The Beat: A True Account of the Bondi Gay Murders (9 page)

In another link to the Cleveland Street High School, a former teacher supplied the following information:

…while talking to an ex-pupil from Cleveland Street High School … at the Redfern Markets about some of the youths involved in the Johnson killing, which included [the ex-pupil’s] friend Morgan, [the ex-pupil] admitted to her that Ron Morgan and others killed a homosexual in a park at Randwick. That person was a karate expert. Morgan was also responsible for a murder at Tamarama Beach.

Cleveland Street School confirmed the friendship between Morgan and the ex-pupil and repeated efforts were made to persuade the former teacher to a) provide a statement of facts and b) to obtain further admissions which would be recorded using a listening device. The former teacher refused both entreaties.

The ex-pupil was interviewed, but denied all knowledge of the incidents referred to. However, even though there had been no mention of the former teacher during the ex-pupil’s interview, shortly afterwards the ex-pupil’s girlfriend, Olivia, (a current pupil of the teacher at another school in August 1991) approached her at school and told her – ‘tersely’ – that the ex-pupil wanted to see her. McCann suggests that this development can be construed to verify the accuracy of the statement made at Redfern Markets but that it hadn’t helped persuade the teacher to help with further inquiries.

iii

At this stage, McCann seemed to be on the verge of cracking several cases and moving forwards in others. He was fairly certain who was responsible for the William Allen murder, had firm (if not conclusive) evidence regarding the McMahon assault and had strong leads in the Keam case. He also believed he’d made significant headway in both the Warren and Russell cases, while he thought the Boxsell assault would be resolved in the near future.

Yet the report ended on a negative note: Detective McCann’s ‘Summary’ highlighted the difficulties he’d encountered during his inquiries, difficulties he found hard to understand given the severity of the crimes involved. He wrote:

Throughout the course of this inquiry, it was obvious that little help was gained from the homosexual community in reporting incidents of bashing to the Police. This was largely supported by the lack of reported assaults in the relevant areas which has severely hampered Police in establishing specific crimes from the information forthcoming in the conversations recorded through the use of listening devices. The volume of crime committed on the homosexual community as indicated is enormous and largely unreported … Reluctance of witnesses to assist Police in their pursuit has prevented criminal charges being laid against any individuals.

[1]
In actual fact this was later discovered to be in error: there were two youths by the name of Mark Church and the pawn slip belonged to the one who was not implicated in Johnson’s murder.

[2]
The Redfern connection, although merely coincidental, sounds uneasy echoes nonetheless.

[3]
This was later to form a central point in Detective Page’s criticism of policing methods and led to changes within evidence gathering methodology in New South Wales.

CHAPTER FIVE

Old Ground, New Eyes

i

Having read the McCann archive, Steve Page saw that, by the end of 1991, the investigation had gone as far as it could. As McCann repeatedly urged, the information should be retained until some future date when additional evidence might be made available. Now, 10 years later, Page hoped that someone might remember additional details, might have heard something to add to McCann’s findings or might even have changed their minds about giving evidence, and he set about taking further statements from the police who’d been involved at the time.

When the initial missing persons report for Ross Warren was made to Constable Robinson in July 1989, the officer who claimed to have carriage of the case was Detective Sergeant Kenneth Bowditch. On 19February 2001 Bowditch made a statement at Paddington Police Station outlining his involvement in the case. Having spoken to Craig Ellis and Paul Saucis at the time, Bowditch concluded that Warren was a reliable person who wouldn’t make appointments and not keep them (the arrangement to see a film on the Saturday, the day following his disappearance). Furthermore, Warren’s vehicle, when found in Kenneth Street, contained his wallet, with $70 and a Visa card, while the keys to the vehicle were eventually discovered in a location with difficult access. The Police Air Wing and Water Police were notified, according to Bowditch, and they conducted a fruitless search: nothing relating to Ross Warren was found either in the water, along the foreshore or in Marks Park.

Bowditch then instigated a search of Warren’s unit in Wollongong and procured various health and dental records, as well as a number of photographs of the missing man, from Warren’s parents, to check against any unidentified bodies which might turn up. Everything by the book: Bowditch appeared to have executed his duties admirably. In conclusion, he stated that at the time Ross Warren disappeared there was a full moon, although the sky was overcast and could therefore have adversely affected visibility. The tide, he said, was high and the ground in the area slippery from recent rains. In view of all the evidence, there was nothing to suggest that Warren’s disappearance was the result of foul play or a deliberate ploy on his part to disappear. Bowditch even went as far as to say that, although the area was known to police as a homosexual beat, he felt he had to stress that there was nothing to support the idea that the case was in any way gay related. Conclusion: Ross Warren slipped while walking along the cliff edge and fell into the sea, dying, presumably, either from impact on the rocks during his fall or by drowning, his body being taken out into the Tasman by winds and tides. After all, Bowditch explained, he was extremely familiar with the area as he regularly walked between Bondi and Bronte himself, often witnessing people at all times of the day and night sitting on the rock edge.

Conscientiously, Detective Sergeant Bowditch created a brief of evidence relating to the case, one copy of which was sent to the Missing Persons Unit, another being filed at Paddington Police Station. This brief of evidence contained all relevant statements, bank details, dental and health records, related newspaper clippings and recent photographs of Warren. Moreover, during the initial investigation, he prepared an occurrence pad entry number 7/149 outlining all the inquiries made at the time.

It would seem that former Detective Sergeant Kenneth Bowditch had handled his case well, evaluated the evidence and formed reasonable and well-argued conclusions.

