richard kelvin autopsy report

And so Robinson, with his cropped hair and short moustache, cruises back past the Mercedes. Kelvin was 15 years old at the time of his death. I was a bit wary because when I first went up there to identify them they told me [the suspects] were police officers, Williamson recalls. It was 1978. A 1992 poll in The Bulletin revealed South Australia with its proud history of social progressiveness was in fact the least tolerant towards homosexuals of all states. CLASS. But then a head pops up in the back seat. If you were brought before the courts, your name would be splashed across the front pages, says Reeves. Despite the intricate details of von Einem's alibi and his version of events, his alibi had two huge problemsit completely contradicted his initial statement of his whereabouts on 5 June 1983, where he said he was in bed with the flu. He liked this last part of his work the least. Under cross-examination, the prosecution were able to show inconsistencies in her current testimony compared to her earlier statements to police about von Einem's whereabouts on the weekend of 45 June, which weakened the defence case considerably as this highlighted von Einem's change the previous February of his account of what happened on the night of 5 June 1983. This is something I was told repeatedly. I was sent in as bait because of how young I looked to lure guys into the bushes. Photographs of von Einem at the party were also tendered to the court. Three months later, however, Woodlands death would become a whole lot more. Youre on the side of the road. Williamson got a good enough look at the bloke to decide that he was, indeed, larger. I remember the kids saying they did it because they were gay and easy prey. When that was on the news my boss said to me, I think its time you left. And I said, Is it because of the court case? And he said, Well thatll be your word against mine, wont it.. Mildwaters version of what happened next (contested by Lindsay) is that Lindsay came into her room and told her to clean up the mess. So we took this up with Klunder the minister and said, You know, we warned you this was going to happen.. No mates in sight. And the murders and bashings werent confined to NSW. Theres an insecure and rather clumsy anxiety about masculinity among many young men in our society and I think a simple way to achieve some sort of masculine status and some sort of peer-group respect for themselves is to actually carry out gay bashings., The attacks were marked by their frenzied nature and while murder was usually not the intention, there was usually a reckless indifference to the outcome, Tomsen says, noting that the attackers were often surprised when police took the cases seriously. Everybody thought I was gay but nobody had enough guts to say anything. I said to them on a number of occasions, Youll drown one one day. *Warning: graphic content and mentions of sexual abuse ahead. The prosecution was led by Brian Martin QC (later the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory), with assistance from Paul Rofe QC (who went on to be Director of the Department of Public Prosecutions). Finally, there was Richard Kelvin (15, last picture), the son of a famous local news presenter. His leg was broken, as were some ribs. And I said I understood and that Id be pleased if he would talk to some of the people who were my staff volunteers.. It has moved to where the Valiant had previously been parked. Four days after Richard Kelvin's body was discovered, von Einem was questioned by the police about the murder. They were students. After that I never returned.. Kelvin was 15 years old at the time of his death. I came around to discover I still had my wallet; that I had my shoelaces around my throat which had left a slight mark and I sort of staggered drunkenly back to the car.. They took Pitchers mobile phone and Zito phoned his own mum. Not at all camp, the 41-year-old had spent a lot of his working life in the freezer of a chicken processor. I was parked on South Terrace. In inner-city parks, a Gday and a groin rub might be all the sign thats needed to head behind a bush. And well never know how much of a thing. He kept looking at me with a smiling face, Blaxland would recall. By the time it was passed, it was considerably watered down, but over the next few years South Australia became the first state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality. Lindsay asked his friend, Luke Hutchings, to hold Negre down so he could go through his pockets. In 2007, Mark Anthony Ninnes was convicted of manslaughter over the death of Walter Handley in the carpark. The Attorney-General of South Australia immediately appealed the leniency of the non-parole period, and on 29 March 1985 the Court of Criminal Appeal in South Australia increased the non-parole period to 36 years, a record at the time in that state. You pull a patch of them in one spot and they spring up somewhere else. But he did try. However, police raids on various locations around Adelaide linked to von Einem yielded few clues. In February 2005, the police knocked on his door, went into his house, had a look around but couldnt find