News

25 January 2012: An American man has claimed that he is Grant Beaumont.

David Estes of Irvine, Kentucky, USA, has told news.com.au that he thinks he may be Grant Beaumont. The claim is based on photographs of him as a small child that look like pictures of Grant Beaumont, and the fact that he feels he is no relation to other members of his family.

Speaking to a News.com.au journalist, Mr Estes said that his first memory is of waking in a hospital, with a broken hip and fractured spine, aged 4, and that he'd never before seen the family that took him home. He claims that a friend of his father's made a deathbed confession to him, that his father had once drunkenly confessed to abducting him from hospital.

In support of his claims, Mr Estes said a blood test proved in 2004 that he cannot be his mother's son. However he has not yet submitted to a DNA test, claiming they cost $10000 to perform.

Mr Estes' mother is understood to have dismissed his claim to be the missing child, telling Kentucky State Police that he previously approached Oprah Winfrey claiming to be a missing love child of Elvis Presley.

South Australia Police confirmed that Mr Estes had contacted them, and told news.com.au ⁸⁹:

We are aware of Mr Estes and his claims. A MCIB investigator spoke with him via phone on 9 Sept 2011 about his claims. He was requested to send certain items to us so his claims could be further explored. To date nothing has been received.

Mr Estes told news.com.au that when he spoke to a detective from the South Australia Police by phone, the detective laughed at his claim. Mr Estes said he was angry at not being taken seriously, particularly as he had no other way of contacting Mr or Mrs Beaumont.

The News.com.au story runs with a picture showing Mr Estes' birth certificate, showing among other things a date of birth that is more than 15 months after that of Grant Beaumont. However Mr Estes has argued that this information was falsified.

12 December 2009: The inquest into the disappearance of Linda Stilwell has been adjourned while her family appeals Deputy State Coroner Iain West's decision not to force Derek Percy to give evidence.

There had been been speculation that the coroner might use new laws to make Percy, who is the prime suspect in the case, give evidence. However Percy's lawyer Paul Higham successfully argued that any evidence Percy might give would be questionable and the coroner said it would be inappropriate "as a matter of law" ⁸⁸ to force Percy to take the stand.

Earlier in the inquest (see previous news item) Percy was linked to the Stilwell disappearance by two witnesses. In addition to the Stilwell case, Percy is considered to be the prime suspect in the unsolved May 1968 murder of Sydney toddler Simon Brook, and to be a suspect for the January 1966 presumed abduction and murder of the Beaumont children in Adelaide, the January 1965 Wanda Beach murders in Sydney, and the September 1966 murder of Allen Redston in Canberra.

10 December 2009: On the balance of probabilities, Beaumont suspect Derek Percy was in St Kilda on the day Linda Stilwell disappeared, Victoria Deputy State Coroner Iain West ruled yesterday. The ruling was made during an inquest into the seven-year-old's disappearance from the St Kilda foreshore on 10 August 1968.

The inquest, the first to be held into the child's disappearance, heard from two witnesses placing Percy at the scene. One witness, Ronald Anderson, was a former school friend of Percy's who in 1969 was a police constable with six months' experience. Following Percy's arrest for the murder of Yvonne Tuohy, for which he remains incarcerated, Anderson was asked to visit Percy in his cell. It was hoped that he could find out whether Percy had committed other murders.

Anderson told the inquest that Percy was feeling sorry for himself and said he could have been at the scene of the crime. However, his conversation with Percy stalled when he was interrupted while talking to him. After he explained the purpose of his visit, Percy became less cooperative and any chance of him opening up appeared to have gone.

The other witness, Edith Jamieson, is the last person known to have seen Linda Stilwell alive. She told the inquest that she had seen a man watching the girl, and that this man had given her a bad vibe. A voice inside her had said: "Go home, little girl, you're in grave danger." ⁸⁷ Subsequently she had seen pictures of Derek Percy and believed he was the man she'd seen looking at Stilwell.

The inquest continues.

17 August 2009: Derek Percy, the Beaumont children abduction suspect and suspected child serial killer, has apparently sought treatment for his condition.

