Preface

In the minds of most Australians, I am a murderer. Yet I did not kill anybody, and I know nothing of the deaths blamed on me.

In 1996, when I was publicly accused of killing Jennifer Tanner and Adele Bailey, it was as opportunistic payback for an internal police department conflict with high-ranked superiors that had been resolved in my favour ten years earlier. In the ensuing trial by media, I have tolerated innuendo and character assassination, never asking for any special favours, simply seeking a fair go. Instead, police command has denied me natural justice beyond any semblance of reason.

When my sister-in-law and friend Jennifer Tanner died outside Bonnie Doon, I was in Melbourne, initially at a bingo game and later at my home. I proved that to the police and to a coroner in 1985, and I can still prove it.

My only knowledge of Adele (Paul) Bailey was when I charged him with prostitution five months before he died. Bailey was just one of the dozens of St Kilda street workers I arrested as a constable.

Innumerable articles, television documentaries and books have been published about me in this worldwide trial by media. Authors have won awards and established themselves as experts on me without hearing my side of the story.

This book lifts the covers on dirty deeds, the power of the press and miscarriages of justice that destroyed life for my family and myself. Read it carefully with your mind wide open, because what has happened to me could happen to you.

 

Denis Tanner (former Detective Sergeant)