Whiskey Au Go Go inquest: Witness admits lying under oath at CCC hearing

A witness at the Whiskey Au Go Go inquest has conceded he gave false evidence to a CCC hearing into murder of Barbara McCulkin and her daughters.

A crucial witness in the McCulkin family murder trial has conceded he only agreed to testify after receiving assurances he would receive a light sentence for his own unrelated drug trafficking offences.

Construction worker Warren Peter McDonald gave damning evidence that helped convict Vincent O’Dempsey in 2017 of the murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters Leanne and Vicki, who disappeared from their Brisbane home in 1974.

That trial heard evidence the trio may have been killed to stop Mrs McCulkin from revealing what she knew about the infamous firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire in 1973 that claimed 15 lives.

Days after the inferno, John Andrew Stuart and James Finch were charged with arson and murder, and they were convicted months later at trial.

Mr McDonald was called to give evidence at an inquest into the nightclub arson attack in the Brisbane Coroners Court on Thursday.

The current inquest is investigating whether anyone other than Stuart and Finch were involved in the blaze.

Mr McDonald conceded he had lied under oath and given false evidence during a 2015 Crime and Corruption Commission hearing into the McCulkin murders when he claimed he knew nothing about it.

But he said later evidence given at O’Dempsey’s committal hearing and murder trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court had been true and correct.

Mr McDonald told the coroner’s court in the early 2000s, he and O’Dempsey were growing marijuana on a property at Emu Vale.

He said it was around then that he visited his parents at Wooli in northern NSW and his father, who was good friends with O’Dempsey, asked him to pass on a message.

Warren McDonald has testified at the Whiskey Au Go Go inquest.

“He told me that he got word that (James) Finch was coming back to Australia to give evidence against Vince O’Dempsey (regarding) Whiskey Au Go Go,” Mr McDonald said.

“He said get it back to Vince and tell him to take it seriously.”

McDonald said when he returned, he passed the message on to O’Dempsey who “took the news hard” and asked him to drive back to his dad and ask exactly where the information had come from.

“I wasn’t to ring him, I was to bring the information back,” he said.

McDonald said when he returned with news the information had allegedly come from a “federal copper mate of Dad’s”, O’Dempsey said he would be “screwed” if Finch returned

“He said, ‘If Finch comes back he’ll need to be knocked.’

When asked by counsel assisting the coroner Stephen Keim what he meant by knocked, Mr McDonald said: “Yes sir, it’s not good for Finch, he was going to be murdered.”

He told the court after the warning, they heard no more of Finch and months later, O’Dempsey and his then girlfriend went to Wooli with him to visit his father on a fishing trip.

Mr McDonald claimed that while on a small boat, O’Dempsey again repeated “if Finch comes back, I’m screwed”, telling them: “he’s the only one who can finger me for the Whiskey”.

Under questioning, Mr McDonald told the court of another occasion where O’Dempsey told him “you need a notch on your gun”.

“And I said ‘what do you mean’ and he said ‘you need a kill, when I was your age I had several notches on my gun’,” Mr McDonald said.

He told the court O’Dempsey admitted he had “murdered the McCulkins”.

Under questioning from O’Dempsey’s defence barrister Chris Minnery, Mr McDonald conceded he did not tell the CCC any information about the McCulkin murders.

“What you did was lie to the CCC,” Mr Minnery put to him.

“Yes sir,” Mr McDonald replied.

Mr Minnery put to McDonald that he had refused to co-operate with investigators until he had assurances that he would receive a light sentence for drug trafficking offences he had been charged with and that confiscation proceedings of his assets would not take place.

The Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub after the fire

Mr McDonald agreed that was true.

“So the thing that got you to talk about what you say is the truth about my client and the McCulkin murders is not that three people died, it’s not that some people need closure, it’s not that it’s probably the right thing to do to come forward about a homicide, it’s what’s in it for me,” Mr Minnery put to him.

“The very first time you told the police about it was only after they’ve assured you that they would do the right thing with the prosecution and there would be no confiscation proceedings?”

Mr McDonald responded: “That was the benefit I got sir but that wasn’t the reasoning.”

Mr McDonald agreed he was never prosecuted for lying to the CCC, only served 21 days in prison despite being convicted of drug trafficking, and that the authorities never went after his assets.

“You knew perfectly well had you not co-operated, it was back to prison for you,” Mr Minnery asked him.

“Yes sir,” Mr McDonald replied.

Mr McDonald denied propositions put to him by Mr Minnery that the conversations with O’Dempsey about Finch and the McCulkin murders never happened.

Mr McDonald claimed he had first lied to the CCC because O’Dempsey threatened his family and he was “backed into a corner”.

But he went on to concede he had already lied to his own lawyer about having no information about the McCulkin murders prior to the alleged threats from O’Dempsey.

Mr McDonald told the court that he accepted lying under oath meant “you’re not worth two bob” and said “I’d never do it again”.

The inquest continues.

Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki and Leanne disappeared in 1974.