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Jon Winfield’s side of the story · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, October fourteenth. Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lamman is
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  Speaker 1: returning to court on Monday morning. He's seeking to appeal
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  Speaker 1: Justice Michael Lee's finding that, on the balance of probabilities
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  Speaker 1: he raped Britney Higgins inside Parliament House in twenty nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: and he's hoping to avoid paying a hefty surety demanded
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  Speaker 1: by Network ten. Bruce Lahman has always vehemently denied any
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  Speaker 1: sexual contact occurred. The Coalition has the edge over Labor
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  Speaker 1: on a two party preferred basis. That's according to new
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  Speaker 1: data from Newspoll and it's the first time the Opposition
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  Speaker 1: has taken the lead since Anthony Albanezi won the twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two federal election. You can read our experts analysis
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  Speaker 1: of those new numbers right now at the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: com dot au. John Winfield appeared to receive information about
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  Speaker 1: aspects of the initial police investigation into the nineteen ninety
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  Speaker 1: three disappearance of his wife Bronwyn when he should have
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  Speaker 1: been a person of interest. In today's episode, How a
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  Speaker 1: murder Suspect Skirted Police suspicion for decades.
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  Speaker 2: I actually think Graham was the one that told me
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  Speaker 2: about I know Graham spoke to her. I told Graham
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  Speaker 2: this only through what Graham told me.
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  Speaker 1: These are the words spoken by murder suspect John Winfield
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  Speaker 1: during an eighty four minute police interview given in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight, five years after his wife Bronwyn vanished from
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  Speaker 1: their Lennox head home. They're being read by a voice
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: actor for the Australian's investigative podcast into Bronwyn's unsolved disappearance
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  Speaker 1: and suspected murder. New episodes by National Chief correspondent Headley
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  Speaker 1: Thomas are available for subscribers right now at bronwinpodcast dot
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  Speaker 1: com or on the Australians app. The Graham John Winfield
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  Speaker 1: is referring to is Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin, whose flawed
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: initial investigation means Bronwin's loved ones are still searching for
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  Speaker 1: answers thirty one years later. See In the weeks and
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  Speaker 1: months after she disappeared on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three,
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  Speaker 1: Bronwin was treated as a missing person by police, not
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  Speaker 1: as a potential homicide victim, and John appears to have
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  Speaker 1: received crucial information about her life, instead of being treated
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  Speaker 1: as a person of interest. He's always denied any wrongdoing.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Here's Hedley Thomas.
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  Speaker 3: If that's what has happened, it is unusual because you
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  Speaker 3: have a person of interest, someone who these days and
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  Speaker 3: no doubt back then as well, should have been a
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  Speaker 3: number one person of interest, a number one respect if
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  Speaker 3: you like, in the potential murder or foul play involving Bromwin.
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  Speaker 3: And there he is receiving key information about Bromwin's bank account,
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  Speaker 3: about the solicitors that Bromwin had been seeing, who they were,
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  Speaker 3: about her movements, about her telephone calls. And that's the
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  Speaker 3: kind of information that, if you're a suspect, could be
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  Speaker 3: potentially very helpful in helping you aliby yourself and give
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  Speaker 3: a story that might be plausible.
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  Speaker 1: John Winfield appears to confirm in his nineteen ninety eight
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  Speaker 1: interview with Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor that he received information
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  Speaker 1: about Bronlin's personal finances, legal representation, and communications from Detective discn.
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  Speaker 2: I never saw the account, but I actually think Graham
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  Speaker 2: was the one that told me about this. I think
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  Speaker 2: it was still in her maiden name. Graham told me
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  Speaker 2: that she'd spoken to a guy in Ballina, Tony mattering,
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  Speaker 2: and I think she'd spoken to her guy Byron Bay
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  Speaker 2: called I can't remember his name now.
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  Speaker 1: John Winfield's formal police interview is the only official record
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  Speaker 1: of his side of the story. It was the first
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  Speaker 1: conducted by Glenn Taylor as part of his renewed investigation
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight.
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  Speaker 2: I was a poll that so little had been going
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  Speaker 2: back in ninety nine, Eustrilion.
