Did this man murder the Beaumont children?

Article from: Herald Sun

Norrie Ross

October 26, 2006 12:00am

CRUSTY ex-cop Gordon Davie is too canny to say he has solved the mysterious disappearance of the Beaumont children.

But he believes James Ryan O'Neill had the perversity, opportunity and cunning to abduct and murder Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4.

And it is more than just a copper's instinct that O'Neill may be Australia's worst serial child-killer, with up to eight victims.

"O'Neill didn't deny it (the Beaumonts). That was a very strong point. But he doesn't deny a lot of things he has done," Mr Davie said.

"He knows a hell of a lot about the Beaumonts. I've never said he was responsible for it, but he'd have to be on the very very short list."

Mr Davie spent four years visiting O'Neill -- formerly Leigh Anthony Bridgart -- at a prison farm in Tasmania.

Their conversations and other evidence paint a picture of a predator who roamed Australia for 10 years, sexually abusing and killing children.

Mr Davie's sleuthing confirmed that O'Neill, 59, lived in a number of places from the mid-60s where children disappeared suddenly and were never found.

"I've got no doubt that he is a child serial-killer," Mr Davie said. "When you put it all together: some of the things that man said, some of the places he's been, and the kids that have disappeared."

His conversations with O'Neill are at the centre of a documentary, The Fishermen: A Journey into the Mind of a Killer, to be screened on ABC TV tonight.

Scotch College-educated O'Neill was jailed for life in Tasmania in 1975 after he raped and murdered nine-year-old Ricky Smith.

The psychopathic killer abducted the boy while on his way to collect his wife and newborn son from hospital.

O'Neill also admitted murdering another Tasmanian boy a few months later, but the charge was dropped after he was given the life sentence.

When he realised the implications of the things he had revealed to the former cop, O'Neill won an injunction in the Tasmanian Supreme Court to stop the documentary's broadcast.

The ban was overturned recently by the High Court on freedom of speech grounds.

Mr Davie was a detective in Victoria for almost 20 years. But though he investigated the Russell St, Turkish embassy and Hilton bombings, he said O'Neill was the most evil person he had ever interviewed.

"He is a cold-blooded callous person that has no feelings or remorse whatsoever. Absolutely none. Bear in mind these were little kids that he killed," he said.

Mr Davie, who lives in Tasmania, decided to speak to O'Neill after reading an article about him in the local press.

When he killed the Tasmanian boys, O'Neill was on the run from a string of sex charges against boys in Victoria.

"I was just curious. Nobody gets to the age of 27, goes to a different state and kills a couple of kids within 2 1/2 months," Mr Davie said. "Not without a whole heap of other stuff before that."

Much of the documentary focuses on the men talking about fishing -- hence the title. But Mr Davie said the double meaning, of fishing for information, is obvious.

Mr Davie said that when he quizzed O'Neill about other killings, the killer was sometimes evasive and claimed he suffered from blackouts. But it was clear from the Tasmanian murders that O'Neill was an expert at hiding bodies.

Mr Davie, 62, believes the Beaumonts may have been thrown down a mineshaft at Coober Pedy after they were abducted 40 years ago.

"He spoke quite freely when the cameras were rolling. A couple of times he just stopped," said the former detective. "One of those was talking about Coober Pedy, and he was telling me that strange things happen.

"I said, 'What sort of strange things?' and he said, 'Well, people just disappeared off the face of the earth. It happened while I was there'."

O'Neill was named as a suspect in the Beaumont case after his arrest in Tasmania, but he told police he had never been to South Australia.

"But he had. He travelled there frequently, especially around the mid-60s when he travelled from Melbourne to Coober Pedy," said Mr Davie. "According to him, he did 15 trips.

"I've also heard from several sources that he had boasted he was responsible for the deaths of the Beaumont children."

Mr Davie believes O'Neill may also have been responsible for the 1973 disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, and Kirsty Gordon, 4, from the Adelaide Oval.

He also discovered O'Neill was one of only two adults at a cattle station in Western Australia when an Aboriginal boy was murdered. And he could have killed a girl in Queensland.

Mr Davie spoke to a woman in western Victoria who saw the body of a child on the back seat of a car in which O'Neill, then aged 15, was a passenger.

One of the chilling aspects of the O'Neill case is that he has been allowed into the community and is seeking parole.

"He's lying and manipulative, and he fools a lot of people. He fools a helluva lot of people," Mr Davie said.

"It will utterly amaze people what a good-looking fellow he is. And he's such a suave talker.

"But experts have said to me he will never be safe to be released unless he is a frail old man," Mr Davie said.



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