After 25 years of frustration, Anthea Bradshaw-Hall’s family fears her killer will never be brought to justice

Adelaide schoolteacher Anthea Bradshaw-Hall was murdered in Brunei 25 years ago. Despite their remarkable efforts, her grieving family fear her killer will never be brought to justice.

Paul, Martin, Rosalyn and Craig Bradshaw with a favourite portrait of their beloved family member Anthea Bradshaw-Hall. Picture: Keryn Stevens

For more than two decades, Craig Bradshaw has been seeking justice for his murdered sibling, Anthea. His determination has sparked inquiries at the highest levels of policing in the nation, despite the fact Anthea Bradshaw-Hall was killed 5000km from her Adelaide home.

His doggedness was also the catalyst for legislative change at a national level to allow the person who killed Anthea to be put on trial in Australia — should there be an arrest in the case.

But despite this, Mr Bradshaw fears the efforts of all involved may now be wasted. He, along with parents Martin and Ros and brother Paul, fear Anthea’s murder is destined to become another cold case that will be forgotten by all except the few who still mourn her loss.

“I’m tired; we’re all tired. I didn’t think it would take this path,’’ Mr Bradshaw said.

“The hope that justice would be done for Annie has been what has kept us going, but that’s now slipped away. We’re desperate and starting to lose hope.

“Someone must be held acc­ountable for her death. Annie didn’t just die, she was murdered and there appears to be no enthusiasm by anyone, except her family, to determine who was responsible.

“We are the only ones driving this and that should not be the case.’’

Anthea Bradshaw-Hall on her wedding day.

Anthea Bradshaw-Hall, 26, was murdered in Brunei on July 21, 1994. She was due to return to Adelaide the next day after visiting her husband, Jeff Hall, who was working in Brunei as a radiographer.

Ms Bradshaw-Hall, who had secured a job as a teacher in Brunei the morning she was killed, was strangled and then stabbed multiple times in the chest and abdomen.

Mr Hall, who publicly revealed he was gay following Anthea’s death, said he found her dead when he returned home from work after she failed to pick him up.

He said he last saw her several hours earlier after the pair shared breakfast, ran some errands and then had lunch before he went to work.

Police investigations revealed Anthea had not been sexually assaulted, the apartment had not been broken into and nothing had been stolen.

Forensic analysis of blood spatter and Anthea’s clothes revealed she was already dead from strangulation when the stab wounds were inflicted — sparking suspicions her killer inflicted the wounds to alter the crime scene.

While Brunei police presented a report to their Attorney-General, who is also the public prosecutor, he decided there was no reasonable prospect of securing a conviction against the only suspect identified — Mr Hall.

Anthea Bradshaw-Hall with her husband Jeff Hall, who was living in Brunei when she was murdered during a visit there in 1994.

In 1998, after obtaining a copy of Anthea’s coronial inquest finding, the family asked the Foreign Affairs Department and SA Police to help. While police advised the family they had no jurisdiction in Brunei, Major Crime detectives continued agitating to progress the case.

Now-retired homicide detective Senior Sergeant Brenton Rowney travelled to Brunei in November 2004, reviewed the case file, and copied dozens of statements and interviewed any available witnesses.

Crucially, he also returned to Adelaide with 37 exhibits in the case — mainly clothing and hundreds of crime-scene photos.

These exhibits were subjected to forensic analysis for blood spatter patterns, as were the crime scene photos.

SA police sought opinions on the evidence from their own experts and those interstate, which provided extensive forensic evidence against the suspect.

The Major Crime investigation provided enough evidence to satisfy then-Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras, who stated he would prosecute the suspect on a murder charge if the crime had taken place in SA.

With no prospect of a prosecution in Brunei, Mr Bradshaw started lobbying his then-local MP, Christopher Pyne, and then-senator Nick Xenophon to amend federal legislation to allow a prosecution in Australia over Anthea’s murder.

In 2015, the Criminal Code Act was made retrospective. Federal police then reviewed the case, but found there was insufficient evidence to proceed with any prosecution.

The Australian Federal Police and SA police have conflicting views on the evidence in the case. SA Police believe a full investigation should have been conducted, rather than just a review.

