Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: Just before nine o'clock last night, the jury returned guilty
Speaker 2: verdicts against all three defendants.
Speaker 3: It was absolute shambles, to say the truth, just absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Blood on his clothing the day after the alleged attap
Speaker 4: on a shallow mud bank and if you through a river.
Speaker 3: Basically, I think most of the people are used to me,
Speaker 3: there are good people.
Speaker 5: I think a really important question we need to ask
Speaker 5: you how many Indigenous prisoners in.
Speaker 4: This is Kurtin a podcast where we pull back the
Speaker 4: blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of
Speaker 4: our justice system and ask who are the victims.
Speaker 3: I'm Amy Maguire.
Speaker 5: And I'm Martin Hodgson, Senior advocate at the Foreign Prisoner
Speaker 5: Support Service. Thanks for joining us here for Curtin the podcast.
Speaker 5: As the rest of the world was celebrating Christmas in
Speaker 5: New Years, Kevin Henry, or Curtin as he is widely known,
Speaker 5: spent his twenty fifth Christmas behind twenty five Christmases and
Speaker 5: New Years away from his family and loved ones and
Speaker 5: community through crime. He insists he never committed.
Speaker 6: Now, if you're just joining us here today for the
Speaker 6: latest episodes and you haven't listened to the previous episodes.
Speaker 6: We urge you to go back and catch up, but
Speaker 6: to refresh the memories of our regular listeners. For the
Speaker 6: past year, we've been investigating the murder of an Aboriginal
Speaker 6: woman named Linda on the banks of the Fitzroy River
Speaker 6: in Rockhampton, Central Queensland. In nine to ninety one. Four
Speaker 6: people were convicted over her death, three women who were
Speaker 6: handed three to four year jail sentences for grievous bodily harm.
Speaker 6: They had all brutally assaulted Linda at a drug and
Speaker 6: alcohol rehabilitation center named Tanuba House the night that she died.
Speaker 5: But it was Kevin Henry who received the harshest sentence
Speaker 5: because after Linda had been left at Tanuba House, police
Speaker 5: allege he dragged to an area close to the river,
Speaker 5: where later he would place her in the water, where
Speaker 5: she would subsequently drown. But over the past year we've
Speaker 5: raised serious doubts about those allegations. They simply don't stack up.
Speaker 5: The forensic evidence doesn't match. There's no eye witnesses, there's
Speaker 5: no evidence, forensic or otherwise linking Kevin to Linda or
Speaker 5: to the place where the police would allege Kevin placed
Speaker 5: Linda's body in the water. We've spent time outlining reasons
Speaker 5: that Kevin's confession at the police station were coerced and
Speaker 5: even forced. We've told you about the other suspects, much
Speaker 5: more likely suspects with motive and opportunity, who the police,
Speaker 5: despite knowing these people existed, did not bother to follow
Speaker 5: up on. We've told you about key witnesses who were
Speaker 5: proven unreliable on the witness stand, some of whom flat
Speaker 5: out light. And finally, we told you that Kevin Henry
Speaker 5: had an alibi that night he was at the Crown
Speaker 5: Hotel buying alcohol, and the window of time where it's
Speaker 5: alleged he could have committed the crime was very narrow.
Speaker 5: The timing just does not add up. In fact, that
Speaker 5: window becomes so narrow it's closed. Now. A couple of
Speaker 5: weeks ago, Amy sat down by the banks of the
Speaker 5: Fitzroy River and spoke to Kevin's cousin, Douglas Graham. Back
Speaker 5: in September nineteen ninety one, when Kevin supposedly gave his
Speaker 5: confession at the Rockampton police station, Doug was concerned about
Speaker 5: what was going on, so he made an effort to
Speaker 5: go down to the police station to see what was
Speaker 5: actually happening. It was here that he saw clips of
Speaker 5: the actual video recording of Curtain's police interview. Those clips
Speaker 5: were just a section of what should have been hours
Speaker 5: and hours of video tape, but Douglas was only presented
Speaker 5: with about twelve minutes of content. Here's what he has
Speaker 5: to say.
Speaker 4: Douglas Graham, could I get you to say your mob
Speaker 4: in your country?
Speaker 3: Douglas Graham, I'm the Lama Lama and human groups as
Speaker 3: well as a good going and color. Were you're sitting
Speaker 3: on the room bank out of our company and most breezy.
Speaker 3: We are anomalous mob from Moist of the associators from
Speaker 3: the dors in Riveria of smer Queen's andandwhich flows into
Speaker 3: the McKenzie flows into the frens Roy. Yeah, what we
Speaker 3: were sitting now and and that's all. We are eagle people.
Speaker 3: And we'll come to talk about brother Kevin Henry and
Speaker 3: the circumstances surrounding his imprisonment. It's a sad story mm.
