Speaker 1: Approache production.
Speaker 2: This is Our Little Lady, the story of a fifteen
Speaker 2: year old girl who police say took her own life
Speaker 2: nine years ago, and now the world is starting to
Speaker 2: believe what her parents have thought all along.
Speaker 3: I remember Amanda just grabbing me and picking me up
Speaker 3: off the road and she said, you've got to go home, Jason,
Speaker 3: because she can't be here.
Speaker 2: That Eden Westbrook did not take her own life. In
Speaker 2: the last seven days, so much has happened. We left
Speaker 2: you in the last episode with the revelations, the police
Speaker 2: say that they have spoken with the girl we've been
Speaker 2: calling Kate. Jason and Amanda received a letter back from
Speaker 2: the acting commander that said that he'd been advised that
Speaker 2: Kate had been spoken to last year. This was shocking
Speaker 2: new information information Jason and Amanda didn't know until this
Speaker 2: police response.
Speaker 4: Blind away, Jay had no idea, had no stays. Did
Speaker 4: we feel or no that the police had spoken to Kate.
Speaker 2: I want to say that we did know that there
Speaker 2: was an inspector looking into this in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: so we were aware, and you were aware that there
Speaker 2: was an inspector and he spoke to you, right Jason over.
Speaker 3: The phone, And no official statements were taken by that
Speaker 3: inspector at the time.
Speaker 1: Who why didn't he talk to the lady that was
Speaker 1: just recently come on the podcast by the way, thank
Speaker 1: you so very much for coming forward. Yeah, why wasn't
Speaker 1: she approached and spoken to? Why wasn't I approach and
Speaker 1: spoken to? Both of us were at the scene for
Speaker 1: some number of hours.
Speaker 2: He did speak to Bobby Lee too, I believe, is
Speaker 2: that right?
Speaker 4: Yeah, he spoke to Bobby Lee and the two friends
Speaker 4: that were with her on that day where Kate approached
Speaker 4: bobbyly at the park.
Speaker 3: He did that again over the phone with no official statement,
Speaker 3: and then I don't believe anyone was called into any
Speaker 3: police station to do a formal statement.
Speaker 2: From what we understand, and certainly from what Kim, the
Speaker 2: delivery driver that was first to spot Eden's body, what
Speaker 2: she said was that she had no further contact with
Speaker 2: police from six months after that Eden died.
Speaker 3: Which is interesting because six months after Eden died, we
Speaker 3: had one of the confortable to add courage of Eden's investigation.
Speaker 4: Come to our house asking.
Speaker 3: For Eden's journal and get this Edan's phone, So we're
Speaker 3: figuring it's at the same time the Bridgewater Police got
Speaker 3: that witness in and asked about Eden's hand being tied up,
Speaker 3: so obviously something six.
Speaker 5: Months into Paul.
Speaker 3: Reynolds's investigation, it led to a question regarding.
Speaker 4: Eden's journal, Eden's phone, and Eden's hands being tied up.
Speaker 4: Now that's alarming.
Speaker 2: Amber Wilson from The Mercury in Hobart also covered the
Speaker 2: story about Kate being interviewed by police just last year.
Speaker 5: Oh, that was a shock to me. So there were
Speaker 5: a few things that I found shocking about that. So
Speaker 5: the first thing was that it's taken so long to
Speaker 5: speak to Kate, and that when the police spoke to Kate,
Speaker 5: they haven't updated the Westbrooks as they've gone along. It
Speaker 5: seems like it was almost like a oh, and by
Speaker 5: the way, we did speak to her, and yet she's fine.
Speaker 5: Nothing to see here. But what we know from Kate's
Speaker 5: behavior after Eden's death was that something was amissed fair,
Speaker 5: something was strange. The fact that the fact that her
Speaker 5: involvement could have been just pushed aside as something that
Speaker 5: wasn't important does seem really strange. Her behaviors after Eden
Speaker 5: says her interactions with other members of the Westbrooks family
Speaker 5: seem too absurd and too strange to be discounted as nothing.
Speaker 5: None of it lines up, does it, Jay? Not at all?
Speaker 5: So this is the thing is that And I'm not
Speaker 5: saying that Kate was involved in Eden's death or wasn't
Speaker 5: involved in eden death, but it certainly seems like she's
Speaker 5: at least witnessed something because she's experienced what really looks
Speaker 5: like to be trauma symptoms afterwards.