Mr Bradshaw said he could not reconcile the differing attitudes of the AFP and SA police concerning the evidence in the case.

“How can they (Federal Police) have such a contrasting view?,’’ he said.

“They don’t have the expertise to investigate a homicide and yet they have formed the view there is no point conducting a full investigation, based on an assessment of the case file.

“And why did they refuse SAPOL’s offer of a trained Major Crime investigator, who was fully appraised of Anthea’s case, to assist in the review?’’

Anthea Bradshaw-Hall’s parents Ros and Martin Bradshaw have never stopped fighting for justice.

The latest blow to the Bradshaws’ quest for justice came last year when the Federal Government refused to post a $500,000 reward for information in the case — because of Australia’s opposition to the death penalty that is still on the statutes in Brunei.

Mr Bradshaw said that argument was “irrelevant’’ because the jurisdiction changed with the amendment of the legislation in 2015 that would see a prosecution in Australia.

“The Brunei Government has already advised it is not interested in pursuing this,’’ he said.

“The Government should allow police to use every avenue to pursue justice in this case, including a reward for any information that may assist that.’’

A similar request to the State Government was also denied for jurisdictional reasons, but the Bradshaws hope this may be revisited.

While the reward was denied, Anthea’s case has been listed on the Crimestoppers website and the Bradshaws hope anyone with knowledge of the case — who either lived in Brunei at the time or resided in Adelaide — will contact police if they can assist.

The former Commissioner for Victims’ Rights, Michael O’Connell, who provided financial assistance for several aspects of the Bradshaws’ fight for justice, said the family had endured so much trauma.

“Their belief in a just world shattered. Their faith in Brunei’s and our criminal justice system shattered,’’ he said.

“They are haunted by the nightmare that Anthea’s murder will be one of those cases that will never be closed because no authority in Australia is willing to conduct a thorough investigation.

“Anthea’s parents cling to the hope that the person responsible will be tried before they die, but fear that will not happen and Anthea’s murder has destroyed her brothers’ lives.

“Understandably, the public will feel that someone has got away with murder. And, the killer is confident knowing that they did get away with Anthea’s murder.”

Mr Bradshaw said the family believed many aspects of the AFP evaluation needed further scrutiny, such as the uncorroborated sighting of a stranger in the apartment’s compound and discrepancies in the timeline of the murder that had provided the alibi statements for Mr Hall.

“The AFP say that after 1.50pm on the 21st someone went up three storeys to Anthea’s apartment, someone that nobody saw either going up or coming down,’’ he said.

“And yet SAPOL disagree, saying 1.50pm is not correct due to other circumstances.’’

He said in the unlikely event a stranger did single out Anthea’s apartment, the crime scene did not support this scenario and there was no apparent motive.

“If this stranger did murder Anthea, why would they hang around to stab her after already strangling her?’’ Mr Bradshaw said.

“Why did this someone use a knife already in the apartment and not have their own weapon to use?

“This someone had to go up three floors to get to Anthea, unseen and unheard and not leave any evidence behind.

“If this someone did have a motive, why wasn’t Anthea robbed or assaulted in other ways before her murder?

“And if this stranger had gone up three sets of stairs unseen, unarmed, to rob Anthea, why were there no signs of a struggle in the apartment and nothing stolen?’’

Mrs Bradshaw also expressed dissatisfaction at the evaluation of the case.

“After all the effort we put into getting the legislation changed to empower the AFP, our knowledge of their work indicates it hardly seems to have scratched the surface,’’ she said.

“To us, they appear to be more concerned with investigating alleged journalistic behaviour than following up on the murder of Australian citizens overseas.’’

With all avenues now exhausted, Mr Bradshaw said his parents feared they would pass away before Anthea’s murderer was brought to justice.

“It is something they talk about now, the ‘what if’ question has become normal,’’ he said.

“We have come the full circle, done everything we could have done as a family, and yet here we are still asking the same question we were on day one — who killed Anthea?

“We think we know, SA police and the former DPP think they know, but what frustrates us is the fact no-one seems to want to do the work to corroborate the evidence that exists.

“Without that, Anthea’s murder may well remain unsolved forever.’’