AT 11.52pm on August 10, 2002, David Breckenridge called his best mate from a phone box — he was on his way over to watch the international rugby match that was about to start. Eight Minutes later he was dead. Part four of eight minutes looks into a love-triangle, the girlfriend who left the country and a startling last-minute development.
THE jealous boyfriend of a woman David Breckenridge spent the night with two days before he was brutally murdered was furious about it and had earlier boasted he had friends who would bash people if he asked them, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
Paul Stapleton told police in the 2002 slaying of Breckenridge that he was with three friends watching a rugby game at the time of the murder.
LISTEN TO EPISODE FOUR OF EIGHT MINUTES
But the Telegraph can reveal the coroner was told that two of the friends Mr Stapleton relied on for his alibi deny he was with them at the time, and the other one could not remember the night.
Mr Stapleton, who was never charged, denied any involvement in Breckenridge’s murder.
Hannah Orlik, then 19, told a inquest in 2005 that she met her former flatmate and uni lab partner, Breckenridge, at The Steyne hotel in Manly for drinks to celebrate his 28th birthday.
Her then boyfriend, Mr Stapleton, called her six times that evening before she turned off her phone. She later went home with David and stayed the night at his parents place.
When she turned her phone on at 6am the next day, it rang immediately and Stapleton told her: “I hope he was worth it.”
NEW TO EIGHT MINUTES?
Ms Orlik described Stapleton, 19 years her senior, as possessive, jealous, and constantly suspicious that she was cheating on him.
Coroner John Abernethy heard that Mr Stapleton told Ms Orlik he knew people who were in prison for beating someone up.
He also boasted to her that he could help a friend of hers whose ex-boyfriend was blackmailing her by “sending some Maori guys around” to “bash” him.
Mr Stapleton told police he was at a house in Mosman with three friends watching a rugby game when Breckenridge was killed around midnight on August 10, 2002.
One of the men said he could not recall the night; a second contradicted Mr Stapleton’s claim, saying was not at home that night, and the third flatly denied Mr Stapleton was there.
“Paul wasn’t at our house that night, I was home by myself,” one of the men told the Telegraph, on condition of anonymity. “He didn’t watch rugby at our place but he didn’t do it.”
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Ms Orlik ended her relationship with Mr Stapleton five days after David’s death. Two months later, Ms Orlik went to police and told them about Mr Stapleton’s jealousy and that he drove a black car. She had heard that a black car was part of the case.
Abernethy returned an open finding on Breckenridge’s death. He said there was a lack of evidence linking Mr Stapleton to the scene, which made his involvement a “very remote possibility.”
The coroner commended lead Detective Stewart Leggat for the work he had done on the case — “often alone and under-resourced.”
THE GIRLFRIEND
Absent from the inquest was David’s on again off again girlfriend, Teall who had made a cryptic comment about his death before leaving Australia.
Another former girlfriend, Vanessa Baylis, told the Daily Telegraph Teall called her the day David was killed and told her: “I guess it all finally caught up with him.”
At the time, Vanessa said was she was reeling in shock and did not ask Teall what she meant.
“I don’t remember making that phone call,” Teall told The Daily Telegraph.
“If I did say that, maybe I was meaning like kids partying, like partying too much?”
Teall’s refusal to return to Australia for the inquest upset the Breckenridges who said they treated her like a member of the family. Teall’s parents said she had a cardiac condition which prevented her from appearing at the inquest.
“We’re very disappointed in that. We treated her like a daughter,” Stephen said.
“We always wonder why … why didn’t she offer to help? Probably more to the point, I am disappointed the police didn’t compel her to come back.”
Teall admitted it may have been selfish to protect herself from the pain of appearing at the inquest.
“I had picked up my life when that all happened,” she says.
“It was my last year and to come back from Spain, then go through all that I would have to defer again and I didn’t have the financial capability, nor my health concerns as well.
“So I would have liked to have been there but at no point was it, you know, make clear that I was definitely needed and I would have hoped that if they needed more information, they would have reached out.”
LAST-MINUTE DEVELOPMENT
On the last day of the inquest, the Breckenridges were told a woman had come forward and claimed she found a bloodied knife in her daughter’s backpack around the time David was murdered.
The woman, who was not identified, told police her daughter’s boyfriend often stayed at a house near Berry Lane in St Leonards.
During the inquest it was revealed this man had stabbed a person in St Leonards four weeks after David’s murder.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal this man had been jailed a few years later in Tasmania for threatening to slit his girlfriend’s throat.
Lead investigator Detective Stewart Leggat said the knife was tested, but no DNA evidence was found because it had not been handed in until three years after David’s murder.
Police dropped the line of inquiry, concluding there was no evidence linking the boyfriend to the murder. He was not called to give evidence at the inquest.
MORE QUESTIONS
A group of teenagers who had been drinking at the oval across the road from where David was murdered were questioned at the inquest.
“I think the issue that those young boys, who were larrikins, they were rough and tough in the street, they had friends in the area they were able to move around quite easily,” Stephen said.
“They weren’t hammered enough by the police and they seemed to be very street smart in their cross-examination.”
Lead detective Stewart Leggat said it is difficult for people to remember exact details about what they were doing three years ago.
“That’s the difficulty we face and also the difficulty faced with an unsolved matters, sometimes they have excellent memories of things or sometimes people’s memories have faded,” he said.
“There were a number of people who came up during the course of this inquest, names that were raised, names that we identified during the course of the investigation, it’s not always possible to eliminate people.”
Through the media, police appealed to anyone who was in the area that night to come forward.
An elderly couple who had been returning from a night out said they thought they may have seen three figures standing in Berry Lane at around 11.45pm the night David was murdered.
The timing is out — David made phone calls from Herbert Street at 11.52pm and then crossed the Pacific Highway walking about 300 metres to where he was stabbed down Berry Lane.
However police couldn’t discount their testimony as no one else came forward — something that dumbfounded David’s family and friends.
People came forward later who were around the area - but none said they saw the actual attack.
“I am astonished that no one saw David being attacked,” says David’s mother Karen. “If you look at the Pacific Highway, cars are just streaming past. This was a question we had initially — why is that only two people came forward as having seen something? I imagine several people saw his body and just keep driving.
“Why didn’t anyone stop to save our son?”
It is the elderly couple’s sole testimony that police believe there were two offenders who attacked David.
The passing motorist who did stop, Helen McMullen said during the inquest that the ambulance went to the wrong address and she had to wait with David for 12 minutes before help arrived. It doesn’t sound like long — but the Royal North Shore Hospital is just metres away from where David was attacked.
Helen said she saw two men looking on while she was waiting for the ambulance. One man was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt who appeared to be of Indian appearance and the other man looked to be of an Asian background.
During the inquest, it was revealed police had not identified these people.
IN THE FINAL CHAPTER
The Daily Telegraph reveals new evidence that could shine new light on the case and examines the fallout after 15-years of no answers.
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