Speaker 2: Is it reasonable for Jason and Amanda to ask police, well,
Speaker 2: can we see what you asked? Can we know what
Speaker 2: you talked to Kate about? That seems fair and reasonable,
Speaker 2: given that they've been asking for nine years that police
Speaker 2: should at least speak with the girl at calling Kate.
Speaker 5: I don't believe that police members from any force share
Speaker 5: that level of detail and interrogation with family members. But again,
Speaker 5: that brings us back to the point of an inquest.
Speaker 5: If we could bring the police officers in to give
Speaker 5: evidence and cross examined, then we could find out in
Speaker 5: a fair and impartial public space what they did ask Kate,
Speaker 5: what they didn't ask case, what their observations were of case.
Speaker 1: Can we go back to the scene.
Speaker 6: I'm still at the scene when the.
Speaker 7: Officer calls a woman that may to call in the
Speaker 7: first place, telling her that there's no suspicious circumstance. I'm
Speaker 7: still at the scene and he hasn't.
Speaker 8: Told me yet.
Speaker 4: You know, we're talking at eight nine o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4: She's back at visiar. She rings up the Saint Helen's
Speaker 4: police speaks to another constable who says, there's nothing suspicious. Now,
Speaker 4: if there's nothing suspicious, why the fuck is even still
Speaker 4: hanging at full view for the public to see. And
Speaker 4: the police are spreading to the witnesses that it's nothing suspicious.
Speaker 8: And I'm still at the scene, and I'm being told.
Speaker 4: What time, and this is like eight or nine am
Speaker 4: who come up with that conclusion? What the technical forensic
Speaker 4: specialists said? This is clear cut suicide. Everyone, Let's put
Speaker 4: out blinkers on and focus on writing it off as suicide.
Speaker 2: As you can tell. And quite rightly, Jason and Amanda
Speaker 2: are upset with the fact they feel that Eden's case
Speaker 2: was deemed a suicide from the outset. I wanted to
Speaker 2: get back to the question about police talking to Kate
Speaker 2: last year, and I wanted to know if Jason and
Speaker 2: Amanda have asked to see the context of the chat
Speaker 2: police had with Kate back in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6: We have requested notes and for our statements and for
Speaker 6: any audio that was taken in him speaking with Kate.
Speaker 4: We've recently just written a letter off to the Commissioner
Speaker 4: Don Adams, requesting all that information Jay again.
Speaker 2: And has she come back to that letter as yet.
Speaker 3: Mate.
Speaker 4: We've got a handball straight down the defensive line to
Speaker 4: the Flower ranking officer and he'll be looking into it.
Speaker 2: Last week, in a final few days of the Senate
Speaker 2: sitting in Parliament, Jackie Lamby, the outspoken Australian politician, raised
Speaker 2: Eden's case. Now Jackie only had ten minutes to state
Speaker 2: her case, so this audio might feel a little bit rush,
Speaker 2: but it's powerful and we're going to play the whole thing.
Speaker 5: Thank you Siner Lambie, Thank you Kin.
Speaker 9: Madame Debbie present. I rise today to speak about the
Speaker 9: life and Souden death of fifteen year old Eden Jade
Speaker 9: Westbook in twenty fifteen. Many people around the world already
Speaker 9: know Eden's story better than most people in Tasmania and Australia.
Speaker 9: That is largely thanks to the podcast Out of the Lady,
Speaker 9: The Eden Westbrook Story and The Dog at Work of
Speaker 9: Amber Wilson at The Mercury, and on Tuesday the eighteenth,
Speaker 9: the June Channel nineth Under Investigation program brought Eden's story
Speaker 9: to a national audience. Getting Eden's story out there is
Speaker 9: thanks to unpay advocates, and especially the strength and persistence
Speaker 9: of Amanda and Jason, Eden's mom and dad and their
Speaker 9: determination to find out what really happened to their beloved daughter.