him. Furthermore, the quantity of fibres on Kelvin's clothes was far too large to suggest that Kelvin was in his company for only two hours. They gave him a towel and offered to take him to hospital, but he declined. Lewis pauses again: Its well documented and not only in the case of Robert Woodland, but in many other such instances, theyre bashed to shutem up, and if that doesnt shutem up, then bash em a bit harder and they wont ever be able to stand up, let alone walk up, and talk up, again.. The High Court ordered a retrial. And then he just slipped away the river swallowed him. One of the attackers stripped to his underwear and dived in as if to rescue the other man, but he had disappeared. Tom, who described himself as bisexual, told police he wasnt there to hook up, but had gone to see if there was anything on connected with the Festival of Arts. Different beats have their own rhythms and cultures. However, it turned out to be impossible to corroborate these allegations. So after he makes sure the Valiant isnt following him, Robinson drives off to buy fuel. Thats the day I lost all faith in the legal system, our whole system of government. One of them was Peter Millhouse, who died in a retirement home in 2015. Frustrated by the deadlock, Utting wrote a letter to the inquiry head, Ted Mullighan, outlining the allegations that had been made about the prominent citizens. He was next seen at 1.30am by two women who approached him a block away from the Mars Bar, heading away from Veale Gardens near Adelaides Chinatown. We talk for a while about the Duncan murder and how one of the acquitted officers ended up owning a pub where people would go wanting to see the bloke who threw Duncan in the river. Why? [11], On 28 March 2008, the ABC reported that the child pornography found in von Einem's cell had been determined not to have been written by him and that fingerprints did not match. Autopsy Reports Shannon did a trade in selling milk and newspapers out of his van to these blokes so theyd have something to take to their wives. By this time, I had my act sorted out, got a job and an apartment. They were there to find out about these allegations.. Von Einem stated he thought Kelvin had bisexual tendencies and said that the two of them then had a conversation about problems Kelvin had been having at school, and Kelvin willingly got into the car and they drove to von Einem's home. There, he was bashed, hit in the head with an axe and had his throat cut. But the other reason was they were afraid that the public sympathy over what had happened might be diminished if it came out that Ken was gay and that he was doing the beat. Utting says they told police what they knew but were guarded in what documents they handed over. His lawyer believed a handwriting analysis would clear von Einem. Meanwhile, the Mullighan inquiry into the sexual abuse of children in state care found that it was very common for state wards to run away and head to the beat at Veale Gardens to make money, much as Brad Shannon had done. The detective clarified that there had been no aggression from the victim. And the older ones tended to be involved more in the gay panic murders, rather than the poofter bashing homicides. At 10.30pm of April 16, 1991, he stumbled across South Terrace and collapsed into bushes where he was found, covered in blood, by a passer-by. I was completely extended and I just felt and heard a crack and I knew I had broken something.. The Saint family didnt hear from police again until recently when a detective from the new cold-case unit rang her brother asking to use Johns image on a deck of playing cards that was to be distributed to prisons. How big a purse do you carry? No, no, no, please dont say these things over the phone at the moment, Steve, for Gods sake, youre trying to get arrested before I even attempt to try to protect myself. Lindsay said he could have a bed upstairs. A person had been bashed to death on South Terrace, and the description fitted what hed had on when he left home. I looked around me and looked into the rear-vision mirror and I could not see anyone else around. They were professionals and managers. Plans to change the law in Queensland are back on the drawing board. The words The Fruit Pirates were graffitied on a chair there. A guy in his 20s in the drivers seat. The gay men victim and witnesses were all questioned at length about what it was they were doing in Veale Gardens and about such germane matters as where they would have had sex had they met the right man. In all his cruising days he only had two incidents. Pins in his leg. The autopsy revealed that Kelvin had most certainly died from massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a blunt object, such as a beer bottle, and he suffered bruising and injuries to his head and back, which were likely to have been caused by blows. Von Einem was the leading suspect in the unsolved murders of four other young men between 1979 and 1982, and police continued to pursue leads on those cases in the years after his murder conviction. She decided to call him to find out where hed got to. They spent the next three years in court. But his movements