CHAPTER 4

MILLER'S GRAVES

On Saturday, 17 February 1977, Christopher Worrell, James Miller and Deborah Skuse were driving back to Adelaide after spending a night at the South Australian border town of Mount Gambier. Worrell was at the wheel. He had been drinking heavily all day and was driving erratically and at dangerous speeds. Deborah Skuse had fallen in with Worrell and Miller after they had appeared unexpectedly at her home looking for her ex-boyfriend – a former prison friend of theirs. She was getting nervous and begged Worrell to slow down. Worrell ignored her.

Driving along the Princes Highway north of Millicent, Worrell lost control of the car, swerving to miss an oncoming vehicle. The 1969 blue-and-white Valiant left the road and rolled four times, throwing out all three occupants. Christopher Worrell and Deborah Skuse died instantly, while Miller escaped with a fractured collarbone, cuts and abrasions.

The fatal accident added to South Australia’s burgeoning road toll. But the death of Worrell had more significance. With the 23-year-old convicted rapist dead, the streets of Adelaide had become a much safer place.

At Worrell’s funeral, James Miller confided to Worrell’s girlfriend, ‘Amelia’, that he and Worrell, who had been constant companions, had a dark secret. Miller told Amelia that Worrell had been murdering young girls. At first, Amelia, who would later come forward and help police solve the murders, did not take Miller seriously. But, when remains started turning up near Truro, she realised the ghastly significance of what Miller had told her.

• • •

On 25 April 1978, just over a year after the car accident in which Worrell and Deborah Skuse had died, William Thomas was looking for mushrooms in a flat paddock next to Swamp Road in a remote and uninhabited area outside Truro, a tiny country town 80 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, when he came across a bone protruding from the soil. Initially, Thomas thought that the bone belonged to a cow, and was the remains of an unfortunate creature that had strayed from the herd and got caught in the marshy, flood-prone soil. But, something about the scene unsettled him, and five days later he returned with his wife. This time, Thomas examined the bone closely and knew instinctively that the remains were human. He also saw that the skin was in good condition. On closer scrutiny, he observed that a shoe remained on the foot that was visible and that the toes of the foot were painted with nail polish. Then Thomas discovered a skull and some other bones in the immediate area, and he contacted the police.

The police conducted a thorough search of the area and found some personal effects that identified the victim as 18-year-old Veronica Knight, who had last been seen shopping in Adelaide’s City Cross Arcade on 23 December 1976.

This grisly find would eventually lead to the discovery of the remains of six other young women. The seven bush graves, five of which were located around the small country town of Truro, became the subject of one of the most notorious cases in Australian criminal history. But, South Australian police, called to the scene after William Thomas and his wife had stumbled across the remains of the young woman, had no reason to suspect that the marshlands contained more remains. It was not until a year later, on 15 April 1979, when four bushwalkers discovered a skeleton in a swampy paddock, almost a kilometre from where the remains of Veronica Knight were found, that police began to realise they may have a serial killer on their hands. From clothing and jewellery found at the scene, police were able to identify the remains as that of 16-year-old Sylvia Pittman, who had disappeared from outside Adelaide Railway Station on 6 February 1976.

Missing persons files showed that five other young women had disappeared from the Adelaide city district between December 1976 and February 1977. Police had considered that the disappearances were highly suspicious and they were part of ongoing investigations. The officer who headed the Truro investigation, Detective Superintendent K. Harvey, said that several thousand people were reported missing in South Australia every year. Generally, all but a few were eventually located. When the seven young women had disappeared in the 1976–1977 period without a trace, Harvey knew it was more than a coincidence. Harvey ordered a search party to scour in and around the area where the remains of Veronica Knight and Sylvia Pittman had been found. He believed the search might lead to the discovery of more bodies. He said:

We don’t know what we will find. We will be looking for any clues to the killing of the two girls we have found but we can’t overlook the fact that we may find the bodies of some of the other missing girls.

Sadly, Harvey’s hunch would be proven correct.