Percy, who is a sadistic paedophile, was arrested in 1969 for the murder of 12-year-old Yvonne Tuohy. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, he has been detained ever since "at the Governor's pleasure."

Percy previously applied in March 2004 to be tranferred from Ararat prison to the Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital but was turned down on the grounds that he still had dangerous fantasies about killing children. A report at the time also recommended against Percy being removed from a prison to a less-secure hospital.

In June 2004 it was reported that Percy had begun a one-to-one sex offenders' program. He was said to be doing well.

Percy remains the prime suspect for the murder of 3-year-old Simon Brook in Glebe, inner Sydney, on 19 May 1968, and for the disappearance and presumed murder of 7-year-old Linda Stillwell from St Kilda, Melbourne, on 10 August 1968. He is also a suspect in the Wanda Beach murders in Sydney in January 1965; the disappearance and presumed murder of the Beaumont children from Glenelg Beach, Adelaide, in January 1966; and for the murder of 6-year-old Alan Redstone, in Canberra, in September 1966.

The review will continue tomorrow. An inquest into Linda Stillwell's disappearance and presumed murder is scheduled to open in December.

9 March 2009: Beaumont abduction suspect and suspected child serial killer Derek Percy is to appear before an inquest. Percy, a suspect in five unsolved cases, is expected to be called before an inquest into the disappearance of seven-year-old Linda Stillwell from the St Kilda foreshore in 1968.

Percy, aged 60, has been in custody ever since he was arrested in 1969 for the murder of 12-year-old Yvonne Tuohy. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, he has been linked to a number of murders or disappearances including that of the Beaumont children, from Adelaide's Glenelg Beach, in 1966.

Percy has a history of not cooperating with police enquiries. Identified as a suspect in the Linda Stillwell disappearance, the Beaumont disappearance, the Wanda Beach murders in Sydney in 1965, the murder of Simon Brook in Sydney in 1968, and the death of Alan Redston in Canberra in 1966, Percy has reportedly told police when quizzed about each case: "I could have done it but I don't remember."

Following investigations by the long-running Victoria Police enquiry Operation Heats, Percy was three years ago flown to Sydney to give information into the second Simon Brook inquest; Percy refused to give evidence and the inquest was halted after only one day when the coroner noted similarities between the Simon Brook murder and that of Yvonne Tuohy. The Stillwell and the Brook cases are the ones for which Percy is most strongly considered a suspect.

The inquest into Linda Stillwell's disappearance, which is expected to last for six days, is scheduled to commence on 31 August 2009.

28 October 2008: The South Australian government today announced the doubling of the reward money to solve the Beaumont children disappearance, to $200,000.

The increase is part of $10 million that the government is setting aside as reward money for the solution to 47 cases, including $1 million for the still unsolved "Family murders".

The announcement of the doubling of rewards placed most emphasis on the Family murders, with police saying that there are four suspects. The murders, which took place between 1979 and 1983, have long been rumoured to involve a small group of people, some highly placed in society. Bevan Spencer von Einem was convicted in 1984 for the murder of Richard Kelvin, but the four other murders remain unsolved. The still-imprisoned von Einem is also considered a suspect in the Beaumont children disappearance.

The reward money for the solution to Beaumont case was previously increased in June 2005, from $1000 to $100,000.

2 November 2007: Convicted murderer and Beaumont abduction suspect Bevan Spencer von Einem has completed the non-parole part of his prison sentence, it was announced yesterday. Von Einem, now 61, who is serving a 36-year-sentence for the 1983 murder of Richad Kelvin, is now able to apply for release.

However, the South Australian government yesterday assured the public that there in no immediate danger of von Einem's being paroled. Under legislation passed earlier this year and enacted yesterday, the government can apply to the state's Supreme Court to revoke the non-parole part of von Einem's sentence. It is also understood that even if that the Supreme Court ruled in von Einem's favour and the Parole Board recommended his release, the government would still have the power to veto that recommendation.

Commenting on the case, the state's Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, said that if von Einem was considering applying for parole he was "wasting his time" ⁷³. The government's policy is understood to be that von Einem should never be released.

