Bid to challenge rejected Bowraville murder case retrial in High Court dismissed

Australia’s highest court will not hear a bid to have tried for murdering three Aboriginal Bowraville children nearly three decades ago, but their families won’t give up while the killer is still “on the loose”.

Australia’s highest court will not hear a bid to have tried for murdering three Aboriginal Bowraville children nearly three decades ago, but their families won’t give up while the killer is still “on the loose”.

16-year-old Colleen Walker disappeared in September 1990 from Bowraville in NSW.

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The relatives of Colleen Walker, 16, Clinton Speedy, 16, and Evelyn Greenup, four, were devastated last year after a retrial application for the man acquitted of two of the crimes was rejected in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.

If successful it would have paved the way for all three unsolved murder cases against a 52-year-old white man to be heard together and set a new precedent under double jeopardy law.

But the High Court on Friday refused the state government’s bid to appeal the decision.

Emotional family members who packed out the court were “disgusted” but vowed to continue their nearly three decades-long struggle.

Riot police were called in as Clinton’s furious auntie Renolla Jerome joined other protestors who slapped their white ochre painted palms all over the Supreme Court’s tall glass walls while screaming for justice.

Four-year-old Evelyn Greenup.

Clinton Speedie.

Attorney-General Mark Speakman agreed with Colleen’s relative Gavin Stanbrook who said the initial police investigation was marred by racism while the justice system has failed them ever since.

“I am so sorry for the grief and the stress they have suffered,” he said outside court.

Mr Speakman said the killer “has got off Scott free” but if the Coalition is still in power following Saturday’s election he will canvass legislative reform to double jeopardy laws within the first few months.

The families will now petition parliament to support the proposed changes drafted by Greens MP David Shoebridge which would allow for an additional application in the CCA and give them one last shot.

Bowraville community members outside court in Sydney. Picture: Peter Rae

Angry protests erupted outside court following the dismissal. Picture: Lucy Hughes Jones

“It opens up a very narrow and fresh gateway for the families,” Mr Shoebridge said.

Mr Speakman wouldn’t commit to backing the bill but said it’d be examined closely, adding cabinet would need to consider whether any new remedy to achieve justice in their case will have broader adverse implications.

Through tears, Evelyn’s aunt Michelle Jarrett stressed there’s still a killer on the loose while no-one’s been held accountable.

“Don’t three kids’ lives matter?” she said outside court.

“They were our babies.”

The youngsters all went missing in the same five-month period in late 1990 and early 1991 when the local man, whose name has been suppressed, lived in a nearby caravan in his mother’s garden.

In September appeal judges ruled there wasn’t any fresh evidence to quash the Lake Macquarie-based man’s acquittals and order a retrial for all three deaths.

“We can find no reason to doubt the correctness of the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal,” Chief Justice Susan Kiefel said on Friday.

Ms Jarrett thanked Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, who has worked on the case for more than 20 years, and promised to continue the fight “until there’s no breath in my body”.

Evelyn’s grieving auntie also had a message for the man she thinks should already be behind bars.

“Sleep with one eye open, we’re still coming to get you,” she said.

“We won’t rest.”

Originally published as Bid to challenge rejected Bowraville murder case retrial in High Court dismissed