would remain unclear. Homosexuals got together with each other and had great parties, says historian Tim Reeves. He was asked if he kept any other drugs in his possession, and he said no. Rubber burned. He could have killed me but didnt. The whole squad had been ordered to attend a farewell booze-up the previous night where hed endured a lot of bravado from his colleagues about their escapades with the queers down at the river. I didnt know what it was at the time. So I think I asked one of them to speak or to turn around or something, and then he said to the police officer, Is that all sir? and I thought, Hang on. Police previously did see this harp in his room when they seized the drugs. Neither of Lewiss researchers, victims rights advocate Wendy Utting and Lewiss old school friend Barry Standfield, have strong recollections of Woodland or what he said. The acquittal came as a shock to the gay community. von Einem was found guilty of the murder and was automatically sentenced to life at Yatala Labour Prison. That never goes away.. In 1983, 11 years after Von Einem had rescued Roger James on the night George Duncan was murdered, he abducted a 15-year-old boy, Richard Kelvin, the son of long-time Adelaide Channel Nine newsreader Rob Kelvin. Four months after Pitchers attack, Mark Coonie, 34, left Adelaides most prominent gay nightspot, the Mars Bar, saying he was headed for Veale Gardens. The Family Murders *Warning: graphic content and | Amateur Even so, OShea felt the Scotland Yard investigation was a snow job from the start. But he battled away for a decade. But she couldnt help but wonder if shed caused his death by setting up the meeting. In 1983, I was placed in a foster home by my parents. On a clifftop in Sydneys Manly on sunny weekends, men were divided into seekers and seekees: the seekees might be sunbaking naked until a shadow appears over them the seekee. Autopsy: The Last Hours of Documentary series. Milton Keynes: Fatal police shooting 'necessary', watchdog finds self-control and do what the accused in fact did?, He further explained that: Losing self-control means what it says; it must be more than mere anger or panic. Asked if his friend Londema had punched the victim, Verco replied that he didnt know. Neighbors reported hearing several voices shouting around the time Richard disappeared. Within a week, police had declared robbery as the motive. Von Einem admitted that the drugs were his and said that he used them to help him sleep. Faced with such damning scientific evidence, the defence tried to counter this during cross-examination by floating a possible theory that after von Einem's last contact with Kelvin, he had been abducted by other people, who had stored his clothing for five weeks before murdering him and re-dressing him. The reward for any information leading to an arrest for the murders was increased to $250,000, and this was later increased to $500,000 in September 1989 and then to $1,000,000 in March 2008. WebAutopsy: The Last Hours of: With Michael Hunter, Eric Meyers, Linda Papadopoulos, Iain Glen. Karen Carpenter: Directed by Ros Edwards. At the time, a witness gave the police a name they would hear again: Bevan Spencer von Eimen. During their search they found a prescription for Mandrax issued to a B. von Einem, a name familiar to police as he was questioned previously over the deaths of three young men and an alleged sexual assault of another. His housemate, Brigette Mildwaters, told him to let Negre go. The prosecution then rested its case. The whole group saw it, and they heard Lindsay tell him to stop. Saint was the nine of spades. Duncans boss, the head of law at Adelaide University, Professor Horst Lucke, started writing letters to The Advertiser agitating for further inquiries. About how his mate got out for a leak and was suddenly wrestling with the old guy. OShea didnt report seeing them in the city which would have contradicted their version of events. One night at Veale Gardens, someone yelled out Bashers! and everyone ran. The gay communitys embrace of Saint and his death left his siblings in something of a quandary. Of course, it didn't. When asked about drugs, von Einem did admit he had Mandrax. He left. They each received minimum sentences of 16 months. Suddenly there was a person behind me and they sort of said, Do you give it or take it? he told the ABCs Simon Royal in 2005. Report Completed: No: Type of Exam: 2307891: Denton: Anthony, Bertha, Bell: 7/11/1937: 85: 4/29/2023: Black: F: Police Department: Police Svc #: Deceased Address: What have we done? Von Einem took James to hospital where the alarm was raised. However, police raids on various locations around Adelaide linked to von Einem and his associates yielded few clues. But Doig gave up his wallet and his PIN without resistance. The murders focused attention on the sort of things that went bump and grind in the night, and threw up rumours about a cadre of paedophiles in high places. The family closed ranks. But he claims his attempts were hamstrung by police seeming to somehow know of their planned meetings in advance and being there waiting. He had died from the head injuries. To answer evidence about how fibres