Speaker 3: And there's always some questions about when people get into
Speaker 3: the cast right on on charges uh such as he
Speaker 3: he's been put on. But there's also been dafts in
Speaker 3: people's minds of of the ease.
Speaker 4: I suppose who's Kevin Henry to you?
Speaker 3: Kem his mama and mamma sisters away from they and
Speaker 3: your family around trou so the big family be moved
Speaker 3: his Uh, these six sisters and three brothers, and and
Speaker 3: as you know, as a as you can, as you
Speaker 3: can sort of realize, there's a bit more of us
Speaker 3: after that. But I'm we've always been sort of close,
Speaker 3: knitting and out. Kevin to be h always a quiet fella,
Speaker 3: and they've got much Uh getting in Stratford with anybody,
Speaker 3: let alone the the authorities or the police or anybody
Speaker 3: you know, you know, we all go might have been
Speaker 3: a little bit of ugments along the way, but Uh
Speaker 3: was known to be a little person to get in
Speaker 3: trouble really, you know, do you.
Speaker 4: Remember around you know, September nine ninety one, how did
Speaker 4: you find out that Curtain had been arrested?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm in ninety ninety one, I was in Adelaide,
Speaker 3: and that was a time when I'm I got a
Speaker 3: phone call from my mum and I was studying at
Speaker 3: the UNI there. And we don't come on for a break.
Speaker 3: After we come on for my break I'm family sat
Speaker 3: down and talked about what had happened. And and when
Speaker 3: I always told stories about the lady in there who
Speaker 3: was bending the river that keptn was specially Marity with
Speaker 3: the wrong way. He's weew other stories, you know, earn
Speaker 3: about who actually did it. And and that's the biggest part.
Speaker 3: When I heard a story about these other people who
Speaker 3: were involved there was it didn't come much as u
Speaker 3: a s surprise to me. They were they were they
Speaker 3: were well noner in the community to be stand up
Speaker 3: with people and then and people who would go roll
Speaker 3: on people and just really bad news, you know. And
Speaker 3: I remember that I'd come into Rocky to the police
Speaker 3: station to we we we actually talked to the police
Speaker 3: about about his confession cir called confession. So I am
Speaker 3: coming to Rockampton, I just pretty rich date was there
Speaker 3: what Monther was, but would have been after I'd come
Speaker 3: back from Adelaide, And I actually got to see a
Speaker 3: vhh vatas type recording of his his circle confessions. When
Speaker 3: I look back at her now and I you know,
Speaker 3: realized that he wasn't he didn't seem his right self.
Speaker 3: He's slurring words and and sort of m you know,
Speaker 3: swaying a bit, and I realized I realized myself too,
Speaker 3: that he was still in it looked like he was intoxicated,
Speaker 3: you know. Yeah, and and and I in it on
Speaker 3: that sort of quality tape. Yeah, M. You know, he's
Speaker 3: a bit of a jump and a bit of a
Speaker 3: not It wasn't that snow. He just a bit of
Speaker 3: look scratchy what they call it. But I definitely remember
Speaker 3: the way he was talking, in the way he's acting,
Speaker 3: and these m it's his mannerisms, you know. It just
Speaker 3: didn't seem right to me, you know, and nothing, nothing
Speaker 3: seemed right.
Speaker 4: How much of that tape were you able to watch?
Speaker 3: I reckon I woulda watched about probably about when No.
Speaker 3: SA ten seven to ten minutes of that at the
Speaker 3: most of say probably twelve roughly as a recall, But
Speaker 3: it wasn't It wasn't an hour. Wasn't wasn't like an
Speaker 3: half an hour.
Speaker 4: Do you remember who was in the room with Kevin.
Speaker 3: Or there was some guys detectives. I don't recall their
Speaker 3: names at the moment, but I'm I realized, I'm uh,
Speaker 3: I understood the do they way? You know? Over then
Speaker 3: what they were asking these questions and and uh when
Speaker 3: I remember one part there they were saying, well did
Speaker 3: you do it? Did you? Did you do it? And
Speaker 3: he said well, oh well okay, then like you know
Speaker 3: what's around my head? And I told himself, well, now,
Speaker 3: angl a minute, that's not a confession. It's like, oh okay,
Speaker 3: oh bet enough, you used m hav gonna go at
Speaker 3: me on this. Yeah, And then he said, uh, what
Speaker 3: do you do it?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: He's talking like, well, these these women got families, you know,
Speaker 3: and kidding I'm thinking, well what women?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 3: Who were they talking about? And I realized that it
Speaker 3: was lighter Ni there's people way mm and to me,
Speaker 3: it to me it was it wasn't a confession, it
Speaker 3: it It was seemed to be a forced one. And
Speaker 3: and even these the way I looked at him and
Speaker 3: they seemed to be like to me, he was like
Speaker 3: either drowsy from sleep but with the doubt which wa
Speaker 3: you know, but it looked it'll work. He was still
Speaker 3: ready tied up.
