The Investigation Begins

Just before nine o'clock last night, the jury returned guilty verdicts against all three defendants.

It was absolute shambles to tell you the truth, just actoutely really.

Colored blood on his clothing the day after the alleged atip on.

A shallow mud bank and it fits through river.

Basically, I think most of the people are used to me are good people.

I think a really important question we need to ask is how many Indigenous prisoners in Australia are innocent.

This is Curtain, a podcast where we pulled back the blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of our justice system and ask who are the victims.

I'm Amy Maguire and.

I'm Martin Hodgson, a senior advocate for the Foreign Prisoner Support Service. Our producer is Paul Watts. Music by Clint Curtis and produced in collaboration with the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association and a warning. This series contains the names of deceased peoples and has distressing content that might upset listeners. Last week on this program, we gave you a broad outline of a story we've been working on for the

Linda was found on a mud bank in the Fitzroy River on September one, nineteen ninety one. Within a week, four people were charged in relation to her death. All of them were originally charged with her murder, and one of these individuals was Kevin Henry, also known as Kurdain.

Kevin was charged with murder because he was supposed to have dragged Linda to the river where he'd put her in on the Tanuba House side, the south side of the river. Her official cause of death was drowning. In the last episode, we told you it was very unlikely the body would have been put in on the Tanuba House side of the river.

That finding was based on analysis of the historical title record and a long one hundred and fifty meter parallel line that ran alongside the north side of the river bank, which showed it was more likely she was put in on the north side of the river, the racecourse side. If Kevin had put her in the river, he would have had to have made it to the north side of the river, and it just wasn't possible. He had no way of getting there, so why didn't police follow that up?

Well? At the Tanuba House side, there were drag marks that supposedly led from a grassy expanse next to Tanuba House down to the river bank. Apparently that's the evidence that helped implicate Kevin in the crime. Those drag marks weren't originally found by police. They were found by an Aboriginal man by the name of dark Hart.

In this episode, we're going to go back a bit and we're going to tell you what we know about that day, August thirty, first Saturday, which was Linda's last day. Unfortunately, Linda isn't here to tell us exactly what happened. Her last moments are preserved in statements from people who saw her that day.

Sadly, many of them had been drinking and also, sadly, some of them would be involved in her death. Now, it was getting into the later months of that year, and so the footy season would have been wrapping up on that Saturday. It was the beginning of the final season.

Now.

In the morning of that Saturday, hours before that game kicked off, a fifty nine year old Aboriginal man by the name of Duck Hut woke up down at Tanouba House. He had slept there the Friday night, but it had woken up probably a little after the sun had risen, as he said he often did. He also would have woken up before Kevin Henry, who had also slept there at Nuba House that night, but who hadn't gotten up

The hotel was only a six minute walk away, still there today, Duck isn't really clear about when he began drinking that morning. Later on, while on the witness stand, he testified that he didn't drink early in the morning, but then later renegged and said he had started drinking probably around nine am that day. He might have been sharing a flagon with a couple of other people who had also been staying at Tanuba.

But around midday, before Kevin woke up, Duck was a little intoxicated and decided to walk the short distance to the Great Western Hotel.

He wanted to go and get more alcohol.

Now.

There were a couple of shorter roots he could have taken, but he took the one that put him on the path past the Crown Hotel, which used to be on the corner of Bolsover and William Street, which is in the Rockampten CBD, only a short walk from the mall and also to Nuba House.

The Crown Hotel was where a lot of Aboriginal people used to drink. It isn't there anymore. It's been replaced with a coffee shop that wouldn't look out of place in a gentrified suburb in a big city. Near the Crown Hotel, there would have been a shop on the corner of Bolsover and William Street. Was out the front of that shop that Duck came across Linda that day. He'd met Linda before. He said they'd had a few

Now, in the last episode, we also mentioned that Linda was sick. She had been missing for about eight days prior, and she suffered from a mental illness. She suffered from schizophrenia. It meant she was prone to wandering. Linda was a woman who had achieved a great deal in her short life. She had achieved it despite coming from a background of trauma. We'll probably never know what was going through her mind that day, what she was suffering from, and the reasons

That day, Duck talked with Linda for a little while. He said, it was about a quarter of an hour. While outside they had a smoke, wasn't wrong. After that that the two Duck and Linda went to an area near the shop, which Duck refers to as the grain shed. There they engaged in sexual intercourse.

