Call Me Cruel

by Michael Duffy

  John, Carol and Leanne were kept in touch with the legal process by a DPP witness assistance officer, who was assigned to them for the extent of the trial. They spoke often with solicitor Helen Rallis, whose job involved not only supporting Kiely with the legal side of things but also liaising with everyone involved in the trial, including the police and the defence solicitor. John Kiely met with the family and explained what was going to happen. During the trial itself, he would have little time to speak with them, as all his attention would be consumed by running the case.

  The trial was due to begin on 13 October 2008 before Justice Elizabeth Fullerton in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. But on the first day of that month, Wilkinson protested that she should not sit because, before going to the bench, she’d been the counsel assisting the coroner at the inquest into the death of TJ Hickey. Wilkinson, of course, disagreed with the coroner’s finding that the police did not kill Hickey. Fullerton stood aside and was replaced by Peter Johnson, a highly respected judge with a short grey beard and glasses.

  On the morning of 13 October, John Kiely received some news from Helen Rallis. Wilkinson’s lawyers had just told her that their client wished to change his plea: he was going to admit to killing Kylie. The announcement sent a shock through Kylie’s family, who were sitting in the public gallery. Emotions of relief and anger, happiness and despair, swept over them, and for a moment they seemed to freeze.

  Such last-minute confessions are actually not unusual. Accused people often wait until the eve of their trial to confess to a crime, in the faint hope something might change in their favour: maybe the Crown will propose a deal, or a vital witness for the prosecution will be run over by a bus. In the absence of such luck, they change their plea at the last minute because it gains them a discount off their sentence of about ten per cent. The state provides this reduction as an inducement, because a guilty plea removes the necessity for an expensive trial.

  John Kiely was happy to hear what Wilkinson was proposing to do, but cautious. He wanted to make sure a plea of guilty would stick, and one thing that concerned him was whether Wilkinson was mentally capable of making the change. So he asked the judge to make a determination and Johnson agreed. This would involve considering the evidence of the psychiatrists. And so the emotions of Kylie’s family went on hold again.

  As we have seen, Olav Nielssen had interviewed Wilkinson on behalf of the defence and raised a question about his fitness to be tried (that is, whether he was capable of giving instructions to his lawyers). This opinion had been countered by Stephen Allnutt, who had interviewed Wilkinson on behalf of the Crown. Allnutt had been provided with a great deal of material about Wilkinson, and his interview took place on 14 August. By that point, Wilkinson had been in jail for sixteen months and was taking anti-depressants for most of that time. He worked as a sweeper at Silverwater jail and kept to himself, because of a concern he said he had that police might arrange for someone to bash or kill him. Allnutt found Wilkinson to be well-groomed. He spoke clearly and maintained good eye contact, and ‘denied any perceptual disturbances such as voices, visions, tastes or smells. He was not experiencing any messages from the TV, the radio or the newspaper.’ He was guarded in his manner and concerned about the fact the psychiatrist had been hired by the Crown, but nevertheless he ran through most of his beliefs regarding Geoff Lowe and his own persecution by the police force and government.

  Wilkinson told Allnutt he had suffered physical but not sexual abuse as a child. He said he had been stabbed in the stomach with a syringe in 1999 but that his superiors had refused to believe this. Despite that, he had taken six months off work and tried to kill himself in 2000 by taking a lot of pills. After that he had spent about $200 a week on cannabis and had also taken ecstasy, speed, cocaine and heroin.

  The documents Allnutt had been given revealed that Wilkinson, despite what he’d told Olav Nielssen, had a history with the mental-health system, mainly connected with his long periods off work. In 2000 he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, following the supposed stabbing the previous year, and in 2002 with depression. A psychiatric assessment in October 2002, after he had been bitten and off work for ten months, revealed a low mood: ‘The impression was that he had anti-social traits, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug abuse, and blackouts of unknown cause . . . He was aggressive and violent towards his girlfriend, moody and withdrawn . . . He reported long periods of amnesia, odd behaviour and forgetfulness.’ In the years following Kylie’s disappearance, he had seen psychiatrists several times, and in 2005 presented in ‘a depressed mood and was irritable and angry’. In March 2006 he had been diagnosed as having a major depressive disorder.