A large search party of uniformed police officers, homicide squad detectives and forensic investigators conducted an exhaustive search in the area for 11 days before coming across the skeletal remains of 16-year-old Connie Iordanides and 26-year-old Vicki Howell, two of the missing girls. Both bodies had decomposed, and evidence at the scene of discovery left police with little to go on. Investigations of serial murder can be fraught with difficulty. Faced with appalling crimes, homicide detectives are invariably frustrated by an apparent lack of motive and the seemingly anonymous nature of the perpetrators. Superintendent Harvey appealed to the public for help to solve the Truro murders. His appeals were fruitful. Some weeks after the search at Truro had concluded, police got a call from a woman named ‘Angela’ advising them that she may be able to assist them with their inquiries.

Angela reported a conversation she had had with a man she knew as James Miller at a funeral she had attended in February 1977. She had gone to pay her last respects to a friend who had died in a car accident. The friend was Christopher Robin Worrell. Angela told police that an inconsolable Miller had approached her and told her about girls being ‘done in’. Miller told her that he and Worrell had ‘done something terrible’. Miller had told her: ‘I did the driving and went along to make sure that nothing went wrong. They had to be done in so they would not point the finger at us.’ He went on to say that the girls were ‘just rags’, indicating that he considered their lives were worthless. He said that one of the victims had enjoyed it. ‘But it was getting worse,’ Miller continued. ‘It was happening more often. It was perhaps a good thing that Chris had died. If you don’t believe me, I will take you to where they are.’ Miller then told her that Worrell had said he had ‘done away with two in WA’.

• • •

Born into a family of six children on 2 February 1940 in the West End, the then-poorest part of Adelaide, James William Miller was well known to police. At age 11 he had been committed to the local Magill Reformatory, at 15 he was in Long Bay Jail in New South Wales, at 16 he was back in Magill, and he spent his 17th birthday in Adelaide’s Yatala Jail. A habitual criminal with 30 convictions for car theft, larceny and breaking, entering and stealing, Miller would, upon release from prison, return to a life of crime and end up before the courts and straight back in jail. It was not surprising, then, that he had spent most of his adult life behind bars. But, while Miller was a multiple felon, he had no prior convictions for violent crime.

It was not hard to locate Miller. Penniless and living on the streets, he would be found in only a few places in Adelaide. Officers of the Major Crime Squad observed Miller as he went about his business, running odd jobs for the Adelaide City Mission in return for a bed at night. For days, eight detectives monitored his every movement. Miller attempted to flee when he became aware that police were following him. He was arrested on 23 May 1979.

With Miller in custody at Angas Street Police Headquarters, the officers of the Major Crime Squad knew they were in a bind. As the uncorroborated statement from ‘Angela’ was the only link between Miller and the Truro murders, they knew that he could easily evade their questions and stonewall the investigation. After all, he had plenty of experience in being interrogated by police. The officers who conducted the interview with Miller, Detective Sergeant Glen Lawrie and Detective Peter Foster, knew that, in the absence of hard evidence, they needed a confession. Without it they knew that he would go free.

Initially, Miller denied any knowledge of the killings and disputed having a conversation with ‘Angela’ at the funeral of Christopher Worrell. Advised by the detectives that ‘Angela’ was in fact Christopher Worrell’s girlfriend, Amelia, he became evasive but continued to refuse to acknowledge that he knew her at all. He was shown photographs of Worrell and Amelia together, and then he quickly changed his tune. He told the detectives that he knew both Amelia and Worrell but continued to deny that he had had any conversation with Amelia at Worrell’s funeral. Asked why Amelia would say such things, Miller replied, ‘Maybe she’s short of money.’ This was an obvious reference to the $30,000 reward that the South Australian Government had offered to any person who could provide information that might lead to a conviction in the Truro murders.

With the interview in progress for six hours, Miller’s defences began to falter. According to the record of interview, Detective Lawrie continued to present Amelia’s statement that indicated Miller’s direct involvement in the murders. Finally, Miller said, ‘On second thoughts, maybe she’s done what I should do. Can I have a few minutes to think about it?’ Detectives Lawrie and Foster left him in the interview room to consider his next move. They returned shortly afterwards and noticed that he looked resigned to his fate. He stated:

If I can clear this up, will everyone else be left out? I suppose I’ve got nothing else to look forward to whatever way it goes. I guess I’m the one who got mixed up in all of this. Where do you want me to start?