22 September 2007: An internal police report from 1989 identified Bevan Spencer von Einem as a suspect in the Beaumont children disappearance, according in an article on the Adelaide Advertiser/news.com.au website. This report was dated from before a witness said that von Einem had confessed to him that he'd killed the children.

The story revealing the existence of the report came after police questioned von Einem again on Friday in connection with the disappearance. Von Einem was questioned while he was waiting to appear before Adelaide's Magistrates Court on charges relating to child pornography

Police Acting Superintendent Crameri confirmed the existence of the internal police report but would not talk about the contents. Several retired policemen confirmed the report's existence, and suggested that it had detailed possible links between von Einem and the abductions and murders for which he remains a suspect. In particular, it is believed to have suggested that von Einem would have had the know-how to abduct the Beaumont children, due to his skill in administering drugs to people. It also said that von Einem had lived in a houses in Thebarton and Mile End at the time of the Adelaide Oval abduction, which was significant because the abducted girls had last been seen walking west from Adelaide Oval with an unknown man.

Despite police investigations, they have not been able to unearth evidence connecting von Einem to the Beaumont children or Adelaide Oval abductions. He remains imprisoned for the 1982 murder of Richard Kelvin.

30 August 2007: Beaumont abduction suspect Derek Percy has been questioned again by police, after new evidence possibly linking him to unsolved crimes was discovered among his possessions found in a storage unit.

The storage unit, which was searched by police on 20 July, contained 35 tea chests and boxes filled with Percy’s possessions. Most of the possessions were of a benign nature, such as old court documents and a stamp collection, but it is reported that writings and hand-written diaries detailing Percy’s violent fantasies, were also found.

In addition to the written material, reports say that police found pictures of children, newspaper clippings referring to sex crimes, razor blades similar to those used in a violent murder, and what has been described as a “rape-themed video tape” ⁷¹. Further items recovered are said to include a cartoon featuring the word “Wanda” (a possible reference to the Wanda Beach murders for which Percy is a suspect), and a 1978 street directory with a hand-drawn line through St Kilda pier, from where eight-year-old Linda Stillwell disappeared in 1968. Percy remains a suspect for her presumed abduction and murder.

The storage unit, in a south Melbourne warehouse, has been rented by Percy for at least twenty years. The discovery of the material raises the question of how Percy, considered one of the most potentially dangerous and violent prisoners in Victoria, was able to send violent written material to a storage warehouse and keep it there undetected, for such a long period of time.

On the basis of the evidence discovered, detectives applied at Melbourne’s Magistrates Court for permission to question Percy. Permission was granted by Magistrate Belinda Wallington and Percy was taken to the Victoria Homicide Squad offices for questioning.

Percy was previously questioned by police, unsuccessfully, in February 2005. Despite this, he has admitted being at Glenelg Beach on the day the Beaumont children disappeared, in St Kilda, Melbourne, when Linda Stillwell disappeared, and in Glebe Point Road, Sydney, on the day that three-year-old Simon Brook was abducted.

Despite revelations of the material found among Percy's possessions, it is not clear from news reports whether any of the material found can be dated from before Percy was incarcerated. Definitive evidence linking Percy to the crimes for which he remains a suspect has so far proven elusive.

28 April 2007: Further evidence linking childkiller Derek Percy to several disappearances has been rediscovered after being lost for 30 years, according to a report in the Sunday Age. The evidence includes the revelation that Percy possessed maps of some of areas where the incidents for which he is a suspect occurred.

The revelations, which were quickly dismissed by the Victoria police, surfaced during the investigation by Operation Heat, a police operation involving four police forces. Some details about the police investigations of Percy have been previously been made public (see news from 3 February 2005)

According to the Sunday Age report, Percy had maps of some of the areas where disappearance and murders occurred. It did not detail which areas were involved.

The report also said that previous revelations that Percy admitted being in the areas of the Linda Stillwell abduction, the Beaumont children disppearance, and the Simon Brook murder, had come from a retired policeman. A school friend of Percy's, the policeman had been asked by homicide squad detectives to interview Percy in his cell after the latter's arrest in 1969. According to the policeman, Percy had admitted being in the area where the crimes had occurred and had hinted that he might have been responsible for them.

