Coroner reopens Maria James murder case to examine evidence implicating paedophile priests
Two dead paedophile priests, sadistic killer Peter Keogh — they’re among a string of suspects in a new probe, set to re-examine Maria James’ 1980 murder in a Thornbury book shop.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Two dead paedophile Catholic priests and sadistic killer Peter Keogh are among a string of suspects a new probe into the 1980 Maria James murder will examine.
Acting State Coroner Iain West today revealed he has reopened the coronial investigation into the death of Ms James, 38, who was stabbed to death in her Thornbury bookshop.
That followed an application by Ms James’ son Mark to have the finding of the 1982 inquest set aside so new evidence could be examined.
BONGIORNO LINKED TO MURDER OF MARIA
HOW BONGIORNO BECAME A MURDER SUSPECT
Mark James told the Herald Sun last year he was as sure as he could be that his mother was killed by Father Anthony Bongiorno.
He also said it was possible another paedophile priest, Father Thomas O’Keeffe, was involved.
Mr James said both Catholic priests were sexually molesting his intellectually disabled younger brother Adam in the period before their mother was murdered.
The Herald Sun revealed in 2013 that the murder case against Father Bongiorno had strengthened as a result of Adam, who was 11 when his mother was killed, making a new statement to police about Father Bongiorno.
That article prompted an electrician who had been working at St Mary’s on the morning of the murder to contact police to say he saw Father Bongiorno that day and that he was covered in blood.
Mark James believes the motive for one or both Catholic priests killing his mother was that Adam had told her about Father Bongiorno sexually abusing him and she confronted the priest about it on the day she was murdered.
“Given the circumstances, it appears very much like Bongiorno knocked off my mum,” he told the Herald Sun.
“If you had asked me maybe 25 or 30 years ago if a Catholic priest could have done this of course I would have said no way.
“Now, at best, these two monsters Bongiorno and O’Keeffe have sexually assaulted my brother and absolutely terrified him for years.
“At worst, to perpetuate their activities, facing exposure, they have either murdered my mother or arranged for my mother to be murdered.”
Mark James mounted a sustained battle to get the inquest reopened, claiming it was needed so compelling new evidence could be examined.
“A lot has happened since the 1982 coronial inquest,” he told the Herald Sun last year.
“Coroner Mason did the best he could at the time with the information he had, but he wasn’t privy to all of the information that has come out in recent years.
“Down the track, when police have picked through more of the investigation, I would like the coroner to take a lead role in directing the police in certain areas and holding a further inquest.”
Mark James also hopes the coroner will investigate the circumstances of the DNA bungle in his mother’s case.
Police had for years thought they had the unknown killer’s DNA from blood he left at the scene.
They used the DNA to eliminate several suspects whose DNA did not match the DNA police believed belonged to the killer.
But the force last year admitted that DNA was actually obtained from an exhibit from another murder and that the exhibit had somehow found its way into exhibits from the Maria James murder scene.
Which means all those suspects cleared because their DNA didn’t match the DNA police were mistakenly using are back to being suspects.
That DNA bungle has put previously eliminated sadistic thug Peter Keogh firmly on the list of key suspects in the Maria James cold case murder.
Victoria Police wrongly cleared Keogh in 2003 because his DNA didn’t match DNA they believed was from the man who stabbed Ms James to death.
Keogh, who lived near the Thornbury bookshop when Maria James was murdered, was convicted of killing his former partner Vicki Cleary — the sister of former federal MP and VFA footballer Phil Cleary — by stabbing her outside a Coburg kindergarten in 1987.
Evidence which puts Keogh as one of the key people suspected of murdering divorced mother of two Maria James includes:
PSYCHOTHERAPIST Margaret Hobbs was treating Keogh as a patient and became convinced by what he said to her in her consulting rooms that he was responsible for murdering Maria James, telling a psychologist friend after the stabbing that “I am sure I know who did it because the bastard told me”.
KEOGH’S former girlfriend Judy McNulty confessed years after the murder that she was lying to police when she told them Keogh couldn’t have killed Maria James because he was elsewhere with her at the crucial time.
AFTER Keogh was convicted in 1989 of manslaughter, rather than murder, over the death of Ms Cleary, 25, Judy McNulty told Ms Cleary’s mother Lorna that Keogh had “got away with murder before” at the Thornbury bookshop.
CLOSE relatives of Judy McNulty told detectives Keogh often carried a knife and had used it against Ms McNulty.
JUDY McNulty’s sister told police in 1997 that she was amazed Judy initially provided Keogh with an alibi for the day of the Maria James murder because Judy had once told her Keogh had murdered somebody
OTHER McNulty family members told police Keogh had raped a woman known to them in the same year Maria James was murdered.
A POLICE officer who once shot Keogh in both kneecaps to stop Keogh attacking him with a knife rang the homicide squad after the Maria James murder to say Keogh bore a striking resemblance to the identikit picture of the man a witness saw running away from the murder scene.