Miller then provided a detailed statement describing his involvement in the Truro murders. ‘I drove around with Chris and we picked up girls around the city. Chris would talk to the girls and get them into the car, and we would take them for a drive and take them to Truro and Chris would rape them and kill them. But you’ve got to believe that I had nothing to do with the actual killings of the girls.’

Detectives Lawrie and Foster gently persuaded Miller to tell the whole, terrible story. Perhaps relieved that the dreadful secret he had carried for more than two years was out, he told the two detectives: ‘Alright then, there’s three more. I’ll show you.’ Detective Sergeant Lawrie hastily organised a police escort for Miller, who then directed them to two separate graves: one near Port Gawler, where they found the body of Deborah Lamb, 20, and the other at the rear of the Dean Rifle Range at nearby Wingfield, where the body of Tania Kenny, 15, was found. Later that night, police travelled with Miller to Truro, where he showed police where he and Worrell had concealed the body of 16-year-old Juliet Mykyta.

• • •

Miller was a homosexual, and he admitted during the police interviews that he had become obsessed with Christopher Worrell when they had first met in prison. Miller was doing a three-month sentence for breaking into an Adelaide gun shop. Worrell, who had been convicted of a particularly vicious rape, had been sentenced to six years' imprisonment. When sentencing Worrell for the crime, the judge described the then 20-year-old Worrell as a ‘disgusting and depraved human being’. Miller and Worrell had shared a cell while on remand, and after they were convicted for their crimes, both were transferred to South Australia’s Yatala Jail. Miller doted on the handsome young Worrell, and the two became inseparable. While in prison Worrell accepted sexual favours from his submissive and obsessed new friend.

Miller was released after serving his three-month sentence, but, as on so many occasions in the past, he returned to his life of crime. He was convicted of stealing 4000 pairs of sunglasses after being caught hawking the stolen goods around Adelaide’s bars and hotels. On this occasion he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment and returned to Yatala Jail to continue the sexual tryst with his slim, dark-haired lover.

After serving his sentence, Miller was released, and less than a year later, Worrell walked from Yatala Jail on parole. The duo continued their relationship beyond prison walls. Miller had taken up residence with his sister and her two daughters in an Adelaide suburb. Worrell became a regular visitor, and shortly afterwards the pair began sharing a flat at Ovingham in Adelaide’s inner northern suburbs. It became apparent to Miller that, while Worrell had enjoyed their sexual encounters in prison, Worrell preferred women. Miller often performed fellatio on Worrell while the younger man read pornographic magazines portraying acts of bondage and cruelty towards women. Eventually, these episodes ceased altogether, and Miller’s infatuation with Worrell manifested itself in his unquestioning loyalty and devotion to his young friend.

Often Miller was troubled to find that Worrell would fly into fits of inexplicable and uncontrollable rage. Sometimes, Miller would quieten him down, but generally he cowered away and waited for the storm to pass. Regardless of Worrell’s behaviour, he always returned. His infatuation with the younger man would soon lead him to act as a willing accomplice in the commission of multiple murder.

The pair found employment working for Unley Council as labourers on the roads in Adelaide’s inner suburbs. With both men in gainful employment and living under the same roof, Miller described this period as the happiest of his life. But all that began to change when the fury welling up inside Worrell took them onto the streets of Adelaide to satisfy his lust for rape and violence.

Worrell possessed a gift for the gab that young women often found irresistible. Now 23 and with shining, shoulder-length dark hair, he was very aware that women found him attractive. With Miller driving Worrell around in a 1969 blue Valiant, the two would cruise the city in search of young women who were out on their own, isolated and vulnerable to Worrell’s slick patter. Girls at bus stops, railway stations and hotels were often targets, and Worrell would implore them to get into the car to go for a ride. Miller would then drive to remote spots on the outskirts of Adelaide. He would park the car and go for a walk, leaving Worrell to his own devices. Worrell would have sex with the girls in the back of the car. Often, he would tie them up, rendering them helpless to his advances. With Worrell’s urges sated, Miller would return from his stroll and drive them back to town. This pattern continued for some months, and according to Miller, there was nothing to suggest that Worrell would progress to murder.

