Snowtown

by Jeremy Pudney

  ‘That is why Mark Haydon is charged with two counts of murder—the murder of Troy Youde and the murder of Elizabeth Haydon—and six counts of assisting an offender, namely, assisting Bunting, Wagner or Vlassakis in storing, or permitting to be stored, the bodies of other of their victims: Michael Gardiner, Barry Lane, Gavin Porter, Fred Brooks, Gary O’Dwyer and David Johnson. The Crown says he concealed these bodies, and did so with the intention of assisting Bunting, Wagner or Vlassakis to avoid apprehension.

  ‘That’s the Crown case in a nutshell.’

  Ms Abraham explained to the jury that a person is guilty of murder not only if they are responsible for the physical act itself, but also if they take part knowing what would, or could, occur.

  She highlighted the fact Haydon and his legal team were not disputing that Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis had committed the murders. Haydon, she said, would spend most of his time within this murderous circle, often listening to and joining in talk of paedophiles and what should be done to them.

  ‘People he [Bunting] considered to be paedophiles were referred to as “rock spiders” and “dirties”. He spoke of what he thought of paedophiles and what should be done to them. When Bunting spoke his demeanour was one of anger. He spoke in a very emphatic manner. When Robert Wagner was present he would reiterate what Bunting was saying. When Mark Haydon was present, although he was quieter, as he always was, he would nonetheless nod in agreement with what was being said…on at least one of these occasions when Mark Haydon was present, John Bunting said, “We are vigilantes, we take care of paedophiles.” The relevance of these conversations and, indeed, other conversations in which Mark Haydon was present, are twofold. One, the Crown says, in relation to conversations in which Mark Haydon was present, they reveal Mark Haydon’s own attitude towards paedophiles. Secondly, and importantly, it is also evidence from which you may accept that Mark Haydon was aware of John Bunting’s attitude towards paedophiles. Both of these aspects are relevant, particularly to the murder of Troy Youde, because it is the Crown case that a motive for the murder of Troy Youde is that he sexually abused James Vlassakis. It follows that this is relevant then in proving Mark Haydon’s involvement in the murder.’

  Ms Abraham recounted the details of Troy Youde’s murder in the home he had shared with Bunting and Vlassakis at Murray Bridge. It was the prosecution case that Haydon had been present during Youde’s murder and had joined with Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis in beating Youde with jack handles and wooden clubs before Youde was forced into the bathroom, tortured and murdered.

  During Youde’s murder, Bunting had listed the names of others he’d killed. The fact that he did this in the presence of Mark Haydon, it was alleged, suggested that Haydon knew about the previous killings. Even after the murder of Troy Youde, Ms Abraham told the jury, Haydon took part in the clean-up.

  ‘Once Troy Youde was dead, John Bunting asked Vlassakis and Haydon to go to the shops and buy some more gloves and some heavy-duty garbage bags. At this stage Troy Youde’s body was still in the bath. The two of them went to the shops in Mark Haydon’s Land Cruiser and made the purchases and then returned to Burdekin Avenue. John Bunting and Robert Wagner were still there. Troy Youde’s body, at this stage, was on the bathroom floor. Bunting told Wagner to make sure Troy Youde was dead and Wagner put his foot on Youde’s chest, causing a noise to come out, and Bunting and Wagner laughed. Haydon and Vlassakis were present during this and watched. All four of them—Bunting, Wagner, Haydon and Vlassakis—put disposable gloves on because John Bunting said they had to be careful when handling dead bodies. Bunting put one garbage bag over Troy Youde’s head, another over his middle and another over his feet and these were taped in place. As I said, Vlassakis and Haydon were present throughout, watching.

  ‘All four—Bunting, Wagner, Haydon and Vlassakis—were involved in carrying Troy Youde’s body out into the shed where the other bodies were already being stored. The four carried Troy Youde’s body on a weights bar, two at the head and two at the feet. Initially they only went as far as the back door of the house when all four of them tried to put Troy Youde’s body into a wardrobe which had the shelves kicked out, but Youde wouldn’t fit and they didn’t succeed in that. Again with the use of the weights bar, the body of Troy Youde was carried to the shed. It is the Crown case that there were already two barrels in the shed. In one were the bodies of Michael Gardiner and Barry Lane, and in the other the body of Gavin Porter. Troy Youde’s body was left on the floor of the shed and the shed was locked. Vlassakis left the house briefly to get some methadone. At some stage after Vlassakis returned, whilst Bunting, Wagner and Haydon were still there, there was talk about what had happened. Bunting said that Youde had gone too quickly and that there wasn’t enough pain, but he had said Youde had been made good. There were jokes between Bunting and Wagner. Bunting asked Vlassakis what it felt like as he had just committed murder. Mark Haydon, although present through this, didn’t say anything.

