Whiskey Au Go Go inquest: John Stuart seen at The Flamingo on the night

The cold case police officer now leading the Whiskey Au Go Go investigation has told the inquest of the failings of police at the time.

Police investigating the Whiskey Au Go Go firebomb attack in 1973 failed to ask the key suspects crucial questions, didn’t follow up on significant lines of inquiry and abandoned the probe altogether after the first arrests.

The cold case police officer now leading the investigation has also revealed vital evidence about the attack has since gone missing including a detailed eyewitness statement, pages of the police run sheet and only 10 days of the subsequent six-week murder trial transcript can be found.

Detective Sergeant Virginia Gray on Thursday told an inquest into the attack that claimed 15 lives that it was difficult to say whether the missing evidence was merely a product of the passage of time or something more sinister.

James Finch and John Stuart were arrested and charged days after the March 8, 1973 fire and later that year they were convicted of arson and murder.

Detective Sergeant Virginia Gray leaves the Coroner's Court in Brisbane. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

No one else was ever arrested but the current inquest is examining whether more people were involved.

When asked by counsel assisting the coroner Stephen Keim SC about the veracity of the police interview with Finch, Det Sgt Gray said it was lacking.

“I looked at the information that was known by investigators at certain points of time and at the records of interview timings, and there was I guess limited questioning, there were lots of questions I thought would be asked that weren’t asked,” she said.

Mr Keim asked how much assistance the record of interview with Finch was now in trying to determine if he was guilty of the Whiskey attack.

“I guess we have to be careful of inflicting current opinions on the past standard practice, but I did not place a great deal of weight on that when I was assessing a position for Finch,” she said.

Counsel assisting the coroner Stephen Keim leaves the Brisbane Magistrates Court. Picture: Jono Searle/NCA NewsWire

“(Because of) the fact that it wasn’t adopting the inquiries that had been made into Finch as a somewhat hardened criminal who would be well aware of how interviews were undertaken.

“The fact the structure of the interview isn’t necessarily information gathering.”

The court heard the police logs in relation to the file had many “veiled references” to lines of inquiry but with no description about what they were and some material was completely missing.

“In the running sheet material and intelligence material there were aspects I found of interest but there didn’t seem to be any running out of those inquiries,” she said.

Det Sgt Gray said it seemed once Finch and Stuart were arrested, it did not appear any further investigations were conducted.

On Wednesday, witness Kath Potter sensationally told the inquest she saw three men manoeuvre a barrel into the doorway of the doomed club and set it on fire.

She claimed she was later pressured by police to change her story to in fact say she only saw two men but she refused.

She was also never called to give evidence at the murder trial and Det Sgt Gray said Ms Potter’s statement could now not be found.

Det Sgt Gray told the inquest she had recently spoken to John Kolence, a junior investigator on the Whiskey Au Go Go police case, who said he was given the job of “babysitting” Finch on the day he was arrested.

The scene of the crime on March 8, 1973

“He said he subsequently heard or saw or was aware of an incident in the interview room that involved a lot of banging and crashing and he stated there was some damage to room after the fact,” she said.

“He also stated that he was aware of a conversation or present for a conversation in which a number of police officers and he listed out (their names)… and then said all of them except Finch were present for this discussion where they were planning or working out how the interview would go.”

She told the court Mr Kolance had not been aware “there was more to the Whiskey Au Go Go” until he later became involved in the investigation into the disappearance of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters.

Earlier, a witness claimed Stuart had been spotted at another nightclub about 10 minutes after he was believed to have lit the deadly fire.

Abraham Yasse was the owner of The Flamingo nightclub in 1973, and on Thursday he was called to give evidence at an inquest into the arson attack that claimed 15 lives.

James Finch and John Stuart were arrested days after the fire and charged and later convicted of arson and murder.

The Whiskey inferno started about 2.05am on March 8, 1973.

Later that day, Mr Yasse gave a statement to police saying Stuart had been at The Flamingo around the time of the blaze.

The court heard in a statement filed with police, Mr Yasse said Stuart arrived at the club about 12.30 on the morning of the fire.

Convicted murderer John Andrew Stuart

“I was standing behind the bar and he walked in on his own,” Mr Yasse told officers.

“He ordered a drink and the girl said, ‘That’s 75c,’ and Stuart said, ‘I can’t afford to pay 75c.’ ”

The statement says about 2am he was looking for a staff member who he found outside on the footpath talking with Stuart. Mr Yasse said he spoke with the men for a few minutes.

“Then Stuart said, ‘What’s the time now?’ ” Mr Yasse told police in his statement.

“I said, ‘It’s about 2.15am,’ I looked at my watch and it was 2.15am.

“I then walked down the stairs to the nightclub and I did not see him again.”

Under cross-examination, Mr Yasse was asked whether Stuart was at the club for the entire period from 12.30am until 2.15am, as his police statement suggested.

He said Stuart could have left and returned to the club.

“You can go out anywhere and come back exactly the same,” he said.

Mr Yasse told police that a few nights before the Whiskey fire, Stuart has told him a club was going to be damaged in some way.

He said 48 years later he “definitely” remembered that conversation.

“He looked a bit sneaky about it,” Mr Yasse said.

The inquest continues.