Murder in the Land of Oz

Trigger warnings: murder, sexual violence, assault.

Lynette Daley was a 31-year-old Aboriginal woman who lived in the Clarence Valley, northern NSW. She was a mother of seven and a beloved daughter who had fallen on hard times and was experiencing homelessness. In 2011, on Australia Day, two local lowlifes asked her to accompany them on a camping trip to the isolated Ten Mile Beach, north of Iluka. They kept Lynette drinking throughout the day, and at night, while Lynette was too drunk to fight back, they performed a violent sex act that left Lynette with internal lacerations so severe that she bled to death. Despite a colossal amount of evidence against the two men who committed this heinous crime, the Department of Public Prosecutions repeatedly declined to prosecute the case.

This lack of care from the government led Lynette’s family to wonder: if a white woman was left to die at the hands of two black men, would they have been allowed to go free?

Lynette Daley’s case did a lot to expose the biases that are inherent within our court system. While no official ever came out and said that Lynette was treated differently due to being Indigenous, many of the nation’s top legal minds were on hand to point out the bloody obvious. Lynette’s family had to endure years of torment and anguish as the men who killed their daughter in a such a violent and degrading manner were allowed to walk free.

If you’re in Australia, you can watch the episode of Four Corners entitled Callous Disregard which covers Lynette’s case here https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/callous-disregard-promo/7388056

You can read more about the case and the inquest here https://countingthewomen.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/norma-45-2011/

You can read an excellent piece by Professor Marcia Langton, who is an absolute queen and massive advocate for Lynette and all Indigenous people, here https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/july/1467295200/marcia-langton/two-victims-no-justice#mtr

To read more about Adrian Attwater and Paul Maris’ trial and sentencing, go here https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-08/lynette-daley-justice-with-attwater-and-maris-sentenced-to-jail/9239312

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As the final installment of our First Nation's themed season, we are talking about January 26th.

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We are back after a (what turned into a much bigger than intended) break!

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Whoops we covered another cult. Coming for ya, Jo Thornely.

Chantelle McDougall, her six-year-old daughter Leela, her partner Simon Kadwill, and their housemate Tony Popic went missing in July of 2007. Simon was the leader of an internet-based doomsday cult, who believed that through death, a chosen few would ascend to a new plane of reality and usher in the new Aquarian age of existence. So you know, normal stuff. 

They told friends and family they were moving to Brazil, but their was no activity on their passports. Their disappearance left police stumped. Had they committed group suicide, or had they gone even further into isolation and completely segregated themselves from society?

Our main sources this week were the coronial inquest completed in 2017. You know we love an inquest document! https://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Felton,%20G;%20McDougall,%20C%20J%20and%20L;%20Popic,%20A%20K%20%20finding.pdf

News articles about the case can be found here https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-06/cult-leader-simon-kadwell-inquest-begins-into-missing-family/9205656 and here https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/cult-leader-simon-kadwell-inquest-hears-police-failed-to-investigate-report-of-dead-flesh-smell/news-story/b828be6ad139699e509c94ce62bc5292

The website for Simon’s “work” can be accessed via the Wayback Machine here https://web.archive.org/web/20071103141354/http://www.thenewcall.org/book_sdp.htm

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Okay, yes, every show and their dog (or podcast cat) have covered this case. But we just had to jump on the bandwagon. 

You may be familiar with the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard from the documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, or the hit TV show now on Hulu The Act, or just generally from having an internet connection at any point in time over the past four years. The internet is obsessed with this case, and for good reason – the horrific murder of Dee Dee Blanchard shocked the world, not because of the brutality of the crime – but because of the scale of the abuse that Dee Dee afflicted on Gypsy, her daughter, who she had raised to believe was sick with a whole medical textbook of illnesses. Once Dee Dee was dead, the truth came out – nothing was wrong with Gypsy. She was a victim of Munchausen by Proxy, and was horribly abused by the person who was meant to care for her most.

EPISODE NOTES: 

Friends and neighbours looked at Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard as a perfect mother-daughter pair. Dee Dee was dedicated to her sick daughter, and Gypsy was in turn loving and devoted to her mother. When Dee Dee was murdered in 2015, people were horrified. Who was going to take care of poor Gypsy now? But as the truth came out, and Gypsy – along with her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn – was charged with her death, people were horrified to discover that Dee Dee was not what she seemed – and neither was Gypsy. 

Gypsy had every disease under the sun, from cancer to muscular dystrophy. She was confined to a wheelchair, had tubes all over her body, and had no hair and barely any teeth. She never properly attended school and was in and out of hospital constantly. But none of her ailments were real. Dee Dee was forcing Gypsy to be sick, lying to her about her real age, and physically and mentally abusing her to keep up the sickness routine, so that Dee Dee could keep reaping the benefits of having a sick child. 