Speaker 9: The night before Eden day she died, she had had
Speaker 9: a disagreement with her parents about using her mobile phone
Speaker 9: and went to cool off sitting in a car outside
Speaker 9: her home. At eight forty five pm, Eaeden's sister went
Speaker 9: outside to check on her, but Eden was gone. The
Speaker 9: family spent the night searching for her. Early the next morning,
Speaker 9: on the eighteenth of February twenty fifteen, Eden was found
Speaker 9: hanging by a rope from a limb of a tall
Speaker 9: tree in a public park on the main road in
Speaker 9: Saint Helen's on the northeast coast of Tasmania. The police
Speaker 9: claimed Eden's death was suicide, and a Tasmanian coroner agreed,
Speaker 9: But in the days and week that weeks that followed,
Speaker 9: as initial shock faded, Jason and Amanda simply did not
Speaker 9: believe that Eden had taken her own life. She had
Speaker 9: just come back from a holiday of her two sisters
Speaker 9: and was looking forward to a camping weekend. Eden was
Speaker 9: a bright and bubbly fifteen year old. She was doing
Speaker 9: exceptionally well at school, She had a lovely family and
Speaker 9: was looking forward to buying her first car. The coroner
Speaker 9: noted that she was a sensitive person who cared for others.
Speaker 9: I believe, and I'm not alone in this belief that
Speaker 9: something awful happened and that Eden was probably murdered, and disturbingly,
Speaker 9: it appears that some members of the Tasmanian Police have,
Speaker 9: for unknown reasons, covered up the crime. Now, I've always
Speaker 9: been a big supporter of the police, including the Tasmanian Police.
Speaker 9: They must deal with situations that most of us would hate.
Speaker 9: They also often are understaff and many of them lived
Speaker 9: with PTSD. This is not about giving those hard working
Speaker 9: on a Tasmanian place a hard time, but it is
Speaker 9: my concern that there is a small number of rotten
Speaker 9: apples and the Tasmanian Police appear to have engaged in
Speaker 9: a cover up. Eden's parents and family have fortunately ten
Speaker 9: years to have the death of their daughter thoroughly investigated
Speaker 9: and made the subject of a public inquest. The family's
Speaker 9: investigation into Eden's death was assisted by a whistleblower who
Speaker 9: told Dan's mom and dad in early to twenty twenty
Speaker 9: three that her murder was covered up and staged looked
Speaker 9: like a suicide. Now we have a key witness, the
Speaker 9: person said to be the first to report the finding
Speaker 9: of Eden's body to police. Police saying that that she
Speaker 9: straightaway thought this was a murder, stage look to make
Speaker 9: look like suicide. The new witness, Ma. The new witness
Speaker 9: made the front pages of an article in the Mercury
Speaker 9: Oni yesterday. The whistleblower said he had heard that Eden
Speaker 9: had been tied up in a tree with wrote by
Speaker 9: an adult man younger female. The man identified to people
Speaker 9: who he claimed he had he who were involved. It
Speaker 9: looks like there are numerous gaping holes in the police
Speaker 9: investigation and reinvestigation, including the failure to interview criticable witnesses
Speaker 9: and share relevant information with the West Books. The police
Speaker 9: also failed to see cct V footage so a proper
Speaker 9: timeline events prior to the death could be established. The
Speaker 9: police didn't ask Eden's parents for her phone, and it
Speaker 9: seems they didn't examine Eden's phone in social media. Unfortunately,
Speaker 9: the phone was cremated with Eden. They didn't even investigate
Speaker 9: Eden's movements prior to her death. Witness statements obtained by
Speaker 9: the family and a previous lawyer helped fill the gat
Speaker 9: that critical gap. I have seen multiple witness statements taken
Speaker 9: by a criminal barrister that he believes prus beyond reasonable
Speaker 9: doubt that Eden did not commit suicide. There are simply
Speaker 9: too many inconsistencies and far too many unanswered questions. There
Speaker 9: is the possibility, as raised by the new witnesses, as
Speaker 9: reported in Yesterday's Mercury, that Eden's hands may have at
Speaker 9: some stage been tied behind her back, and there is
Speaker 9: an unwillingness to share critical details with the family, including
Speaker 9: vital all taps, all topsy photos, which form an integral
Speaker 9: part of the post modern report. Police failed to seize
Speaker 9: and properly examine cct V footage of the skate park,
Speaker 9: which was said by a now deceased police officer to
Speaker 9: the parents shortly after Eden's death to show Eden arguing
Speaker 9: with an older female in the early hours of the
Speaker 9: eighteenth February twenty fifteen. The investigation into Eden's death was
Speaker 9: conducted by Tasmanian police based Attaint Helens, but with oversight
Speaker 9: and import from a now deceased and alleged pedophile police officer,
Speaker 9: Senior started Paul Reynolds. A constable, a mere com s
Speaker 9: will have primary courage, a new country will have primary
Speaker 9: carriage of the investigation. It also appears that no real
Speaker 9: forensic investor examination or analysis occurred. It seems a hasty
Speaker 9: decision was made to treat what should have been a
Speaker 9: highly suspicious death of a vulnerable title as a suicide.
