Chapter 21
In the Light of Day
Detective Sergeant Joe Mura sat on the hill looking down at the scene before him. It should have been a tranquil place. It had a stream running through it, fresh from the mountains, eucalyptus trees, ferns, lizards, birds ... and police tape. It was ruined. As a police officer, he had worked hard to find the girls. At first, it had been in the back of his mind that they were silly girls who had run off for adventure, then he realised that they had to be dead. He would never have told the parents that, but he knew.
Back in Bega, Detective Sergeant Mark Winterflood was close to breaking point. With little voice left, fatigue and a sore throat, he craved being left to sit with a glass of Scotch. Instead, he awkwardly faced the families, the media and his superiors, filling them in with the details he knew. Later, he was diagnosed with glandular fever, then chronic fatigue syndrome and eventually a breakdown. The case had drained him emotionally.
The previous evening, when Sarah Darcy rang to tell her the bad news, Rebecca Kemble had shrugged it off and gone to bed thinking that the person the police were questioning was probably another hoax. She had heard rumours before that claimed the girls had been found. A girl at school had said that they had been recovered from Brogo Dam, not far from her place. Now, as her friends Sarah, Damion and Malcolm walked through her front door, she knew it was true. She would never see Lauren or Nichole again. The Sunday that led up to their disappearance, she had been with everyone at camp. Looking towards the sun, she had watched a raven land on the branch above them.
‘One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy,’ she had recited as everyone followed her gaze. The large black bird had cawed twice and then flown away.
Rebecca shivered. Now, five and a half weeks later, there was little of her best friend that remained in Lauren’s room. After she had gone missing, Lauren’s father had moved in there to make room for the others who were staying at the Barry household. Lauren’s things had been packed up to some extent. Her aura was gone. Lately, Rebecca had to lean into her cupboard, among her clothes, to smell her friend. Nichole’s room wasn’t like that. It was untouched. All you had to do was walk into it and you could feel her there.
The worst part about Lauren’s and Nichole’s disappearance for Rebecca and her friends was that no one had been given the chance to say goodbye.
Beckett’s return from the crime scene to the Winchester Police Centre in Canberra hadn’t been straightforward. Custodial officer Tom Collins had nursed the Toyota van running almost on empty until they reached the service station in the Canberra suburb of Calwell at 4.45 a.m. that morning. They had left the police securing the scene and taken over the responsibility of conveying Beckett back to his cell at 10.00 p.m. the evening before. There had been nowhere to fill up, not even in Cooma.
‘If worst comes to worst,’ Tom had commented to his partner as they entered Cooma, ‘we can hole up in the local cop shop overnight, because we’ve got no fuel.’
They were carrying Shell cards but couldn’t find a Shell station that was open, so they headed for the Cooma Police Station. Walking to the front door, the first thing the two officers noticed was a huge wanted poster with a picture of the two missing girls from Bega. They glanced at each other, then knocked. There was nobody there. Next they called the number listed for after hours. There was no answer. They decided to try to head for home. Tom was thankful he had filled the Toyota’s tank until fuel had spilled from it the day before. When the van rolled into Calwell that Thursday morning, the petrol gauge was on the letter Y of the word ‘EMPTY’. They had completed an almost 24-hour shift.
As Beckett was returned to his cell, Detective Senior Constable Russell Sheather and his partner arrived at the place where Beckett had murdered Lauren and Nichole. The detective had been notified at 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 12 November, that two bodies had been found. The pair had heard whispers earlier that afternoon that there may have been a couple of suspicious deaths within Victoria, but it had been late by the time they had been confirmed, and the information had been passed through the chain of command.
Despite having been on duty all day, and thus awake from 6.00 a.m., it had been important that he and another detective head out to the murder site. They were members of the Victorian Homicide Squad, the team that operates from Melbourne, overseeing all murders or suspicious deaths statewide. The two police officers had been briefed before setting out. When they arrived at Fiddlers Green, the sun was rising. The detectives’ first duty was to inspect the scene and direct their forensic experts and pathologist where to search. Having little background knowledge, the two went in cold and conducted their inspection of the scene in business-like terms. Marked by police tape and guarded, the area had remained undisturbed from the previous night.
That same morning, below the northbound lanes of Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, in Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra, a folding bladed knife was located six metres beneath the surface. In spite of nil visibility, the knife was found by touch, close to one of the places where Beckett said he had thrown it from.
The combing of the murder site at Fiddlers Green in Victoria continued into the evening, with the girls’ deaths being certified and their remains photographed in situ before being transported to Melbourne in the afternoon. It was after 9.00 p.m. when Detective Senior Constable Sheather and his partner were able to rest.
