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  Norfolk Island: murder in paradise Transcript PRIEST: The Apostle John writes if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves. HELEN DALLEY: At Sunday evening service in the historic Church of England on Norfolk Island, Reverend John Reid reminds his God-fearing flock of their moral duty to repent their wicked ways. PRIEST: From the scriptures, move us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness. HELEN DALLEY: Just a few days before this religious sermon, a more secular one was delivered by the ACT Coroner, Ron Cahill, in the tiny island's courtroom. It was at the frustrating conclusion of a four-day inquest into Norfolk's only reported murder in the past 148 years. The Coroner's sermon, too, was aimed at prodding islanders to do their moral duty. RON CAHILL, CORONER: Whether it's someone who comes forward about a motive we don't know about or whether it's someone who comes forward with a sighting information we don't know about it. HELEN DALLEY: In less flowery language than the man of the cloth, the coroner proclaimed an open finding on the murder of Janelle Louise Patton. RON CAHILL: So it's with no apology we have endeavoured to get the maximum publicity for what we're doing here, because there may just be someone out there who may be moved by the circumstance to realise who they may be protecting, and whether that person deserves protection in view of what terrible acts they may have perpetrated. HELEN DALLEY: One reason the coroner felt the need to publicise this case is because of concerns on the mainland about a culture of silence on Norfolk. On this tiny island, where arson has been used in the past to intimidate those who speak out, some federal senators fear this insular society is actively thwarting the police investigation. SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT, JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE EXTERNAL TERRITORIES: People on the island know who murdered Janelle Patton. No question that they know. It's very, very hard to penetrate that husk of silence that surrounds Norfolk Islanders when they want to protect their own. SENATOR JOHN HOGG, DEPUTY PRESIDENT, SENATE: I would trust that a crime wouldn't be too difficult to resolve on the island, that those who needed to come forth and speak out would have the courage and the knowledge that they would be protected if they spoke out. That's not there currently. And, of course, in the environment that they exist in, they really fear for their lives. And their families. HELEN DALLEY: But the full public airing of personal peccadillos and dirty linen laid bare by police at the inquest and duly reported in sensational media headlines has infuriated islanders, angry that a murder-investigation spotlight was turned on them, and their precious island has been tarnished. GORDI HANCHEROW, NORFOLK BUSINESSWOMAN: We felt like second-class citizens, living on an island full of evil. TOM LLOYD, ISLANDER NEWSPAPER EDITOR: It was portrayed in a very seedy manner. Somebody, one of my friends, rang me from Sydney and said, "We just can't believe all that we're reading about what's happening on Norfolk Island and the seedy image of middle-aged voyeurs and malicious people spreading rumour." ANDRE NOBBS, ISLANDER: The reporters that have come over for the inquiry have had to have colourful stories to grab the newspapers' attention, but that's been to our detriment. What we'd like to do is square that up and let people know, you know, the stories and the characterisations aren't necessarily the case. PIP REEVES, ISLANDER: I'm lost for words when I try to describe what we've been through for two years - being portrayed as people maybe out of the film Deliverance, in Appalacia, all trying to conceal sordid little secrets. HELEN DALLEY: In this island paradise, where locals boast of its peacefulness and beauty, and, it's said, crime rarely happens, it's hard to reconcile the violence that was done to the petite 29-year-old Sydneysider in March, 2002. On that Easter Sunday, late in the afternoon, Janelle's severely bruised and battered body was found right here amongst these concrete slabs, partly wrapped in a sheet of black plastic. She had been slashed and stabbed, possibly kicked and stomped on, according to police evidence. The killer had fractured her skull, stabbed her several times in the chest, puncturing her lung. In all, she sustained 64 separate injuries, from her ankles right up to her head. The autopsy revealed she'd been stabbed with a knife and police also speculated she may have been bludgeoned by a wine bottle, or she may have been hit by a car or jumped from a moving vehicle. Janelle suffered a horrible, violent death. DETECTIVE SERGEANT BRENDAN LINDSAY, AFP: It was an extremely vicious attack. It's a malicious act. It was a violent act and the persons responsible need to be brought to justice. HELEN DALLEY: But one thing is odd - why here? On an island such as this you'd think it would be easy to make a body disappear. Instead, Janelle's body was dumped in the middle of this open field, which is not only a picnic spot but it's overlooked by several houses and frequented by tourists, some of whom were here on that day. Yet the evidence shows that Janelle was not killed here, so why dispose of the body in such a public place? BRENDAN LINDSAY: There are a number