  ‘At some stage all four left the house to go to McDonald’s and get something to eat, and then they returned to Burdekin Avenue. Before Mark Haydon and Robert Wagner left Murray Bridge to return to Adelaide, the house was cleaned up and Troy Youde’s possessions were gathered up and put in garbage bags. Bunting and Vlassakis cleaned up the bathroom and Youde’s bedroom, where there was some blood. Bunting and Wagner put some of Youde’s property, his clothes, ID and paperwork into garbage bags. Bunting, Wagner and Haydon put those bags in the back of Mark Haydon’s Land Cruiser and Mark Haydon and Robert Wagner drove off together in the Land Cruiser with Youde’s property and the debris from the murder.

  ‘Within a couple of days of Youde being murdered, John Bunting and Robert Wagner drove to Adelaide to buy a barrel. The barrel was purchased at Paramount Browns for $25. The barrel was taken and put in the shed at 3 Burdekin Avenue. The shed was kept locked and Bunting had the key.

  ‘It is the Crown’s case that Troy Youde’s body in the barrel was moved to Mark Haydon’s house at 4 Blackham Crescent, Smithfield Plains, and stored there for some time with other bodies until it was stored in Mark Haydon’s Land Cruiser and ultimately in the Snowtown bank.

  ‘The body of Troy Youde and the garbage bag which contained the debris cleaned up from the bathroom after Troy Youde’s murder were found in the bank vault at Snowtown. In particular, in one of the garbage bags, with the property and bloodstained clothing of Troy Youde, were a number of disposable gloves. One of the gloves had a DNA typing on it consistent with that of Mark Haydon. Other gloves had DNA typings consistent with John Bunting and Robert Wagner. Property of Troy Youde’s, of the type which the Crown says had been placed in Mark Haydon’s Land Cruiser on the day of the murder, was found in Haydon’s shed at 4 Blackham Crescent and in John Bunting’s home at Bundarra Court, Craigmore.

  ‘As I said, the body of Troy Youde was found in a barrel at the Snowtown bank. When his body was removed the gag was still in place with a sock in his mouth secured by adhesive tape. The rope was still around his neck. It is the Crown case that Mark Haydon is guilty of the murder of Troy Youde because he was a party to an understanding or agreement to murder Troy Youde, or at the very least a party to an assault in which he foresaw the possibility that Youde would be murdered, or he aided and abetted that murder. As a consequence, whilst all four played different roles, the law says it doesn’t matter which role each played but each involved are equally responsible in the eyes of the law.’

  Ms Abraham then detailed Haydon’s role in moving and hiding bodies.

  ‘The Crown alleges that shortly after the murder of Troy Youde, the three barrels containing the bodies of Barry Lane, Michael Gardiner, Gavin Porter and Troy Youde, the barrels that were stored in the shed at 3 Burdekin Avenue, Murray Bridge, had to be moved. Bunting was moving out…there was no shed at the new premises and so somewhere else had to be found to store the bodies. This new storage place was the shed at Mark Haydon’s home at 4 Blackham Crescent, Smithfield Plains. A truck was hired and
Bunting and Wagner loaded up the barrels and they were taken away from Burdekin Avenue. Vlassakis next saw the barrels in the shed at Mark Haydon’s home…the obvious and logical inference is that he [Haydon] agreed for them to be stored there. From then on, John Bunting continued to have a place where, if he murdered someone, he could store the body.

  ‘After Fred Brooks was murdered, it is alleged Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis put Fred Brooks’s body into garbage bags. His body was then carried out of the house [where Bunting was living in Murray Bridge] by Bunting and Wagner and put into the boot of a Torana which was parked in the rear yard. A couple of days after Fred Brooks’s murder, Mark Haydon arrived in Murray Bridge driving his Land Cruiser, towing a car trailer. John Bunting and Mark Haydon put the Torana with, the Crown says, Fred Brooks’s body still in the boot, onto the trailer and they drove the car away. Not long after that day, on the next occasion Vlassakis went to Blackham Crescent with John Bunting, he saw Mark Haydon working on the Torana. Bunting asked Haydon if Fred was happy, to which Haydon replied, “Yes”. Bunting and Haydon went down the stairs into the pit of the shed, Vlassakis went a bit of the way down, and could see garbage bags on the floor. Bunting told him that it was Fred. Bunting asked Vlassakis about the smell—there was a smell apparent in the shed. It was this day that Vlassakis saw barrels in the shed.