In Bega, a small group assembled at the local hotel. Given the chance, Graeme Collins wouldn’t have gone to the pub that night, but Delma had persuaded him she was okay at home. She had company, the girls’ bodies had been found, the alleged murderers had been caught and the case looked solid. The investigating police decided to mark the occasion with a drink. Inside the Bank Hotel, Graeme grabbed his glass and glanced up at the television. The evening news was on and a diver was being shown as he rose from the water bearing a knife. As the diver held it up towards the cameras, Graeme homed in on the story, and the noise in the room grew distant. He needed to get out. Immediately!
Detective Sergeant Mark Winterflood watched the same picture on the screen. He turned towards Graeme, who looked as though he might pass out. The pair said their goodbyes and the detective took Graeme home. The two families would have eventually seen the footage but, by his reckoning, the timing couldn’t have been much worse.
During the first week of his investigation, Detective Senior Constable Sheather spent copious amounts of time in the car.
On Friday, 14 November, he was with Nichole’s and Lauren’s families when they were briefed by the Operation DALOA team with the full details of what they believed had happened to the girls. He explained to the families where his team’s investigation would be heading. When the families left for the murder site, he travelled from Bega to Tathra and out to Eden, familiarising himself with the area and having photographs taken. Then, at 7.30 that evening, he and his partner drove to Batemans Bay and got a magistrate to swear them in as special constables in New South Wales, giving them restricted powers within the state before they headed to Canberra for the night.
The next day the detective began preparations to take Beckett to Victoria. The Australian Capital Territory Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had agreed to have Beckett processed so that he could be extradited on the Saturday morning. As the law stands, a person cannot be extradited if he or she is being held in custody for another matter in another state, nor if he or she has been bailed with conditions attached. For instance, someone who has been bailed but must report to the local police station daily during that period cannot be extradited. Beckett had been held in remand without bail since being arrested for suspected motor theft in Canberra on 27 October. The belief had been that he would not reappear if he were bailed. With the knowledge that the prisoner had confessed to New South Wales Police to the murder of two girls, the Australian Capital Territory DPP had all those charges dropped.
Lindsay Hoani Beckett was a free man for just long enough to walk downstairs to his cell and collect his possessions, and only because arresting someone in a courtroom was prohibited. Charged under a Victorian warrant of apprehension for the murders, he was marched back up to the same court and extradition papers were served against him. He was then remanded into the detectives’ custody to reappear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 17 November. That gave Detective Senior Constable Sheather and his partner two days to interview and transport him.
Later that day, at the Woden CIB Office in Canberra, the prisoner gave his first interview to the Victoria Police. For four hours Beckett talked forthrightly about what had occurred, although downgrading his involvement in the rapes. It was an important interview. In spite of the fact that he had already confessed to Detective Sergeant Mark Winterflood, it was now a Victorian investigation. Differences in legislation opened the possibility that the confession would be contested as evidence because it had been taken by a New South Wales police officer.
Under Australia’s federal system of government, powers are distributed between the Commonwealth and the state and territory governments. When the Australian Constitution came into effect on 1 January 1901, it made the six self-governing British colonies that pre-existed it into states of Australia. Before that day, each of the colonies had their own constitution. The Act guaranteed the preservation of the states and their constitutions while binding them federally. Although federal law can overrule state laws where inconsistent, generally it does not restrict them. Hence states pass laws on a wider range of areas than the Commonwealth, including criminal law and roads, while the Commonwealth regulates areas such as marriage and immigration. Since World War II the states have also been excluded from imposing income tax.
As a direct result of individual states overseeing the development of criminal law legislation within the boundaries of their own constitutions, there are variations in police procedure, taking of evidence and treatment by the courts. This means that when a case occurs across a state border, discrepancies between state laws restrict the charging and prosecution of offenders. So Detective Senior Constable Sheather had to retake all the witness statements so that they would be recognised in a Victorian court. Since Leslie Camilleri’s trial, new Commonwealth extra-territorial legislation has allowed for the interstate swapping of statements. Courts now recognise statements from other jurisdictions, providing they are accepted within the state in which they are taken.
State discrepancies also affected other areas in the police pursuit and prosecution of Camilleri and Beckett. Detective Senior Constable Sheather had to be sworn in as a special constable in New South Wales in order to have restricted powers to investigate the case. Further, Camilleri and Beckett have never been prosecuted for the abduction and rape of Lauren and Nichole, as they occurred in New South Wales. Extradition laws prevent them being sent to New South Wales to face trial while incarcerated. The only way this can be circumvented is if either prisoner applies, under the Exchange of Prisoners Act, for a transfer to a New South Wales prison and has their application accepted. Once incarcerated in New South Wales, the DPP can choose to prosecute them.