Miller’s unsigned statement indicated that he and Worrell would travel through the streets of Adelaide on an almost nightly basis in search of new prey. Miller never challenged his friend and dutifully drove the old Valiant while Worrell maintained a lookout for young women to accost.

• • •

On Thursday, 23 December 1976, the streets of Adelaide were filled with shoppers looking to purchase last-minute gifts before Christmas. Worrell and Miller were cruising around the city shopping centres and Worrell’s attention was sparked by the number of young women out shopping. He told Miller to stop the car. He got out and walked into the shopping centre, instructing Miller to drive around the block while he was inside. Miller did as he was told and returned in the car a short time afterwards. But he could not see Worrell outside the shopping centre and was forced to drive around the block a couple of times. Finally, he saw Worrell at the front of the Majestic Hotel and noticed that he was accompanied by a young woman. She was 18-year-old Veronica Knight.

Veronica had been shopping with a friend but, with the City Cross Arcade packed with shoppers, they had become separated. Veronica was walking around looking for her friend when Worrell approached her. She lived nearby in the Salvation Army Hostel in Angas Street, and was persuaded by Worrell to join him. He told her that he could give her a lift home. Veronica and Worrell got into the car, and Miller drove off. Not long into the voyage, Worrell used all his powers of persuasion to entice the young woman to go for a drive in the Adelaide Foothills.

Out of the crowded city, Miller pulled the car onto the side of a quiet road. Continuing with the routine, he got out of the car and went for a walk in the nearby bushland. He returned about 30 minutes later to find Worrell now sitting in the front seat. Veronica was nowhere to be seen. As he got closer to the vehicle, he saw Veronica lying motionless on the floor in the back of the car. Worrell casually told Miller that he had just raped and murdered the girl. Incredulous, Miller noticed that the girl was still clothed but that her hands had been tied. The bruising on her neck told him that she had been strangled.

Now it was Miller’s turn to fly into a rage. ‘You fool, you fucking fool,’ he screamed at Worrell. ‘Do you want to ruin everything?’ Usually submissive, Miller then grabbed Worrell by the scruff of his neck and roughly pulled him towards him. According to Miller’s statement, Worrell produced a long-handled knife and held it to Miller’s throat. He threatened to kill Miller if he refused to cooperate. Worrell ordered him to get back into the car and to drive it towards Gawler. So Miller drove the car along the Sturt Highway to Gawler, and was then told by Worrell to drive on towards Truro. He turned into Swamp Road and stopped the car next to a clump of eucalyptus trees. He told Worrell that he wanted nothing to do with the body, but the younger man brandished the knife so he then helped Worrell remove Veronica’s body from the car. They both carried the body to the wooded area. ‘He asked me to give him a hand to carry her into the bushes,’ Miller said. ‘We got through the fence and dragged her under.’ The pair lay Veronica’s body on the ground, covered her with branches and leaves, and then returned to the car and drove back to Adelaide.

Miller recalled that neither he nor Worrell ever discussed the murder afterwards. Instead they attended work at Unley Council the following day as scheduled, as if the gruesome murder of Veronica Knight had never happened. Miller stated that he could not go to police as he feared Worrell and believed that he might kill him if he reported the murder to police. Miller’s fear and fixation with Worrell would lead to the murders of six other young women.

• • •

Fifteen-year-old Tania Kenny became the next victim. Early on the morning of 2 January 1977, Miller and Worrell were out driving around Adelaide. As it was a public holiday, the shopping centres in and around Rundle Mall were packed with shoppers. It did not take long for Worrell’s keen eye to spot another victim. He told Miller to pull the car over, and he got out and began walking towards Rundle Mall. He told Miller to meet him around the other side of the mall. When Miller arrived there in the blue Valiant, Worrell was waiting for him, accompanied by Tania Kenny.

Tania had been hitchhiking earlier that day and had travelled to Adelaide from Victor Harbour, a seaside town 70 kilometres south of Adelaide. Apparently Tania had no reason not to trust the two men and sat in the front seat between them. Miller drove Tania and Worrell to his sister’s home. He determined that his sister was not at home, and then Worrell and Tania got out of the car and went inside. Miller waited in the car for them.

