REMEMBER WHEN

MURDERED sex shop owner Kevin Mannix had run into strong opposition from Byron Bay residents in his attempts to establish a business there.

The Tweed Heads sex shop owner was found with his throat cut outside his Palm Beach unit just days earlier.

Police were also investigating whether Mannix and fellow border pornography outlets were warned about selling “pirate” material.

Byron residents planned to form an organisation to oppose Mannix’s plans but the idea was abandoned after the murder.

The Byron Shire Council confirmed that Mannix was trying to establish a sex shop at Byron Bay. There were no sex shops in the shire at the time.

Mannix lodged an application for a sex shop in Jonson St a month before his murder.

The council had advertised for public objections in early June, a week before about 60 residents opposed to the shop held a heated public meeting.

Mannix withdrew his application because of objections, however, the week before his death, the council asked him to lodge a fresh application because he still had plans to open a shop in another block in Jonson St. His new application was never received.

Barry Mannix, then 20, was the murdered man’s son and allegedly confessed to the crime.

He was released after four other men were charged with the crime and he alleged police put him under significant pressure to take the rap.

By the end of the 1980s the police had begun videotaping interviews to prevent suspects from being “verballed” in the future.