  Allnutt decided that Wilkinson did manifest ‘a paranoid condition’ but ‘manifests capacity to understand what he is charged with [and] the nature of the proceedings’. For this and other reasons, he concluded that Wilkinson was fit to stand trial. So now Justice Johnson had to decide between the psychiatrists’ competing views.

  Wilkinson was in court, looking thinner than when he’d been arrested—he’d lost about fifteen kilograms in prison—with his hair short and a moustache and small beard. Most prisoners dress up for court, but for every appearance Wilkinson would wear prison-issue green sloppy joe and trousers, and white Dunlop sandshoes.

  Kylie’s family were in court every day, apart from Michael, who now lived overseas. John always wore a suit and tie and looked worn and sad, the big grin of his earlier years gone. When he first saw Wilkinson he felt angry, but also sympathetic for his parents and the things they had to listen to in court. He continued to be upset by Wilkinson’s attitude towards his family, and his lies about the grave site. Once he thought about how he might jump from the public gallery into the body of the court and attack Wilkinson, but it was just a passing fancy.

  Carol and Leanne travelled down from the Coast by train each time the court sat, making arrangements for time off work and, in Leanne’s case, for the care of her children. These arrangements were complicated by the fact that the court sittings were irregular, with large gaps as the matter dragged over the lengthy Christmas break. Fortunately, both Carol’s and Leanne’s employers were understanding and helpful.

  On some days in court, the women were accompanied by a DPP witness assistance officer, a woman from the Salvation Army, or Minouche Goubitz and Clare Blanch, members of the Homicide Victims Support Group. This is an organisation of people who have had a member of their own family killed.

  Wilkinson’s parents were there too: his father, whose expression gave nothing away, and his smaller and often angry-seeming mother. They were usually accompanied by a skinny Aboriginal woman who wore tops on which she had written words relating to various perceived injustices. She had a chesty cough and would sometimes shake her head indignantly at what was being said in the courtroom.

  *

  As it turned out, a battle between the two psychiatrists was not necessary on 13 October, because Nielssen interviewed Wilkinson that morning and determined ‘that he is on balance fit for trial . . . Mr Wilkinson was able to provide a version of the events that was consistent with the account he gave you [that is, his lawyers] this morning and could form the basis of instructions in his defence.’ Justice Johnson announced he was satisfied that the accused was fit to plead guilty to the charges of murder and arson. It was a moment of enormous significance for Kylie’s family, who went home that afternoon tremendously relieved that they would not have to sit through a trial, and that Kylie’s killer was finally known for sure and had been brought to justice.

  The next day, Wilkinson formally confessed to killing Kylie, and gave a version of what had happened. It’s a horrific account and, like much that Wilkinson expressed, needs to be regarded sceptically. This is what he wrote.

  I, Paul James Wilkinson, in custody at the Supreme Court at Sydney, hereby instruct my counsel Terry Healey and instructin
g solicitor, Rochelle Macredie, as follows.

  1. On 28.4.04 I had made arrang. to meet w. Kylie Labouchardiere @ Sutherland Rail/y Station @ about 9pm.

  We had made arrange. to elope and go to Dubbo together to live.

  Kylie and I had been in a romantic relationship for over 6 months. I was married @ time to Julie Thurecht and had a son Bradley. During the time of my relationship w. Kylie she had asked me to get rid of Julie and I believe that she meant to kill her. When I met Kylie @ the Sutherland Rlwy Station a little after 9pm 28.4.04 I put her suitcase in the boot of the car I was driving and I believed that we were heading for Dubbo. I knew that Kylie had made arrangement to send her belongings to Dubbo and as we travelled along she said to me, ‘Can we go back to the Central Coast to pick up my digital camera as I’ve left it behind?’ I said, ‘Okay.’

  I drove towards the Central Coast and turned off at the Hawkesbury River Bridge onto the Old Pacific Highway. Kylie and I became sexually aroused and one thing led to another and I stopped the car just past the Old Mooney Mooney Bridge and we made love.