Concentrating on the murder of Yvonne Tuohy, however, police had ignored the claims and they were forgotten until a cold-case review discovered a handwritten note with the policeman's registered identification number on it. Using the number the cold-case detectives were able to trace the policeman, who told them what Percy had told him.

However, reacting to the front-page story in the Sunday Age, Victoria Police said the claim that Percy had been implicated in the disappearance of the Beaumont children was not true.

28 April 2007: Three members of an Adelaide family have said that their father was involved in the murder of the Beaumont children. The family members, who were themselves children at the time, say that they saw the Beaumont children's bodies in the boot of their father's car on the day of the disappearance. Some of their allegations were broadcast on a documentary shown on the Foxtel Crime & Investigation channel at 7:30pm AEST on 26 April.

The siblings say that their father was a member of a paedophile ring operating in Adelaide, and that some members of that ring, including their father, are still alive. They say that some of the remains of the children are concealed in a specific location outside of Adelaide.

The Foxtel documentary is the first of two documentaries planned to detail the allegations, with a second documentary intended for a date not yet disclosed. It is not yet clear how much detail the documentaries will disclose, but the allegations made by the family are in some cases very specific.

Author's note: I spoke to one of the women at the centre of the allegations last year, and am aware of a substantial amount of the detail of the claims. Due to the graphic nature of the some of the allegations made and the fact that I have no way to independently verify or refute them, I have not published anything about them on this website. This will remain the case until or unless there are further developments.

6 October 2006: On 26 October the ABC will broadcast the long-delayed documentary The Fisherman, which suggests, among other things, that James O'Neill murdered the Beaumont children.

The broadcast of the documentary, originally scheduled for April last year, was held up when O'Neill complained that it defamed him. To considerable surprise at the time, Justice Ewan Crawford of the Tasmanian Supreme Court agreed, and granted an injunction, blocking the broadcast.

After further legal wrangling, however, the High Court, by a 4-2 majority, ruled on 28 September 2006 that Justice Crawford and two of his Tasmanian Supreme Court colleagues had erred. The injunction has thus been overturned, clearing the way for the documentary to be broadcast.

25 January 2006: ⁵⁹ The detective in charge of the investigation into the Beaumont children says that the case will be solved.

Detective Sergeant Brian Swan is in charge of the case file, and believes that the case will be solved by a death-bed confession or a tip-off. He receives an average of six tips a month about the case.

Mr Swan's belief that the case will be solved was revealed in remarks that have been published as part of a brief article on the News.com.au website ⁶⁰. The article also said that it was detectives' intimate knowledge of the case that enabled them to rule out James O'Neill's involvement in the case, after it was reported in late 2004 that he had confessed to the crime.

20 January 2006: A book about the disappearance of the Beaumont children is being published.

Searching for the Beaumont children by Alan J. Whiticker is to be published on 1 February 2006.

A true-crime paperback, the book is priced at $29.95 under ISBN 174031106X. The publicity blurb on the Dymocks website reads: "On Wednesday, 26 January 1966 - Australia Day - the three Beaumont children left their home in the Adelaide suburb of Somerton Park for a morning at the beach. By the end of the day, the worst fears of every Australian parent were realised when Jane, aged 9, her sister Arnna, 7, and their four-year-old brother, Grant, did not return home."

Alan J. Whiticker, the author of the book, has written other true crime titles such as Wanda: The untold story of the Wanda Beach murders and 12 Crimes That Shocked The Nation

4 December 2005: Tom Prior, the Melbourne journalist who covered the Beaumont children disappearance, has died.

Mr Prior, who died on 4 December aged 77, was chief crime reporter for Melbourne The Sun newspaper, having previously worked at The Truth in Melbourne and The Daily Telegraph in Sydney. He wrote several books, including The Sinners' Club, which contained a chapter about the Beaumont children disappearance and the "Family" murders in Adelaide in the 1970s and 1980s. He believed that the cases might have been related.

Mr Prior covered some of the biggest crime stories of his day, and was also a sports reporter. He was most famously, however, associated with the two biggest crime stories he covered -- the hanging of Ronald Ryan and disappearance of the Beaumont children. Both had a big effect on him.

