INVESTIGATORS NOT TOLD OF CRITICAL EVIDENCE

EVIDENCE that could have helped police make an early arrest in the 1970 murders of Judith and Susan Mackay was not raised with investigating officers. Instead, it surfaced almost 30 years later when police presented evidence to the court after Arthur Brown had been charged. That evidence was a statement by Jean Thwaite who claimed to have seen Brown and the girls at an Ayr service station when the car they were in was being refuelled. In 2001, when the charges against Brown were dropped, angry police demanded to know why they had not been told of Ms Thwaite’s evidence. The response from the officer who had led the case, retired Regional Superintendent Charles Bopf, was that Brisbane’s Senior Sergeant Jack Gorman had been in charge of the investigation with then Detective First Class Joe Keane and then Senior Sergeant Syd Atkinson and they had never mentioned it to “on-theground” detectives. Mr Bopf said he had been sent to the Gulf country to look for a suspect car and that Ms Thwaite’s evidence “wasn’t given to us at any of the conferences we had”. The officer who arrested Brown, now Detective Inspector David Hickey, said Mr Bopf had been the case officer who presented to the coronial inquest. “If I was case officer, I would make it my point to read everything. If it’s important it should be briefed to all,” Det Insp Hickey said. Det Insp Hickey said the significance of Ms Thwaite’s evidence, identifying a Vauxhall rather than a Holden, had been missed.