  During the intercourse she said to me, ‘There was no need to come back up here for the camera. I just needed to get you away.’ I said, ‘What do [you] mean?’ She said, ‘If you’re not going to have Julie killed then I will—I’ve already organised it.’

  When she said this to me I lost it, I thought immediately of my son Bradley who would be w. his mother Julie and that some harm would come to him and I just lost it.

  My penis was still inside her and I just lost it— I grabbed her by the throat and I was thinking ‘You rotten fucking bitch’ and I choked her w. my two hands around her throat but I did not intend to kill her. I thought I had been deceived and tricked.

  I took my hands off her throat and then I felt Kylie go limp and I realised she might have lost consciousness and tried mouth to mouth and chest compression but she had died. I did not intend to kill her. I panicked and I turned the car around and drove south over the bridge, turned right up the fire trail for about half a kilometre. I stopped. Kylie was still in the back seat wearing only her top. I thought I would bury her in the bush.

  I got out of the door and I had my clothes on and I went up the hill through the bush to where the houses are. I walked towards the houses—about 5 of them. I went into one of the yards, found a shovel and went back down to where I had parked the car. I dug a hole and before that I put her in a doona and I buried her. I think I may have bound her hands and feet with electrical tape but I’m not quite sure now.

  I was in a very distressed state and I didn’t know what to do.

  I am very sorry for what I did to Kylie and I have been living and putting everyone else through a nightmare. I am very sorry for Kylie’s parents and family as well as my own parents and family.

  I did not intend to kill Kylie and I accept responsibility for her death.

  I authorise this document by my counsel and solicitor to the Crown and Detective Glenn Smith.

  I have authorised a copy of the plan I drew yesterday to be given to the Crown to where I buried Kylie.

  [Signed by Wilkinson, Macredie and Healey]

  14.10.08

  After taking this statement, barrister Terence Healey appeared in court and told Justice Johnson that Wilkinson had confessed. He was staying in the cells below in order to ‘maintain his current mental stability’. This followed what Healey had described the previous day as ‘a small outburst’ that had also led to Wilkinson’s absence from the courtroom. Now Healey told the court that ‘issues of diminished responsibility with substantial impairment may be a live issue in this case’. What this meant was that Wilkinson might be pleading guilty not to murder but to the lesser crime of manslaughter. Although he was fit to plead now, he would probably be claiming he had not been mentally fit when he killed Kylie four and a half years ago.

  Healey said Wilkinson was prepared to be interviewed by Detective Glenn Smith and would be cooperating in the matter of locating Kylie’s grave. He had already drawn a map indicating quite precisely where Kylie was buried, just off Karool Road in Mooney Mooney—the general area police had already searched.

  Glenn Smith didn’t think much of Wilkinson’s confession. He suspected he was trying to portray the murder as a crime of passion when it had been nothing of the sort. But he interviewed Wilkinson, and the area at Mooney Mooney was searched that afternoon and again the next day, 15 October, at a cost of $10,000. No trace of a grave was found.

  Smith reported these results to Wilkinson at Silverwater the next day. This interview was as frustrating as every other conversation he had had with Wilkinson, a mixture of obvious lies, paranoia and details that just might be true. He took him over the events of 28 April again, and the contents of his confession, including his claim that Kylie had said Julie was to be killed. Wilkinson said, ‘I’ve asked you before to go through the [text] messages and you’ll find a message on there where Kylie has said that if I don’t kill Julie then she will do it.’

  Smith: ‘We can’t get SMS messages retrospectively . . . We can only get them as they happen.’

  Wilkinson [who probably knew this]: ‘Well, that doesn’t help, does it?’

  Wilkinson said the reason he’d been going away with Kylie was because Julie had told him Bradley was not his son. Despite this, he insisted it was his deep feelings for the boy that had led him to kill Kylie. In the past, his lies had tended to be more consistent than this.

  Smith asked whether he’d been angry when he’d killed Kylie.

  Wilkinson: ‘Anger because of the boy.’

  Smith: ‘Yeah . . .’

  Wilkinson: ‘If something was going to happen to Julie, so be it.’

  Smith: ‘Yeah.’

  Wilkinson: ‘But just don’t do it when, when the boy’s around.’

