Martin Bryant’s Dark Secrets: 7News Spotlight documentary claims he is linked to two murders
A new doco has claimed Martin Bryant can be linked to two more deaths, as new photos of him and details of his prison life are revealed.
Crime in Focus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Crime in Focus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A woman who bequeathed her estate to mass murderer Martin Bryant feared “one of these days the little bastard is going to kill me,” a new documentary claims.
Wealthy benefactor Helen Harvey is one of two people Bryant is suspected of killing years before he gunned down 35 men, women and children and injured dozens of others in the Port Arthur massacre.
A new investigation into Bryant’s past, marking the 25 years since the tragedy, uncovers evidence relating to the car accident that killed Ms Harvey — his closest friend — and links to the death of his father which was ruled a suicide.
In Martin Bryant’s Dark Secrets 7News Spotlight documentary to air tonight, investigative reporter Denham Hitchcock sheds light on Bryant’s real motives as new witnesses claim he was “settling scores” and reveal how they believe Australia’s worst mass murderer was left unchallenged to carry out his crime.
Hitchcock said it was a hard story to investigate and he spent months convincing people to finally tell their stories. He said the Port Arthur massacre is a taboo subject in Tasmania and no one wants to talk about it.
“In the end for anyone involved in such a hugely traumatic event, it eventually eats away at you. Even though they have not been able to talk about it before, it was cathartic I think,” Hitchcock said.
But he also believes if authorities had acted on the information about Bryant at the time of the death of his close friend and his father, maybe the Port Arthur massacre would not have happened.
The documentary reveals Barry Featherstone, a former neighbour and friend to Ms Harvey had warned the Tasmanian police about Bryant’s erratic behaviour. He believes “very strongly” Bryant caused the accident that killed her.
Mr Featherstone said Ms Harvey confided in him that Bryant had caused a string of accidents by wrenching the steering wheel while she was driving.
He told Hitchcock after the third car crash, Ms Harvey had come to him for help to get her car out of a drain not far from where he lived.
“ … as we were walking back along to where the car was … she was telling us how he used to grab the steering wheel and put her off the road.”
Ms Harvey told him then “one of these days the little bastard is going to kill me.”
Mr Featherstone said she also explained that was the reason she drove so slowly – at about 35km an hour – while Bryant was in the car.
After the fatal crash in 1992 that killed Ms Harvey and two pet dogs in the car at the time, and injured Bryant, Mr Featherstone said he went to identify her body. He told police then about Bryant’s behaviour and gave police a statement.
It had previously been reported Bryant had said the dogs jumping around had caused the accident.
But Mr Featherstone said he doesn’t believe Bryant was ever questioned about the accident,
After the death of Ms Harvey, she left her Hobart home, farm and money all to Bryant with one catch – his father Maurice was to be the trustee.
Then just a year later, Maurice Bryant went missing in strange circumstances and was found dead in a dam on the family property. The death was ruled a suicide.
Hitchcock raises questions in the documentary about the suicide, reveals new evidence about what happened, and raised suspicions that Bryant may have been involved.
Listen to our On Guard podcast below where Martin Bryant’s life in jail is also unearthed.
MARTIN BRYANT’S TRANSFORMATION IN JAIL
From a teenager with flowing blond hair to a fat, balding, old man. Mass murderer Martin Bryant has undergone a startling physical decline since his incarceration in Tasmania’s Risdon Prison 25 years ago.
The latest picture of Bryant shows how he has aged and reveals how he does little else except eat.
A former inmate and convicted robber, Tony Bull, who got to know Bryant in the prison said the mass murderer does not do much to fill his days in the jail.
Mr Bull, said he had ended up in prison because he was a robber who used to “cut safes” spoke to the 7NEWS Spotlight documentary, which airs tonight, about his time behind bars with Bryant.
The documentary marking the 25 years since the tragedy, looks into Bryant’s life before the Port Arthur massacre and new evidence suggesting Bryant may have been involved in the deaths of two of the people closest to him. It also looks at his existence after he was jailed.
Mr Bull said he got to deal with Bryant on a social level.
“I’d played a couple of games of chess with him. He spoke very little, he spoke hardly at all,” Mr Bull said.
“He doesn’t educate himself. He doesn’t do any courses or programs. He wakes up, he goes to sleep basically.
“You would think that the rest of your life in prison, it is better than instant death, or the death penalty. You’d want him to suffer somewhat along the way, for the rest of his life, but funnily enough, he doesn’t seem to suffer.”
Bryant is living his life in a small mental health unit within the prison for his own protection.
Former prison guard Tony Burley said if he was released into the general prison population “he’d get to feel like what it would be like to be a victim.
“No doubting about that at all … you can die a whole range of ways … you’ve just got to think about it a little bit more in prison.”
Mr Burley said the Risdon Prison Complex, which is located near Hobart and houses almost 300 inmates, has a hierarchy and in his mind, Bryant is right at the bottom.
Mr Burley who worked at the maximum security prison for more than 20 years said Bryant has never shown any remorse, or sadness, or anguish.
He said over the years, Bryant has put on so much weight in his body and face it has got to the point where he has become virtually unrecognisable.
“He has … increased his calorie intake due to sexual favours from the prison canteen,” Mr Burley said.
He said Bryant was not receiving money, rather items, foodstuffs like chocolate.
7NEWS Spotlight: Martin Bryant’s Dark Secrets airs tonight at 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus
Join the conversation
Shock link between UK child killer and Aussie bishop stabbing
The teen who murdered three little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England had searched for material on the stabbing of a Sydney bishop.
Read more
New law to block legal challenge to AN0M sting
New laws will prevent any legal challenge to one of Australia’s most successful covert stings in organised crime using the encrypted AN0M application.
Read more