Priest a ‘pest’ at Maria James murder scene: court

A pedophile priest who is a person of interest in the murder of a mother whose son he was abusing was desperate to enter the crime scene, a court has been told.

A paedophile priest was so desperate to enter a crime scene where a mother-of-two had been stabbed 68 times that police bundled him into a divvy van, a court has heard.

Maria James was brutally killed on June 17, 1980, in the residence attached to her Thornbury bookshop.

A coronial inquest examining the murder has heard Father Anthony Bongiorno was insistent on entering the bookshop, claiming he wanted to administer last rites.

Lawyer Chris Winneke QC told the court on Wednesday that a police officer present said Fr Bongiorno was being such a “pest” he was removed.

Maria James was killed in her residence behind her bookshop in Thornbury on June 17, 1980.

Father Anthony Bongiorno insisted on entering the crime scene to administer the last rites and was put into a police divvy van to keep him away.

It came to light in 2013 that Fr Bongiorno had allegedly abused Mrs James’s son Adam, then aged 11, who had Tourette’s syndrome and cerebral palsy.

She planned to confront him before her murder, Adam said.

Two witnesses previously told the court they saw Fr Bongiorno outside the bookshop on the morning of the killing, and at his church residence near the bookshop with blood on his hands, neck and head.

He was exonerated by DNA evidence that didn’t match his own.

But it later emerged police mistakenly compared it to DNA from an entirely different investigation that had nothing to do with Maria James.

Fr Bongiorno died in 2002.

He is one of six persons of interest in Ms James’s death.

The Thornbury bookshop with a residence behind where Maria James was murdered in 1980.

Another is Mrs James’s married lover in 1980, Peco Macevski, who is the only person of interest still alive.

The court was told Mr Macevski initially lied to police about his relationship with Mrs James, who was divorced.

“In fact, he states: ‘I don’t know her other name, her second name’,” counsel assisting the court Sharon Lacy said.

“He says that he had never been in her shop, that he didn’t speak to her a great deal.

“He doesn’t provide any information about any sort of intimacy with her.”

Retired detective senior constable Rowland Legg said police were satisfied with Mr Macevski’s alibi, which was confirmed by two people Mr Macevski said he was with that morning while at work as a real estate agent.

Maria James and her son Adam at the Grampians in January 1980, six months before she was brutally murdered.

“Obviously, there are lots of motives for people not admitting to something like that (an affair),” he said.

“Is he denying a relationship to save a marriage, or is he denying a relationship to avoid a charge of murder?”

Legendary policeman Ron Iddles is scheduled to give evidence in the inquest on Thursday.

The Maria James case was his first as a homicide detective, one of only a few that remain open among his 99 per cent conviction rate.

He remains haunted by her unsolved murder.

Originally published as Priest a ‘pest’ at Maria James murder scene: court