About a half an hour later, Worrell returned to the car and immediately Miller knew that Tania was dead. He went inside and into the playroom and saw Tania’s body bound tightly with rope. She had adhesive tape across her mouth. Like Veronica Knight, she was fully clothed, but Miller saw the telltale signs on her neck and knew that Worrell had strangled her. According to Miller, another argument ensued between him and Worrell. Again, Worrell threatened to kill him if he did not help hide the body. So they concealed Tania’s body in a cupboard and left the house, returning later that evening when the cover of night offered them the best protection against would-be witnesses who might see them transporting the body to Miller’s car.

During the day Miller and Worrell had dug a shallow grave at the back of the Dean Rifle Range at Wingfield in Adelaide’s west. Miller helped Worrell lift Tania's body into the car and assisted in transporting her body to the grave. Miller told police later that he had only done this because he did not want his sister to be involved in the murder. Once again the opportunity for Miller to tell police and stop the killing presented itself. Yet he was besotted with his violent friend, and chose to go along meekly with Worrell’s murderous spree. He decided to continue his role as chauffeur while Worrell trawled the streets of Adelaide for his next victim.

• • •

At 9 p.m. on 21 January 1977, Worrell met 16-year-old Juliet Mykyta on the steps of Adelaide’s Ambassador Hotel in King William Street. Juliet was a student at Marsden High School, and had taken a summer job selling jewellery from a stall in Rundle Mall. Earlier that evening, Juliet had telephoned her parents to tell them that she had been asked to work back and would be home late. When approached by Worrell, Juliet was sitting on the steps of the hotel’s entrance, waiting for a bus to take her home.

The offer of a lift home must have been too hard for young Juliet to resist, and she happily got into the car with Miller in the driver’s seat. Worrell got into the car and sat on her other side. Miller then drove to a secluded place off Port Wakefield Road. Just moments after Miller parked the car, Worrell forced the young girl into the back seat. Miller remained in the car and saw Worrell tie Juliet’s hands together with a length of rope. She tried to fight Worrell off, but he was too strong and bound her limbs tightly. Miller left the car, walked a short distance away and waited for Worrell to perform his perverted acts. He heard Worrell and Juliet shouting, and then saw Juliet struggle out of the car before falling to the ground. Worrell kicked her and forced her onto her back. With Juliet subdued, he placed both his knees on her chest and proceeded to strangle her with rope.

Miller later told police that he had sought to intervene to prevent Worrell from murdering the young girl. He had grabbed at Worrell’s arm, but Worrell had pushed him away and threatened to kill him if he intervened again. Miller tamely walked away. Miller claimed that when he returned, Juliet’s body was already in the back of the car. Worrell was in a dark and violent mood, and when he ordered Miller to drive the car to Truro, Miller did as he was told. He drove the hour’s journey to the tiny country town and headed towards Swamp Road as before. However, acting on Worrell’s instructions, he drove past where they had placed the body of Veronica Knight. On this occasion Worrell selected a site near an abandoned farmhouse as the place for disposing of Juliet Mykyta’s body. Both men carried the fully clothed body into thick trees and covered it with branches and leaves. Miller then drove Worrell back to Adelaide.

• • •

On 6 February 1977, Worrell commenced a killing spree that led to the murders of a further four young women in just six days. Clearly his appetite for murder had increased. James Miller acted as his accomplice throughout the rampage.

Sixteen-year-old Sylvia Pittman was accosted by Worrell while waiting for a train at Adelaide Station. Sylvia got into the car with Worrell, and Miller drove to the Windang area. As soon as Miller had parked the car, Worrell told him to get out and go for a walk. Miller claimed that he returned about 20 minutes later to find Sylvia’s body already in the back seat of the car, partially covered by a rug. He noticed that a pair of pantyhose had been used to strangle her. Worrell bluntly ordered Miller to drive the car to Truro. He now knew that Worrell became sullen and uncommunicative after committing a murder, and Miller believed that underneath the cold, morose silence the threat of violence was never far away.