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  Speaker 3: It's not all just about conviction.
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  Speaker 2: It's the family, the children knowing what did actually happen
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  Speaker 2: to Bromwin.
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  Speaker 3: Where is she?
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  Speaker 1: Taylor asked John Winfield more than four hundred questions during
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  Speaker 1: the interview, and Headley is examining the resulting transcript, seventy
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  Speaker 1: six pages in total, in new episodes of the Bronwin Podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Reflecting on the interview more than two decades after it happened, Taylor,
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  Speaker 1: who since retired, told Headley john Winfield attended the interview
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  Speaker 1: willingly and never requested for a legal representative to be present.
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  Speaker 4: I think he.
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  Speaker 2: Still wanted to project in the interview that he was
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  Speaker 2: concerned for her and that he had nothing to hide.
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  Speaker 3: He'd done nothing wrong. Beled he wanted to put himself
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  Speaker 3: across as wanting to assist the police. We tried not
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  Speaker 3: to lead any staying on tan. It was the first
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  Speaker 3: interview of John Winfield by any police officers, so to
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  Speaker 3: that extent it was pretty important. But it was also
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  Speaker 3: the first interview that Glenn Taylor did of anyone in
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  Speaker 3: his investigation, and as a result, it meant that Glen
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  Speaker 3: Taylor was at a bit of a disadvantage along with
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  Speaker 3: Wayne Tembe, the senior constable, because they didn't have a
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  Speaker 3: lot of information from other members of the community, from
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  Speaker 3: other people in Bromwin's family, people who knew John, and
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  Speaker 3: people who had contact with Bromwin in her last days
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  Speaker 3: and hours. And because Glen Taylor didn't have a lot
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  Speaker 3: of those details from people at the time he questioning
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  Speaker 3: John Winfield, he really didn't have an opportunity to challenge
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  Speaker 3: some of the things that John Winfield told Glen Taylor,
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  Speaker 3: And we can see now with the benefit of hindsight,
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  Speaker 3: areas that Glen Taylor no doubt wishes he had questioned
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  Speaker 3: more closely, but he just didn't know what the actual
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  Speaker 3: truth of it was at the time. We can also
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  Speaker 3: see that John Winfield left out some pretty important information,
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  Speaker 3: particularly around Monday, seventeen May nineteen ninety three, and that
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  Speaker 3: was the day that he arrived in Sydney after driving
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  Speaker 3: overnight with Bromlin's two daughters and their pet dog. And
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  Speaker 3: he has this period of a few hours where his
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  Speaker 3: movements are really unexplained. But John Winfield didn't volunteer anything
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  Speaker 3: about his visit to his ex wife's house in Sydney
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  Speaker 3: when he was being questioned by Glen Taylor. I think
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  Speaker 3: that became a bit of a red flag for Taylor.
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  Speaker 3: He thought, why did John omit that? What was his
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  Speaker 3: motive for not disclosing what he had done? And we
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  Speaker 3: have talked about it, and he doesn't believe that it
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  Speaker 3: was forgetfulness. You don't forget going to see your ex
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  Speaker 3: wife out of the blue, someone you haven't seen for
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  Speaker 3: some time, and ask her and her mother in law
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  Speaker 3: to look after two children for several hours. He believes
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  Speaker 3: that it was a very deliberate omission.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up how this investigation took another unexpected turn. Season
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: two of Bronwin is available right now at Bronwin podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. We're subscribers get to listen first, check us
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  Speaker 1: out and we'll be back after this break. When Hedley
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Thomas set out to investigate the disappearance and suspected murder
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  Speaker 1: of Bronwin Winfield, he thought the podcast series would comprise
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  Speaker 1: six or maybe eight episodes, but these investigations require painstaking
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  Speaker 1: research and reporting over months and even years, and more
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  Speaker 1: than one twist has seen the series return for a
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  Speaker 1: second season. The first was the account of Judy Singh,
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  Speaker 1: who said she saw John Winfield driving down Sandstone Crescent
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  Speaker 1: with what looked like a human body in the back
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  Speaker 1: of the family's Ford Falcon on the night Bronwyn vanished.