Speaker 9: This seems to have occurred on day one. According to
Speaker 9: the new Weakness Reynolds. Possible improper or undue influence on
Speaker 9: or possible crime conduct in any investigation is now the
Speaker 9: subject of review commissioned in twenty twenty three by the
Speaker 9: Commissioner of Police, the Wise Report, which is due to
Speaker 9: be released shortly. I understand that Westbrooks have made detail
Speaker 9: submissions to this review. The coroner, who was being advised
Speaker 9: by the late disgrace Paul Reynolds, handed down a three
Speaker 9: page finding without investigation on the thirteenth and September twenty sixteen,
Speaker 9: in which she held that there was no reason to
Speaker 9: hold an inquest. The coroner found that the death of
Speaker 9: Eden Westbrook was a suicide based on several matters, including
Speaker 9: apparent incidents of previous self harm and suicide attempts. The
Speaker 9: coroner found that Eden had died of aphixia and hanging.
Speaker 9: She was satisfied that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding
Speaker 9: it's death or that any other person was involved. However,
Speaker 9: nowhere in those three pages did the coroner refer to
Speaker 9: a forensic findings that she relied upon to exclude fail
Speaker 9: play and indicates suicide. This included posts modern results, autopsy photos,
Speaker 9: or forensic DNA testing of the rope. For example, on
Speaker 9: the involvement of Reynolds and the coroner stated Senior Sergeant
Speaker 9: Paul Rennam's of the launchest in Coroner's office also provide
Speaker 9: a regular overside and direction during the investigation period. At
Speaker 9: my request to end quote, the coroner stated that she
Speaker 9: was satisfied that she had received all available evidence that
Speaker 9: could recently assist her to determine the relevant matters. In
Speaker 9: the Coroners Act nineteen ninety five, an application by Eden's
Speaker 9: parents to have the matter reopened was refused by the
Speaker 9: Chief Magistrate in Able twenty twenty two. It also appears
Speaker 9: from the evidence of her two older sisters, Justin Hunter,
Speaker 9: who lovingly applied make up to Eden's face at the
Speaker 9: funeral home in twenty fifteen, that Eden had suffered facial
Speaker 9: bruising and shattered teeth. This, of course, could be caused
Speaker 9: as a result of a blunt force trauma to the face.
Speaker 9: If these injuries did exist, why did the Chief Magistrate
Speaker 9: and her written reasons do not reopen the matter state
Speaker 9: that there was no sign of any torment to Eden.
Speaker 9: Despite many requests over many years, and more recent requests
Speaker 9: by Channel nine to have the autopsy photos released to
Speaker 9: an independent forensic pathologist authorized by the parents for analysis,
Speaker 9: the Coroner's has refused to release these photos, essentially on
Speaker 9: the grounds that this case has now closed and it
Speaker 9: was not appropriate for any third party to receive the photos.
Speaker 9: If there was nothing to hide, why not release the photos.
Speaker 9: What is also arowing is that Channel nine's under investigation
Speaker 9: producer was informed earlier this year that the autopsy photos
Speaker 9: were never on the coronal coronial file. Does this mean
Speaker 9: that the coroner and the Chief Magistrate never viewed the
Speaker 9: autopsy photos when Channel nine's under investigation with Liz Hayes,
Speaker 9: asked an independent forensic pathologist to review Eden's case. The
Speaker 9: independent expert theologist told Channel nine and I quote the
Speaker 9: coroner's refusal to provide these photographs has severely fettered my
Speaker 9: review of this matter. And whilst I understand the sensitive
Speaker 9: nature of these photographs, it beggars belief that they have
Speaker 9: not been released from my examination as they compromise an
Speaker 9: integral party of the autopsy poor end quote? Did alleged pedophile?
