Detectives who worked the Anita Cobby case struggle to talk about the brutality she endured

Such was the nature of her injuries, police who worked on the Anita Cobby case and brought her pack of killers to justice struggle to this day to talk about the level of brutality she endured.

• Anita Cobby killer dying in hospital
• The day Blacktown bayed for blood

One of the lead investigators who caught Anita Cobby’s brutal killers, Detective Ian “Speed”’ Kennedy said today he had no sympathy for Michael Murphy.

“Anita suffered so much ... the fear she went through and he gets to die full of drugs to manage his pain... something Anita was never afforded,” Mr Kennedy said.

When he arrested Murphy, Kennedy had a shot gun pointed at the killer’s head.

Detective Ian “Speed” Kennedy leads Michael Murphy’s brother Garry through renactment at murder scene. Picture: Supplied

Michael Murphy after he was arrested.

Anita with husband John Cobby in 1982. Picture courtesy of John Cobby.

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Years later he was asked ‘did you want to pull the trigger?’

“There were children in the room,’’ is all he would say.

Such was the nature of her injuries, police who worked on the Cobby case struggle to this day to talk about the level of brutality she endured.

“Anita suffered so much”, says retired Detective Inspector Ian Kennedy.

Retired Chief Inspector Gary Raymond, another detective on the case, said such was the impact of the crime, anyone from Blacktown who remembered it could also recall where they were the day Ms Cobby’s body was found.

He knows where he was, and how it felt to every policeman and husband who had a wife or girlfriend at home.

Such was the nature of her injuries, police who worked on the case struggle to talk about it.

“What happened to the former beauty queen that night was something no human being should have endured,” he said.

“What she went through ... no one deserved to die like this,” he told news.com.au

“Those men had no excuse for the brutal way they treated her. She was shown no mercy”.

Originally published as Detectives who worked the Anita Cobby case struggle to talk about the brutality she endured