Now Duck wasn't single. He was involved with someone, a woman named Doreene Ivy. He said he had been involved with Doreen for a couple of months and they were known by others at Tanuba as being in a relationship. On previous occasions, Doreen had referred to Duck as her man.

Duck later agreed that he was fond of Dorene and she was fond of him.

But regardless of the fact he was in a relationship, Duck on that day still engaged in a sexual act with Linda. Would have been upsetting to Doreen, his partner, because sometime during that encounter she turned up and caught Duck and Linda together. Now Doraen was not alone. She was also with another woman, and that woman was Susan Aubrey.

Now that black and white scarf is interesting. There was only one reason to wear a scarf in the central Queensland hit.

It seems Linda may have.

Been barracking for the Black and white Western Suburbs and no Plize that day, although we don't know or can't confirm whether she was a Rugby League fan. But what happened next is muddled. Duck never gives a conclusive answer. He claimed in court that Doreen didn't say anything to him after she caught him with another woman. He then said he left the three women and started on the way to the Great Western Hotel.

But before appearing in court, he told the police that Doreen had yelled at him and He later said that he'd had a row with Doreen. Under cross examination from Kevin's barrister, David Murray in the court, Duck claimed he was not angry at Linda, despite the complications that had caused with Dora, but then he concedes. This from the court transcript, David Murray, Kevin's barrister, said, then when Doraan caught you, you were sorry, weren't you, mister Hart, that

Yeah, that day, Duck claimed he continued walking to the Great Western.

He said he got there around one pm.

The manager at the time confirmed that he was knocked back from ordering drinks, but he did eat there.

He then said he went down to his room in the TV area and went to sleep, where he stayed asleep from one to about four. At around four, he apparently started drinking again with beer that he'd found under his bed. He claimed he'd it there previously. He claimed he never went back to Tanuba House that night, the night Linda was brutally assaulted.

Now we do know Linda was assaulted, and remember the other woman who caught Linda with duck.

Her name was Susan Aubrey.

Well, now we have to tell you some really distressing details, and we warn our listeners that what we're going to tell you next is horrific. Martin has spent a long time gaining and understanding of each of the witness statements and what was most likely to have happened that night at Tanuba. So, Martin, we know a little bit about what happened earlier that day, around midday, but what happened a bit after when Linda went back to Tanuba House,

We know more than likely the football game had just finished. We know that there was a considerable number of people there that evening, and those people included Kevin, Susan Aubrey, and Doreen who had caught Duck and Linda in the act, as well as friends of Susan Aubrey, Margaret Bob, and Amy Saunders. Immediately things got hostile, and that hostility was directed towards Linda. At first, she was verbally assaulted and generally warned off about going near their men. But things

Martin, do we know what happened next?

What we know for sure is that Linda was assaulted. Who threw the first punch we can't be clear. According to all the testimony, if you break it down, it was either Susan Aubrey, who was there when Linda and Duck were court, or Margie Bob. But very quickly three women began a brutal assault on Linda, Amy Saunders, Susan Aubrey, and Margaret Bob, and it was a violent assault. Linda would later be described to have had wounds all over her body, to her head, to her face, to her ribs,

Martin, you talk about the level of alcohol that had been you know that had been taken that day by all involved, But how do we know that that's a true account?

Do you know what I mean?

How do we know that it wasn't sort of tainted by the amount of drink that so many people had had that day.

All we can say is that in terms of the assault on Lender itself by the three women, that all the witness statements, and there are at least thirty of them match up. In fact, those women pretty much concede what they did. They would later plead guilty to being involved in this attack, and the details of much of the incident are pretty crystal clear according to everyone who

And I guess it fits with what her injuries actually were.

So the details as described.

By the witnesses and maybe even some of the women that fit with the injuries that he ultimately found on her body.

That's right, And we know also that it matches up with the forensic testimony given at the trial. So we know that not only do witnesses give the statement not only to the women involved confirm what happened and that matches, but also that the forensic expert testified that the injuries suffered to winda match up with what was described. And we have to remember that this assault had the potential

Money you talk about it being quite a horrific assault.

Was it just punches or kicks or what do we know actually happened to her? With our other implements.