Speaker 9: Did alleged pedophile? Police? When Paul Reynolds, who was assitting
Speaker 9: in the coroner and oversighting the investigation, remove side on
Speaker 9: or destroy the autopsy photos? What role did he playing
Speaker 9: in the obviously deficient police investigation? How are the parents
Speaker 9: and their legal advisors supposed to determine if they should
Speaker 9: appeal to the Supreme Court for an inquest when critical document,
Speaker 9: documents and images are not released. It also appears from
Speaker 9: the recent Commission of Inquiry and additional advice that there
Speaker 9: was alleged pedophilia activity happening within the Saint Helen's High
Speaker 9: School itself. They are also concerning allegations that they has
Speaker 9: been child abuse perpetrated by members of the Tasmanian Police
Speaker 9: in Saint Helen's around the time of Eden's death. Was
Speaker 9: even somehow caught up in this awful activity? Was she
Speaker 9: being growned or even abused? Was she being bashed and
Speaker 9: tied up before a staged hanging? There have been other
Speaker 9: suspicious and unsolved murders or disappearances in the north of
Speaker 9: my home state. It is time for the Tasmanian Attorney
Speaker 9: General to intervene has occurred recently in the Jerry Wise
Speaker 9: case to ascertain whether systematic issues and corruption are involved
Speaker 9: and direct that an inquest to be held as provided
Speaker 9: in the Tasmanian Coroners Act. The Commission of Police also
Speaker 9: failed to ensure a proper review and reinvestigate a reinvestigation
Speaker 9: of the matter. When the rect Books made formal complaints
Speaker 9: the outcome of a recent review was not shared with them.
Speaker 9: This whole thing stinks to high heaven. I believe this
Speaker 9: case needs an urgent public inquest headed by a respected
Speaker 9: interstate judge or Karen of coroner and with independent counsel
Speaker 9: assisting from interstate as soon as possible. How could Paul
Speaker 9: Reynolds have operated as he did for decades, as reported
Speaker 9: by Reginia Wise in her twenty twenty four interim rear,
Speaker 9: Why was a full police funeral with a police guard
Speaker 9: of honor health for him, with clear knowledge of his misconduct,
Speaker 9: with a glowing ology from the then police commissioner. You
Speaker 9: only need to look at the way in which the
Speaker 9: recent Commission of Inquiry into Tasmania in Tasmania into child
Speaker 9: sexual abuse is in government institutions was prevented from making
Speaker 9: adverse findings, all findings of misconduct and therefore holding people,
Speaker 9: both offenders and enables to account. There must be an
Speaker 9: independent commission of inquiry, underpinned by appropriate, appropriately and mental
Speaker 9: legislation by a highly respected interstate judge or judges, into
Speaker 9: the integrity, impartiality, the competence and the effectiveness of Tasmanian
Speaker 9: police and the coronal and criminal justice system in Tasmania.
Speaker 9: The possible murder of a young girl on what appears
Speaker 9: to be a botched investigation potentially a blatant coverer, should
Speaker 9: been enormous concerns to all Tasmanians. I call upon the
Speaker 9: Attorney General in Tasmania to direct that a public in
Speaker 9: quest to Eden's death by an independent and external Coroner
Speaker 9: be held pursued to Section twenty four to one d
Speaker 9: of the Tasmanian Coroners at nineteen ninety five. The Westbook
Speaker 9: five family has been fighting for answers for NELLI ten years.
Speaker 9: It is time. It is time the Tasmanian State government
Speaker 9: done its job and found out the truth behind what
Speaker 9: has happened in Saint Helen's.
Speaker 2: How did that make you feel?
Speaker 8: Oh my gosh, so empowered? She got everything on records.
Speaker 8: Jason and I were just like in absolute poor and
Speaker 8: gratitude of everything that came together on that evening. And
Speaker 8: it was done by a huge amount of homework research,
Speaker 8: support by Channel nine under investigation with Jay Bodshape Yourself,
Speaker 8: the community and the Wilson the Mercury.
Speaker 2: Jackie's speech in Parliament caused a flurry of media attention,
Speaker 2: including the journalist but the Hobart Mercury Aber Wilson writing
Speaker 2: about it on the front page for three days straight.