The two made the grim drive to Truro again. Sylvia’s fully clothed body was taken to a fresh site next to Swamp Road and left there under a scattering of leaves and branches. For some reason Worrell had not, on this occasion, felt the need to tie or gag his victim.

Less than 24 hours later, Miller received a telephone call from Worrell who told him to meet him outside the Adelaide GPO at 7 p.m. that evening. When Miller arrived at the designated spot in his car, he saw that Worrell was with a young woman. She was 26-year-old Vicki Howell. Vicki and Miller struck up a conversation, and Miller took an immediate liking to the friendly and outgoing young woman.

Miller drove the car along the Barossa Valley Highway past Gawler again, but this time, he claimed, he had few concerns about the safety of his passenger. Worrell appeared to be in good spirits, and when they passed Nuriootpa, Vicki asked Miller to stop the car so she could use a toilet at a service station. Worrell allowed Vicki to leave the car and Miller believed this was a sign that Worrell would do her no harm. Afterwards, as they drove on, Miller had to stop the car so he could relieve himself. He left the couple chatting amiably in the car. He returned a few minutes later and found the two continuing the conversation. He went off into the bush again, feeling confident that Worrell would not hurt his new friend.

Shortly afterwards, Miller returned to the car and was shocked to find Worrell leaning over the front seat, gingerly placing a blanket over the body of Vicki Howell. She had been strangled. Miller berated Worrell. He could not understand why the likeable woman had to die. But, by then, the black cloud had descended over Worrell, and when Miller’s anger subsided, he began to fear for his own life. Worrell and Miller drove to Truro in silence with Vicki Howell’s body on the floor in the back of the car. Miller later recalled that he was terrified of Worrell when he (Worrell) was in that kind of mood. He believed he was obliged to do Worrell’s bidding, no matter how ghastly it was. Worrell instructed Miller to drive to Truro, where they hid the body under foliage, then drove back to Adelaide.

On 9 February 1977, Miller and Worrell were again driving through the streets of Adelaide. Worrell had noticed a girl – 16-year-old Connie Iordanides – standing on the roadside. An effervescent teenager, Connie was full of life and, like many young people, was not prone to distrust strangers. Miller turned the vehicle and pulled up alongside the teenager. Connie, naive and easygoing, accepted the offer of a lift and climbed into the front seat next to Worrell. The car sped off, and moments later, the young girl suspected something was terribly wrong. Screaming and fighting with Worrell, she was forced into the back seat. Miller drove a further 20 kilometres to a quiet spot near Wingfield and left the car, fully knowing what horrors awaited Connie. He went for a walk, and when he returned, Connie Iordanides’s lifeless body lay in the back seat. Worrell had raped her, then he had strangled her.

Miller drove the car along the well-beaten trail to Truro and again helped Worrell to dispose of the body along Swamp Road. Driving home to Adelaide, the rigours of murder weighing heavily on their bodies and minds, Miller and Worrell parked the car at a racetrack and slept there for the night.

On 12 February 1977, seven days before his own death, Worrell committed his last murder. This time his victim was 20-year-old Deborah Lamb. Driving around one of their popular haunts near the City Bowl, Worrell saw Deborah hitchhiking. Miller was told to pull the car to the kerb and Deborah was offered a lift. Worrell told her that he could take Deborah as far as Port Gawler, the location of one of his previous murders. Eager to be on her way, Deborah accepted the lift and jumped into the car.

When the trio arrived at the beach at Port Gawler, Miller claimed he left Deborah and Worrell alone and took off for a walk along the sand dunes. When he returned, Worrell was outside the car, busying himself by kicking sand into a hole with his foot. Miller claimed he could not see the girl anywhere. Two years later, however, he was able to lead police directly to Deborah Lamb’s grave.

According to forensic evidence obtained after the discovery of Deborah Lamb’s body, she may have been buried alive. At Miller’s trial, the Director of Forensic Pathology at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Dr C. H. Manock, told the court that it was possible that Deborah had been alive when Worrell had placed her in the makeshift grave. Dr Manock stated that, despite the advanced state of decomposition of the body when it was finally found on 23 May 1979, ‘the sand and shell grit would have formed an obstruction to the airway and prevented air from entering the air passages’. When Dr Manock examined Deborah’s body, he noticed a pair of pantyhose wrapped seven times around her mouth and jaw. She would have invariably asphyxiated in any case, but Dr Manock’s evidence led the court to believe in the distinct possibility that Deborah may have died the most terrifying of deaths.