Speaker 4: Yeah you know, did you s say that too? Did
Speaker 4: you remark that to the police officers at that time?
Speaker 4: You're concerned? Now?
Speaker 3: I didn't, because it was I was it was a movie.
Speaker 3: I wasn't shocked too, see, yeah, and to think that thing,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's not a real that doesn't sound like
Speaker 3: a confession to me. So now I didn't I didn't
Speaker 3: elaborate on to him because you know, I can feel
Speaker 3: the eyes on me as well, you know, and it
Speaker 3: see like they wanted they wanted to show me what
Speaker 3: they wanted to show me, and and that little part
Speaker 3: you know, and actually recalled that. They said, well there's
Speaker 3: a confession, but not a a whole record of a
Speaker 3: video record for the whole any of you from from
Speaker 3: the start till they finished, you know, So I I
Speaker 3: remember that now.
Speaker 4: So you went down to the police off police officer
Speaker 4: that day cause you were concerned about Kevin being locked up.
Speaker 4: You went down just because you wanted to see what
Speaker 4: was happening. And that's what they said to you.
Speaker 3: They showed you the confession, yeah, because they said he
Speaker 3: confessed and was at how how did he compressit? He
Speaker 3: write it or whatever, and said, well there's a there's
Speaker 3: a there's a video tape recording, which I understand now
Speaker 3: no one syst know where it is. And and if
Speaker 3: you think that any brief of evidence and lawyer's got
Speaker 3: brief of evidence and stuff back from the prosecutors that
Speaker 3: that would have been included in there. So I don't
Speaker 3: know many people they actually showed after that or even
Speaker 3: quite about Kevin, or whether that was actually played in
Speaker 3: the court of law. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't.
Speaker 3: Well there you go. So someone's actually got still got
Speaker 3: that that taper which actually shows him, you know, physically
Speaker 3: he looked and I and now he spoke right more
Speaker 3: so than the written word or a or an audio recording,
Speaker 3: and that wad that would And if someone would have
Speaker 3: seen that, you know, and experienced defense lawyer h h
Speaker 3: or the judge himself, you know, would have seen that,
Speaker 3: you know, I I think they would add s some
Speaker 3: sort of words to say about, well, he he doesn't
Speaker 3: look like he's m well mentally c came uh mentally
Speaker 3: capacitated at the time to do that, you know, but
Speaker 3: whether that's the right word or not. But he just
Speaker 3: didn't seem to be in his right mind.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can tell just from seven to ten minutes.
Speaker 3: What he was like. Yes, just by that brief time.
Speaker 3: And I knew because we knew Kevin, and I said,
Speaker 3: now this the this boy looks charged up. You know,
Speaker 3: it's a l yeah, ah uh, charge up. And that's
Speaker 3: what it looked like to me. And I swear by that.
Speaker 3: I swear in on the Bible and I was swear
Speaker 3: to anybody in the court of or or anything. What
Speaker 3: I saw.
Speaker 4: This is all before Kevin was convicted. Was your family
Speaker 4: shocked when he was convicted? I mean, what was the
Speaker 4: reaction from your family?
Speaker 3: If he was all shocked? Was it in sad? And
Speaker 3: if we just sort of went to if we went
Speaker 3: to some sort likes like sorrow, you know, And and
Speaker 3: when you're in that sort of state, you know, you
Speaker 3: understand you can't do much. You just there's more questions
Speaker 3: and the answers, and you know, and what the hell's
Speaker 3: going on in the system?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 3: And and I s to this to this day. Look,
Speaker 3: I said, you know that that should have been shown
Speaker 3: in the court of law. So someone's eh got it
Speaker 3: or destroyed mm or something was done with it. Do
Speaker 3: when you look at the you actually see the visual
Speaker 3: the visual physicalities of the area was areas eer Kevin
Speaker 3: was being questioned and his movements in the way he
Speaker 3: was slurring his words and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: MM.
Speaker 3: And I I know for myself, you know, you know
Speaker 3: you look back and say, well, he was under pressure.
Speaker 3: M he was way under pressure.
Speaker 4: Do you find it strange because we now know that
Speaker 4: there were breaks in the tape, so they stopped the
Speaker 4: tape at certain times, they didn't give him legal representation.
Speaker 4: What do you like think when you hear that with
Speaker 4: what they.
