From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot. It's Monday, October fourteenth. Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lamman is returning to court on Monday morning. He's seeking to appeal Justice Michael Lee's finding that, on the balance of probabilities he raped Britney Higgins inside Parliament House in twenty nineteen, and he's hoping to avoid paying a hefty surety demanded by Network ten. Bruce Lahman has always vehemently denied any
sexual contact occurred. The Coalition has the edge over Labor on a two party preferred basis. That's according to new data from Newspoll and it's the first time the Opposition has taken the lead since Anthony Albanezi won the twenty twenty two federal election. You can read our experts analysis of those new numbers right now at the Australian dot
com dot au. John Winfield appeared to receive information about aspects of the initial police investigation into the nineteen ninety three disappearance of his wife Bronwyn when he should have been a person of interest. In today's episode, How a murder Suspect Skirted Police suspicion for decades.
I actually think Graham was the one that told me about I know Graham spoke to her. I told Graham this only through what Graham told me.
These are the words spoken by murder suspect John Winfield during an eighty four minute police interview given in nineteen ninety eight, five years after his wife Bronwyn vanished from their Lennox head home. They're being read by a voice actor for the Australian's investigative podcast into Bronwyn's unsolved disappearance and suspected murder. New episodes by National Chief correspondent Headley Thomas are available for subscribers right now at bronwinpodcast dot
com or on the Australians app. The Graham John Winfield is referring to is Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin, whose flawed initial investigation means Bronwin's loved ones are still searching for answers thirty one years later. See In the weeks and months after she disappeared on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three, Bronwin was treated as a missing person by police, not as a potential homicide victim, and John appears to have received crucial information about her life, instead of being treated
as a person of interest. He's always denied any wrongdoing. Here's Hedley Thomas.
If that's what has happened, it is unusual because you have a person of interest, someone who these days and no doubt back then as well, should have been a number one person of interest, a number one respect if you like, in the potential murder or foul play involving Bromwin. And there he is receiving key information about Bromwin's bank account, about the solicitors that Bromwin had been seeing, who they were,
about her movements, about her telephone calls. And that's the kind of information that, if you're a suspect, could be potentially very helpful in helping you aliby yourself and give a story that might be plausible.
John Winfield appears to confirm in his nineteen ninety eight interview with Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor that he received information about Bronlin's personal finances, legal representation, and communications from Detective discn.
I never saw the account, but I actually think Graham was the one that told me about this. I think it was still in her maiden name. Graham told me that she'd spoken to a guy in Ballina, Tony mattering, and I think she'd spoken to her guy Byron Bay called I can't remember his name now.
John Winfield's formal police interview is the only official record of his side of the story. It was the first conducted by Glenn Taylor as part of his renewed investigation in nineteen ninety eight.
I was a poll that so little had been going back in ninety ninety trillion. It's not all just about conviction. It's the family, the children knowing what did actually happen to Bromwin. Where is she?
Taylor asked John Winfield more than four hundred questions during the interview, and Headley is examining the resulting transcript, seventy six pages in total, in new episodes of the Bronwin Podcast. Reflecting on the interview more than two decades after it happened, Taylor, who since retired, told Headley john Winfield attended the interview willingly and never requested for a legal representative to be present.
I think he still wanted to project in the interview that he was concerned for her and that he had nothing to hide.
He'd done nothing wrong.
Beled he wanted to put himself across as wanting to assist the police.