The process of retaking all the witness statements, so that they could be tendered in a Victorian court, added considerably to the Victorian police’s workload. It would take a Victorian police typist a week to retype the statements, followed by another week during which three police officers, including Detective Senior Constable Sheather, would have to visit the witnesses and ask them to read and re-sign the statements.
On Sunday, 16 November, Beckett was asked to direct the police to as many locations related to the rapes and murders as he could remember so that video documentation could be made of his statement. He was escorted by a number of officers of the Victoria Police, although Detective Senior Constable Sheather wasn’t among them. He was on his way to Sydney. Camilleri, who was being held in Sydney, had made a bail application for Monday, 17 November, and the detective hoped he would be able to gain access to him as easily as he had to Beckett. It was not to be.
The New South Wales DPP was unable to drop the charges as Camilleri had already made a bail application that had been refused. This time his appeal was to the Supreme Court. It had been decided that when his application was heard, it would be uncontested and that consent would be given for bail without conditions. However, when his defence counsel got wind of this, Camilleri withdrew his application. Extradition wasn’t possible.
On Tuesday, 18 November, when Camilleri refused Sheather’s formal application through the prison system to interview him, the detective senior constable returned to Canberra to further his investigations. Then, at 11.08 p.m. on Tuesday, 25 November, Sheather finally found himself sitting opposite the prisoner. During the seven days in between, he had sought genetic verification of the girls’ identities so that their bodies could be released and followed up Beckett’s claims looking for statements to confirm his purported movements. Simultaneously, another police officer had attended Camilleri’s other court hearings to ensure he wasn’t accidentally released. No custodial sentence had been given at any of his appearances.
Camilleri’s final hearing had been Tuesday in Yass, where the magistrate sentenced him to a detention period equal to that spent between his hearing in Manly Court and that in Yass. The time had already been served. Camilleri was free to be re-arrested by the police officers waiting by the dock. He arrived at the Melbourne Homicide Squad Office at about 10.00 p.m. As he was tired, he was allowed to have a shower and refreshments.
Now sitting warily before the detective, Camilleri began the interview by refusing to answer questions. He had sought legal advice and been told not to comment when examined. Russell Sheather carried on, submitting the allegations to him, regardless. Early on in the investigation, he had begun to piece together strong evidence to corroborate Beckett’s story. He began to run Camilleri through it. A National Parks and Wildlife field officer in Ben Boyd National Park in Eden had found a black torch. Aware that Bega police were looking for a similar torch in relation to the girls, the officer had placed it back where he had found it and contacted them. Two days after the girls’ bodies were found, he took Sheather and other officers to the place he had shown to New South Wales Police. The item would not be conclusively proven to be Lauren and Nichole’s, but it validated the circumstances as Beckett recalled them.
A witness had also been found who had questioned Camilleri and Beckett around 7.30 p.m. on Saturday after they abducted the girls. They had stopped at his closed service station and claimed they were fixing their brakes. His story had confirmed Beckett’s.
‘You have been formally charged with two counts of murder. I’ll warn you again that you’re not obliged to say or do anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say or do may be recorded and given as evidence. Do you wish to say anything in answer to these charges?’ asked the detective.
‘No,’ Camilleri replied.
It was almost midnight by the time Sheather ended his interview. The suspect had followed his legal advice, making no substantial comments. Pursuing the interview seemed pointless and might be construed as not ‘reasonable’. Victoria Police don’t have time limits within which they must question suspects, but interviews must be conducted within what is determined to be a ‘reasonable time’. The circumstances of the crime, transport times and individual factors affect the length of custodial and interview periods. Holding a suspect for 12 hours so that a murder crime scene can be processed would be seen as reasonable, but it would not in the case of someone suspected of a house break-in. New South Wales police are restricted by ‘Detention After Arrest’ legislation. As in Victoria, suspects must be given refreshments, allowing them the best possible chance during interview, but unlike in Victoria, suspects in New South Wales must be charged within four hours or set free. Some discounts apply due to special circumstance and there are provisions to apply to a magistrate for extensions.
Camilleri had spent the morning in Yass Court, and then had a long journey. It was reasonable to suspend the interview. The next day an order to obtain Camilleri’s blood would be sought, as the suspect had refused permission. The police officer worked into the early hours of the morning, preparing the submission.