Mike Munro has no regrets over 1993 Cangai siege live broadcast

Veteran reporter Mike Munro has revealed he does not regret the role he and Mike Willesee played in the 1993 Cangai siege, where they called the killer hostage takers in a live broadcast.

It was one of the most high profile crimes of the 1990s and a day when the media itself became the story – but veteran reporter Mike Munro says he would do it all again.

Mr Munro this week revealed he had no regrets about the role he and Mike Willesee played in the Cangai siege of 1993 that so shocked the ­nation.

Three deranged killers were holding two children hostage in a homestead near Grafton and Willesee, in a live broadcast, rang the house and spoke to the both the killers and the children.

It was hailed as “TV gold” but slammed by police. Willesee, prior to his death in 2019, defended his actions.

“Willesee spoke to the guys in the house because they wouldn’t speak to police negotiators,” Mr Munro said.

“Whatever you say about Willesee (the children) were released two hours later. But I don’t think we would call into the house again.”

Mike Munro. Picture: Adam Yip

The late Mike Willesee.

Mr Munro is one of several people whose lives were impacted by the siege who will tell their story for the first time on Channel 7’s Crime Investigation Australia on Sunday night.

He faced the prospect of police ­charges after flying with a helicopter pilot directly around the siege scene.

While only the pilot was charged – and later found not guilty by a jury – Mr Munro said he had no regrets.

“No (regrets), I’d do the same thing again tomorrow,” he said.

“We were well vindicated by the police who never said there was a no-fly zone; so it wasn’t a no-fly zone. The police helicopter came at us like an angry hornet and the police pilot was heavily criticised (by a judge at trial). I wouldn’t have jeopardised my pilot’s livelihood.”

Retired detective Ray Adams sees it differently.

“Unfortunately (Willesee) hijacked the one and only landline and took over and broadcast his conversation with (Leonard) Leabeater and the kids on the national TV,” he said.

Mr Adams was the operations officer at the time and singled out the murder of a 14-year-old girl as particularly “horrific, callous and cold-blooded in its own way”.

The Cangai farmhouse, the location of the siege in 1993.

Robert Steele is led away by police after the Cangai farmhouse siege

Looking back on the case 29 years later he regrets that opportunities to apprehend the group were not taken earlier.

Things may have played out differently and lives potentially could have been saved had the group come onto the police radar earlier on their deadly road trip.

“The police didn’t know much about this until they picked up the kidnapped children, they didn’t know about the first murder at Cloncurry,” Mr Adams said.

“It’s such a damn shame that these people weren’t identified one way or another during those weeks they were on the road driving willy-nilly.

“Nobody complained about them (on the way) and in that time they developed this unfortunate plan of taking a lot of people out at any cost.

“The murder of the young girl was absolutely horrendous. They’d discussed that she heard them talking about the previous murder and they killed her and burned her in front of the other kids.”

Mike Willesee meets up with the two children.

Leonard Leabeater, the hostage ringleader.

Raymond Bassett is led away by police.

The infamous day at Cangai was the end of a murderous rampage by Leonard Leabeater, Robert Steele and Raymond Bassett that saw five people killed, including the 14-year-old girl after she had become smitten with one of the men.

The deranged trio left blood and destruction in their wake while making their way from South Australia to Mount Isa, down to Mackay before holing up in a rural property at Cangai, near Grafton.

Their motive was initially to kill police but as their delusions of a higher power guiding them grew stronger they would eventually kill random members of the community, including a camper and then two men because they needed their car.

But they all met their bitter end, ringleader Leabeater took his own life in the siege, Steele hung himself in jail while Bassett is still serving multiple life sentences in Queensland.

The two children held hostage were released without any physical harm coming to them.

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