Speaker 3: Did, Well, there's a big there's a big shock when
Speaker 3: I had that, and there was only wa this week.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm sure I wanna spoke these I think
Speaker 3: this week I spoke to you. And it was a
Speaker 3: shock because you know, there's a record of interview fair
Speaker 3: enough you might stop for a coffee break or or
Speaker 3: because you know, might say, well we're going on south
Speaker 3: for he's a bit tired, it's gonna have a rest
Speaker 3: or something. But if you're gonna chop and train and
Speaker 3: it's get give us opportunity for cutting pasting stuff? Uh
Speaker 3: to me? And yeah, it's it's a big shock. And
Speaker 3: I I don't think any law enforcement today these are
Speaker 3: sort of tactics I hope not. Well me too, you know,
Speaker 3: And that's that's just way too many stops and no
Speaker 3: one knows where the in between the stops or how
Speaker 3: long the stops were four.
Speaker 4: How would you describe what Tanouba was like and what
Speaker 4: it was sort of like for people in the river
Speaker 4: bank back at that time.
Speaker 3: There was always a place to go down there and
Speaker 3: have a feed and a sleep and a uh ketch
Speaker 3: up with and with with family and friends. Are if
Speaker 3: you're looking for someone or if you wanna go in
Speaker 3: the a drink and get away from get away from
Speaker 3: wherever you wanna get away from, you know, you go there.
Speaker 3: And a lot of people at the time lived along
Speaker 3: the root bank, you know, and it's not just blackflod
Speaker 3: it was white flows. And I seen people from more
Speaker 3: walks of life in it and over the years camping
Speaker 3: in the on the room bank timber. Remember it was
Speaker 3: a a place like an aven, you know, there was
Speaker 3: an aven for people that they knew they can go
Speaker 3: there and and be safe too, you know, because some
Speaker 3: while we worked there at the time, looked after them,
Speaker 3: you know, and make sure they had put any the
Speaker 3: food down there. Or you know, if you needed a
Speaker 3: shower or something and you need a bit of a
Speaker 3: clean up, you can always go upstairs mm or apps, oh,
Speaker 3: just for a yard, you know, and and if you
Speaker 3: wanted to look for someone in Rocky Bactually you got
Speaker 3: a toomber first. You know, if you.
Speaker 4: With something like you know, a murder at Tanouva, did
Speaker 4: that send sort of shockwaves through the Aboriginal community?
Speaker 3: Do you think, Oh yeah, and it seemed to be
Speaker 3: it it did, you know, And we did send the shockwaves,
Speaker 3: but it's sent it sent a lot of quietness too,
Speaker 3: like people were involved in who people were involved with
Speaker 3: that that murdered that girl, and who around that time
Speaker 3: went quiet too? You know. Of course there was an
Speaker 3: uproar and and you know r in around town and
Speaker 3: then some of the queens and in society. But but
Speaker 3: that's who got me worried about the quietness or were
Speaker 3: people keep them quiet too mm and afraid to come
Speaker 3: out and speak out as well? And I know a
Speaker 3: few of them, people that I spoke to over the years,
Speaker 3: tell me still worry about what happened. And and when
Speaker 3: I went to actually get him on tape, they did
Speaker 3: they wouldn't do it and change their minds, you know,
Speaker 3: they they was they were under threats of violence as well, and.
Speaker 4: They told me that, you know, do you think there's
Speaker 4: people out there who actually know what happened? That night,
Speaker 4: but just was too scared to say anything.
Speaker 3: Too scared either by the perpetrats themselves or you know,
Speaker 3: to me, it's boy boy, I'm whether it's the police
Speaker 3: or authorities, you know, like we don't need any more evidence.
Speaker 3: We've got to a man, and blah blah blah, you know.
Speaker 3: And and people were intimidated and stood over back then,
Speaker 3: you know, not just the boy black flows, but a
Speaker 3: lot of people on the room bank, especially by the cops.
Speaker 3: And I can say that too, he said. You know,
Speaker 3: I can speak like that, you know, because that happened
Speaker 3: to me when I was a young feller, you know,
Speaker 3: mind out of business, walking around town, getting questions, getting
Speaker 3: pulled over, uh, and getting beaten up.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: When did that happen when you were young?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well I sixteen or seventeen, eighteen nineteen, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: So you.
Speaker 4: Didn't have a lot of faith in cops, you reckon
Speaker 4: a lot of not a lot of black fellows had
Speaker 4: faith in cops.
Speaker 3: No. Well, you know, there's there's a lot of good cops,
Speaker 3: you know, but some of the fellows we ran into,
Speaker 3: they rant any good blocks at all, you know, they
Speaker 3: the older blocks we'd been okay, you know, that the
Speaker 3: watchair stairs and the older fellows worked there. They're they're
Speaker 3: pretty good, you know. But some of the other fellas s,
Speaker 3: especially the detectives, and I, you know, I don't remember
Speaker 3: getting beaten up, getting getting hit with the books oh
Speaker 3: really the telephone books, you know, and there was back then,
Speaker 3: there was you know, no monitoring and know this and
Speaker 3: know that you know, we put in a complaint that
Speaker 3: just come around the beach up again.