We tried not to lead any staying on tan. It was the first interview of John Winfield by any police officers,
so to that extent it was pretty important. But it was also the first interview that Glenn Taylor did of anyone in his investigation, and as a result, it meant that Glen Taylor was at a bit of a disadvantage along with Wayne Tembe, the senior constable, because they didn't have a lot of information from other members of the community, from other people in Bromwin's family, people who knew John, and people who had contact with Bromwin in her last
days and hours. And because Glen Taylor didn't have a lot of those details from people at the time he questioning John Winfield, he really didn't have an opportunity to challenge some of the things that John Winfield told Glen Taylor, And we can see now with the benefit of hindsight, areas that Glen Taylor no doubt wishes he had questioned more closely, but he just didn't know what the actual
truth of it was at the time. We can also see that John Winfield left out some pretty important information, particularly around Monday, seventeen May nineteen ninety three, and that was the day that he arrived in Sydney after driving overnight with Bromlin's two daughters and their pet dog. And he has this period of a few hours where his movements are really unexplained. But John Winfield didn't volunteer anything about his visit to his ex wife's house in Sydney
when he was being questioned by Glen Taylor. I think that became a bit of a red flag for Taylor. He thought, why did John omit that? What was his motive for not disclosing what he had done? And we have talked about it, and he doesn't believe that it was forgetfulness. You don't forget going to see your ex wife out of the blue, someone you haven't seen for some time, and ask her and her mother in law to look after two children for several hours. He believes that it was a very deliberate omission.
Coming up how this investigation took another unexpected turn. Season two of Bronwin is available right now at Bronwin podcast dot com. We're subscribers, get to listen first, check us
out and we'll be back after this break. When Hedley Thomas set out to investigate the disappearance and suspected murder of Bronwin Winfield, he thought the podcast series would comprise six or maybe eight episodes, but these investigations require painstaking research and reporting over months and even years, and more than one twist has seen the series return for a
second season. The first was the account of Judy Singh, who said she saw John Winfield driving down Sandstone Crescent with what looked like a human body in the back of the family's Ford Falcon on the night Bronwyn vanished.
And this night I was sitting out and I could see directly into the car and he kind of looked up this night and I saw this what looked to be like a mummy in the back of the car, and I thought, well, if you was taking out belongings, you wouldn't make it look like a body, do you know what I mean?
The new South Wales Police Unsolved Homicide Unit moved swiftly on that new lead, and now the existence of a secret daughter has added another dimension to the story. Sonya Lee was born in late nineteen seventy two, when John Winfield and her mother were both teenagers living in Sydney's sutherland Shire. He's always denied his Sonia Lee's father, but their physical resemblance is uncanny. She's now in her early fifties and doesn't want a relationship with her biological father.
Sonia Lee says she came forward to Headley Thomas in hopes of helping solve the mystery of what happened to Bronwyn.
The first time I ever saw his face was on the front page of The Australian. He'll never be my father, will never be mates. We'll never sit down and have a kappa together. I'll never break bread with him, purely because my grandmother would be disgusted in me if I did.
You said before that you were very hopeful there would be a good outcome. What do you believe is a good outcome for the girls?
Then, knowing what happened to Brounwin, the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever it may be, they deserve to know, it's got to be the heaviest load for them to carry.
Here's Headley.
The unexpected always seems to jump out of left field with these kinds of podcasts, cold case investigations. When Sonnyli came forward and said that she wanted to talk. She wanted to disclose this. Her point was that the person she knows to be her father biologically is in her eyes, a liar, and that his first major lie was his
denial of paternity. She has known, she insists for some years that he's been her father, but she felt that it was time for her to do some truth telling in the hope that other people who perhaps know about lies told by others, or even the person of interest in this case, might come forward.
And just finally, Hadley, what's your goal for this new season of Bromwin.
We want to establish as much factual detail as possible. There are still witnesses who have information to offer pieces of evidence that form part of the puzzle and all of this is hopefully going to be properly reconsidered by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in New
South Wales. This was a case remember that in two thousand and two should have been prosecuted according to the then New South Wales Deputy State Coroner Karl Millavanovich, the same Deputy State coroner at the time who recommended that Chris Dawson prosecuted for the murder of his wife Lynn. Now, Karl was absolutely right back in two thousand and three when he made that recommendation. He made the same recommendation one year earlier in two thousand and two, after running
the inquest into bromwin win Fields presumed death. It's surely time for fresh eyes in the New South Wales office of the DPP to have a really good look at the whole case.
Headley Thomas is The Australian's national Chief correspondent. It's been one year since the Voice was resoundingly voted down in a referendum. Now the next generation of Indigenous leaders are sharing what they've learned. That story, plus all the nation's best news, sport and politics, is live right now at the Australian dot com dot au