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The Japanese Tourist Murder Mystery: The Crimes of Robert Raymond Day

The trial and sentencing of Robert Day for attempted murder is one of the most unusual in Australia’s history. In all major trials, juries are protected as well as can be from any knowledge of a defendant’s previous record, as it is deemed that it may sway their vote and the defendant may not get a fair trial. Also deemed to be prejudicial against the defendant is the introduction to the court by the prosecution of what is known as ‘similar fact’ evidence, which is evidence of an identical nature from a previous trial in which the defendant may have been convicted of a crime.

One case that comes immediately to mind is that of Barrie Gordon Hadlow. After he had been convicted of murdering a nine-year-old girl in Roma in rural Queensland in 1990, the jury was informed that Hadlow had committed an identical crime upon a five-year-old girl in Townsville 28 years earlier. Hadlow had been released five years earlier, after serving 23 years of a life sentence. One of the ladies in the jury fainted to think that they could have found the double child murderer not guilty.

In the case of Robert Day, none of that ultimately mattered to the judge, who had just sat through a previous trial in which Day was charged with murder but was eventually found innocent. To the judge’s mind, Day was obviously as guilty as sin. The judge used what he had seen and heard in the previous murder trial in the sentencing of Day in the new attempted murder case in which Day was found guilty. As it turned out, the judge’s controversial decision proved to be an excellent one when the murder victim’s body turned up a few years later.

In 1990, Brisbane labourer Robert Raymond Day, 37, was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole for the attempted murder of Danish tourist Hendrik Enevoldsen in December 1988. Explaining why he recommended that Day never be released, Justice Shepherdson said that a psychiatric report described Day as being capable of extremely violent behaviour.

Day was described as a ‘dangerous man’, and Justice Shepherdson believed there was an extremely high risk that he would reoffend in the same manner. The judge went on to order that gaol authorities be informed of his remarks ‘for the protection of fellow prisoners’. Two years earlier, on 23 December 1988, Day had appeared in the Cleveland Magistrates Court charged with the attempted murder of 21-year-old Enevoldsen. Seven days later, on 30 December 1988, Day was also charged in the Brisbane Magistrates Court with the murder of 22-year-old Japanese tourist Noriyuki Oda, who had last been seen buying bus tickets to Alice Springs on 4 December. From there Mr Oda had vanished.

Day entered no plea to charges of the bodyless murder of Oda, attempted murder of Enevoldsen and assaulting a police officer, and was remanded in custody. It was alleged in court that detectives found Japanese-brand items – including shampoo, conditioner, tissues and a pen – in a flat used by Day. A friend of Mr Oda’s was flown in from Japan and identified the pen as similar to one she had given Mr Oda when they worked together in Japan. The witness also identified an unusual brand of tissues found at Day’s apartment as the same ones she had sold Mr Oda before he left for Australia. On top of this evidence, authorities found an Oriental amulet, alleged to have been Mr Oda’s, in a rubbish bin at Day’s flat. They also found a pair of handcuffs.

During the case, Hendrik Enevoldsen, the Danish tourist Day was charged with attempting to murder, told the court he had travelled with Day to Redland Bay, and that Day had attacked him there from behind with a piece of timber. Enevoldsen was taking pictures of a hollow tree near a bushland swamp at the time. He said Day then tried to drown him in the swamp, but he managed to escape and flag down a passing motorist.

At his trial for the murder of Mr Oda, it was alleged that Day had confessed the Japanese tourist’s murder to two Brisbane Gaol inmates. And there was more: it was said that he had asked one of the men who was about to be released if the man could murder another Japanese person to give the impression that there was a serial killer on the loose, which would help Day’s defence case.

In his alleged confession to the two prisoners, Day is said to have told them he had handcuffed Mr Oda to a tree before pouring petrol at his feet and taunting him, saying, ‘You burn, you burn.’ As Mr Oda was set ablaze, Day said he pleaded and cried out in Japanese. Day was alleged to have buried the dead body in a 44-gallon drum full of chemicals.

During the trial, Mr Justice Shepherdson ruled that a Japanese handwriting expert could only give evidence according to a particular basis of comparison with Japanese characters on documents accepted as Mr Oda’s, and characters written on a cassette case found in Day’s flat. But the expert went further in his evidence. Acting for Day, Bill Cuthbert then submitted that his case had been prejudiced because he could not cross-examine on evidence that the jury had heard, but the judge had then ruled inadmissible.

The trial was aborted after 20 days of legal argument. It had heard from 20 witnesses, including 13 flown in from Japan. In discharging the jury, Justice Shepherdson said that regardless of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs incurred, if he allowed the case to continue he would be left with a strong sense of unfairness to Day.

Day was finally retried for Mr Oda’s murder in June 1990 and he was acquitted. But he remained in custody facing the charge of the attempted murder of Hendrik Enevoldsen. On 1 November 1990, Day was found guilty on that charge. This time, Justice Shepherdson said that he was concerned about similarities in the evidence about the death of Mr Oda and the attempted murder of Hendrik Enevoldsen. ‘I heard sworn testimony in the Oda death trial that certainly suggested this man killed the Japanese man Mr Oda,’ Justice Shepherdson said. ‘I realise that Day has been acquitted of that charge but what concerns me is that this offence involving Mr Enevoldsen occurred two to three weeks after Mr Oda disappeared when it was said, in Mr Oda’s case, the accused had killed him.’

On 7 December 1990, Day was sent to prison with the recommendation that he never be released. In the psychiatric report that played such an important role in the judge’s sentence, it was revealed that at the age of 18, in 1971, Day had entered a block of flats one afternoon and confronted a 55-year-old crippled woman with a knife. The report stated that Day had attacked and sexually assaulted the woman as she was crawling across the floor to change the television channel. Day was released in 1982 after serving 11 years for the crime.

On 8 April 1993, the remains of Noriyuki Oda were found in a bush grave in the Beerburrum State Forest, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. He had died from severe head injuries administered by an ‘instrument of some kind’. To this day, Robert Day maintains his innocence in relation to the crimes.