Speaker 4: Mm. You know before the days of the Royal Commission
Speaker 4: were around the same time.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you know ninety one, you know, Marble was
Speaker 3: on you know, I caught decisions. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: all the land Rocks movements and stuff were on a hall,
Speaker 3: you know. And and most of the euphoria too. You know,
Speaker 3: there's there's stuff that's we know, get covered up, you know.
Speaker 3: And for the police to charge a group of people
Speaker 3: with that murder of that girl and then drew up
Speaker 3: charges against at least three them that I know, that's strange.
Speaker 3: Mm you I if you I you know, because they
Speaker 3: were there, you know, they we we all know people
Speaker 3: now and people who were there say they were they
Speaker 3: and what they did. And and I believed that too
Speaker 3: because I wasn't there myself, but iled because I know
Speaker 3: them and they know there they stood over with people
Speaker 3: and intimidated people. Mm uh like Watton Brindle. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: and it's the sad part about it is that I'm
Speaker 3: no one against justice, not at this state anyway, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, And that poor girls was very still crying out.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: M Yeah.
Speaker 4: When you talk about women particularly, I mean you got
Speaker 4: daughters and you got you know, sister and mother. R.
Speaker 4: How do you think Aboriginal women particularly are treated when
Speaker 4: it comes to issues like this?
Speaker 3: Oh? I always say, my g girls, any of you
Speaker 3: stand up for your rights and be strong, you know.
Speaker 3: I made 'em go boxing, boxing clubs when they live younger,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, fighting. But there's just too much,
Speaker 3: too much of it, you know. Now. Women's folk with
Speaker 3: you know, uh are still you know, backbone and over
Speaker 3: every other unit of a family you know, and should
Speaker 3: be treated as such. N And I know women or
Speaker 3: nobody you know should be treated like that. And I
Speaker 3: tell my girl time stand up, always stand up, you know,
Speaker 3: and speak your mind and be strong and in the
Speaker 3: truth you know, and and cause the truth will you
Speaker 3: know will save you, you know, And it'll sort of
Speaker 3: set you free too, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I pray that the truth of what happened this
Speaker 3: young lady comes out, you know, And people have died
Speaker 3: in the way l up up to this point, you know,
Speaker 3: not no one, you know, what happened with the truth
Speaker 3: come out and drop it. The broken arts and and
Speaker 3: broken dreams in her and and no one should be
Speaker 3: treated with that, No, no woman, not anybody. But what
Speaker 3: happened with that girl?
Speaker 4: Yeah, kN I mean we're sitting here by the Fitzford River,
Speaker 4: which drumble people used to call Tanuba mm. But it
Speaker 4: has a very bloody history, doesn't it, this river? Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, if you look back in the history of this
Speaker 3: country's from commonization, you know, especially and Ranald run rocky
Speaker 3: human that's all where the well, the mask is golong
Speaker 3: around this river and around this district. And and the murders,
Speaker 3: you know, there's there's been murders up and down this
Speaker 3: river that that way. I'm I've been I'm unsolved, you know.
Speaker 3: And there's families grieving, you know, without known the truth.
Speaker 3: And I have no inkling, and mothers and fathers have
Speaker 3: passed on and when the children have have have have
Speaker 3: passed on, have died from you know, from violence. Mm
Speaker 3: and and it's it's really sad it somebody you can
Speaker 3: sit down there you can feel the sadness, you know,
Speaker 3: and the and for a lovely spot, for a beautiful spot,
Speaker 3: uh work a lot of the country all over ways.
Speaker 3: You always have that. You always got that. You can
Speaker 3: feel that, you can feel that the damage are done
Speaker 3: to the uh A race youer and you can still
Speaker 3: leave them crying out too.
Speaker 2: Mm.
Speaker 3: You know if you listen hard enough and close enough
Speaker 3: and and have you quiet times, you know within the
Speaker 3: beauty is a sadness you But I'm we always wrong people,
Speaker 3: you know, to keep going. We're still seeking the truth.
Speaker 3: So you fight for the truth. And I thank you
Speaker 3: and and and your colleagues and that are endeavoring to
Speaker 3: bring out the truth. Not just a curtain's case, but
Speaker 3: a lot of other unsolved crimes around Rockies, you know,
Speaker 3: and murders that a lot of people talk about it,
Speaker 3: but don't talk about them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, people don't want to talk about them.
Speaker 3: Yeah like that, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But a lot of people, particularly around Worabinder and
Speaker 4: average community around Rocky, they seem to believe in Kevin's innocence,
Speaker 4: Curtain's innocence. Why do you think that is that it's
Speaker 4: been you know, coming out for a very long time,
Speaker 4: that a lot of people thought he was innocent from.