Except that Steve Page had already contacted Laraine Tate at the Records and Information Process Services of the Police Service (also known as Corporate Archives) asking for copies of documents relating to the case. Tate’s faxed reply supplied an occurrence pad entry created by Constable Robinson but no other documents relating to the case existed within Corporate Archives, she said.

ii

On 5March 2001 Detective Sergeant Page created a situation report (sitrep). The single-page document stated that the issue at hand was a coronial inquest into the disappearance of Ross Warren. A brief ‘Background’ to the case was offered and the ‘Current Position’ outlined the facts pertaining to several other incidents of a violent nature against homosexuals in the area at the time of Warren’s disappearance. After mentioning the Russell case, Page summarised the McMahon assault, naming Cushman as the principal suspect. He also stated that Cushman was later charged with the murder of Brian Hagland at Bondi.
[1]
Further mention, under the paragraph heading, ‘Comment’, is made of the Adam French admission to having thrown a homosexual off a cliff and searching the victim’s brown car. Finally, Page asserted that inquiries were ongoing ‘to establish whether the Russell/Warren/McMahon matters are related’ suggesting that, ‘considering the victimology, manner of death, location and time period, it may well be the incidents are related’.

After submitting this report, Page attended a conference at Rose Bay Police Station with senior officers from various commands within the region. Once the investigation had been detailed it was agreed that resources should be allocated to it and analytical support made available. A week later, on 23 April 2001, Field Services Command supplied the operation name ‘Taradale’ to the inquiry.

iii

In creating an investigation plan, Detective Sergeant Page was conscious of the 12-year chasm between Warren’s disappearance and the current inquiry. Nevertheless, he believed that benefit could be gained from renewed probing into already explored areas and drew up the plan accordingly. He would profile all known offenders from the late ’80s, all known ‘Persons of Interest’ (POIs) and their associates: those no longer criminally active, or those now removed from the criminal environment they used to inhabit, would be targeted for information relating to their past; focus on Sean Cushman’s involvement would be paramount as he seemed to be involved in a catalogue of offences; French would be reinterviewed with respect to his taped admission of having thrown a homosexual off a cliff; a media release was to be prepared in the hope of regenerating interest and reigniting any specific memories that may have lain dormant in the interim; a Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officer (GLLO) would canvass known haunts of members of the gay community at night to elicit any related information (this would include unreported bashings as well as allegations – substantiated or otherwise – from the time in question); canvasses of residents local to Marks Park at the time; physical and electronic surveillance of POIs and an examination of all investigation documents pertaining to gay-related incidents in the eastern suburbs. At the conclusion of the above, Detective Page intended interviewing all ‘primary targets’ and other suspects.

The plan, he said, had yet to be finetuned.

Little did he know that the ‘finetuned’ investigation would take him and his team more than another 12 months to complete: 12 months in which the cases of Ross Warren, John Russell, Kritchikorn Rattanajurathaporn, Richard Johnson, William Allen, David McMahon, Raymond Keam and others would be inextricably entwined.

[1]
Following an altercation around midnight on Campbell Parade, Brian Hagland, a British tourist, was pushed under a bus by Aaron Martin and Sean Cushman in September 1996. The sentences meted out to Martin and Cushman were regarded as so inadequate that they generated an impassioned speech by the member for Vaucluse in State Parliament in September 1999. ‘Three years ago,’ Mr Debnam said, ‘Brian Hagland, a 28-year-old tourist was bashed by a street thug at Bondi Beach. Brian Hagland died as his fiancee wept beside him … Three years later, a violent thug by the name of Aaron Martin was sentenced to a minimum of two years and three months in jail. Martin’s accomplice, Sean Cushman, was unbelievably given a good behaviour bond. The sentences are an appalling travesty of justice … Prior to Brian Hagland’s death, Martin had been briefly jailed for [a] 1993 savage bashing and also had a criminal record for offences including robbery, assaulting police, breaking, entering and stealing, and malicious damage. In 1996 he met Brian Hagland in the street, and Brian Hagland died. After being charged with Brian Hagland’s murder, Martin was again released on bail by a court system which is completely out of touch with community safety … When Justice Simpson considered the case this week … the potential sentence was 25 years. However, Justice Simpson gave Martin a sentence of two years and three months, backdated to last year.’ Aaron Martin was to be implicated in the various crimes investigated by Detective Page and Operation Taradale a few years later. He was also responsible for Cushman running away to Byron Bay when the police net was beginning to tighten: Martin and Cushman had fallen out over a drugs deal in Sydney and Martin had threatened to kill his former associate.

CHAPTER SIX

The Warren Investigation

i

While the various technicalities regarding identifying POIs, locating suspects and surveillance techniques were being put into place, Steve Page went over some of the old case documents for the umpteenth time, among them Constable Robinson’s statement of 24 July 2000 and that of Sergeant Bowditch from February 2001. There were elements within both that just didn’t sit right with Page.

Having re-read the documents, he checked some of the facts with Craig Ellis. On 2 August 2001 Ellis made another statement in which he agreed that his previous statement, made in September 2000, was in all respects correct. In fact, he was able to add detail that earlier he’d been unable to remember. And he agreed without hesitation to participate in a ‘video walk-around’ of the Marks Park area to show exactly where the events of July 1989 had occurred. He indicated where he’d found Warren’s car (supporting the claim by recalling that an elderly resident of the block of units outside which the car was parked had come out to complain to Ellis, as he and Saucis looked into the vehicle, that it was slightly blocking his driveway). The police group then moved to the walkway beneath Marks Park, where Ellis had found nothing of relevance in 1989, before he showed the video team the approximate place at the base of the cliffs where he’d discovered Warren’s keys: he’d recognised them, he said, by the key ring. And the discovery, he said, had scared him: the keys were here but Ross was missing. The ‘pocket’ in the honeycombing of the cliff face where the keys had been suggested that it would have been highly unlikely that they had been washed there by the sea. It was almost certain, he said, that they had been placed there deliberately.