While Gypsy and Nicholas Godejohn were both ultimately convicted of Dee Dee’s murder, many people believe that Gypsy acted in self-defence, and did what she had to do to escape from one of the most horrific situations of abuse conceivable. 

Read Michelle Dean's incredible longform article on the case here https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/michelledean/dee-dee-wanted-her-daughter-to-be-sick-gypsy-wanted-her-mom

More info about the case can be found here https://www.yourtango.com/2019322839/who-nick-godejohn-new-details-gypsy-roses-boyfriend-man-murdered-dee-dee-blanchard?fbclid=IwAR0c95is1g2caWJ1wSQX9CobuA8rK30l_Z5BDjfW4AAdf-CpbE2IlcVH7kA

Information about the case and also Munchausen by Proxy can be found here https://www.yourtango.com/2019322870/what-munchausen-syndrome-by-proxy-story-gypsy-rose-blanchard?fbclid=IwAR28fu87X_aWdA9iOnfoLHevQ_bfIyiMeabBSbHo-T2YajOWh8ey3vd7YKI

For some info on Hulu's stunning new show The Act (this is not a sponsored episode but also – sponsor us, Hulu?) head here https://www.marieclaire.com.au/the-act-tv?fbclid=IwAR2Ohe3PFiupYeS2rfTO3Ux9LoluGAiYbzWQMNMiQJz8RCg5iwvChcyUMHM

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Fred and Rosemary West were coooooooked, mates. This episode was a request from our beloved patron Lily and let me tell ya, we don’t trust her any more! Massive listener warnings for murder, torture, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse. We could barely get through telling this story, we understand if you can’t get through listening to it.

Fred and Rose West committed at least twelve murders, possibly more. The West abducted women and subjected them to hours of sexual torture before murdering them; they killed people who stayed in their lodging house, including a heavily pregnant woman and her unborn baby; and they even killed their own children. Fred and Rose subjected most of their many children to heinous, prolonged incest and sexual assault, and joked about them staying in line lest they end up ‘under the patio’ like their sister, Heather. Heather had told her classmates about the physical and sexual abuse that she had suffered from her parents. She was trying as hard as she could to get a job that would take her out of the house. When her siblings returned home one day, Heather was missing, and they were told she’d accepted a job as a chalet cleaner in Torquay. 

But Fred and Rose’s conflicting stories about Heather’s disappearance made neighbours and estranged family members suspicious. The police were contacted, and they would eventually search the West’s home. There, they found Heather’s dismembered body buried under the patio, as well as the remains of eight other women and girls that Fred and Rose had killed, after subjecting them to horrific torture for their own sadistic sexual gratification. 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/horrifying-threat-killer-fred-west-18331879

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/fred-and-rosemary-wests-daughter-describes-what-it-was-like-growing-up-with-serial-killer-parents/news-story/542a41fbae1dd47b20367fe49cdedecc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_West

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_West

https://www.amazon.com.au/Love-Always-Mum-xxx-surviving-ebook/dp/B07GRDSC6G

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Aunty Tanya Day was a 55 year old Yorta Yorta woman who died while in police custody after being arrested for public intoxication while on a train. Tanya was drunk and asleep on a VLine train headed to Melbourne when a ticket inspector decided she was unruly and called the police. Tanya was taken to Castlemaine Police Station, where she was left in a cell and check on for a total of less than thirty seconds in the four hours she was held there. Tanya sustained a serious head injury that caused a cerebral bleed and her eventual death. #JusticeForTanyaDay

EPISODE NOTES:

If the recommendations put forth thirty years earlier during the Royal Commission, and thirty years after Tanya’s own uncle Harrison Day died in similar circumstances while in police custody, Tanya Day would still be alive right now. Thirty years after the Commissioner recommended that the “crime” of public intoxication be removed from the Criminal Code, yet another Aboriginal woman died in custody, with her only crime having a drunken kip on the train.

You can read more about the case and view the CCTV footage of Tanya here, but please be warned, it’s not an easy watch https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-06/cctv-footage-of-tanya-day-released-by-coroner/11471018

You can read the finding from the Coroner’s Court here https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/Finding%20-%20Tanya%20Day-%20COR%202017%206424%20-%20AMENDED%2017042020.pdf

The Department of Public Prosecutions decided not to proceed with a criminal case. You can read more about that decision here https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/no-charges-to-be-laid-against-police-after-death-of-indigenous-woman-tanya-day-20200826-p55pj8.html

The Facebook and Instagram accounts for #JusticeForTanyaDay can be found here https://www.facebook.com/Justicefortanyaday/ and here https://www.instagram.com/justicefortanyaday/?hl=en

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Over three hundred Frontier Wars were fought in Australia as the Indigenous people of this land tried valiantly to resist the invasion of British Colonialists. The Bathurst War was one such war, fought by the Wiradjuri nation in what is now known as Bathurst, led by the Aboriginal resistance leader Windradyne.