Ronald Ryan was the last man hanged in Australia, and Mr Prior was invited to be a witness to the execution. He attended as a believer in the death penalty, but was so shocked by the violent nature of the execution that he changed, in an instant, to being an abolitionist. The title of his memoirs, "The Sinners' Club", was indirectly derived from his association with the event.

The Beaumont children disappearance had a similar effect on him. Himself a father of six, he wrote many years later: "If a reporter can afford to be obsessed with one story, I became obsessed with the Beaumont case. I identified with the stricken parents like few other people I have interviewed." ⁵³

Mr Prior was one of three Melbourne journalists to have written a chapter in his memoirs about the disappearance of the Beaumont children. The other two, Alan Dower and his friend, one-time fellow Truth reporter Jack Ayling, both predeceased him.

20 November 2005: Beaumont suspect Derek Percy to be subpoenaed for Sydney inquest.

Convicted child killer Derek Percy may be subpoenaed to given evidence at an inquest into the murder of Simon Brook, a case for which he is a suspect. Simon Brook, then aged three, was murdered in Sydney in May 1968.

When first arrested for the murder of Yvonne Tuohy, Percy was questioned about a number of other murders, including that of Simon Brook. He told police at the time that he could not remember if he had been involved.

Now Percy, who has been in custody since 1969, is expected to be called to give evidence before the inquest, which is expected to be held in mid-December. It is hoped that the inquest will be able to establish whether or not Percy is the probable killer. It is also hoped that the inquest might throw up information that can be of help in other investigations.

In February this year, Percy was interviewed for nine hours in relation to the murder of Simon Brook, the abduction of the Beaumont children, the disappearance of Linda Stillwell from St Kilda in August 1968, as well as three other murders. It is not believed that he admitted to any crimes during this interview.

20 June 2005: The reward for information leading to the solution to the Beaumont children mystery has been increased to $100,000.

It was announced by the South Australia Police Minister, Kevin Foley, that the reward for the solution the the Beaumont children disappearance and 18 other mysteries has been increased to $100,000. The increase was made at the request of the South Australia police commissioner, Mal Hyde.

The initial reward for information leading to the solution of the mystery of the Beaumont children disappearance had been $1000. Despite the fact that this amount of money had become less significant with the effects of inflation, the reward had not been increased before.

There are other unsolved cases for which the reward for a solution has been increased. According to the Adelaide Advertiser, among them are the murder at Hallett Cove of Patricia Schmidt in 1971; the drowning murder of George Duncan in 1972; the murder of Buddy Newchurch at Whyalla in 1982; the abduction from Adelaide Oval of Joanne Radtliffe and Kirste Gordon in 1973; and the murder in Adelaide's city centre of Deborah Westmacott in 1991.

5 April 2005: Beaumont suspect James O'Neill is planning to apply for parole.

O'Neill was named earlier this year (see news from 27 January) as a suspect in the Beaumont children disappearance, though South Australia Police discounted the suggestion. He was jailed in 1975 for murdering a nine-year-old boy named Ricky Smith.

Documentary makers who interviewed O'Neill for a documentary titled The Fisherman said that associates of O'Neill had told them that he killed the Beaumont children.

Now it is understood that O'Neill intends to apply for parole, though the date for this application has not been stated in the media.

Meanwhile, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has confirm that it intends to show The Fisherman later this month.

Originally scheduled for broadcast on 21 April, the documentary was pulled from schedules after the ABC was contacted by O'Neill's lawyers. The national broadcaster now intends to air the documentary to put as much time between the broadcast and O'Neill's parole hearing as possible, so the broadcast has been rescheduled for 28 April.

28 March 2005: The television program Today Tonight says that it has uncovered new evidence about the disappearance of the Beaumont children and also says that it may have uncovered a new suspect.

The claims, broadcast on the Channel Seven program on 25 March, are based on an apparent abduction attempt from Glenelg Beach a day or two before the Beaumont children disappeared. Combined with work by a private investigator hired by Today Tonight to research other unsolved crimes, the program suggests that the person they have identified was the abductor of the Beaumont children.

