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 absolutely really conant.
Blood on his clothing the day after the alleged.
Attapshell a mud bank and it fits Roy River. Basically, I think most of the people are used to me.
Where 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 pull 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. And a warning, this series contains the names of deceased peoples and has distressing content that might upset some listeners.
Welcome to Curtain the podcast.
Today, we've had major developments in the media's coverage of Kevin Henry's case. We'll discuss this later in the program, but first we're up to episode eighteen in this podcast series. And if you've just caught up with us, but you don't want to go back and listen to all of the episodes. This episode is going to be a handy recap, but if you're a regular listener, it's always good to go back and rehash the case. There might be something
you've forgotten or something that slipped past you. We'll also discussed a few major developments following our brief recap. Min We've talked a lot about this case, but a big part of understanding it means going back in time to around nineteen ninety one. What was life like for Aboriginal people back in nine ninety one, particularly in Queensland.
Well, it was a very rough time. One of the things that had recently wrapped up in nineteen eighty nine was the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which examined corruption right across Queensland, both in the sphere of politics and in particular policing. Now so bad was the police service that the Police Commissioner at the time was charged with corruption and ended up in prison himself. And there was also major issues to do with policing right around Queensland, and the police
culture of the state was heavily criticized. It was alleged and also found that police officers largely had loyalty to each other and no one else, that they weren't enforcing the law against other police officers, that there was a great deal of misconduct, inefficiency, and contempt for the justice system.
So it was this background of police corruption, shocking treatment of Aboriginal people right across the state, of crackdowns on any dissent and protest, and that a lot of people who didn't have access to really good legal assistance were
slipping through the cracks on a weekly basis. And I think it's very important that people understand that as it relates to Kevin Henry, because it's fair to say these recommendations were nowhere near in place those that would see a change to corrupt police culture in Rockhampton in nineteen ninety one when the tragic events took place.
And Linda, when we talk about her as a victim, she actually had a family history involving another really important event around that time, and that was the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths and Custody, which would have just concluded.
In the year of her death.
Does that come into play when we talk about Kevin Henry's case.
Yeah, I think it's particularly important and doubly tragic for Linda's family. This was a brilliant Aboriginal woman and mother who'd lost one of their own family members in custody at the hands of police and correctional services. And this was such an issue the way people were treated by police and corrective services in custody, that it prompted this nationwide royal commission that's had wide reaching findings that sadly
is still not implemented to this day. And many of the issues raised in that Royal commission relate to the way people were treated by the police upon their arrest, and sadly, Kevin would fall victim to exactly the issues that were raised at that Royal commission.
So in recapping what was the crime, well, basically what was established at the time was that Linda had been in Rockhampton for a short period of time.
She'd gone missing for a period around eight days and was last seen wearing black pants, a black top, a red coat, and a white and black scarf. And on Saturday, the thirty first of August nineteen ninety one, Linda was
brutally assaulted by three women. And what we believe is that that assault took place in two locations, but the primary one established by the court at the time, and all the evidence is that that assault took place at a place called Tanuba House on the banks of the Fitzroy River, and that it left Linda with life threatening injuries enough to have the women charged and convicted with
grievous bodily harm. In addition, Kevin Henry was charged with the rape and murder of Linda, and he was accused of placing Linda's body in the river the following day, on the Sunday, Linda's body was found by a fisherman early in the morning, and that's the basics of the crime and what took place. Who were the witnesses, So, as we've explained throughout the podcast, there were a large number of people who used to attend t n Uber House, who would sleep there, who would gather there. It was
essentially their second home. For some it was their home on the river bank, and so we had many Aboriginal
people who were witnesses to the assault. We don't have any witnesses to Kevin Henry ever placing Linda's body in the river, but there was a large number of witnesses who saw what went on during that day and It's important to remember that they were all watching a football game, and there had been heavy alcohol consumption on that day, and so basically all our witnesses to the event itself were heavily intoxicated.
Was Kevin Henry a witness to the assault.
Kevin Henry did witness the beginning of the assault. But there's two issues that are supported by the evidence and by statements of both Kevin and witnesses, which are that Kevin was heavily intoxicated, and he actually went to sleep. And it appears he went to sleep either during the assault or very shortly after. It was quite prolonged and as we said, took place in a number of locations, so he saw a little bit, but he really didn't
see a lot. And because he was heavily intoxicated, he did spend most of the day and certainly most of that night asleep.
So who were the women who committed the assault and why do we think they might have had motive to commit that assault?
