In the late 1980s and early 1990s a series of violent murders took place near Sydneys famous Bondi Beach. Three innocent men were attacked and thrown to their deaths from a cliff top. The murders were part of a much wider wave of violent hate crimes as gangs of youths roamed Sydneys inner suburbs randomly bashing and killing gay men for sport. This series, Crime Investigation Australia is an Australian true-crime series, in which one of the episodes featured these gay killings.
Among the victims at Bondi was Wollongong television newsreader, Ross Warren, a gay man who disappeared while visiting friends in Sydney in 1989. Ross Warrens case was dismissed by police as a probable accident. But his mother conducted a long campaign to have her sons disappearance finalised. Then, some ten years after he was first reported missing, Ross' police file finally came to the desk of one courageous investigator who started to dig a little deeper. Detective Sergeant Stephen Page quickly realised that there was more to the Ross Warren case than was uncovered in the original investigation. The file contained a great many unanswered questions. As he read the file Detective Page began to uncover similarities with other murders and slowly the shocking pattern of violence and death began to emerge. Another murder victim was Bondi resident John Russell, a gay man who had inherited some money and was about to leave for the country to start a new life when his body was found at the foot of the Bondi cliffs. It was not until, another man was attacked, who miraculously survived and was able to recount the horror experience that police started taking action.
It was an interesting one hour documentary drama style show. What was interesting for me was the lack of interest from the initial set of policeman tackling the case an dhow they ignored most things, just because they were gay men related and it was better to just close those cases as accidents or missing people. (5/10)
Comments