When it became known that a shadowy facial recognition company called Clearview AI had created a massive database, capable of identifying almost anyone, anywhere, reporters around the globe picked up the trail — working to uncover how this start-up could reshape privacy and policing internationally. 

Here in Australia, tech reporter Cam Wilson dug into the Australian Federal Police’s documents for years — revealing disturbing details. 

Read Cam Wilson's Investigations here:

• ‘World’s most controversial company’ Clearview AI still being used to solve Australian police cases
• Clearview AI is still collecting photos of Australians for its facial recognition database

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Go inside the courtroom as the Special Investigations Unit fights to deliver justice to three alleged Nazi collaborators living in Australia — men accused of participating in atrocities during World War II.

Prosecutor Graham Blewitt takes us behind the scenes of the long, complex battle for accountability, marked by High Court challenges, fading memories, and the failing health of the accused

This is Part 2 of Hunting Australia’s Nazi War Criminals. You can listen to Part 1 here.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Further links: 

• Graham Blewitt's book Nazis in Australia 

Credits:

• Presenter/Producer: Joey Watson
• Senior Producer: Claudianna Blanco
• Sound designer: Kyle Hopkins
• Executive Producer: Ellen Leabeater

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In the mid 1980s, Australia had to reckon with an uncomfortable truth: that hundreds of suspected Nazi war criminals had made this country their home. They had slipped in after World War II and had been living quietly in the suburbs. 

Leading the effort to expose them was the Special Investigations Unit. Prosecutor Graham Blewitt was part of the team whose task was to find the men who thought they’d escaped justice. 

This is Part 1 of Hunting Australia’s Nazi War Criminals. Part 2 out next Tuesday. 

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Further links: 

• Graham Blewitt's book Nazis in Australia 
• Listen to Secrets We Keep: Lone Actor 

Credits:

• Presenter/Producer: Joey Watson
• Senior Producer: Claudianna Blanco
• Sound designer: Kyle Hopkins
• Executive Producer: Ellen Leabeater

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From next week, join Joey Watson as he takes you inside some of the most important investigations of our time.

Each week, you'll hear stories powerful people hoped would stay buried, by speaking directly to those who lived and breathed them.  

Subscribe and follow Secrets We Keep, to be the first to hear Uncovered on October 14. 

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Tim Elliott has done what few could - persuading one of Australia's most elusive prison escapees to break his silence. The journalist and author has always been drawn to the hidden corners of people's lives, shaped in part by his own story of privilege and pain, shadowed by hardship and the loss of his father. In Secrets We Keep: Jailbreak, Tim enters the mind of Darko (aka ‘Dougie') Desic, a wildly successful weed grower who staged a bold prison escape and remained on the run for decades. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Tim reveals why eccentric and sometimes ‘dodgy' characters confide in him and reflects on how his family dealt with his father's mental illness.

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Darko is free but trapped in the life of a fugitive. He falls in love but can’t reveal his true identity and breaks it off. Life is hard: Darko’s living outside the system now. With no ID or healthcare, he can’t openly travel or seek medical attention. He depends on local support and cash jobs. Once COVID hits, Darko becomes homeless, and decides to hand himself in. Behind bars once again, locals rally for clemency. Will he be set free? As his fate hangs in the balance, he examines his choices and comes to a startling understanding of his remarkable life. 

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Brought to you by LiSTNR’s team of award-winning journalists, Secrets We Keep: Uncovered takes you inside some of the most important investigations of our time, with our expanding network of journalists and sources from around Australia and beyond. 

Every week, we pull back the curtain on the stories powerful people hoped would stay buried, by speaking directly to those who lived and breathed them.  

The whistleblower who risked everything.

The victim who refused to stay silent.

The journalist who just wouldn’t let it go. 

Stories of power, secrecy, and the people who dared challenge both.  

Secrets We Keep: Uncovered is an original LiSTNR podcast. 

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Darko methodically prepares an escape plan, taking months to prepare. As Darko readies himself physically, mentally and logistically, he collects the tools he needs to breakout: bolt cutters, a hack saw blade and new running shoes. After his daring escape, the cops give chase, but Darko miraculously evades them at every turn. Darko returns to Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where he assumes a new identity: “Dougie”, the easy-going handyman. 

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Darko’s sent to some of Australia’s most notorious prisons, where he acquaints himself with several underworld figures. Darko’s making the most of his time behind bars when he’s told that once his sentence is complete, he will be deported back to Yugoslavia, then in the midst of a brutal civil war. Going back would’ve meant having to fight in the conflict, so Darko decides to escape and starts to devise a plan. 

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Darko’s killing it. He uses the proceeds of a successful marijuana crop to buy a new bike, gold, opals and blue-chip shares. A single, fateful mistake gets him discovered by the police, but Darko manages a near escape. Now a fugitive, Darko picks up work on a banana plantation in Coffs Harbour, where his workmates realise there’s more to Darko than meets the eye. After a few months undetected, Darko’s luck runs out. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.