So the three women were convicted of grievous bodily harm against Linda. Their names are Susan Aubrey, Margaret Bob and Amy Saunders. Now it's believed these women took issue with Linda and they accused her of stealing their men. They used language that is highly inappropriate, highly sexualized, that I won't repeat. And there was an event that day that if you want to know more about, you can listen to the podcast that led to these women beginning to
verbally abuse Linda and then violently attacking her. Now, it's important to remember these women were feared by many people. They were known to commit many assaults. Many of the witnesses who gave statement spoke of their fear of these women. The assault these women committed was horrific. It left Linda
with life threatening injuries. It left Linda bleeding profusely. And there's the very real possibility that the forensic expert at the initial trial couldn't rule in or out, which is that Linda died of the injuries suffered at the hands of these women. And still to this day, there are people who speak of their fear of the women who committed this violent assault.
So what where does Kevin Henry come into it? What do police allege he did after the assault?
So what the police would allege is that when everybody left to nuber House where this assault took place and went to a place nearby called the Crown Hotel. Is that Kevin dragged Linda's body away, had sex with Linda, and then placed her body in the water. Now it's important to point out that nobody witnessed this, Kevin Henry's denied this for twenty five years, and that there was no physical or forensic evidence that linked Kevin Henry to
those alleged events. But for now in the podcast, this is what the police would allege when they charged Kevin Henry with murder.
So when did the police investigation begin? And I guess how did the police again in conducting that investigation.
So the following day, when Linda's body was found early on the Sunday morning, the police slowly, and it needs to be emphasized very slowly, made their way to Tanuba House. There was a long delay in roping off the area and securing the crime scene. There was a long delay in arresting people, or at least questioning those around and those who saw or may have seen what went on. In fact, despite Kevin Henry having been there that night,
he was not spoken to that day. It wasn't until the Monday when Kevin Henry was walking in Rockhampton that he was picked up. And so we have over a period of a number of days, most of the people who were there but certainly not all spoken to by police, and the police going about collecting the forensic evidence, although this was problematic to given that the crime scene had not been properly secured.
When were the women charged?
So the women were charged on the fifth of September, that was the Thursday after the crime, and they were charged around about twelve pm. Now it's important to understand the women at that time were charged with the murder of Linda. It wasn't until later in the day that Kevin Henry was interrogated for a second time and he
was charged with murder later in the afternoon. Now what's concerning about this is that he was charged with murdering Linda in a completely separate fashion to the women who'd
been charged with Linda's murder. And so at this point you can understand it's quite confusing and very difficult to understand how this is good police practice to charge two separate lots of people with the murder of the same person, but that that murder somehow took place in two different sets of circumstances, and in two different ways.
Imagine that Kevin was picked up by police. What happened when he was picked up.
We won't ever know exactly what happened, because the judge at the trial was very critical of what happened when Kevin was picked up, the way he was interrogated and spoken to, and the way the police conducted themselves. But the very bare bones, and again people can go back to hear more, is that the police interrogated Kevin Henry, he asked for a lawyer. The tape recording which was
taping his interview was turned off. A few minutes later, it came back on and suddenly it seems as if, but it's not clear that he's agreed to proceed without a lawyer. The interview goes on for a little while longer, about twenty minutes to half an hour, and then Kevin Henry advises the police he has nothing more to say, and at no point in what was recorded up until then, had Kevin Henry ever admitted to rape or ever admitted
to murder. And it's at this point that the rest of the interrogation of Kevin Henry was ruled unlawful by the judge. So all we do know is that the police continued to speak to Kevin for the rest of that day. They put him in the car and they drove him around. We know they drove him to the crime scene, but they may have also driven him elsewhere. But the point remains that the judge ruled this was
inadmissible because all of this was done unlawfully. Kevin had asked for a lawyer and had said he had nothing more to add and nothing more to say, but that didn't stop the police from trying to continue for hours.
More.
Was this why they charged Kevin with rape and murder?
Was it based on this confession?
Yes, so it is believed that based on this confession, because they discovered no other evidence linking Kevin to the crime, that this is why the police charged Kevin with murder. But again, Kevin was charged on the same day as the women with the murder of Linda, but said to have done so in a completely different way to the women.
So when did the women's charges get downgraded to grow this bowly harm?
