‘Kidnap kit’ found on Hamilton railway station platform during hunt for killer Trent Jennings

Emergency services uniforms, state and federal police badges, handcuffs, and cable ties have been found in luggage left on a railway station with direct links to wanted killer Trent Jennings.

The last formal sighting of Trent Jennings was at a hotel at The Entrance on January 17, 2024.

Some of the state’s best investigators have been drawn into the hunt for psychiatric patient Trent Jennings after a “kidnap kit” containing police uniforms and badges, handcuffs, and cable ties was found on a suburban train station platform with direct links to the missing killer.

Police had announced Jennings was wanted on an apprehension order – similar to an arrest warrant issued by mental health authorities after the 38-year-old failed to report to a Westmead facility as part of his conditions of being released to live in the community – before the luggage was found at Hamilton train station on Sunday afternoon.

What was found inside the bag, which was discovered left on the platform of the suburban Newcastle station, prompted the search for Jennings to be quietly ramped up amid uncertainty over his mental health condition.

Along with prescription medication in Jennings’ name was paraphernalia which could be described as a kidnap kit – multiple emergency services uniforms including police and ambulance, state and federal police badges, handcuffs, cable ties and radios.

Part of the hunt includes online dating apps and BDSM forums where Jennings has been known to frequent.

Police have issued images of Trent Jennings, wanted on an apprehension order.

Jennings became a forensic patient held under mental health legislation after he was found not guilty of murder because he was suffering from a drug-induced psychosis when he tied up and killed gay lover Guiseppe Vitale at a park in Narwee in Sydney’s south in 2003.

On the eight anniversary of stabbing Mr Vitale in the neck, Jennings absconded from a mental health facility at Morisset, on the banks of Lake Macquarie, after earlier writing a suicide note to his parents claiming he could not live without knowing when he would be freed.

Jennings in a police-issued photograph when he was wanted in 2011 over the tying up and robbery of a man in an inner-city Sydney unit.

A judge would later find Jennings had used the letter as a ruse before meeting up with a man he found on a bondage website before also tying the man up and stealing his car and money.

The man was not injured and Jennings was later arrested and sentenced to three-and-a-half years jail after the judge found he was mentally stable.

Authorities became concerned for Jennings after he failed to report to a mental health facility at Cumberland Hospital, Westmead.

Police released a short statement last Friday, stating Jennings had been last seen at a motel at The Entrance two nights previously.

Luggage linked to Jennings was found on a platform at Hamilton railway station on Sunday afternoon. Picture: Google Maps

The luggage was found at 2.15pm on Sunday, before the statement was reissued less than half an hour later with the warning to the public to not approach Jennings.

A geo-targeting text was sent to some Central Coast residents at 3pm stating Jennings was last seen at The Entrance on January 17.

There was no mention of Jennings being at Hamilton.

A short statement from NSW Police confirmed that the robbery and serious crime squad had taken carriage of the search for Jennings.