Free The Beat: A True Account of the Bondi Gay Murders by I.J. Fenn Page B

note: Detective McCann’s ‘Summary’ highlighted the difficulties he’d encountered during his inquiries, difficulties he found hard to understand given the severity of the crimes involved. He wrote:
Throughout the course of this inquiry, it was obvious that little help was gained from the homosexual community in reporting incidents of bashing to the Police. This was largely supported by the lack of reported assaults in the relevant areas which has severely hampered Police in establishing specific crimes from the information forthcoming in the conversations recorded through the use of listening devices. The volume of crime committed on the homosexual community as indicated is enormous and largely unreported … Reluctance of witnesses to assist Police in their pursuit has prevented criminal charges being laid against any individuals.

[1] In actual fact this was later discovered to be in error: there were two youths by the name of Mark Church and the pawn slip belonged to the one who was not implicated in Johnson’s murder.

[2] The Redfern connection, although merely coincidental, sounds uneasy echoes nonetheless.

[3] This was later to form a central point in Detective Page’s criticism of policing methods and led to changes within evidence gathering methodology in New South Wales.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Old Ground, New Eyes
     
    i
     
    Having read the McCann archive, Steve Page saw that, by the end of 1991, the investigation had gone as far as it could. As McCann repeatedly urged, the information should be retained until some future date when additional evidence might be made available. Now, 10 years later, Page hoped that someone might remember additional details, might have heard something to add to McCann’s findings or might even have changed their minds about giving evidence, and he set about taking further statements from the police who’d been involved at the time.
    When the initial missing persons report for Ross Warren was made to Constable Robinson in July 1989, the officer who claimed to have carriage of the case was Detective Sergeant Kenneth Bowditch. On 19February 2001 Bowditch made a statement at Paddington Police Station outlining his involvement in the case. Having spoken to Craig Ellis and Paul Saucis at the time, Bowditch concluded that Warren was a reliable person who wouldn’t make appointments and not keep them (the arrangement to see a film on the Saturday, the day following his disappearance). Furthermore, Warren’s vehicle, when found in Kenneth Street, contained his wallet, with $70 and a Visa card, while the keys to the vehicle were eventually discovered in a location with difficult access. The Police Air Wing and Water Police were notified, according to Bowditch, and they conducted a fruitless search: nothing relating to Ross Warren was found either in the water, along the foreshore or in Marks Park.
    Bowditch then instigated a search of Warren’s unit in Wollongong and procured various health and dental records, as well as a number of photographs of the missing man, from Warren’s parents, to check against any unidentified bodies which might turn up. Everything by the book: Bowditch appeared to have executed his duties admirably. In conclusion, he stated that at the time Ross Warren disappeared there was a full moon, although the sky was overcast and could therefore have adversely affected visibility. The tide, he said, was high and the ground in the area slippery from recent rains. In view of all the evidence, there was nothing to suggest that Warren’s disappearance was the result of foul play or a deliberate ploy on his part to disappear. Bowditch even went as far as to say that, although the area was known to police as a homosexual beat, he felt he had to stress that there was nothing to support the idea that the case was in any way gay related. Conclusion: Ross Warren slipped while walking along the cliff edge and fell into the sea, dying, presumably, either from impact on the rocks