Norm Leeshman [this is a possible misspelling], a career investigator who spent 27 years in criminal intelligence with the Victorian Police, was hired by the program in what they described as a three year, million dollar TV investigation. He was not hired to investigate the Beaumont children disappearance, but noticed that the present-day photograph of a man he was investigating bore a remarkable resemblance to the famous "identikit" picture of the Beaumont suspect. He did not appear to know that the "identikit" picture is simply a preliminary sketch of a thin-faced man.

Mr Leesham told the program that a photograph of the same man taken in 1966 showed an even stronger resemblance. Further research discovered that the man, who the program said could not be identified for legal reasons, was a convicted paedophile.

The program also said that allegations of paedophile activity dating back to the early 1960s had been made against the man, that he had been active in the Brighton-Glenelg area of Adelaide, and that he had spent time at suburban beaches. The man was never treated as a suspect in the disappearance.

The second part of the story said that new witnesses had come forward detailing an attempted abduction on Glenelg Beach a day or two before the Beaumont children disappeared. Kirstie Day [this may be a misspelling], her sister Fiona and a boy who was not related, had been at the beach with their mother Dot. Kirstie had then been nine years old.

According to the information that the sisters, now in their forties, told Today Tonight, Dot had decided to visit both the beach and a hairdresser. Her plan was to return to the beach periodically to see that the children were okay. However, once she had left the children, a man with short brown hair, wearing blue bathers, had begun to bother the children.

The children told him to go away, but he didn't and after a time he became aggressive. He picked up the boy -- who asked the program not to be identified -- by his bathers, and threw him in the water. Fiona became frightened and said "go away, go away".

At this point Dot returned to the beach. Her hair was in rollers but she saw that her daughter Fiona was frightened and so she told the man to go away. He then left. She returned to the hairdresser believing that she had scared him away.

Once Dot had gone, the man had returned. He tried to entice the children away from the beach by offering them an ice cream, but they refused. He told them that his name was Bob, that he was from Sydney, and that he was returning to Sydney to look after his mother who was an invalid.

Dot returned to the beach a second time and found the man with her children again. She said that this time she was much more aggressive and she waded into the water to get her children away from him. She told the man that if he didn't stop bothering the children she would call the police. This time the man left and neither she nor the three children saw him again.

Within days of this incident the Beaumont children disappeared. The family say they went to the police to tell them what had happened but that the police were not interested. Dot said that she had to keep going back to the police several more times, before they finally took a statement several years later.

All three family members said that they had clear memories of the incident despite it being 39 years ago. The descriptions that they gave match the description of the suspect for the Beaumont children disappearance.

Today Tonight showed the sisters, plus the boy who had been involved, a series of photographs. According to the program, both Fiona and the boy showed an immediate reaction to one of the pictures, that of the person Mr Leesham had identified as a suspect.

Today Tonight said that there was "lots more to come" about the story but that legal hurdles were preventing them from disclosing any more.

Very curiously, no other mainstream news outlet appears to have picked up this story at all. Even the most tenuous leads about the Beaumont children are usually mentioned in all major Australian newspapers, but this one hasn't had any coverage.

8 February 2005: Tasmanian murderer and prisoner James O'Neill, who was named last month as a suspect in the Beaumont children disappearance, has been denied access to the media.

O'Neill was imprisoned in 1975 for the double murder of nine-year-olds Ricky John Smith and Bruce Colin Wilson. Former policeman Gordon Davie and journalist Janine Widgery interviewed O'Neill in connection with a documentary they were making about him, titled "The Fisherman." While O'Neill did not confess to them, Mr Davie and Ms Widgery say that close associates of O'Neill have told them that O'Neill has confessed to murdering the Beaumont children. Additional comments about O'Neill by the Tasmanian police commissioner, Richard McCreadie, sparked interest in O'Neill's possible connection to the case.

Now Hobart-based Tasmanian newspaper The Mercury says that it has been turned down in its request to interview O'Neill. O'Neill had been willing to discuss pre-interview guidelines with a reporter from the newspaper but the prisons director Graeme Barber denied the request. In a letter to The Mercury that is disclosed in the February 8 edition he says ¹⁰:

...there is a longstanding protocol within the Prison Service that inmates, particularly those sentenced for violent or sensational crimes, are not made available for media interview.