So from that September, just a few days after Linda had been killed, all the way until February the next year, nineteen ninety two. It wasn't till the day that the three women turned up at court to face charges of murder. And it wasn't until all their lawyers were in place, the judge and prosecutor were in place, that the charge of murder was dropped against the women and those charges
were downgraded to grievous bodily harm. So for five months, Kevin Henry and the three women were all charged with murder, and yet the police were somehow alleging this had taken place in two separate ways.
So how did the trial begin?
So there was two starts to the trial. Kevin Henry and two of the women would go on trial in the April, two months after the charges of murder against the women had been dropped. The third woman pleaded guilty to grieve us bodily harm and was sentenced. Then the trial opened officially and immediately the confession, and I do say that in inverted commas, a confession was immediately contested by Kevin's lawyer, and this was when the judge chose to rule such a huge amount of the confession out.
And this was a vital piece of evidence against Kevin Henry because there was no other evidence, And so the trial begins with the judge ruling the vast bulk of Kevin Henry's statement inadmissible because he'd been denied a lawyer, he'd been denied his right to end the interview, and the police had conducted the interview in an unlawful manner.
So what were the main points that came out of the trial.
So largely we had a number of forensic experts that were called, the two arresting police officers, and the witnesses who either saw the crime att tenuber House or a number of people who had seen goings on earlier that day, and the fishermen who'd found the body. Now the basics of the crime are this that in terms of the witnesses, they'd all given multiple statements and none of those statements were consistent with their other statements. This is for a
number of reasons. The three women who had been previously charged with murder changed their statements once they'd been charged with murder, and one of whom had tried to implicate
Kevin Henry, but her statement was inconsistent. A number of the other witnesses simply didn't see anything that would link Kevin Henry to the crime in any way, and so the police, by their own admission, had tried to interview these witnesses on multiple occasions, had one witness who said the police followed him for months, and some of the witnesses didn't give their final version of events, their final statement until just days before the trial commenced. And again,
all these statements contradicted each other. And the last thing that's important to know about the witnesses is virtually all of them were heavily intoxicated, both when the crime was committed and when they were interrogated by police, and all the witnesses basically admit to this. Some of them are very open about that, and others it takes a little bit of questioning. But again, the police should not have interviewed these people when they were intoxicated, and yet they did.
The forensic evidence that was presented at trial was basically to do with Linda's injuries, the forensic material that was collected that matched Linda and matched some of the women, and whether any of that forensic material connected Kevin Henry. And none of that forensic material connected Kevin Henry in any way. So not the blood, not the clothes, not hair, nothing,
of a forensic nature linked Kevin. And finally we had the testimony of the two police officers who had investigated the crime, and, by one of them's own admission, from the moment they charged Kevin Henry, they stopped investigating the crime. They did not look at who else could be involved, they didn't look for any further evidence. They simply believed
they had their man. And so other names and other possibilities of what happened that night were raised, But the police couldn't answer any of this because they'd simply stopped investigating the very day they charged Kevin Henry. Now, as much as it might sound like, it's difficult to believe
that was the totality. In summary of the evidence presented against Kevin Henry, there was not a single witness called who saw Kevin Henry with Linda's body, either when Linda was alive or dead, neither having sex with Linda or
placing her in the river. When the jury retired, they came back and returned guilty verdicts against the women, where there were many many witnesses to what they'd done, and a great deal of forensic evidence linking them to what they'd done, and also finding Kevin Henry guilty of the rape and murder of Linda, despite there being no witnesses that saw him involved in the crime in any way, no forensic evidence of Kevin ever having sex with Linda,
let alone committing rape, and no evidence of murder. And so for twenty five years Kevin Henry has been in prison in Queensland based on the verdict of that jury and based on the sentence handed down by the judge on that day.
In that time, did he ever appeal his sentence.
Kevin did have a very brief appeal. It was done in a way that only challenged the Privacy Act which sought to it sought to throw out the entirety of the statement given by Kevin to police. But what it didn't do. It never challenged the fact that no forensic evidence was ever presented that implicated Kevin, and it didn't challenge the fact that no witnesses ever saw Kevin Henry involved in the crime itself. And so for twenty five years, and this is important to stress, Kevin Henry has always
maintained his innocence. He pleaded not guilty at the trial. He denied anything that he was accused of. He pleaded not guilty at trial. He maintained that innocence leading up to the trial, all the way up to his appeals, and for twenty five years, Kevin Henry has told everyone who will listen, he did not commit that crime.
So what is the investigations uncovered today?