Used, those things certainly did occur, but the most horrific injuries are a result of two things. The first is that those who assaulted her, the women we've named, jumped on Linda off some steps. But what happened next was far more horrific a pole, and we don't know exactly of what kind, and nobody in the court case or in the transcripts can ever give us a detailed description of what sort of pole it was. But at some point Linda was impaled with that pole.

That assault actually could have had the potential to be lethal, regardless of what happened after to Linda.

Would that be a possibility, It certainly.

Would be, and it matches up with the forensics. Although no specific answers have ever really been given. What we do know is that virtually every part of Linda's body had bruising, bleeding, and trauma, and that includes on her brain and bleeding below the surface of the scale and on the tissue of the brain, and also some very severe injuries to her body, some of which are a result of that pole.

What did they do with her body?

What happened to Linda afterwards after that assault, because obviously there was a lot of witnesses there.

The assault went on for a considerable period of time. It started, and it stopped, and it started again. But after the most horrific aspects of the assault, Linda was left on the footpath on the pavement near Tanuba House and soon after most of the people who had gathered at Tanuba left for the Crown Hotel.

Were there any suggestions that Kevin Henry was involved in this assault.

No, not a single witness, including the women who committed that assault well, ever, say that Kevin took any part whatsoever. There's not one suggestion from witnesses, from the assailants, from police, from anyone that we know of, that Kevin was involved in any way in even verbally attacking Linda. Now we told you a little bit about the assault and about

The day after Linda was found, Kevin told police that he had asked another Aboriginal man where Linda had gone to, and that man had said she'd gone to the creek.

The details in.

Statements changed three days later in another sitting with police, but we'll go into that statement later.

Now.

In the last episode, we told you that the day Linda was found, Kevin was picked up off the streets.

By police and put in the watchhouse basically for public drunkenness.

You would also realize that a lot of the people involved in this story had been drinking. In fact, Januba House was set up to provide alcohol and drug counseling and other services. It was filling a large vacuum that existed in Rockhampton.

There simply was not a lot of help for many Aboriginal people who suffered from drug or alcohol addiction. It was more likely to be criminalized, as illustrated by Kevin being thrown in the watchhouse. It's also interesting to note the year Linda died was the same year the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was handed down, which

In fact.

In the same week Linda was found, a local Aboriginal group, Gumby Gumby called an urgent public meeting between government departments, police welfare groups, and local community representatives. It seems there was obviously a real need pushed by the Aboriginal community themselves for greater services for those who struggled with alcohol

Basically, I think most of the people are used to me, there are good people.

Honey duty Tatto is a respected elder in Rockhampden and is now retired. She's only been retired for about three years, but she's well known in rock Hampden for setting up and helping run a lot of local Aboriginal organizations, including Tanuba. Told me this week on the phone from Rock Hampden that Tanuba was seen as a safe place.

But the things about Tanuba was that it was like a savory and I don't know if you can remember, but they used to have ah it wasn't a fence, but it was like, uh like, I was kind of like offens but that was the satary and the police never used to touch them inside that area. But you know, the police wonder fine, and if somebody might run away from the hospital and all that sort of stuff, they just come down there and yeah, if they were there, they'd taken back up to the hospital.

Any Judy said that Tanuba played a very critical role for very vulnerable people who lived on the riverbank, but it wasn't always a safe place because of the racism in rock Hampden.

It wasn't always to say place for them, bigcause sometimes uh gangs always suppose if you want to call them, they'd come down sometimes within the night time and might have some sticks or baseball bat.

Sticks and baseball bats.

Now, it was well known that non Aboriginal people would come down to Tanuba House to terrorize the mob who lived there. And remember that fact because the night before Nundad died, there are actually reports of a group of about eight white men who came down to Tanuba House and we're yelling out derogatory statements and things to the Aboriginal women there. So at that time, it was obviously a regular occurrence that the Tanuba Mob were often victim

Well, I really think that it was an important place for our mob, Yeah, the ones who really haven't had a good break.

In life sort of thing.

Yeah, And I mean there's lots of us out there. Yeah, we all charge up, but people don't see us the way they see how they used to drink at Tanova. You know, they don't see us as drunks and that like they thought people from Tanoova were, you know, because we go out and enjoy ourselves. But nobody thought anything, Well that's what they do there. They used to do

For now, we want to go back to Duckhart, the man.

