Leveson inquest: Michael Atkins devised plan to cover up younger boyfriend’s death

SKETCHED on a rough piece of paper, this is the eerie map acquitted killer Michael Atkins drew for police to lead them to the grave where he dumped young lover Matthew Leveson’s dead body.

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• Lover’s sketches reveal gravesite, death scene
• Remains found confirmed as Matthew Leveson’s

A MAN who dumped the body of his young lover in the bush sat down and callously watched the television in their apartment as his dead boyfriend lay nearby wrapped in a blanket, an inquest has heard.

As Michael Atkins sat there in Cronulla he is alleged to have callously planned his next move. The 55-year-old was trained in first aid but never checked for any vital signs, attempted CPR or called an ambulance after ­allegedly finding Matthew ­Leveson on the bedroom floor dead from a drug overdose. Instead he took 30 minutes to decide to “cover up” his death.

But before he left the unit he bought tickets for the Sleaze Ball — which he later took another man to, the inquest has heard.

It can also be revealed for the first time that police got Atkins to sketch crude diagrams of where he said he found Matthew’s body, as well as where he dumped him in a shallow grave in the Royal National Park, near Waterfall.

Michael Atkins.

Michael Atkins and Matthew Leveson.

The cold-blooded details of how Atkins buried the 20-year-old in 2007 and lied for almost a decade about his death were yesterday revealed via his own words as the latest statement he made to police was released by deputy state coroner Elaine Truscott.

Family heartache: ‘Now we can lay him to rest’

Faye and Mark Leveson, Matthew’s parents, speak to the media as the inquest resumes.

Counsel assisting the resumed inquest into Matthew’s death, Tim Game SC, has said that the statement was tendered to show what Atkins said but “not as evidence of the truth”.

Atkins, who was acquitted by a jury in 2009 of Matthew’s murder or manslaughter, told police he felt “really ashamed” after driving to Newcastle to have sex with another man just two days after Matthew died. He claimed Matthew was the love of his life despite digging a grave in the bush and burying his body there.

Matthew Leveson.

Michael Atkins.

“I do think of him every day,” Atkins told homicide ­detectives. “It weighs on my mind all the time. I don’t think I can love anyone like I loved him. It’s never going to be the same. I’ve always just had ­hollowness and I can never be the same again ever. It has left me empty.”

“He was not breathing and he had a funny colour and he was dead.”

Matthew disappeared after leaving Darlinghurst’s ARQ nightclub with Atkins in the early hours of September 23, 2007, and it was not until earlier this year that the older man finally led police and Matthew’s grieving parents, Mark and Faye Leveson, to the burial spot.

Atkins was given immunity from a retrial for murder if he went into the witness box at the inquest and told the truth.

The crude map by Michael Atkins.

Backed into a corner after lying on oath to the inquest last year, Atkins was given further immunity from prosecution for perjury if he revealed the location of the body.

He then sketched and signed a crude map showing the journey he made early on September 24, 2007, driving his lover’s blue Corolla hatchback with the body in the boot, showing the “narrow road” with no street lights and the gravel carpark past Waterfall railway station where the body was found in May.

The excavation scene near Waterfall railway station where Matthew Leveson’s remains were found.

Forensics officers sift through dirt as they begin to exhume human remains found in bushland in the Royal National Park on June 1.

Atkins also sketched a diagram of their Cronulla unit, showing the spot next to the bed where he claims he woke up to find Matthew dead.

“He was not breathing and he had a funny colour and he was dead,” Atkins said. “I did not know what to do and I just sat there with him. Later when I was lying next to him I told him that I loved him.”

Atkins claimed he found an empty bottle of the date rape drug GHB in the kitchen and did not call for an ambulance because he was panicking and had taken drugs at the nightclub himself. “I was freaking out. I thought I would get blamed and I thought about the  drugs,” he said in his statement.

“So you buried a person that you loved in an unmarked grave to protect your reputation.”

Then he “came up with the idea” of burying the body and drove Matthew’s car to the nearest Bunnings to buy a mattock and duct tape before wrapping up the body in a blanket.

He watched the TV and used the computer, waiting until their apartment complex was quiet, pushed the car outside instead of turning on the engine and put the “stiff” body in the boot.

Atkins said he didn’t want his mother to know he was gay and had to protect his reputation. “I’ve always thought of ­myself as a good person, I would do anything for anyone. I know it’s wrong. I was looking out for myself,” he told police.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary  Jubelin  then replied: “So   you   buried   a person that you loved in an unmarked grave to protect your reputation. Is that correct?”  

Atkins: “I think so. The whole thing about being blamed and the guilt. I did not want the drug thing to come out. I was worried what my mother would think of me as she did not know I was gay.”