of scenarios that might well have affected what the person or persons responsible were thinking at the time. HELEN DALLEY: Australian Federal Police officer Detective Sergeant Brendan Lindsay is seconded to run Norfolk Island police. He was in charge the day of Janelle's murder. BRENDAN LINDSAY: There may well have been panic involved and they may well have been going to a determined location which they found wasn't available to them at the time because there were people present, and they may well, in some way, have been herded into this location. CAROLE PATTON, MOTHER: She was brutalised, she was butchered, she was slaughtered - I mean, call it what you want. HELEN DALLEY: For Janelle's parents, Carol and Ron, who had arrived on the island just the day before to holiday with her, their worst nightmare was realised that Easter Sunday. CAROLE PATTON: She was not very tall. She was 50kg, if that, in weight. There would hardly have been a square centimetre of her body that wasn't affected, and so she went through absolute and total - I don't know what - that afternoon. HELEN DALLEY: The murder was done in broad daylight, yet, to date, no-one saw anything directly related to Janelle's death. No murder weapon has been found, no murder scene pinpointed, no motive, no eyewitness. There are few clues, partly thanks to a heavy rain storm that afternoon which police believe washed away hard evidence. So far, it's like a gripping, gruesome detective thriller with no last page. The last positive sighting of Janelle was here, as she was walking down this road. She was seen by an acquaintance who was driving around trying to put her baby to sleep. About 10 minutes later the same woman was driving along here again, but Janelle was nowhere to be seen. Somewhere in that short time police believe Janelle had some sort of altercation. Her broken and twisted sunglasses were found later just off the edge of the road. The only other reported incident was that of a bloodcurdling scream heard at the golf club, down the bottom of that hill, quite some distance from here, yet no-one who lives along this road heard or saw anything. CAROLE PATTON: This happened on Norfolk Island in the middle of the day, on a public holiday. It's not ... HELEN DALLEY: On a fairly busy road. CAROLE PATTON: On a fairly busy road. It is something very unique. It is something horrific. There has to be somebody who has been affected by it afterwards, who has behaved differently afterwards, who has talked about it. HELEN DALLEY: While no-one has yet been charged, it seems the coroner and the police believe someone on the island knows something and may be hiding it. BRENDAN LINDSAY: I believe there is information out there that would assist us with the inquiry, yes. HELEN DALLEY: Do you think somebody is hiding it? BRENDAN LINDSAY: Well, that's not to say - that's an obvious inference. I have no doubt there are people hiding the events of what happened on that day. HELEN DALLEY: Most Australians have little idea of this far-flung island, some 1600 kilometres east of Sydney. While Norfolk is a territory of Australia it has a unique history, culture, even a language all its own. Bounty Day is central to that unique culture. It celebrates the arrival in 1856 of Pitcairn Islanders who were direct descendants of the 'Bounty' mutineers. These Pitcairners then made Norfolk their own after the island had been abandoned as one of the harshest convict settlements in the NSW colony. Yet today many descendents of those original Pitcairn families feel little allegiance to Australia, remaining loyal to "Mother England". One-hundred-and-fifty years after the first arrivals, the result is a close-knit, loyal community. PIP REEVES: When there is a tragedy on the island, when someone is missing at sea or something like that, this whole island just pulls together around each other and it's the most beautiful place in the world to be. HELEN DALLEY: Even though they're part of Australia, Norfolk has no income tax and no Medicare. It runs its own government and taxation system and controls its own customs and immigration, requiring a passport even for Australians to enter. LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL, ISLANDER: We know who we are. We know where we come from. We don't have to try and prove to anybody who we are. We are a proud people of who we are, and where we've come to today. HELEN DALLEY: Many of the islanders are individualistic, highly suspicious of Canberra and the Federal Government and anti-authoritarian. PIP REEVES: We're not anti-Australian on this island. Sure, we have an uneasy relationship from time to time with Canberra, but, no, we identify very strongly with Australia. HELEN DALLEY: Yet laws that mainlanders take for granted, such as compulsory seatbelts and random breath testing, have never been implemented on Norfolk and their introduction is actively fought against by some locals. GORDI HANCHEROW: We're a happy race of people that stick together. We love this island. There's nothing evil about this island. We love Norfolk Island and we love the community spirit here. HELEN DALLEY: According to the police, though, investigations over the past two years didn't show much of that loving community spirit. Instead, Detective Sergeant Bob Peters's report to the coroner said that while police had been given genuine valuable information they were nonetheless inundated