the next police commissioner after the
departure of Peter Ryan, with whom he had a falling out, the job did not
eventuate.
In 2002, he was seconded as a crime adviser to the Premier's
Department. The job ended two years later when his contract was not renewed.
Soon after, he left the police force when Commissioner Ken
Moroney decided not to renew his contract. No official reason was given. He
was offered the ICAC job shortly after.
Mr Small said his resignation did not mean he was retiring, and
he would consider his professional future at the conclusion of the trial.
SMALL STEPS
- 1963: Police cadet, aged 16.
- 1965: Sworn in as a constable.
- 1968: First detective posting, at Burwood.
- 1970: Joins the CIB.
- 1977-80: Woodward royal commission into drug
trafficking, then Joint Commonwealth-State drug task force or JTF.
- 1990: Moves to Liverpool command, promoted to
superintendent and later assistant commissioner in charge of crime agencies,
home to state's detectives.
- 2000: Sent to Greater Hume Region, which
includes Cabramatta, then widely considered Australia's heroin capital.
- 2002: Seconded to Premier's Department.
- 2004: Made chief corruption investigator of
ICAC.