Speaker 2: I wanted to know from Amber, who has some experience
Speaker 2: in this type of thing, about what traditionally happens when
Speaker 2: something like this a politician raises something in the Senate.
Speaker 5: I suppose one of the things about Jackie Lamby speaking
Speaker 5: in the Senate is that all.
Speaker 10: Of her words were covered under parliamentary privilege, which means
Speaker 10: they can pretty much say whatever they want without that
Speaker 10: leading to legal consequences like defamation.
Speaker 5: When something like that is reported or a speech is
Speaker 5: given in parliament, a journalist then has what is called
Speaker 5: qualified privilege, so we can report on a lot of
Speaker 5: what is said in parliament or in court because of
Speaker 5: these types of legal situation that absolves a person from
Speaker 5: having legal consequences, particularly consequences like defamation or contempt of courts.
Speaker 2: And in your line of work and in our line
Speaker 2: of work, that's really important, right.
Speaker 5: That's super important because we can't just go and report
Speaker 5: allegations like that there are sex offenders in Tasmani police
Speaker 5: in certain parts of the state, or there are sex
Speaker 5: offenders in certain public schools, because we're at risk of
Speaker 5: defamation sous if we do that.
Speaker 2: We also saw that the in Westbrook case also got
Speaker 2: raised locally last week or a few weeks ago in cabinet.
Speaker 2: So and that was one of Jackie Lamby's party that
Speaker 2: raised that, correct.
Speaker 5: That's right. So Andrew Jennery is a new member of
Speaker 5: what we call the Lamby's. So he asked our Attorney General,
Speaker 5: Guy Barnett, if he would use his powers under the
Speaker 5: Act and intervene and order an inquest into the Eden case,
Speaker 5: similar to what we saw in the case of Jari Wise,
Speaker 5: which I think you have been discussing with your listeners.
Speaker 5: That question was asked a few weeks ago and the
Speaker 5: Attenney General took it on notice.
Speaker 2: So taking on notice means what It.
Speaker 5: Means that the Attorney General might not have had the
Speaker 5: answer at the time and so needed to go and
Speaker 5: consult with his lawyers and advisors before coming back on
Speaker 5: as So typically an answer for questions given on notice
Speaker 5: will come back and be given at the end of
Speaker 5: question time that day or perhaps the following day or
Speaker 5: within the next few weeks.
Speaker 4: Guy Barnett I truly believed that he was sincerely. He
Speaker 4: ampavises for us and he feels for us in his
Speaker 4: response when he stood up on the floor. We were
Speaker 4: pretty happy with the question. We're happy with the sorts
Speaker 4: sponsor his sincerity. Guy Barnett, he said he would look
Speaker 4: into it, and we now know that he's made a response.
Speaker 2: So up until now we all had a little bit
Speaker 2: of hope the Attorney General had said that he would
Speaker 2: take the case on notice. That was until about a
Speaker 2: day later when Amber Wilson from the Mercury made contact
Speaker 2: with them to find out how that was progressing, and
Speaker 2: it wasn't good news.
Speaker 5: So my question the Attorney General wasn't after Andrew Jenner's
Speaker 5: question in Parliament. My question to the Attorney General came
Speaker 5: after Jackie Lamby gave her speech in Parliament. And I
Speaker 5: had actually asked him the same question on a previous occasion,
Speaker 5: but on this occasion, with Jackie Lamby asking in Parliament,
Speaker 5: felt a little bit more impetus for him to answer
Speaker 5: that question directly. And what he said to me via
Speaker 5: a government spokesperson, so this didn't come from mister Barnett himself,
Speaker 5: from one of his advisors was that he didn't have
Speaker 5: powers to intervene in Eden's case and order an inquest
Speaker 5: be reopened. And I think that we've been talking a
Speaker 5: bit about the Jari Wis case and how that differed.