Speaker 3: The very well. I think it's it was just the nature,
Speaker 3: the nature of the kid, and it wasn't in his
Speaker 3: nature to do that, like I only said this morning,
Speaker 3: you know, it never was in his nature. There's always
Speaker 3: been a quietly you know a bit of laughing and
Speaker 3: a bit of American but not somebody to have this
Speaker 3: some much to hang in and that it would manifest
Speaker 3: into something really bad and evile to kill someone. Nothing
Speaker 3: like that now, no way in the world. Yeah, the
Speaker 3: people around who all liked that, but there wasn't Kevin
Speaker 3: wasn't one of them, right never.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it must be hard to believe.
Speaker 3: Still to this day. Yeah, yeah, but I'm I'm glad
Speaker 3: we having a having having to get up and do
Speaker 3: something now, and you know, it's been too long, and
Speaker 3: I reckon we should tradition for a for an inquest,
Speaker 3: you know, as as and then a lot of the
Speaker 3: truth will come out, for example, like with the more
Speaker 3: com case, you know, and with other cases around around Queensland.
Speaker 3: In Australia, we should push for an inquest, a proper
Speaker 3: one MM, so that you know, all all the information,
Speaker 3: all the cars that laid out on the table, and
Speaker 3: not just the essays or innuendos and and lost opportunities,
Speaker 3: you know, especially in the court of law. We see
Speaker 3: in stuff in that court of law that should have
Speaker 3: been brought out MM, like the VSA's type what I saw.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you're the only person who who might
Speaker 4: have seen it. You're the only person who who's talked
Speaker 4: about it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Well, I hope some of our listeners out there, we
Speaker 3: weren't quite about the case, would have seen it. And
Speaker 3: there's someone in authority or someone who was a junior
Speaker 3: police officer at the time maybe you know, eye position,
Speaker 3: never saw that they could some shed some light on it.
Speaker 3: And we hope, you know, and pray too. But it's
Speaker 3: justice has to be done, to be s seemed to
Speaker 3: be done, you know. And and there's people who did
Speaker 3: that terrible deed you know, should be prosecuted to look
Speaker 3: extens of the law. But like I said, if he
Speaker 3: had some sort of inquest, then let's see, let's just
Speaker 3: let's this just I reckon, it's just ever go and
Speaker 3: go for it MM, cause as many legal minds to
Speaker 3: be on it as possible and push for it and
Speaker 3: push the state you know, yeah, they they n they
Speaker 3: the breakdown barriers authorities, you know, to help others other
Speaker 3: than you know. When I say others, I mean not
Speaker 3: of the Abergian race. They bend of a backwards say
Speaker 3: help them. And I'm not saying anything bad against white people.
Speaker 3: It's just that that's that's the way the system is. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And we grew up with that system. And if the
Speaker 3: system can help them and said should be as the
Speaker 3: law is equal and fair to everybody, then it should
Speaker 3: be equal to or Kevin, you know, like and have
Speaker 3: an inquest there. I reckon there'll be a big step forward.
Speaker 4: Something has to happen, doesn't it, Because there's.
Speaker 3: More good people doing it. The goodness will break through
Speaker 3: any any evilness or any any anything that's hidden and
Speaker 3: things are going to be brought into the life.
Speaker 4: That's beautiful. Do you want to add anything?
Speaker 3: I want to thank you.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 6: That was Kevin's cousin, Douglas Graham, and he spoke to
Speaker 6: me on the banks of the Fitzroy River and a
Speaker 6: couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Ago, now, Amy, just after you spoke to Doug.
Speaker 2: That week and the week after, during this Christmas and
Speaker 2: New Year's break, we've all been busy working with Doug
Speaker 2: and the Worbin, the community where both Doug, Kevin and
Speaker 2: his family are from.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you can tell the listeners what we've all been
Speaker 1: up to.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, actually the same week that Doug and I sat
Speaker 6: down for that interview, we actually went around to a
Speaker 6: lot of the families in Rockhampton from Warabinda. A lot
Speaker 6: of them had actually been staying there for Christmas in
Speaker 6: the New Year's break, and we went around and we
Speaker 6: actually gave them a community petition calling on support for
Speaker 6: Kevin Henry.
Speaker 2: Now, the reason we wanted to gather that was because
Speaker 2: over the break, Curtain came.
Speaker 1: Up for parole.
Speaker 2: This petition was to show the community's high level of
Speaker 2: support in his application to be released. And it's important
Speaker 2: to point out how supportive the weorb Indo community what
Speaker 2: were and have been in this process. Despite it being
Speaker 2: the Christmas in their many of them spend days gathering signatures,
Speaker 2: very keen to have their names on the petition calling
Speaker 2: for Curtain to return home.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't all.