from von Einem's bed had come to be on Kelvin's clothes, von Einem stated that the two of them had sat on his bed and played with the large gold harp which he kept in his bedroom. Police previously did see this harp in his room when they seized the drugs. On numerous occasions while researching this story, I was told stories of men attempting to report such crimes but being jeered out of the station once the officer heard where theyd been, what theyd been doing. Von Einem first came to attention on the night of 10 May 1972 when two gay men were thrown into the River Torrens by a group of men believed to be police officers. Eventually, Negre grew tired. Which might not seem surprising to the lay person, given that his defence was that he was not provoked into murder because he said he didnt commit murder. No mention of the homosexual motive was made when the three were convicted, either. He pulled out an axe and hit him in the head with it, twice, before slitting his throat. Beat is a peculiarly Australian usage for the places where men cruise for casual sex with other men. The defence opted for von Einem to give an unsworn statement from the dock, rather than give sworn evidence from the witness box. I never saw any stat dec by him. It must be such, as in a case like this, it causes the accuseds blood to boil to the extent where reason has been temporarily suspended. Negre said he didnt want to be alone. Youve got no say., Blaxland heard someone walk to his car and that was the last thing hed remember until a voice: Try and hold on. What did the guy do that she killed? her housemate asked. The 25-year-old comes here a lot. The attackers ran off. The 43-year olds boyfriend and estranged husband went back and forth over who was to blame for Kellys death, which was initially reported to be the result of an Past the toilet block. I ask how hed remembered the number plate 20 years later. The medical examiner looks for any signs of disease or injury that may have contributed to the death. WebA forensic autopsy is the examination of a body by a medical examiner with specialized training. The guy moans and rolls over, revealing a face covered in blood. Bevan Spencer von Einem - Wikipedia She moved house a couple of times. The family had a distant cousin Bob, a married man whod become a woman, explains Helen. Rutkin asked his inspector friend why. This was a time when, according to Ian Purcell, two men living in the same house could be convicted on the basis of an un slept-in bed and an open jar of Vaseline. There must be more in the car., Well take what we want anyhow, the guy replied. Analysis of Kelvin's bloodstream revealed traces of four hypnotic drugs, including Mandrax and Noctec. They said a body had been found. The purchaser of von Einem's Ford Falcon detailed the condition of the car, and the relative who hosted the birthday party on 10 July stated that von Einem and his mother had arrived there at 5:30pm and left at 10:30pm. He said, You better get going. The victims came flooding through the Speakers door with their stories of abuse. There was a youngish man sitting on the bonnet of the vehicle, he would later say. Further down the river, 27-year-old Roger James was walking home from dinner with a friend. Hes now 73, and still behind bars, and has been hardly a model prisoner, having been accused of raping another inmate and convicted of possessing child pornography in 2009. He said he couldnt recognise his attackers even though hed been tricked into getting out of his car to follow one of them down to the river bank. According to Professor Stephen Tomsen from the University of Western Sydney, the criminologist who did a lot of the work in identifying the 88 NSW cases, the only reason similar potential gay-hate murders havent been found else where is that no ones gone looking. But its also a matter of convenience, he says. The other victim, Roger James, was brought into police headquarters on crutches. When I went looking back over old unsolved murder cases and the few assaults that had managed to make the papers around the country, Adelaide kept popping up. You get a lot of married men.. He spits bile at me through the hard mesh screen about the way the judge let the families in the gallery yell out faggot and poofter when he and other witnesses took the stand. He admitted going home and putting his bloodied jeans and his Metallica T-shirt in cold water to soak before washing them the next day. And then one day while opening her front door, Utting was attacked. Saint didnt make it. And not only did the police mostly turn a blind eye to it, but sometimes, it is believed, they were the perpetrators. For every death, there were dozens of assaults that went unreported. That crew had left the pub about 10pm. A parishioner found his body the next morning. Im going to gaol for the rest of my life, arent I, sister girl?. A forensic pathologist (currently Dr. Michael Hunter) analyzes the official autopsy reports of various celebrities to determine their cause of death. He also addressed the issue of the noisy exhaust on the car heard during the abduction of Kelvin, by stating that the exhaust on his Ford Falcon (which von