with gossip, known locally as 'demtal', and with unsubstantiated innuendo. Peters told the coroner some people took the opportunity to malign others for their own purposes. TIM LATHAM, AUTHOR: Two years of investigation poured out in a week, a very dramatic week. HELEN DALLEY: Tim Latham is a journalist, now writing a book on the murder. TIM LATHAM: To say this is what you have given us, these are all the loose ends, look at all the loose ends, you wouldn't expect those loose ends to be in there, but they are, and it's gone back out into the community, to say, "Time to look at yourselves, time to see what maybe isn't there". And, really, to prompt someone to come forward and say, "OK, maybe this is the missing piece". That's why it was a spectacular inquest. HELEN DALLEY: Locals claim police never told them the extent of Janelle's brutal injuries until they were revealed at the coronial inquiry. The inquest hit the community like a sledgehammer. TIM LATHAM: It was massive. I mean, for the first time, a lot of the stories and gossip and rumour and nasty things that people had said about each other suddenly was out there in a court, you know, and being read out by an AFP policeman and documented and then published, you know, for $5, they rushed down to get a copy. HELEN DALLEY: What made locals particularly furious was they felt the finger was pointed squarely at them by making public the list of persons of interest. TOM LLOYD: The impact of course has been one of shock, one of amazement, one of disbelief that after all these years we should now have a list of 16 persons of interest come suddenly out into the open at the coroner's inquest. HELEN DALLEY: Two of those 16 persons of interest named are, surprisingly, Janelle's parents. The other 14 are all locals, 10 of them linked to the original Pitcairn families. TIM LATHAM: Massive ramifications in terms of the people who were named. They were embarrassed, confused, annoyed, angry. So, overall, pissed off. HELEN DALLEY: Some are prominent business people on the island who claim they had virtually no relationship with Janelle. Others named on the list barely knew her, while a couple were former boyfriends. Some have stronger alibis than others. Some have potentially incriminating forensic evidence linked to them, yet all were named on the same list. TOM LLOYD: Maybe they've got themselves to blame for getting this reputation around the island for these comments that were made about them, about being womanisers, and they won't accept no for an answer, and things like that. They've obviously built up this reputation and it's been used against them and they now have to prove that they're innocent. TIM LATHAM: It was a classic use of the coronial powers as a fishing tool to fish around and see what they can flesh out. So the next couple of months will be telling to see whether that tactic worked. Because it was a big tactic. This was all about putting pressure, not so much on the offender, I think, but on the person who may be able to bring that offender in. HELEN DALLEY: Many named on the list are known by life-long nicknames, which are even recorded in the local phone book. There's 'Boo' and 'Tugger', 'Jap', 'Moose', 'Spindles' and 'Bucket', to name just a few. LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: All the information that was read out, I was highly embarrassed, you know, to have my... all the dirty washing from, you know, my relationship with Janelle aired in public. It was highly embarrassing. GORDI HANCHEROW: Well, we can't believe why they did that to people's lives. I mean, a lot of those people are just ordinary working people that didn't have a relationship with Janelle, just knew her. HELEN DALLEY: Gordi Hancherow is a kind of business elder, having established one of the first resorts on Norfolk. As a born and bred islander, she echoes the view of many who are highly critical of the police making public not only the long list of persons of interest but intimate details of personal lives. GORDI HANCHEROW: Some of those people that were implicated will never forget that and it will affect them for the rest of their lives. It's not just the people that were implicated, it's the families of a lot of those people as well that feel very badly about what has happened during this murder trial. HELEN DALLEY: Do you feel it was a trial? It wasn't a trial, though, no-one was charged. GORDI HANCHEROW: No, it wasn't a trial, but we feel it was a trial for Norfolk Islanders. HELEN DALLEY: The coroner was keen to point out that no-one on the list is a suspect. RON CAHILL: Again, I emphasise that none of those persons of interest should be regarded as being guilty of anything. However, it has been important to put on the public record the status of the police investigation. HELEN DALLEY: But most say they felt like suspects. LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: I think what made me a suspect was that I knew Janelle. I think, other than that, I don't think they've got, like, there's nothing to point me towards the murder, you know. I was not the person, for a start. I haven't got the personality to do such a gruesome thing. HELEN DALLEY: So you didn't kill Janelle? LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: Of course not, no. HELEN DALLEY: Laurie 'Bucket' Quintal, one of Janelle's former boyfriends, was the only islander named a person of