SA’s longest serving police officer Sid Thomas decides to retire
Retiring as the longest-serving police officer in SA — and the nation — Detective Senior Sergeant Sid Thomas speaks about how he helped track down the “postcard bandit”, notorious rapist James Beauregard-Smith and, more recently, the murderer of Japanese student Megumi Suzuki.
Behind the Scenes
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For more than 25 years, Detective Senior Sergeant Sid Thomas has had an arrest warrant for one of Australia’s most notorious criminals in the top drawer of his filing cabinet.
It relates to the 1994 armed holdup of the Commonwealth Bank at Glenelg. The name on the warrant is Brenden James Abbott. It was taken out at the height of Abbott’s reign of terror across Australia in which he is suspected of 18 bank robberies that netted almost $5 million in cash.
While the warrant is still active, the veteran detective is a little saddened that he will not be around to see it executed.
At 74, Detective Snr Sgt Thomas has finally called it a day — some 58 years after he first walked through the gates of the Thebarton police barracks as a gangly teenager.
The affable, no-nonsense detective has achieved the remarkable dual distinction of becoming not just SA’s longest serving police officer, but Australia’s.
His career has been rich in both adventure and achievement. Through hard work, tenacity and an unrelenting passion for his work, the dedicated investigator has been a major player in bringing many of SA’s — and the nation’s — most notorious criminals to justice over almost six decades.
These have included organised crime figures, key player in the notorious Fine Cotton racing ring-in scandal Hayden Hiatana, serial bank robber Brenden Abbott and triple murderer and escapee James Beauregard-Smith.
He has also had a ringside seat to many of the saddest cases that have made headlines, including child abuse and deaths, along with other bizarre incidents that have been discreetly investigated but kept from the public eye for varying reasons.
“I have dealt with some terrible, evil people over many years but they have been far outweighed by the absolutely decent, genuine people I have met and worked with,” he said.
“They are the reason I have kept at it, but it is now time to enjoy other things in life.’’
Thomas was just 16 years old when he joined SA Police. His initial thoughts of a career in accountancy were a million miles away from the harsh reality of drills on a frosty morning. Graduating in 1964, he found himself in uniform in the city. It would prove to be a terrific grounding for his later career as a detective.
After almost a year on the city beat, he found himself stationed at Whyalla, which also involved stints in stations as far away as Woomera.
His policing career was interrupted in 1966 when he was sent to Vietnam for national service. After a year of training, he spent another year being shot at by the Vietcong in the jungles around Nui Dat before returning to Adelaide.
He wasted no time re-establishing his credentials as a police officer and found himself working in plainclothes in the Vice Squad. In 1970, he moved to the Drug Squad and with his colleagues spent the ensuing decade trying to keep a lid on the explosive growth of marijuana cultivation in SA.
In 1980 he transferred to the Special Crime Squad, focusing on specific targets in SA’s blossoming organised criminal community. In 1985 he joined Darlington CIB, which later became Sturt CIB. His most recent attachment has been to the Major Crime Investigation Branch where he played a key role in the arrest last month of the man responsible for the brutal stabbing murder of Kim Chau in her Sturt St home.
The nationwide manhunt for serial bank robber and prison escapee Brenden Abbott is perhaps the best known of the inquiries that Thomas led. He was stationed at Darlington CIB when Abbott’s robbery spree began following his escape from Fremantle Prison in 1989. The Glenelg bank job was classic Abbott. He broke in through a side wall near the roof of the premises and hid in a toilet where he waited for staff to arrive.
“It had all of his hallmarks, he was so thorough he even knew some of the staff by name and what their position was. He had clearly been into the bank beforehand, listened and had spent some time gaining intelligence,’’ Thomas said.
After identifying Abbott using photos from Queensland, the warrant was issued.
That proved to be the easy part. Finding him was another matter. Detectives suspected he was using SA as a base and conducting robberies nationwide to throw them off his trail.
With police across Australia keen to bring Abbott’s spree to an end, a national operation co-ordinated by Thomas was launched. It took a year to come to fruition, with Abbott finally arrested on the Gold Coast following another bank robbery. Following his arrest Thomas had his first encounter with the serial bank robber.
“His manner was very calculated, he was very cunning,’’ Thomas said. “Our conversation was quite amicable, but he thought very carefully before he answered.’’
Luckily, Thomas maintained contact with his former national colleagues because in 1997 Abbott escaped from prison in Queensland and was soon up to his old tricks. Another operation was launched, with Abbott being arrested in Darwin in 1998 and returned to prison.
“When it came through he had escaped again, it didn’t surprise me,’’ Thomas said.
“I resurrected contacts I had made and intelligence indicated he had been in SA.’’
Although the SA warrant is still active, it is unlikely to be executed any time soon. Having served his sentence in Queensland, Abbott is now back in prison in Perth and will not be released until 2026 at the earliest. “I don’t think he will be fussed by that, but I am a little,’’ Thomas said.
“It would have been nice to see him held accountable for that robbery.’’ Thomas’ dogged pursuit of Abbott was immortalised in the 2003 telemovie Postcard Bandit.