So, after all this has taken place twenty five years later, those who are following the podcast will know that a year ago Amy and I launched our own investigation and I didn't need more than five minutes looking at this case to know that something was wrong. The first issue we looked at was whether it was possible Linda's body had been placed in a different location to where police would claim, and a location that was simply impossible for
Kevin Henry to access. And all our investigation, including consulting with forensic experts, has led us to believe that Linda's body was placed on the racecourse side of the Fitzroy River that is on the opposite side of the river to Tenuba House, the crime scene, and would have required a car to drive the body around to that spot.
The way we were able to work that out is to do with where Linda's body was found when it was found and the movement of the tides, a parallel line that her body had left in the mud, and also the variations in the two river banks, one being accessible by foot without getting wet or muddy, and the Tanuba house side where it was alleged Kevin placed Linda in the river, requiring at the time someone waded out into the mud and water to place a body in
the river. And Kevin Henry's clothing, his shoes, and his body was entirely clean of any river water, any mud, any salt, any trace of having ever gone near the river. So that was the first issue. We've also been able to clarify the forensic evidence. Now, at the initial trial, no evidence was ever tendered that would link Kevin Henry to the crime itself, but we were able to go further.
We were able to show that had Kevin Henry been involved, there would have been forensic evidence, and so it's not a matter of evidence simply being lost at the time
or things like that. The forensic conclusion of the new report we commissioned is that so there was no forensic evidence linking Kevin to Linda's body or the crime scene post the assault committed by the women that is the forensic report found had Kevin been involved, he would have had Linda's blood on his clothes, There wasn't any he would have had Linda's blood on his skin and hands, There wasn't any that he would have had mud and remnants of the river water on his body, and there
wasn't any. So not only did we show that the initial forensics while failing to implicate Kevin Henry in the crime, the new forensics show he couldn't have been involved in the crime. And this was very important.
So if Kevin Henry didn't do it, who are the other suspects?
So, as listeners to our podcast will remember, in the last few episodes, we finally received a statement by someone we call Witness X. They were an eye witness to basically everything that went on that day and that night. Witness X is very clear in what they saw. Witness x's statement matches the forensics, it matches the other witnesses statements that are believed and thought to be consistent, and
it matches with our thorough investigation. And that is firstly, that Kevin Henry was asleep under a gum tree and that he did not have anything to do with the crime, and secondly that those involved in the crime did have a car, did drive Linda's body to the other side of the river, and did place Linda's body on the racecourse side of the river into the water, as we'd initially predicted with our own forensic examination, and we'd never seen this witness statement until just a few weeks ago,
So that Willy West was the primary person in the transportation and dumping of Linda's body along with another man, and Witness X was also in the car with another individual in the back seat. And this is how they were able to establish who they saw and believed committed the crime. And again they ruled out Kevin Henry completely and they placed another individual, Willie West, and another unnamed individual at the crime scene and in possession of Linda's body.
And that brings us to today where after twenty five years, rock Hamden's local paper, the Morning bullet And finally covered Kevin Henry's case, and they covered it on its front page, and not only did they cover it, but it led to.
Other stories in the ABC.
Finally, after a quarter of a century, Kevin Henry's name is back in the press. Martin, what did the one billion story say today.
The very first sentence of the article on Kevin Henry says this, The rumor mill has churned the same message in Rockhampton for twenty five years. Kevin Henry didn't do it, So immediately, that backs up what we've always said in our investigation, really what I think you could take from the initial trial and what witness X said. So for twenty five years, Kevin Henry has been waiting for the world to acknowledge what he always knew and maintained in
this crime. He simply didn't do it and had no involvement. So Amy, perhaps you can explain to our listeners as a rock Hampton local yourself, what happened in the media in Rockampton today.
So, after a quarter of a century, it was really amazing to see Kevin Henry's case back in the newspaper. It hasn't been back in the press since he was originally convicted back.
In nineteen ninety two.
And we know from looking back into the archives that it was reported really badly in it. It really made kenn Henry look guilty because of them miss the inaccuracies in the trial reporting. So Rockhampton is a single paper town and the fact that they've put this story on the front page and given it the prominence that it deserves means quite a lot. It also means that a lot of the other media in the town, like the ABC and WIN News, have actually finally followed up the story.
And not only that, the AC the ran Kevin Henro's story at the top of their local bulletin, there were stories in the statewide bulletins and Kevin Henro's story also made ABC online. So following on from this front page in the morning bulletin, the story has actually gone further and further, and I'm sure that a lot more people are going to pay attention to this enduring injustice.