Speaker 2: I also worked for the elders of the werb Indo
Speaker 2: community to draft a letter of resupport asking that Curtain
Speaker 2: be returned to Worrebinder, highlighting what they would do to
Speaker 2: support Curtain, appoint his return and why they felt he
Speaker 2: should be returned.
Speaker 6: And for those who don't know a lot about the
Speaker 6: pros system in Queensland and Australia for that matter, how
Speaker 6: long would this process take?
Speaker 2: Okay, so we won't discuss the details of Kevin's parole application.
Speaker 2: That's before the paroba and right manner, and we give
Speaker 2: them our full respect in allowing them to go through
Speaker 2: the work they need to do to assess Kevin's claim.
Speaker 2: But generally you tend to hear back in a four
Speaker 2: to eight week period. That's why they assess whether they
Speaker 2: will or won't release Kevin Henry from prison and what
Speaker 2: will happen to Kevin upon release.
Speaker 6: So what happens now? Can we still investigate and report
Speaker 6: on this story even while that decision is being made?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, both I mean and I have made a commitment
Speaker 2: from the very start of looking into the case of
Speaker 2: Kevin Henry and what happened that night at Tanuba that
Speaker 2: we wouldn't stop until we'd investigated and discovered the truth
Speaker 2: of exactly.
Speaker 1: What happened that night.
Speaker 2: The consequences of that evening have been devastating, most of
Speaker 2: all for Linda's family have lost and Auntie, our mother
Speaker 2: and a loved one.
Speaker 1: They deserve them to know the truth of exactly what happened.
Speaker 2: We've also committed to showing and proving that the police
Speaker 2: investigation was bungled, that the trial was littered with problems,
Speaker 2: and that the truth was never exposed. And the more
Speaker 2: we dig, the more we find that Kevin Henry is
Speaker 2: highly unlikely to have committed the crime he was accused
Speaker 2: and found guilty of. In fact, there is simply no
Speaker 2: evidence supporting that charge. And that's why we believe he's
Speaker 2: maintained his innocence for more than twenty five years. So
Speaker 2: why we wait for the parole board to report back?
Speaker 2: Curtain The podcast will continue and will continue to expose
Speaker 2: the flaws in the police investigation, the new suspects we've uncovered,
Speaker 2: the evidence against them, and the mounting evidence continues to
Speaker 2: show Curtin were more than likely and more by the
Speaker 2: day provable to be innocent of the crime. For which
Speaker 2: he was committed.
Speaker 6: So taking that into mind, I mean, we've heard from
Speaker 6: Doug Graham there, Kevin's cousin, he actually seemed to know
Speaker 6: a lot of the case at the time. What do
Speaker 6: you take from his sort of telling of when he
Speaker 6: saw the video recording because before he came forward, I
Speaker 6: didn't even know there had been video recording of Kevin's confession.
Speaker 6: I just thought it had been an audio recording. So
Speaker 6: what do we actually take from that sort of testimony
Speaker 6: that he saw the original clips of Kevin around the
Speaker 6: time that they'd been recorded.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the first thing is that it corroborates
Speaker 2: a lot of what Kevin's initial lawyers were arguing, which
Speaker 2: is that yes there was a video, and yes there
Speaker 2: was a tape recording, but they were recorded. See approbably,
Speaker 2: they had to be synced, and both quality levels on
Speaker 2: the tape and the video were very poor. So even
Speaker 2: identifying who was who and who said what, and if
Speaker 2: the tapes were sin he's highly trouble trouble. But to
Speaker 2: have an eye witness to the way that video looked
Speaker 2: in Kevin's cousin, Dug Graham brings us new certainty about
Speaker 2: the doubts that we've always had about that confession and
Speaker 2: exactly what occurred in those days at the Rockampton police station.
Speaker 6: He talked about I remember, I mean, he just we
Speaker 6: just heard his interview with me, and he talked about
Speaker 6: the facts that immediately he knew Kevin wasn't in the
Speaker 6: right mind to actually be given a confession. He said
Speaker 6: that he was slummed and that he's swaying, he looked
Speaker 6: at very obviously drunk. Why didn't the video come up
Speaker 6: at a trial or why haven't hasn't it come out now,
Speaker 6: given that it seems that he was so obviously unable
Speaker 6: to give a true confession at that time.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a very good question, and we know the
Speaker 1: judge was highly concerned about this. Important to point out.
Speaker 2: We don't know where that video is, and the lawyers
Speaker 2: working on Kevin's parole application, those of us investigating the case,
Speaker 2: none of us have been able to turn up that video.
Speaker 2: And here's why I believe that's so. The police would
Speaker 2: claim on the stand that every person they interviewed in
Speaker 2: this matter until the trial was not intoxicating. That means
Speaker 2: they were not intoxicated at the time that their witness
Speaker 2: statements were given, and that even their testimony was given
Speaker 2: in court, that video clearly.