Yet another high-profile case Thomas played a major role in arose in 1982, when he was attached to the Special Crime Squad. He was one of a team of detectives assigned to hunt down notorious triple murderer and violent rapist James Beauregard-Smith following his escape from custody. It was also when he encountered legendary Aboriginal tracker Jimmy James.
Beauregard-Smith was serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend and her two young sons in 1977, but he escaped while on a work release program in 1982. He raped the woman who helped him escape and then fled into scrubland in the Riverland.
Almost four decades later, Thomas fondly recalls his interaction with James and his unique talent as he tracked Beauregard-Smith for six days along the banks of the River Murray.
“The woman he raped agreed to show us where they parted company,’’ Thomas said. From there, it was a game of cat and mouse. While some clues were obvious, others were only noticed by Jimmy. A broken twig, disturbed insect nest or a barely perceptible footprint Smith left behind as he headed for the border.
“Jimmy James picked up his track almost immediately, but realising we were a few days behind him Jimmy was regularly looking for advantages to gain more ground,’’ Thomas said.
“At one stage Jimmy tracked him onto an island and he found where he had hidden under a bush. He (Beauregard-Smith) later told us that we came within metres of him.
“He waited for us to disappear and he took off again. We were up with him at that time because he was trying to find a way off the island because he couldn’t swim.’’ Thomas said at one point on the island, Jimmy James yelled to the police officers “stop, stop’’ because his sharp eye had spotted the distant glint of a Coke can in a tree. “We were aware he was carrying a carton of Coke with him when he took off so we knew we were on the right track,’’ Thomas said.
Thomas said Jimmy’s skill was evident when he lost Smith’s trail. He would sit and study his environment, the landscape and the terrain and try to predict the path his quarry would take. Invariably, he was spot on. This occurred for the umpteenth time on day six of the manhunt when, seemingly out of nowhere, Jimmy told police to stop. He walked into the scrub for a few hundred metres until he again picked up the trail.
But this time he would walk no more, simply pointing to a rise in front.
“He just said: ‘Bad man over there’, they are words I will never forget,’’ Thomas said.
Sure enough, Smith was found sleeping under a tree, just where Jimmy indicated. A polite tap on the head with a shotgun barrel woke Smith from his slumber. He wasn’t surprised to see them and offered no resistance.
Beauregard-Smith would be paroled some 12 years later and just eight days after being released from prison, he raped a woman at Cudlee Creek. He remains in prison to this day.
Another more recent high-profile case Thomas played a significant role in was the murder of Japanese student Megumi Suzuki in August 2001. In fact, if it were not for Thomas’ inquisitive and somewhat suspicious mind, her disappearance may have remained a missing persons’ file instead of being quickly ramped up into a full blown abduction investigation.
He recalls her disappearance was unusual, intervening when “things just didn’t add up.’’ And while Suzuki’s former boyfriend had reported her missing, his relationship with the officers he initially dealt with soured. Thomas used an intermediary to speak to the former boyfriend to convince him to provide police with vital information that firmly indicated she had likely been abducted from near his unit on Goodwood Rd. Although they had recently split up, he was aware Megumi had still been visiting his unit seeking him out. He had found underwear in a laneway alongside the rose garden adjacent his unit — the location sex offender Mark Errin Rust had raped and murdered her before disposing of her body in a nearby dumpster.
“Immediately after we learned that, it was elevated to more than just a missing persons’ file,’’ Thomas said.
While valuable time was lost initially, some weeks later Rust was nominated as a suspect. He had been sighted on Goodwood Rd by an alert police officer around the time she was last seen. In the ensuing months, investigations into Rust’s activities resulted in a search of his prison cell that located items belonging to Megumi. He was already in custody in connection with the murder of another woman.
Over the past 58 years, Thomas has experienced first-hand the evolution of policing in SA. While advancements such as DNA and improved surveillance capabilities have been perhaps the most beneficial, he cites the huge growth of drug use in society as the most challenging for his profession. “I joined the Drug Squad in 1970 and the manner in which drug use escalated into narcotics was noticeable,’’ he said.
“It went from cannabis growing and use and escalated into harder drugs, it was quite rapid. The manner in which it became the source of income for all criminals followed.
“We had safe breakers and fraudsters, thugs and stand-over men who progressed to the drug scene because of the money there. I think we struggled to keep up, the legislation didn’t help us a lot then either.’’
With the increased drug use came associated problems for police including anti-social behaviour of users, violence and petty crime committed by addicts to fund their habits. “It may have already been there, but domestic violence also emerged as a major problem,’’ Thomas said.
His career has not just been about ensuring criminals are brought to justice. He has given of himself, ensuring his experiences and trauma from serving in Vietnam have been put to good use helping others.
In 1970 he took up a position as SA Police’s Vietnam veterans liaison officer, primarily to help those who had served and were having trouble reintegrating upon their return. He was also a committee member of the Repatriation General Hospital veterans mental health care forum.
So what will a career cop do in retirement? While an avid Crows fan and cricket tragic, in the short term he plans to spend more time with wife Linda, daughter Natalie, son Matthew and his wife Debbie and granddaughter Bridie. He also aims to spend more time travelling — and trying to catch some fish.
“Who knows what lies ahead? I would like to think I could still be able to use my experience in other fields if there is an opportunity to do so,’’ he said wryly.