One thing I think that's important to add is that the reason the media picked up on this, the reason it made the paper, the reason it made the radio, and the reason it made the TV news was because of this podcast curtain and because of people supporting and sharing this podcast, both in Australia and around the world.
What we've been able to uncover and show to those of you who have listened and shared this podcast with your friend's family and those who are interested in justice, is that Kevin Henry is quite clearly an innocent man, and no longer could the media remained silent on that issue.
And one of the advantages of finally having Kevin Henry's case on the front page of the local paper is the potential for other witnesses to come forward, and by the end of the day a new witness did come forward with crucial information. So Martin, who was this key witness.
This witness wants to remain anonymous at this stage. But the witness is a taxi driver from Rockhampton who says that he dropped Linda at Tanuba that day and it certainly seems as if he knew who Linda was. And this is what he describes about when Linda walked from his cab down to Tanuba House where immediately the women assaulted her, as was detailed twenty five years ago. He says, I could hear yelling and screaming and here they are getting stuck right into her. Event Actually I drove away,
he went on. They were the rulers of the river bank. Them women used to shiver when and he says, Margaret Bob came up. She was rarely on her own and when she got in the cab, you thought oh Jesus, No, Kevin would never mix with them. The only time he ever mixed with them was when he had no money. He also made other comments about Kevin Henry. He said he was tall and so frail looking. I'd say to my wife, my grandmother would have been able to give
Kevin Henry a touch up. It brought back a few memories when I read it in the paper and what I should have done.
So why didn't this taxi driver come forward?
At the time, He says he was fearful of Bob and Aubrey, there're two of the women convicted of the grievous bodily harm against Linda. But he had trouble believing Kevin Henry was still behind bars all these years later, some twenty five years later, he said Henry was unbelievably harmless, and was also hopeful that any information he could provide might in the end lead to Henry's release. This is what he said. He is as innocent as the day is long, poor old Kevin. He was just so docile
and innocent. There wouldn't even be a grain of aggression in him. But they threw it all at him. You know why, because he'd be down there and that drunk, he wouldn't know what had happened. I'm very sorry that I've never come forward. So what this witness has just told us is that he believes that the assault was committed against Linda by the women because that's what he
heard and what he believes he saw. That he never believed Kevin Henry was guilty, and primarily for the same reasons pointed out because on that day Kevin was heavily intoxicated and asleep under the gum tree. And this is coming from someone who has quite clearly worked as a taxi driver in Rockhampton, and it's important to remember that the Aboriginal people, particularly those who spend a good deal of time down at the River, would use the taxis
very regularly. In fact, part of Kevin Henry's alibi for those who have listened to all the podcast, is that he was in a taxi cab at around the time the murder would have taken place. So it's very believable that a taxi driver would be someone who would have
known and seen about what had happened. This individual clearly remembers Linda, remembers Kevin, and very clearly remembers the women involved in the vicious assault against Linda and says the reason he'd never forward was his fear of those women.
But it's quite clear this is a new witness who has been prompted by today's media attention, who has not heard the podcast, who's not heard it on the radio, because he was under the impression Kevin Henry was no longer in jail, but is quite sorry that he hadn't come forward earlier, and he's quite sorry that Kevin Henry is in prison twenty five years later.
So mart In, the media today also mentioned that you're working on something.
What is it so right at the present, I'm working with a lawyer in Brisbane to push forward for Kevin Henry to have a new parole date where much of
this may at least be considered. But while we're not sure if they will consider new information because that can be deemed outside their charter of operation, we certainly want to put to the parole board once again, and this has been done many times, that Kevin Henry maintains his innocence, that he's served his sentence, and that his behavior is certainly that of an innocent man desperate to return back to a community that has shown huge support in him
by signing a petition by the elders of his community in Warabinda calling on the Parole Board to release Kevin back to them, and by many of the Indigenous services in Rockhampton and Warabinda offering their services and accommodations from
his family to welcome Kevin back to the community. Now, given that we believe Kevin Henry is innocent, given that I believe I have the evidence to prove Kevin Henry is innocent, we can tell our listeners I'm in the process of filing a petition to the Governor of Queensland to grant a pardon to Kevin Henry for a crime he did not commit. And you'll hear more about that next week on Curtin.
That was episode eighteen of Curtain the Podcast. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or go to our website www. Dot Curtin Thepodcast dot com. Just a reminder that Kevin Henry needs.
All the support he can get, so please share the information with your friends and do your little bit to help Kevin Henry and help reverse this endearing injustice.