Mr Barber further said that the reasons interviews are not granted is because they can be distressing to victims, families, and other people involved. They can also disrupt or hinder the safe running of prisons.

3 February 2005: Victorian paedophile and prisoner Derek Percy has been questioned by police from three states in relation to unsolved murders. Police from New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria questioned him in relation to murders and disappearances in all three states, including that of the Beaumont children.

Percy has been imprisoned since 1969 for the murder of 12-year-old Yvonne Tuohy. He was never officially convicted but was declared insane and is considered too dangerous to be released. A former naval rating, he has been linked in the past with the murders of Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt at Wanda Beach in Sydney in 1965, the disappearance of the Beaumont children in Adelaide in 1966, the murder of six-year-old Alan Redston in Canberra in 1966, the disappearance of seven-year-old Linda Stillwell in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in 1968, and the murder of three-year-old Simon Brook in the Sydney suburb of Glebe in 1968.

The Victorian police commissioner, Christine Nixon, confirmed: ⁹:

I think that what we are doing is simply at the very preliminary stages. When we've got some more information, when in fact the investigators have had a chance to talk with this individual, then we'll certainly make more information available as we can.

These are very difficult issues and areas. They're old cases, the family's involved. You don't really want to raise their expectations until we're a lot clearer. We clearly have information, and that information will be put and when we've got further to say about the matter, we will.

The nature of the new evidence has not been confirmed but it is believed that Percy can be placed at or near the scene of each case at the time it occurred, either while on holiday or serving with the navy. It is believed in particular that police have evidence to place him in the St Kilda area on the day Linda Stillwell vanished.

There is also a possibility that DNA evidence from at least one of the old cases has been preserved. Because Percy has never been convicted of a criminal offense -- he was found not guilty by reason of insanity -- his DNA is not held on file. Three years ago the Victorian Bracks government announced legislation to enable them to obtain a DNA sample from Percy, but this legislation has still not passed.

In a secret hearing at the Melbourne Magistrate's Court detectives were given permission to interview Percy. He was removed to the police complex in St Kilda road and interviewed for nine hours but the results of this interview are not known.

27 January 2005: Tasmanian paedophile and prisoner James O'Neill is alleged to have confessed to murdering the Beaumont children. South Australia police have already investigated and say that they have eliminated him as a suspect.

O'Neill was charged in 1975 with the murders in Tasmania of two nine-year-old children, Ricky John Smith and Bruce Colin Wilson. He was jailed for life for murdering Smith and is imprisoned at the minimum security Hayes Prison Farm. He is the longest-serving prisoner in Tasmania. He has not been released because of fears that he will reoffend.

Gordon Davie, a former police detective from Victoria, has been working with Janine Widgery, a journalist, on a documentary about O'Neill. Mr Davie and Ms Widgery both spoke with close associates of O'Neill who said that he had confessed to murdering the Beaumont children.

Mr Davie and Ms Widgery interviewed O'Neill and say that, when asked about the Beaumont children, he told them: "Look, on legal advice I am not going to say where I was or when I was there". Mr Davie has spent hundreds of hours with O'Neill and believes him to be a serial killer.

It was revealed during a parole hearing in 1991 that there were twelve outstanding charges against O'Neill in Victoria, including abduction, gross indecency and indecent assault, against four boys aged under 16.

The Tasmanian police commissioner, Richard McCreadie, also believes that O'Neill could have killed the Beaumont children. He led the investigation into the murders of Ricky Smith and Bruce Wilson and like Mr Davie, believes that O'Neill is a serial killer.

Ms Widgery believes that she knows where the bodies of the Beaumont children are buried in country Victoria and wants police to investigate.

South Australia police recently interviewed O'Neill in prison in connection with the Beaumont children's disappearance. The officer in charge of major crime investigations, Detective Superintendent Peter Woite, said: "No evidence was found to support this person's involvement in the disappearance of the Beaumont children. While our investigation remains active on this matter, this person has been discounted from our enquiries."