interest who sat through the inquest each day and who was prepared to speak on camera. LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: On the Sunday of Janelle's death I was working at the RSL, doing a verandah, you know, with a few other people. There was people around all day. And to be considered a person of interest, yes, it was a real surprise to me. HELEN DALLEY: So you would say you had a very strong alibi that day? LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: Yeah, of course. Yes, I did. HELEN DALLEY: Like much that happens on Norfolk, Bucket and Janelle's blossoming relationship became the subject of gossip. LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: Everybody else knows everybody else's business, you know. I think the first time Janelle drove over my cattle-stop leaving everybody on the island knew 10 minutes later. HELEN DALLEY: That you and she were having a relationship? LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: Yes. HELEN DALLEY: But Bucket Quintal admits that relationship was sometimes difficult. There were allegations that you were violent towards her. LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: She did annoy me a couple of times. You know, I asked her to leave me alone. I did try to get her out of my house one night. HELEN DALLEY: Did you physically ... LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: I don't think 'violence' is quite the right word to use, you know. Invasion of my privacy is something else to be recognised as well. HELEN DALLEY: There was evidence by another man that Janelle had allegedly said you tried to strangle her. LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: Oh, well, there's lots of allegations gone over in the last couple of years, you know, but yeah. HELEN DALLEY: Is that true? LAURIE 'BUCKET' QUINTAL: No. No. HELEN DALLEY: To outsiders, certainly the most surprising persons of interest named are Janelle's parents, Ron and Carol. They say they've felt an enormous amount of goodwill from islanders. CAROLE PATTON: I don't think we would have survived without it. People were everywhere. They constantly come up to us in the street, they come and give you a hug. HELEN DALLEY: Yet, behind the public show of support it was clear the Pattons were viewed with suspicion by islanders. In the two-an-a-half years their daughter had been on Norfolk they had never visited her. Yet they arrived for a holiday with Janelle the day before she was murdered. TIM LATHAM: We had people on that list who aren't suspects or people of interest. They're on the list because the community has put them on that list and I start with the Pattons, Ron and Carol. They were the first people on that list because, persistently since I've been coming here, people have said, "The parents killed Janelle. The parents killed Janelle". CAROLE PATTON: People did look to us and I guess in a way were pointing the finger at us and saying, 'Well, why aren't the police investigating us?' and we realised now that they have done that very thoroughly, obviously. RON PATTON, FATHER: Let's put the record straight. We were in the town when Janelle was abducted. We went to several shops. We were seen by other people, so we couldn't physically have done it. CAROLE PATTON: Any hurt that people are feeling has to pale ... RON PATTON: ... into insignificance compared to what happened to Janelle. HELEN DALLEY: Not only physically brutalised, but then again in the court when details of Janelle's failed relationships, quarrels, drinking habits, even intimate diary thoughts, were all revealed. CAROLE PATTON: People just have to say, "Yeah, I am upset, but let's channel my anger into finding the person who did this to another human being", and that the naming of people of interest isn't going to go on once the person who did this to Janelle is found. HELEN DALLEY: But to catch the killer, police clearly need more. The strongest evidence known so far are some unidentified hairs found on the black plastic that Janelle was wrapped in and on her sunglasses. The coroner said further testing is needed. RON CAHILL: The hairs that remain unidentified, that may well be the subjective ... overseas new techniques. HELEN DALLEY: Police also found some palm and finger prints on that black plastic. A massive finger print collection operation resulted in 1300 islanders and 260 mainlanders volunteering their prints with only one, inconclusive, match. In addition, a particle of green paint found on Janelle's body was later matched to the vehicle of a person of interest. TIM LATHAM: The fleck of paint is interesting. It was hung out by the coroner. This is the most important piece of evidence that we've got. It's from another place on the island. The police don't know where but they suspect was perhaps the place where Janelle was killed. So again, that doesn't really hang anybody and it doesn't lead to much, does it? HELEN DALLEY: Such a lack of evidence means police really need a motive and a witness. RON CAHILL: It's not apparent to me that any of those persons of interest stands out as having a driving motive of hatred to inflict such a frenetic, vicious attack. HELEN DALLEY: But relying on someone coming forward is no certainty. SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: There's a culture of silence on the island that is difficult to break. HELEN DALLEY: Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot chaired a joint federal parliamentary committee examining the need for political reforms on Norfolk. What sort of impact does that culture of silence have, say, on the current murder investigation into Janelle Patton's death? SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: I think it has everything to do with not being able to solve it. The evidence we've been given, without names, clearly points to a male and clearly points to an islander. And that comes from Norfolk islanders of Pitcairn descent and from the police. The committee's report published last Christmas was largely ignored on the mainland but it's a scathing indictment of how federal parliamentarians see life operating on Norfolk under the peaceful veneer. SENATOR JOHN HOGG: There is an atmosphere of threat and violence and fear permeating throughout the island. This is not visible to the ordinary tourist that goes there. They see it as being a pristine, a very pleasant place to visit. What they don't see, though, is going on underneath the veneer. HELEN DALLEY: The committee heard first hand the views of many islanders, but what they say they found disturbing was the number who would only provide information in secret. SENATOR JOHN HOGG: When we did get evidence from those people, I have never seen human beings express such fear about reprisal on themselves for publicly expressing their views and this is in a so-called democracy. HELEN DALLEY: What, they sat in front of you and trembled? SENATOR JOHN HOGG: Yes, they certainly did, actually trembled. SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: They were fearful of harm, physical harm, and they were fearful of what seems to be a valid weapon for retribution and that is torching your house, torching your vehicle or torching your office or business premises. Arson is used as a weapon to intimidate and not on two or three occasions, but on a number of occasions there was evidence of arson. HELEN DALLEY: Owner and editor of the island newspaper for 40 years, Tom Lloyd was the victim of suspected arson some years ago because of a critical story he published. TOM LLOYD: A group of young guys were overheard at the hotel across the road and they said, "Well, you know, we've got rid of one bastard. Let's get rid of the newspaper now". HELEN DALLEY: What happened? TOM LLOYD: That's what happened - they came over and burnt it down. And yeah, there are a few who run amok when they get a few too many beers or few too many rums under their belts, you know? Nobody was charged. HELEN DALLEY: They got away with it scot-free? TOM LLOYD: Yes, scot-free. SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: There is evidence that serious crime has not been resolved because of the culture of silence. Now, there's a lack of respect for outside authority. That includes the seconded AFP police officers, who are fine men, and includes lack of respect for this committee. HELEN DALLEY: Senator Lightfoot believes that lack of respect culminated in someone discharging a shotgun outside his motel room when he arrived on Norfolk for one of the hearings last year. SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: I did mention it to the police but they made some cursory inquiries and said the only thing they could come up with was that the person that discharged the shotgun was hunting "feral roosters". Now whether that's a pseudonym for chairman of the National Capital and External Territories Committee I don't know, but I hope I wasn't. HELEN DALLEY: Were you intimidated? SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: No. HELEN DALLEY: Despite difficulties, the police say Janelle's murder investigation is ongoing. Further leads have surfaced since the inquest. Have people been re-interviewed? BRENDAN LINDSAY: There have been some people that have been spoken to again. HELEN DALLEY: But in a stunning new twist to this mystery, Senator Lightfoot claims police are closer to the killer than previously thought. SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: Let me divorce myself from the committee. I'm told by one of the police officers that they're aware of the killer but they have insufficient evidence to arrest him. And I think that's very sad. HELEN DALLEY: The Senator says to help finally nail Janelle's murderer the Federal Government is now prepared to go further than the $300,000 reward and indemnity currently on offer. SENATOR ROSS LIGHTFOOT: I take this opportunity of saying this on your program - we also offer and guarantee a safe house anywhere in the Commonwealth, with a new identity if necessary, if that person can come forward that will lead to the information, from whom, will lead to a conviction. And we need to catch this person. He has been free for too long now and the Federal Government are well aware of the potential that this person has to strike again. CAROLE PATTON: There is an emptiness there. It's like part of my life has gone as well. It's like part of a future, in a way, is gone, it's stolen. RON PATTON: I suppose what really hurts me is that potential, that life, has been taken and so brutally taken by someone that they do not deserve to remain at large, to remain free. It is shattering because our daughter will not be there with us for the rest of our lives. Click here for a printer-friendly version. |
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