In the mid-1820s, the slow erosion of the Wiradjuri's sovereignty by the colonisers was rapidly increased by Sir Thomas Brisbane, who authorised a large number of land grants in the Wiradjuri nation. With this influx of white settlers, the Wiradjuri’s land was being degraded, their sacred sites were torn up, and their natural resources were vanishing. After a violent encounter with a potato farmer over a "misunderstanding" resulted in the deaths of several Wiradjuri people, one of the survivors, Windradyne, decided that enough was enough. The Wiradjuri formed a resistance movement and lead a series of guerrilla-style attacks against the invaders, which escalated until martial law was declared, giving the invaders legal sanction to hunt and kill Aboriginals.

The Bathurst War was only one of several hundred Frontier Wars fought by the Indigenous people of this land. And in many ways, these wars continue – sovereignty of this land has never been ceded, and the Indigenous people of Australia have been systematically slaughtered and made to watch as an invading force has stolen and destroyed their land.

We applaud in movies like Star Wars when the Resistance fights off the evil Empire. So why are we so quick to sweep the Frontier Wars under the rug and pretend that our white ancestors were the good guys? (insert youknowwhy.gif here).

You can find out more about Wiradjuri resistance leader Windradyne here https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/631655491867/windradyne?fbclid=IwAR1yaEpos2JcYOM2joJUkC_3Hdyp-6_ZhB6VRhxgReHquBCV2MJLw-c6MQw

To find out more about the Frontier Wars and view the map, go here https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/04/the-killing-times-the-massacres-of-aboriginal-people-australia-must-confront?fbclid=IwAR1yaEpos2JcYOM2joJUkC_3Hdyp-6_ZhB6VRhxgReHquBCV2MJLw-c6MQw

Watch the video of Windradyne’s descendants marking the anniversary of the declaration of martial law here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jux_MKtfObw&t=326s&fbclid=IwAR1yaEpos2JcYOM2joJUkC_3Hdyp-6_ZhB6VRhxgReHquBCV2MJLw-c6MQw

We’ll probably never know the total death count of the Frontier Wars. Find out why that matters here http://www.maristfamily.com.au/resourcedownloads/why_indigenous_deaths_matters.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1yaEpos2JcYOM2joJUkC_3Hdyp-6_ZhB6VRhxgReHquBCV2MJLw-c6MQw

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This episode discusses Aboriginal people who have died.

In this episode, we discuss the police’s attempt to cover up the finding of John Pat’s body, the subsequent investigation, trial, and the eventual Royal Commission into John Pat’s death.

EPISODE NOTES:

Much to the despair of John Pat’s friends and loved ones, no really satisfying conclusion into his death was reached. And the Royal Commission didn’t really change too much, either. Aboriginal people are still imprisoned at a rate far greater than non-Indigenous Australians, and Aboriginal deaths in custody is still a massive issue in Australia.

You can read the entire commission into John Pat’s death here http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_jpp/

You can also read a very excellent and necessary critique of the Commission into John Pat’s death here http://netk.net.au/Aboriginal/Aboriginal62.asp

You can listen to an episode of The Signal discussing Indigenous deaths in custody here https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/the-signal/how-deaths-in-custody-happen/12341864

And support the movement to #RaiseTheAge here https://www.raisetheage.org.au/

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WARNING: This episode discusses Aboriginal people who have died.

In 1983, a sixteen-year-old Yindjibarndi boy named John Pat died in police custody after sustaining injuries in the course of a fistfight with the police. His death was one of several Indigenous deaths in custody that caused an uproar amongst Indigenous Australia who believed, quite rightly, that the police were unfairly targeting, using excessive force, and ultimately causing the deaths of a disproportionate number of Indigenous people in police custody. John Pat’s death was one of several deaths of Aboriginal people in custody that caused sufficient outrage to spark a Royal Commission

EPISODE NOTES:

With the Black Lives Matter movement gaining more ground than ever, it’s important to remember that police brutality doesn’t only happen in America. Australia has a long, dark history of heinous treatment of Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal deaths in custody is sadly only a part of the institutional racism that Indigenous Australians face. The death of John Pat, and of other Indigenous people we’ll be discussing in this season, was tragic, unnecessary, and was allowed to occur due to the systemic violence against Aboriginal people that has occurred virtually unchecked since colonisation.

You can read the Commissioner’s report into John Pat’s death here http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_jpp/

This article discusses John Pat’s death within the larger context of Aboriginal deaths in custody and the Royal Commission here https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/john-pats-death-in-custody-the-impetus-for-the-royal-commission/

30 years after John Pat’s death, not much has changed. Read more here https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/09/26/3856987.htm

To learn about the Raise the Age movement, go here https://www.raisetheage.org.au/

If you like what we do please consider supporting us on PATREON

Subscribe to the podcast on ITUNES, STITCHER, SPOTIFY or your podcatcher of choice.

Find us on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM or EMAIL us on [email protected]

www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/murder-in-the-land-of-oz.

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