We are telling you about at the start of this episode, the man who had been caught having sex with Linda.

Dark claims he never went back to Tanuba House the Saturday, even though it would have been easy for him to come and go. But early on Sunday morning, he apparently woke up and went back down there. There is a reason as to why he went down there so early. While there, he was sitting with two other people under the house. Fairly early on, he said he had to go to the toilet. Now, there is a toilet under Tanuba which people would normally use, but.

Duck decided to walk over to a tree, which is about a forty meter walk away, in order to use the toilet. He told the court that every other time he would usually just use the toilet under Tanuba. While there, Duck apparently found a black and white scarf and a pair of black strides. Remember those items of clothing. Those were the only items of clothing that Duck remember Linda wearing the day before.

He couldn't remember anything else. He couldn't remember her shirt, He couldn't remember the clothes that Susan and Dorring were wearing. But he could remember those black strides and that black and white scarf, conveniently the two items of clothing he found by the tree that early morning. This is what he said. I walked over here to the gum tree there and walked back and found the woman's clothes there. While there, he also noticed that there was a place

He called the two people he was drinking with at t Enuba at that point. They went over and had a look, and then all of them went back and had a drink. That's according to dark Heart. Now, Linda would not have been found by the fisherman at this point. It's hard to know, as the exact time has never really stated, but we do know that at eight o'clock two kilometers downstream, on the opposite side of the river, the racecourse side of the river, she would have been

That afternoon around two twenty pm. Duck had a conversation with a police officer, Senior Constable Robert Hunt, which on the stand he referred to as Robert. Remember, by then Kevin would have been in the Whitehouse, locked up for public drunkenness. He'd been picked up around one pm that day. After that conversation, Senior Constable Hunt and another police officer plane closed. Senior Constable Leslie Girk company Duck down to

The two policemen given the task of arresting officers were these two we just mentioned Hunt and Girk. Now when they got down to Tanuba, Douck took Hunt to the place where he saw the dragmark. Hunt says he showed what happened to be drag marks leading from Tanuba House down to another area which is now referred to, which I now know to be Root Valley.

Root Valley was a name given to the small area of grass to the side of Tanuba House where people would go to have sex. This small area was where Duck had found the two items of Winder's clothing. But those drag marks that Duck showed the officers were not as they seen. Even Hunt admit that it wasn't a definite track, was just grass pushed over. It was definite that movement had gone through there, he said.

And even Hunt admits in cross examination on the stand that the marks could have been caused in another way. In the trial, he's given the example while on the witness stand that the marks could have been caused by somebody using that area to walk down to the river to put a crab pot in and tied off on the old post. And he agrees to that. There was no evidence of blood found on the grass Idly Kevin's and remember that because we'll go into that a bit later.

Now.

Two other witnesses who were at to.

Nubah that night, Lyle Barnes and Frank Saunders, pol police in their statement that duck Hart had gone back to Tanubah that night. The police never really followed it up, but it was only a short walk from the Great Western Hotel. It would not have taken long if duck had decided to go back.

After duck had had a long sleep in the afternoon, he said he got up and continued drinking with beer he found under his bed at the Great Western. He said that he continued drinking by himself until about one am on the Saturday morning. Hunt and Girk, the two arresting officers, never investigated Duck any further. That's despite Duck being involved with Linda and him most likely being upset about his partner Dori and Ivy catching him with her.

On September five, three days after Kevin gave his initial statement to police, he told Gurk he had something else to add. Kevin apparently Todd Girk that his statement, which included a pretty accurate account of Linda's assault by the women, was missing quote a paragraph on the end. There, that paragraph, which would end up being the confession, was the only

Now, one of those instructions was this at this point, I'll paraphrase, but we'll come back to this in detail when we examine exactly what the judge said to the jury. But what he did remind the jury is this, did the police investigate Dukhart, and we know they didn't. The judge reminds the jury this could be a failing on

So you have to wonder how did Duck find Linder's clothes so fast, and how did he find those drag marks? And why didn't the police look further into his story?

Remember that last paragraph that Kevin wanted to add, the part the police would go on to say was Kevin's confession. Well, after that was taken on the fifth of September, the police investigation stopped. That's where it ended. But we haven't stopped our investigation. Twenty five years later. We're doing the follow up work the police should have done. That would never have resulted in the judge having to give the

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