  ‘Within days of Mark Haydon taking the Torana from Murray Bridge, the Torana was registered in his name. The date of registration is 24 September 1998, and the vehicle was found at his home at Blackham Crescent at the time of his arrest.

  ‘As with the murder of Troy Youde, the details necessary to access Fred Brooks’s bank account were obtained from him by Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis before he was murdered. Fred Brooks’s Centrelink benefits were maintained, and his account accessed after his death. It is the Crown case that it is Mark Haydon who was given access to those benefits.’

  The jury heard details, too, of how the body of the next murder victim, Gary O’Dwyer, was taken to Haydon’s shed after the murder. O’Dwyer’s lounge suite was also given to Haydon by Bunting, and was discovered by police when Haydon was arrested.

  The next to die was Haydon’s wife, Elizabeth. This was the second murder in which he was accused of actually taking part.

  ‘Elizabeth Haydon was last seen alive on Saturday, November 21, 1998. At that time she was living at Blackham Crescent with Mark Haydon and her sister, [Gail Sinclair]. Elizabeth Haydon’s children were away for the weekend staying with their uncle, Elizabeth Haydon’s brother.

  ‘Mark Haydon didn’t actually do the physical act of killing. Indeed, the Crown says he wasn’t even there at the time of the killing. It is the Crown case that Elizabeth Haydon was murdered pursuant to a plan made in advance by Bunting, Wagner and Haydon. Mark Haydon had a particular role in carrying out that plan. Elizabeth Haydon was to be murdered at Blackham Crescent, and for that to happen [Gail Sinclair] had to be taken away from the home. That was part of Mark Haydon’s role in the murder of his wife. While Mark Haydon and [Gail Sinclair] were away from the house, John Bunting and Robert Wagner murdered Elizabeth Haydon and then, immediately upon Mark Haydon’s return, all three—Mark Haydon, John Bunting and Robert Wagner—told stories to explain her whereabouts in an attempt to conceal her death, initially from [Gail Sinclair] and then from others, including police.

  ‘During the trip home Mark Haydon stopped at a service station, telling [Gail Sinclair] he wanted to telephone home. When he came back to the car, he told [Gail Sinclair], ‘We’ve got to get home, all hell has broken loose.’

  ‘It is the Crown case that Elizabeth Haydon was dead by the time [Gail Sinclair] and Mark Haydon returned home…[Gail Sinclair] was taken out of the house as part of a ruse, a set-up to make it look like she was doing her sister a favour. Mark Haydon was aware of the ruse and playing along with it.

  ‘From the time of Sinclair’s return, efforts were made by Mark Haydon, John Bunting and Robert Wagner to conceal Elizabeth Haydon’s death…Mark Haydon pretended his wife was still alive, he didn’t skip a beat, he told stories that matched up with Bunting and Wagner’s.’

  Ms Abraham guided the jury through the police questioning of Haydon about Elizabeth’s disappearance. There were telltale discrepancies, the Crown alleged, in stories Haydon told his wife’s family and friends. There was incriminating evidence found at his house.

  The experienced prosecutor outlined evidence about the movement of the bodies in the barrels after Elizabeth Haydon’s murder; the loading of Mark Haydon’s four-wheel drive, which was towed first to the Joneses’ property at Hoyleton, then their home in Snowtown. Finally Ms Abraham pointed to Haydon’s role in leasing the old Snowtown bank, helping shift the bodies there and visiting regularly.

  Most incriminating was the eyewitness evidence of James Vlassakis, detailing a visit to the bank where he and Haydon watched as Bunting and Wagner went inside the vault. The pair laughed about how quickly Elizabeth Haydon was ‘festering away’—both Haydon and Vlassakis took a look.