Speaker 1: Shows that Kevin was indeed intoxicated and heavily and that
Speaker 1: was by his own admission as well later on in
Speaker 1: statements he would make.
Speaker 2: In fact, every single witness who was down at ten
Speaker 2: Uber House that night would either admit in their statement
Speaker 2: or on the stand that they were intoxicated both when
Speaker 2: the events occurred and when their statements were taken, many
Speaker 2: of them multiple times. But the police would claim that
Speaker 2: not a single one of these people was ever intoxicated
Speaker 2: when their statements were taken, and that they ensured that
Speaker 2: was not the case, because if these statements were taken
Speaker 2: when a person was heavily intoxicated, the judge made it
Speaker 2: very clear they'd be inadmissible, and this was partly the
Speaker 2: reason why he struck.
Speaker 1: Out a good deal of Kevin's alleged confession.
Speaker 2: So here from Doug Graham, who was around at the time,
Speaker 2: who saw the video, who had his own concerns before
Speaker 2: he'd even seen the video, and then had those concerns
Speaker 2: proven by what he saw. He's further proof of what
Speaker 2: we've continued to uncover. It's another person that we've met
Speaker 2: along this Journey, who's always been troubled by what occurred
Speaker 2: and the outcome, And for every person we talked to,
Speaker 2: that's the same response we get.
Speaker 6: The other thing that came up in Doug's interview was
Speaker 6: that he already sort of believed that the police will
Speaker 6: be capable of doing this. So I think we've seen
Speaker 6: again that you know, the Aboriginal perspective in Racanton is
Speaker 6: that there is a problem with policing. That this isn't
Speaker 6: just an isolated incident that's quite easy to work leave,
Speaker 6: that police would force a confession like this. In fact,
Speaker 6: it's almost expected. And that's what a lot of what
Speaker 6: I took from Doug. Not particular surprise, but that this
Speaker 6: is business as usual for policing in rock Campton at
Speaker 6: the time.
Speaker 2: And I think that's particularly worrying when a community has
Speaker 2: an expectation that they will not be treated fairly by
Speaker 2: the law, in.
Speaker 1: Fact, they'll be wrongly targeting in.
Speaker 2: Clearly that was the perception and reality lived reality for
Speaker 2: many of the Aboriginal people and the community in Wrebinder
Speaker 2: and rock Hampton. But it's not just them who are saying.
Speaker 2: We've heard from experts like Patrick McGinnis and Brandon el Garrett,
Speaker 2: leading experts in false confessions and police practices in this area,
Speaker 2: who have stated.
Speaker 1: Absolutely that they believe not only did this go on,
Speaker 1: but this.
Speaker 2: Is what breads to the sort of false confession we're
Speaker 2: dealing with in this case, where people from a certain
Speaker 2: community were targeted, Those who were intoxicated, illiterate, and lacked
Speaker 2: access to justice were again targeted, and it was further
Speaker 2: proof of a systematic failing of procedure to follow guidelines
Speaker 2: and where investigations are practiced and interviews are conducted.
Speaker 1: This was not just some casual concern of the community.
Speaker 1: This was an entrenched belief in a community that had
Speaker 1: been targeted by.
Speaker 2: Law enforcement for as long as we can all remember.
Speaker 2: And it's a fear that he is backed up by
Speaker 2: the world's leading experts. That's why on the day Kevin
Speaker 2: is alleged to have confessed, this is clearly not a
Speaker 2: one off. The way he interviewed, the way his statement
Speaker 2: was taken, and the testimony provided by law enforcement on
Speaker 2: the stand is clearly evident that this practice had been
Speaker 2: going on for some time and there was a rightful
Speaker 2: concern and fear in the community, and fear plays a
Speaker 2: key role in why someone would just want to say
Speaker 2: what investigating officers want to hear and get out of
Speaker 2: there as quickly as they can.
Speaker 6: So when police conduct an investigation in this way, which
Speaker 6: is so obviously flawed, I mean, what does that mean
Speaker 6: for the actual perpetrator? Does it mean that the real
Speaker 6: killer is still out there?
Speaker 2: Firstly, when an investigation is conducted this way, you can
Speaker 2: never be sure the right person was caught, and clearly
Speaker 2: we believe in this case that didn't happen.
Speaker 1: It also means that victim's family get no justice.
Speaker 2: And lastly, it means an individual or multiple individuals who
Speaker 2: are responsible were never caught, were never placed on trial,
Speaker 2: and were never prosecuted for a crime they may have
Speaker 2: actually committed. And so in coming weeks we'll disclose a
Speaker 2: number of suspects who should have been investigated, who had
Speaker 2: motive and opportunity, but whom the police, despite knowing of
Speaker 2: their existence, simply ignored.
Speaker 6: That was episode eleven of Kerning