Woman claims she was sexually assaulted by man at centre of investigation into disappearance of Beaumont children

A WOMAN has made shock claims she was sexually assaulted by the man at the centre of an investigation into the disappearance of the Beaumont children.

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A WOMAN has made shock claims she was sexually assaulted by the man at the centre of an investigation into the disappearance of the Beaumont children.

The woman, known only as Linda, said she feels lucky she survived the 1979 ordeal at the hands of a man she claims was Harry Phipps, 13 years after the Beaumont children vanished.

She came forward as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, from Glenelg Beach on Australia Day 1966, conducted by Channel 7.

Linda lived near the Castalloy factory at North Plympton. Phipps was a businessman and is a current person of interest in the Beaumonts disappearance.

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He was a co-founder of the North Plympton site and had access to the factory whenever he wanted. Linda lived close to the factory and says she was sexually assaulted by Phipps when she was 14 years old.

She went to a friend’s house one day after school in 1979 and was walking home, still in her school uniform, when she encountered a well-dressed man outside the Castalloy factory. “He just walked me across the road and was saying ‘you’re a really pretty girl, I’ve seen you around’ and I just went with him,” Linda told the Channel 7 investigation.

“He wasn’t horrible; he wasn’t nasty.” Linda later identified the man as Phipps. She was taken across the street to a vacant lot which doubled as a BMX track and assaulted.

The North Plympton factory where the Beaumont dig site will be. Picture: Tom Huntley

Linda said the man’s demeanour changed before the attack. “It was really terrible,” she said. “He sort of started getting really slimy, really dirty talk and things like that.

“I didn’t realise he was going to do what he did … but then again, I’m better off than what the (Beaumont) kids were. I’m still here.”

Phipps, left, has been named as a person of interest in the disappearance of the three children.

His house was only streets away from where the children were last seen in the company of a man near Glenelg Beach.

Phipps became a person of interest after his death in 2004 when his son Haydn came forward, saying he had seen three children at the family house shortly after the disappearance.

Adelaide businessman Harry Phipps, who has been linked to the disappearance of the Beaumont children in 1966.

In 2013, two men told police that they had been asked to dig a large hole at the Castalloy factory at the behest of Phipps, only days after the children disappeared.

A dig was conducted that year but is thought to have been in the wrong spot.

Flinders University, with funding from Channel 7, examined the area and found a substantial anomaly fitting the description of the large hole dug by the two men.

A new excavation will be launched in the coming days.

The Beaumont Children: What Really Happened airs on Channel 7 at 9pm tonight.