Son of Harry Phipps, a person of interest in the Beaumont disappearance, told a former detective he had seen his father with three children before hearing “gunshots”

THE son of a person of interest in the disappearance of the Beaumont children told a former detective he had seen his father with three children shortly after the disappearance.

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THE son of the principal person in interest in the disappearance of the Beaumont children told a former detective in 2008 that he had seen three children enter the family house before four “gun shots” rang out.

Haydn Phipps, the son of Harry Phipps a successful businessman and person of interest in the disappearance, told former South Australian Police detective Bill Hayes that after he heard the shots he saw his father putting surf board bags in the back of the family car.

The recording of the interview, acquired by Channel Seven as part of an investigation into the disappearance of the children on Australia Day, 1966, was conducted in Coolangatta on December 18, 2008.

His information to police as well as the testimony of two men who dug a large hole for Phipps at his North Plympton factory has prompted police to commit to a new excavation looking for the children in the coming weeks.

Despite a life affected by drug and alcohol abuse and mental health issues, Mr Hayes said on the day of the interview Haydn was talking clearly of the day the children appeared in his backyard.

Adelaide businessman Harry Phipps

“Haydn had a rough child hood,” Mr Hayes said.

“He told me he had been molested by his father from about four years old.

“He was a very intelligent man, articulate in his own way, but no doubt he was affected by his experiences.

“When I met him he was fine, he was lucid with a very clear recollection of what he saw.”

A segment of the interview provided by Channel 7includes Haydn calling his father “very violent” and saying that he would a carry a pistol with him everywhere he went.

On the day he saw the three children at the family house on the corner of Augusta and Sussex Streets in Glenelg, Haydn was sneaking a cigarette with some mates in a cubby house in the back yard.

Decades later he would tell Mr Hayes “I think he sent them inside”.

“I thought they must be going to make a phone call or something. We heard some gunshots go off but Harry’s always letting off gunshots.”

Haydn didn’t see the children leave the house and his father finished loading the surfboard bags into the back of the car before driving away.

When Haydn went inside the house there was no evidence of any disturbance or that a gun had been fired.

“I asked (Haydn) where he thought where the children were buried and he said in the sandpit.

“Out the back of Castalloy is a large sandpit where they put the sand castings. He said that is where you will find the kids.”

Missing Beaumont children Grant, Arnna and Jane.

The interview left Haydn shaken, he called Mr Hayes and asked him to drop the case.

“A couple of days later I had a call asking me to forget about it, not to do anything else because the nightmares and illness had returned,” Mr Hayes said.

After months of building trust Mr Hayes tried to interview Haydn for the second and final time.

“He was in such a bad way we didn’t go through with the interview,” Mr Hayes said.

“But while his ex-wife was getting the car he spoke to me about it again, his last words to me were ‘they’re in the sandpit bill’.”