  ‘The Crown does not suggest that Haydon was involved in the mutilation of the bodies, or that he derived any particular enjoyment from being a participant or a witness to these activities. However, what the Crown says is important is that this visit demonstrates that Mark Haydon was a trusted person. He was part of these activities. He didn’t extricate himself from the situation. He rendered assistance and he kept the group’s activity secret. It also demonstrates that he had knowledge of what he was storing in the vault and that he was actively involved in the process.

  ‘Mark Haydon’s fingerprints were located on fixed items in the bank. For example, there were five separate fingerprints on the counter of the bank, and one on an internal doorframe. Mark Haydon’s fingerprints were also detected on items locked away in the vault with the bodies, for example, his fingerprints were located on a plastic garbage bag with holes cut in it—the garbage bag had holes cut in it such that it might be worn by a person—and his fingerprints were on an empty hydrochloric acid container. A forensic pathologist who conducted the postmortem of the body of Elizabeth Haydon is of the view that her body did show some signs of having been immersed in acid, and one of the barrels that had liquid in it was weakly acidic.’

  The jury heard that a number of garbage bags which contained debris collected after the murders of Fred Brooks and Troy Youde were located inside the vault. One bag contained Troy Youde’s cut, bloodied T-shirt and knotted rope with his hair in the knot. Also inside were a number of disposable gloves with DNA typing consistent with the killers. Six gloves were matched to Robert Wagner, while one glove was found which had Bunting’s DNA on one side and Troy Youde’s on the other. One glove had DNA consistent with Mark Haydon’s on it. In another garbage bag, also found in the vault, were more disposable gloves which were DNA matched to Bunting, Wagner and Haydon.

  Forensic evidence, too, pointed to the storage of the bodies and barrels in Haydon’s shed. During the police investigation into Elizabeth Haydon’s disappearance, several police officers noted the smell of rotting flesh as they searched the shed. A forensic crime scene officer noticed an area of staining on the floor of a pit inside the shed. A test for traces of blood was positive and further tests detected traces of human DNA. Maggot casings were found in the pit, suggesting that a dead animal or human must have been nearby. Such casings were also found inside two garbage bags in the Snowtown bank. And a thorough search of the shed’s pit and a car in the shed also located items in the name of Troy Youde, including a Medicare card and healthcare card, and mail addressed to Gavin Porter. A handcuff key, wire fashioned in the shape needed to pick the lock on the bank vault door, and disposable gloves were also found in the shed.

  In Haydon’s Land Cruiser police found another disposable glove with Bunting’s fingerprint on it, and a letter in the name of Gavin Porter. In Haydon’s station wagon were documents and items relating to Fred Brooks’s banking and benefits, while Gary O’Dwyer’s lounge suite was i
n Haydon’s house.

  ‘It is the Crown case that when you consider all the evidence relevant to each count, it will lead to the overwhelming and inescapable conclusion that Mark Haydon was involved in the murder of Troy Youde, that he was involved in the murder of Elizabeth Haydon, and that he was actively involved in concealing the bodies of six other victims, victims who had been murdered by Bunting, Wagner or Vlassakis, and he concealed those bodies for them with the intention of assisting them to escape apprehension.’

  James Vlassakis and Elizabeth Haydon’s sister—and Bunting’s former fiancée—Gail Sinclair were both called as prosecution witnesses. Vlassakis recounted in great detail the role he said Haydon played in Troy Youde’s murder. He also testified, as he had done in Bunting and Wagner’s trial, about visits to Snowtown with Haydon and the others.

  Sinclair spoke of the night her sister was murdered, and how Mark Haydon had taken her for a drive. When the pair returned, Elizabeth had vanished.

  Sinclair described the close friendship between Haydon, Bunting and Wagner. ‘They were like the three amigos,’ she told the jury. ‘They couldn’t be separated. Wherever Bunting went, Mark went. To me, it appeared they were almost joined at the hip.’

  The prosecution case relied heavily on Vlassakis’s testimony, forensic evidence and victims’ property found in Haydon’s possession. There seemed little doubt that the barrels had been kept in the shed at Haydon’s house, and that he’d leased the bank where they were found.

  It was essential for Haydon’s defence team to create doubt in the jurors’ minds—provide alternative versions of events, explanations for some of their client’s apparently suspicious actions. Marie Shaw QC and her team decided the best way to do this was with the assistance of Haydon himself. It was a gamble which opened the door to cross-examination, but on 10 November 2004, Mark Haydon took the stand in his own defence.

  Mrs Shaw asked the questions—and wasted little time in getting to the point.