  Wilkinson said it had been very dark and he could not recall exactly where the grave was. Smith explained their failure to find anything the day before: ‘A cadaver dog detected something . . . We dug that area up, there’s nothing there. Cadaver dogs are hit and miss, you know?’

  Wilkinson: ‘I thought they were accurate?’

  Smith: ‘Not from what I’ve been told.’

  Wilkinson offered to come up again: ‘I fucked around with you for a while and I apologise for that . . . I’m not interested in playing games anymore.’

  Smith: ‘Yeah, no worries.’

  Then Wilkinson changed tack. ‘Look,’ he suddenly said, ‘don’t sit and think for one second Julie’s entirely innocent . . . I’m going to press this as hard as I can . . . A couple of days after [I killed Kylie], I told Julie exactly what had happened. And it was Julie’s idea that we say that it was Geoff Lowe . . . And the reason [was that I] don’t believe by one second that she wasn’t raped by Geoff Lowe . . . it was Julie’s idea to blame Geoff Lowe.’

  He referred to two other incidents where he claimed Julie had been badly treated by police officers and had not complained effectively. Then he said, ‘I’ve said it to you before, Glenn. She was supposed to echo everything that I said.’

  Smith: ‘Yeah . . .’

  Wilkinson: ‘You know, I’m happy to do time for what I’ve done . . . and by rights I should. But, and I know it’s taken a while for me to come clean with you, but she can’t sit out there and say that she knew nothing, that’s not right.’

  Smith: ‘Yeah . . .’

  Wilkinson: ‘I just want to make it clear to you, Glenn. Since I’ve been in here I’ve been finally getting medication.’

  Smith: ‘Yeah.’

  Wilkinson: ‘And obviously it’s helping, if I’m sitting here and I’m talking to you decently. Whereas before I was a rude and arrogant little prick . . . so obviously we can get clearer lines of communication now . . .’

  Smith: ‘Yeah . . .’

  Wilkinson: ‘I’
ll keep on stressing it to you, Glenn, just please, please don’t let Julie fucking pull the wool over your eyes. She’s a master of it.’

  A possible reason for this new anger with Julie emerged soon after, when Wilkinson said, ‘My mother and father have been dragged through the Family Law Court . . . for access to Bradley . . . She’s claiming my mother and father never had anything to do with Bradley. That’s bullshit. You phone-tapped me all the time. Every morning she’s ringing up [my parents, saying], “Can you take Bradley? Can you take Bradley? Can you take Bradley?” And she stands up in the fucking Family Law Court and says, “Oh, no, no, they didn’t look after him.” She’s lied.’

  (According to Julie, it was Wilkinson’s parents who instigated the Family Law action, and she says she did not lie.)

  Smith: ‘Are your parents represented in the Family Law Court?’

  Wilkinson: ‘Oh yeah, they are, but legal minds are fucking weird . . . You cannot let her get away with it, that’s all I ask of you, Glenn . . . You’ve high-tailed me for so long, please put some of that energy towards her.’

  In court the next day, 17 October, Terry Healey confirmed that Wilkinson would plead guilty to manslaughter but not murder, on the grounds that he had killed Kylie because of provocation or substantial impairment of his responsibility, or both. John Kiely said the Crown would not accept this and the charge was still murder. Wilkinson refused to plead guilty to this, so a trial would be needed after all. A start date of 18 November was set.

  Because he now admitted he’d killed Kylie, the trial would be considerably shorter than previously envisaged. The only issue the jury would need to resolve would be the degree of Wilkinson’s responsibility. This would require further reports from the psychiatrists, and these were called for. This time they would have to assess Wilkinson’s state of mind on 28 April 2004.

  Meanwhile, Wilkinson accompanied Glenn Smith and a large team to Mooney Mooney again on 21 October. Karool Road is a gravel track that runs for some kilometres along Mooney Mooney Creek. There are a few houses along the way but much of it is bush, with swampy ground and scrappy vegetation, including ferns and vines. The far side of the greenish river is largely bush, with the occasional mangrove. In general, the area is isolated and provides many places where a body might be buried without anyone noticing.