• • •

As the victims’ bodies remained undiscovered, it took the death of Worrell for the killing to finally cease. On 19 February 1977, just one week after the murder of Deborah Lamb, Worrell was killed in a motor vehicle accident while driving home from Mount Gambier. Miller, the sole survivor of the murderous duo, was charged with seven counts of murder. His trial began in February 1980 in South Australia’s Supreme Court. He pleaded not guilty to all seven charges.

Miller’s defence was that he had not participated in the murders and that his love for Worrell, according to the counsel for defence, K.P. Duggan QC, had led him to be ‘trapped in a web of circumstance’. His defence was predicated on the argument that he was the scapegoat for the murders. With Worrell dead, the defence asserted, the police had pursued Miller as if he was the sole perpetrator of the unspeakable crimes. According to Mr Duggan:

He was just waiting for Worrell and there was no joint enterprise as far as he was concerned. Although Miller admits that he handled the situation incorrectly, he maintains that he is not a murderer.

The prosecution took the view that Miller’s actions made him as guilty of the murders as Worrell. The Crown Prosecutor, B.J. Jennings SC, argued that Miller and Worrell had collaborated to pick the girls up and that Miller was well aware of the fate that awaited the seven girls each time he pulled his car to the kerb to allow Worrell to entice them into the vehicle. In his summing up to the jury, Mr Jennings ripped the defence to shreds:

Mr Miller referred to the girls as ‘rags’. That was the attitude that led him to throw in his lot with Worrell. No rapist and murderer could have had a more faithful or obliging ally. You will never know the truth. But have no doubt that it is a horrible truth that these young women were murdered because they were going to point the finger at the young man who tied them up and sexually abused them. They could also point the finger at the older man who ignored their plight and their terror. If a man assists another by driving him to a place where a girl is going to be raped and killed, then he is guilty of murder.

On 12 March 1980, the jury returned with a verdict. Miller was found guilty of six counts of murder and not guilty of the murder of the first victim, Veronica Knight. The jury believed that he had not known that Worrell intending killing Veronica on the night of 23 December 1976. As Miller stood passively in the dock, Mr Justice Matheson sentenced him to six life sentences. As he was taken from the court, he glared at Detective Sergeant Lawrie and screamed: ‘You filthy liar, Lawrie – you mongrel.’

• • •

Over the years Miller continued to protest his innocence. Back at his old home in Yatala Jail but now in its notorious maximum-security wing, he went on hunger strikes and on one occasion drew attention to his case by staging a 43-day ‘strike’ from the rooftop of the jail. Interviewed after he was talked down from the prison roof, Miller stated:

Nobody turns into a cold-blooded murderer overnight or helps commit murder. I’m just an ordinary thief, no killer. I have never been a violent man. I was there at the time and for that I am guilty of an unforgivable felony. I fully deserve the life sentences I am currently serving. I am serving out a life sentence for Chris. But I never killed any of those girls. That’s the truth.

Later, in an interview, Miller said: ‘They can give me life for knowing about the murders and not reporting them. But they charged me with murder as a payback for not informing on Worrell. It’s a load of bullshit.’ In the same interview Miller showed his true colours when he said:

Chris Worrell was my best friend in the world. If he had lived maybe 70 would have been killed. And I wouldn’t have dobbed him in.

In 1999, 19 years after being sentenced to life in prison, Miller applied to the South Australian Supreme Court to have a non-parole period attached to his sentence. South Australia’s Chief Justice, John Doyle, granted Miller’s application and fixed a 35-year non-parole period on his original sentence. James William Miller, fixated and obsessed with the evil Christopher Worrell, became an accomplice and collaborator to the evil that became known as the Truro murders. He would have been eligible for parole in 2014. However, on 21 October 2008, aged 68, Miller died of terminal cancer.