Killing Them Slowly, With Your Silence. #JusticeForBowraville

Colleen Walker-Craig, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux were brutally murdered by a man who walks free to this day. He is one of the worst serial killers of children in the history of the state of NSW. The belief in his guilt is shared by the families of his victims, senior police, senior politicians from all sides of politics, the media and many in the general public.

These murders took place between September 1990 to February 1991 at the time Colleen was 16, Clinton was 16 and snatched in the night from her bed, Little Evelyn was 4 years of age. One man was the last person to be seen with all three victims, he was charged with the murder of Clinton and while awaiting trial was charged with the murder of Little Evelyn. This should have been made known to the court, it wasn’t. This man was acquitted of the murder of Clinton, the prosecution of him for the murder of Little Evelyn never went ahead. Ask yourself this, why did the court not hear that he had been charged with the second of the three murders and was the prime suspect in the first when he was on trial for killing Clinton? If you were a juror, would this not be vital information to know?

After his aquittal in 1994, In 1997, the former New South Wales Police Commissioner Peter Ryan set up Task Force Ancud, to continue the investigation into the unsolved murders. In February 2004, an inquest was held into the murders, and as a result (The Man) was charged again, this time for the murder of Evelyn Greenup. The court heard that he has confessed, not once, but twice! He was acquitted again a month later. Let me say that again, the court heard he had confessed twice to the killing of a 4 year old. He was acquitted.

On 6th November 2014 a Parliamentary Inquiry agitated for admirably by a Greens MLC, Chaired by a Liberal MLC with members also from the ALP and Nationals, concluded that “New South Wales legislation should be reviewed to pave the way for a new trial for the murder of three children” The Committee for Law and Justice also called for changes to allow a court to consider all three deaths at once, after previous separate trials failed to lead to a conviction. Committee chairman David Clarke said “The key to this elusive justice being obtained is the hearing of the evidence in all three murders being considered at the same time and in the same court.”

Greens MP David Shoebridge, who initiated the inquiry, said the Bowraville community had waited more than 20 years to be heard.”It was the sense that they had been ignored, that they’d been treated as second-rate citizens,” he said. “That the loss of their children was not valued by the police, and the courts, and the Parliament, in the way that the loss of any other three children would be valued.” Shooters and Fishers MP Robert Brown said Parliament had an obligation to the families and the community to act before it adjourned in two weeks.”I say to the family and the community – I’m proud. You stuck to the trail,” he said.”There’s a challenge for both houses of Parliament. They [the families] have held to the trail for 25 years. Let’s do it in the next two weeks.”

That was in November 2014. Fast forward more than a year, Premier Baird who had promised to have his Government consider the findings had still given the families no answer! Last week, after months of delays, a promised meeting with the Attorney General was cancelled via text message and just a week before Christmas the AG Gabrielle Upton, of the NSW Baird Government sent a messenger to meet with the families who have waited 25 years for justice. Despite all the evidence, the support of the police, the multi-party parliamentary inquiry and the media investigations that all came to the same conclusion, the Baird government WOULD NOT change the law to allow the killer to be tried for all three murders.

“The NSW government has shown little to no regard for the trauma and pain our families have lived with for more than two decades; we ask where the outcry is for justice from the media and the public? Why is it that only white victims of such a despicable crime in this country receive any level of justice? We want answers and we want them now!” – Karla McGrady, Clinton Speedy-Duroux’s cousin.

If you know this case you know that my assertions of guilt are not frivolous, when do you ever get the Greens, Fishers and Shooters, ALP, LNP, Police, Community and Media all on the same side? So why is the Baird Government allowing this serial killer of children to walk free, why has he walked free for 25 years, why are these children’s lives not valued, why is the families right to justice not valued, where is the humanity in any of this?

I will tell you the answer and it can be found in the only thing I have left out so far. The three children, murder by blunt force trauma, dumped in the bush, no doubt in terrifying fear that you cannot imagine, Little Evelyn snatched from her bed at just four years old… they were all Aboriginal.

They are still Aboriginal, so are their families, their community and a small group of incredible people who have fought for 25 years for justice. Two and a half decades, they have presented the facts, they have worked with the police, they have been stoic and determined, they have not given up, they have given media interviews, given testimony to parliament and courts, they have rallied and raised awareness, they have fought and fought and fought and yet the murder of their children, three beautiful Black children goes unpunished.

Now you tell me truthfully, if three non-Indigenous children were brutally killed, by one serial killer, 25 years ago, with all the evidence and inquiries… would he still walk free? You know the answer is no! This is not about just Black and White, after the Sydney Siege in which an extremist took hostages and two innocent lives were lost the hashtag #illridewithyou offered solidarity with Sydney’s Muslims after the siege.

Well, three Aboriginal children are dead… WHERE IS YOUR OFFER TO RIDE WITH THEIR FAMILIES… it has never come! Despite endless newspaper reports, special presentations on ABC and Channels Nines 60Minutes, one of the most watched TV shows in Australia. Where is the hashtag, where is all this outrage we see so much of in 2015 that breaks out every single day over often trivial matters? Where is your concern?

These are questions you must ask yourself and that you must reconcile. But a hashtag will not deliver justice, because this is about the serial murder of three children. This is not some trivial outrage that gets people frothing online, this is about lives and family and community and this countries inability to EVER deliver justice to its First Nations Peoples even when their babies are killed by a NON-INDIGENOUS man.

There are 24hours, less, until Christmas day. Premier Mike Baird now stands as the one man who can make the right decision and begin the process of justice, a changing of the law and the trial of the man who I accuse of murdering all three of these beautiful, precious, Aboriginal Children. Mr Baird, you have no excuse! If you do not act you are a culpable party, if the media doesn’t report this they are culpable parties and if you do not agitate for this… You know the answer to that.

If Justice is not served here, the answer to “Is Australia racist?” does not need your input or your answer. I write this because I believe it is the truth and respectfully, I believe Premier Baird MUST act. Dr Martin Luther King Jnr famously said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Well anywhere is the small town of Bowraville in NSW, everywhere is Australia. Just for once can we do what is right for an Aboriginal community and their Children? I will let the next few days decide that, but I will never be silent until justice is done!