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  Speaker 4: And this night I was sitting out and I could
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  Speaker 4: see directly into the car and he kind of looked
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  Speaker 4: up this night and I saw this what looked to
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  Speaker 4: be like a mummy in the back of the car,
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  Speaker 4: and I thought, well, if you was taking out belongings,
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  Speaker 4: you wouldn't make it look like a body, do you
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  Speaker 4: know what I mean?
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  Speaker 1: The new South Wales Police Unsolved Homicide Unit moved swiftly
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  Speaker 1: on that new lead, and now the existence of a
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  Speaker 1: secret daughter has added another dimension to the story. Sonya
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  Speaker 1: Lee was born in late nineteen seventy two, when John
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  Speaker 1: Winfield and her mother were both teenagers living in Sydney's
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  Speaker 1: sutherland Shire. He's always denied his Sonia Lee's father, but
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  Speaker 1: their physical resemblance is uncanny. She's now in her early
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  Speaker 1: fifties and doesn't want a relationship with her biological father
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  Speaker 1: Sonia Lee says she came forward to Headley Thomas in
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  Speaker 1: hopes of helping solve the mystery of what happened to Bronwyn.
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  Speaker 5: The first time I ever saw his face was on
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  Speaker 5: the front page of The Australian. He'll never be my father,
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  Speaker 5: will never be mates. We'll never sit down and have
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  Speaker 5: a kappa together. I'll never break bread with him, purely
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  Speaker 5: because my grandmother would be disgusted in me if I did.
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  Speaker 3: You said before that you were very hopeful there would
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  Speaker 3: be a good outcome. What do you believe is a
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  Speaker 3: good outcome for the girls?
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  Speaker 5: Then, knowing what happened to Brounwin, the good, the bad,
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  Speaker 5: the ugly, whatever it may be, they deserve to know,
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  Speaker 5: it's got to be the heaviest load for them to carry.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Headley.
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  Speaker 3: The unexpected always seems to jump out of left field
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  Speaker 3: with these kinds of podcasts cold case investigations. When Sonnyili
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  Speaker 3: came forward and said that she wanted to talk. She
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  Speaker 3: wanted to disclose this. Her point was that the person
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  Speaker 3: she knows to be her father biologically is in her
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  Speaker 3: eyes a liar, and that his first major lie was
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  Speaker 3: his denial of paternity. She has known, she insists for
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  Speaker 3: some years that he's been her father, but she felt
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  Speaker 3: that it was time for her to do some truth
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  Speaker 3: telling in the hope that other people who perhaps know
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  Speaker 3: about lies told by others, or even the person of
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  Speaker 3: interest in this case, might come forward.
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  Speaker 1: And just finally, Hadley, what's your goal for this new
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  Speaker 1: season of Bromwin.
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  Speaker 3: We want to establish as much factual detail as possible.
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  Speaker 3: There are still witnesses who have information to offer pieces
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  Speaker 3: of evidence that form part of the puzzle and all
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  Speaker 3: of this is hopefully going to be properly reconsidered by
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  Speaker 3: the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in New
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  Speaker 3: South Wales. This was a case remember that in two
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  Speaker 3: thousand and two should have been prosecuted according to the
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  Speaker 3: then New South Wales Deputy State Coroner Karl Milavanovich, the
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  Speaker 3: same Deputy State Coroner at the time who recommended that
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  Speaker 3: Chris Dawson prosecuted for the murder of his wife Lynn. Now,
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  Speaker 3: Karl was absolutely right back in two thousand and three
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  Speaker 3: when he made that recommendation. He made the same recommendation
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  Speaker 3: one year earlier in two thousand and two, after running
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  Speaker 3: the inquest into bromwin win Fields presumed death. It's surely
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  Speaker 3: time for fresh eyes in the New South Wales office
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  Speaker 3: of the DPP to have a really good look at
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  Speaker 3: the whole case.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Headley Thomas is The Australian's national Chief correspondent. It's been
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: one year since the Voice was resoundingly voted down in
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: a referendum. Now the next generation of Indigenous leaders are
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: sharing what they've learned. That story, plus all the nation's
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: best news, sport and politics, is live right now at
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au