Einem had sold on 16 July 1983, purportedly to raise money for his overseas trip) was less than two years old and in good condition. While the forensic scientists conceded that this was a possible scenario, under renewed cross-examination by the prosecution, they conceded that it would be still unlikely given the whole science of how fibres and hair are transferred from surface to surface over time. It became rather surreal at the time. He doesnt want to overstate the perils. Earlier surveys had the number at nine out of 10. This was, in part, due to a series of murders which would go a long way to cementing Adelaides reputation for particularly sick sadism. WIthin five weeks of the discovery of Moores body, Lewiss failure to hand over the documents and a video tape (which hed never claimed to possess) to police led to him being forced to resign as Speaker. I'm always open to questions, comments, suggestions or requests. Lindsay stole a Subaru Liberty and robbed an On The Run convenience store. When I asked why police said robbery was the motive for David Saints murder, they answered: The motive for his murder remains unclear with no evidence to suggest that it was robbery.. Lewis told me that the perpetrators had infiltrated the police service and its administration and evidence was then either corrupted or destroyed. Zito joined in. Immediately following the David Saint murder, in reading the media reports from police it became obvious to us that they were treating it as a burglary gone wrong. More people suspected in the abduction and murder of Richard Kelvin Within days, Walter Handley was killed with a single gunshot wound to the head while attempting to buy a gun in the car park of the Smithfield Plains Sports Club. As a vice squad officer, the diligent 22-year-old had a duty to uphold the laws against gambling, SP bookmakers and prostitution, to monitor the nightclubs and to keep the homos in check. As to the allegations that Woodland apparently made, a police spokesperson said there was no evidence that he reported on high profile people, no evidence he was abused as a child, no evidence to substantiate his claim. A study in Melbourne showed that seven out of 10 LGBTQI people still dont report assaults and harassment. Kevin Williamson, whod spoken to the attackers, remembered exactly what they looked like but told investigators he couldnt recognise them. Days later, Masterson confessed to Houston police that hed killed Honeycutt by strangling him in a sleeper hold. I dont have any doubt that that was the reason for him being murdered, he says. He took his parents to the Melbourne Cup when they got too old for their regular coach trip. His body was found a week later, and the details that came out in the autopsy were beyond disturbing. von Einem was quite sketchy on his activities after that, however he did remember what he did on 10 July, the day the body was dumped on the airstrip. Instead, the women drove him home to the suburb of Dover Gardens. Tarrant County And my successes in all those years were generally in areas around the beats. Shaine Moore was lying under his doona, bulked up with pillows, with a red line around his throat where hed been strangled with a shoelace. Then his car got a bump from the back. I remember a guy in my footy team, Gavin, boasting about doing it. Attempts were made to link Von Einem to the other murders but the Kelvin murder was the only one that stuck. And somewhere in there, most of the people present heard Negre say, Ill pay you for sex, then.. Woodlands body was found on the Wednesday. Like so much else, Woodlands death had been swallowed by the darkness. And certainly the gay community saw it as a hate crime. I was made to feel like an outcast. And while the straight cops like OShea were dragging gay men into the legal system, throwing them in prison cells, the bent cops were coming at them from a different angle. I hope the bastards who did this to me have lived a horrible life, died from an awfully painful cancer.. That was Bevan Von Einem. In 2007, his ex-boyfriend, David Richard Fraser, took a plea deal and confessed to having strangled him in an auto-erotic sex game gone wrong. Kelvin also had a dog collar around his neck, which may have attracted von Einem's attention. Mr. Justice White imposed a non-parole period of 24 years. WebDocumentary Biography. An ingrained culture whose legacy re-mains in a fear of reporting crimes and in the gay-panic defence, whereby, in two states, you can still kill a bloke and have it downgraded to manslaughter by saying, He came on to me.. Penley said the most common assaults were well-planned, with gangs jumping out of cars and dragging their victims off to be kicked, bashed and left bleeding in the darkness. The Richard family was in the courtroom when Martin's autopsy report was read. But then, a partial victory. He said, Look, I think you should carry something. And I said, No, no, no. And he said, What about a sawn-off shotgun? (Queensland and the Northern Territory have taken this mantle in more recent surveys.). Autopsy Report Did a Dubious Confession Sway a Medical Examiner
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