Speaker 5: In the Jari Wise case. His mother had did his
Speaker 5: mother faith to Carlo had been campaigning for some time
Speaker 5: for an inquest. So the investigation the case of Jarry
Speaker 5: Wise's death had been reported to the coroner, and the
Speaker 5: coroner had begun investigating. There was no form of ding's
Speaker 5: handed down and an inquest hadn't been held and a
Speaker 5: death investigation hadn't been completed. So the case was what
Speaker 5: they would call open still. Because the case was open still,
Speaker 5: faith to carlak Jarry's mum was able to appeal the
Speaker 5: kindest decision not to hold an inquest to the Supreme Court. Now,
Speaker 5: the Supreme Court did actually uphold the kind of decision
Speaker 5: not to an inquest, and that's when our former Attorney
Speaker 5: General at least Archer intervened, and that was an extraordinary intervention.
Speaker 5: It was the first time in Tasmani's two hundred years
Speaker 5: since colonization that that's happened. So this was highly unusual,
Speaker 5: never ever happened before. Now in the Eden case, now,
Speaker 5: this is what the Attorney General's Office has told me,
Speaker 5: was that because the findings had been handed down, the
Speaker 5: case is now closed, so it's not subject to an appeal.
Speaker 5: And that means that because it's not been before a
Speaker 5: court and it's not open still, the current Attorney General
Speaker 5: can't use his powers underneath the Coroner's Act to intervene. Now,
Speaker 5: this is a really interesting thing because since then I've
Speaker 5: been conslated by various lawyers and people and advocates who've
Speaker 5: said that this is all just an interpretation of the
Speaker 5: Coroner's Act and that if you look at the wordings differently,
Speaker 5: or for judge interprets it this way, then it wouldn't
Speaker 5: matter that that has been findings handed down in Eden's case,
Speaker 5: because there hasn't been an actual inquest. But the thing is,
Speaker 5: until we can get Eden's case to a court, any
Speaker 5: kind of court, that kind of argument can't be thrashed out.
Speaker 5: So the avenue that's open to the Westbrooks at the
Speaker 5: moment from a legal viewpoint, and also just a bit
Speaker 5: of this claim here that I'm not a lawyer, so
Speaker 5: I can't be getting any legal advice. This is just
Speaker 5: what it is. On the face of things. The avenue
Speaker 5: would be to return to the coroner or to the
Speaker 5: Chief Magistrate, Catherine Geeson. They're the two people that have
Speaker 5: the power to open an inquest into Edan's case.
Speaker 2: Currently, Eden's been on the front page to the Mercury
Speaker 2: now for a bunch of days, right, there was a
Speaker 2: lot of developments in the last sort of seven to
Speaker 2: ten days how's the feeling or what's the feeling that
Speaker 2: you're getting in Tasmania right now.
Speaker 5: I think that there is definitely a ground swell of
Speaker 5: people really taking notice of Eden's case and really starting
Speaker 5: to worry about the processes that have been followed or
Speaker 5: not followed in Eden's case, and whether or not people
Speaker 5: believe that foul pay was involved. I think that people
Speaker 5: are really sohy on board with the fact that all
Speaker 5: of the property undue processes haven't been followed in this
Speaker 5: case is and that's alarming for a number of reasons,
Speaker 5: because it could have meant that a young girl was
Speaker 5: murdered and no one has ever faced justice for that.
Speaker 2: What's been the most surprising thing that you've learned over
Speaker 2: the last few weeks in your reporting and investigations.
Speaker 5: I think when the woman called me last week, the
Speaker 5: woman who found Eden's body, who I think he did
Speaker 5: speak to as well, I found a lot of her
Speaker 5: observations that she made while she was sitting with edith
Speaker 5: really really jamming and really really insightful. So a lot
Speaker 5: of those observations about the way that Eden's body was
Speaker 5: physicians or things were happening with Eden's body, or the
Speaker 5: way that the rope was placed around her neck seemed
Speaker 5: to really sit in alignment with what Jason and Amanda
Speaker 5: has noticed when they first saw Eden the real many think,
Speaker 5: oh gosh, this really is a case that needs to
Speaker 5: be reinvestigated.
Speaker 2: In the next episode of Our Little Lady.
Speaker 10: This is the most prolific grooming I have seen perpetrated
Speaker 10: by one person in my career.
Speaker 2: The independent review into Paul Reynolds has now been completed.
Speaker 7: Fifteen victim survivors took part in the review, which determined
Speaker 7: that Reynolds groomed at least fifty two boys and young men.
Speaker 5: I feel very disappointed. Yeah, it's my job to make
Speaker 5: is right.