Leveson inquest: Police bungles helped Michael Atkins avoid conviction, court hears
A SERIES of shocking police blunders that let Michael Atkins off the hook over the death of his young lover, Matthew Leveson, were revealed as he was labelled a murderer in court.
NSW
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THE series of shocking police blunders that let Michael Atkins off the hook over the death of his young lover were yesterday revealed as he was labelled a murderer in court.
Evidence was lost, a box of missing exhibits was found in the ceiling of a former officer’s home and crucial mistakes were made by local detectives when interviewing Atkins in the days after Matthew Leveson went missing in 2007, an inquest has heard.
It came as the heartbroken mother of Matthew, Faye Leveson, said her family had to do a “deal with the devil” when they agreed for Atkins to be given immunity from prosecution in any retrial as the only way to force him to reveal the location of her son’s body.
On a day that exposed serious flaws in the initial investigation it emerged that officers failed to press Atkins with further questions when he “was on the verge of giving information” about what happened to Matthew as he told them: “I want to tell you but I’m scared what will happen to me if I do.”
The homicide detective in charge of the reopened investigation, Detective Senior Constable Scott Craddock, has told the resumed inquest into the 20-year-old’s death: “This clearly demonstrates Atkins was involved in this disappearance and needed to be questioned further.
“It is my opinion that opportunities were missed during questions to press Atkins on responses he gave.”
Instead the 55-year-old was acquitted by a jury in 2009 of his lover’s murder or manslaughter and it was not until this year that Matthew’s remains were found in the Royal National Park south of Sydney after Atkins admitted to burying him.
Atkins claimed he had panicked after Matthew died of a drug overdose when they returned to their Cronulla flat from a Sydney nightclub in the early hours of September 23, 2007.
But Faye Leveson told the inquest yesterday that she did not believe him. “How do you put into words how the murder and the subsequent hiding of Matty’s body has affected me?” she said in an emotional statement.
“We will always be left worrying, did Matty suffer? Did he die quickly or was it slow and painful?
“Was he terrified? Did he fight back? Was he smothered with a pillow? Was he held underwater? Did Atkins give Matty the fatal dose or just enough in a drink to render him unconscious and then bury him alive?
“I will go to my grave not knowing really what happened to Matty.”
She said the family had to do a “deal with the devil” when agreeing that Atkins be given immunity.
Mrs Leveson held up a picture she had prepared herself showing her son’s image above a photograph of his skeleton in the morgue and thrust it towards Atkins’ two female lawyers, barrister Claire Wasley and solicitor Sharon Ramsden. “I want you to look. This is what Atkins did to him,” she said.
Matthew’s dad, Mark Leveson, praised the homicide detectives who reopened the case in 2014 but slammed the initial investigators from Miranda Local Area Command as “incompetent”.
“No person should lose a son and then have to continually battle the system to get what you deserve,” Mr Leveson told the court.
Deputy state coroner Elaine Truscott ruled Atkins, who has since moved to Brisbane, will not have to return to the witness box because he had lied so much he had no credibility.
She was told that some key evidence was excluded from Atkins’ trial after a judge ruled police had not cautioned him properly when his status changed from “helping with inquiries” to being a suspect.
The jury was told he had bought a mattock and duct tape from Bunnings the day Matthew went missing but not told that Atkins had lied to police about it and said he had never left the flat. Atkins claimed he was going to dig a vegetable garden.
The Bunnings receipt was found in Matthew’s car with Atkins’ fingerprint on it.
Original investigators examined the car and told the Leveson family they could sell it without realising the “boom box” had been removed from the boot to fit Matthew’s body in.
Luckily the family kept the car.
Last year Nicole Power, formerly the officer in charge of assisting with the coronial investigation, discovered a box of evidence in the ceiling of her home containing 80 separate discs of electronic evidence, including CCTV footage from the night of Matthew’s disappearance. The box had gone missing after Atkins’ trial.
The homicide squad’s Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin, who led the reinvestigation, said “investigative opportunities” were perhaps missed when the original police did not seize data from phones or take more detailed information from some witnesses while others were not spoken to at all. But he said homicide investigations were fast-moving.
Since 2010, all investigations into homicides and suspicious deaths have been begun by the homicide squad.
The inquest was adjourned to September 26.
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