Keogh’s psychotherapist, Ms Hobbs, refused to directly tell detectives about her strong belief that Keogh murdered Maria James because she wasn’t prepared to break her code of ethics relating to patient confidentiality.
But she was so convinced of Keogh’s guilt that soon after the 1980 murder she got a psychologist friend to tell police they should question Keogh about the Maria James murder.
The information passed to the homicide squad at the time was vague about why detectives should talk to Keogh. It was more like a suggestion than the crucial clue it actually was.
Keogh, whose long criminal history included convictions for various sex and violence offences, committed suicide in 2001.
He killed himself in the rear yard of his home in Mansfield St, Thornbury — just 1.5km from where Marie James was stabbed 68 times.
Other suspects in the Maria James murder include:
MARIO. One of Maria James’ customers told police that on the Saturday morning before the murder she was in the shop talking to Maria and Maria said a man called Mario had tried to chat her up and had asked for her phone number. The woman said Maria told her she had given Mario “the brush off” Police identified Mario and interviewed him. He admitted he had been in Maria James’ bookshop on the morning she was murdered. He told police the shop was closed when he got there but Maria had let him in after he knocked on the door. He said he tried to sell her some magazines and that they argued after she refused to take them. He told police he left the shop after the argument. Police later received information that Mario went back to the shop later that morning. He was a keen tomato grower and used twine similar to the twine used to tie up Maria James. He remained a strong suspect until he was eliminated in 2004 when his DNA didn’t match the DNA police believed at the time was the DNA of the killer — the DNA bungle puts Mario back high on the suspect list.
PETER. Police identified Peter, who was a local real estate agent, and interviewed him, but didn’t find any evidence to implicate him. Police were told Peter was married with two children at the time he attempted to form a relationship with Maria James. One theory is the very moral and upstanding Maria discovered Peter was married and became angry with him for trying to deceive her. A fellow real estate agent provided Peter with an alibi, saying he was with Peter visiting properties elsewhere at the time of the murder.
THE first Telecom man. He was identified by police and questioned. They discovered he had lots of freedom in his Telecom job to travel wherever he liked and that he was in the area on the day Maria James was murdered. They were told he frequented second hand bookshops. He was separated from his wife. Maria James’s doctor told police she told him she was seeing a Telecom worker who was separated. The Telecom employee left Melbourne for Queensland on August 1, 1980, just a few weeks after Maria James was murdered. He picked up two female hitchhikers on August 6, 1980, and attempted to rape them at gunpoint. The women fought back and managed to escape after one of them wrestled the gun from him. Police caught him and searched his vehicle, finding two rifles, a fake pistol, handcuffs, thumb screws, ether, nylon cord, white adhesive tape and a knife. The knife was of the same brand and size as the one missing from Maria James’ kitchen and which police believe was the weapon used to stab her 68 times. Maria James’ hands were tied. A witness in the Maria James case told police she saw a man running out of the bookshop at the time of the murder as she was driving past and had to brake heavily to avoid hitting him as he sped across the road in front of her. Her description of him fitted the Telecom man so police flew her up to Queensland so she could take part in a line-up of several men. She identified the Telecom man as the person she saw running out of Maria James’ bookshop just after the murder. Although Telecom records suggested the man could not have been in Thornbury at the time of the murder he remained a suspect as it was possible the records were falsified. Police also discovered the female motorist who told police she saw a man running out of the bookshop at the time of the murder was an unreliable witness as she also picked suspect Peter the real estate man out of a police line-up as the man she saw fleeing the scene — and he looks nothing like the Telecom man.
THE second Telecom man. A prostitute nominated one of her regular clients as being the murderer. She told police he often talked about violence towards women and how he liked inflicting it. She told police he discussed the Maria James murder with her and said “the cops are stupid if they are looking for straight B and D (bondage and domination) because they are wrong”. Maria’s hands were tied and she had been subjected to a very violent and prolonged attack, including many stab wounds in the chest area. Police believe the killer also held her face down with a potato masher because imprints on Maria’s face matched one found in her kitchen. The prostitute said she didn’t know her client’s full name, but he called himself Ross and told her he worked for Telecom. She said he asked her to do “weird” things, but she wouldn’t expand on what the weird things were. Police were unable to find him.
THE traffic officer. He had known Maria James for decades and sometimes took her out socially, not romantically. Was questioned and while he had an alibi he remained a suspect as police were not 100 per cent sure it was watertight. He was convicted of sex offences committed against people known to him more than a decade after the Maria James murder.
THE 5am man. A garbage worker told police he regularly saw a man letting himself out of the front door of the bookshop about 5am in the three months before the murder. He described him as between 172 and 178cm tall, aged 30 to 35, of medium build with fairly long dark hair and having a Charlie Chaplin type moustache. Police were told he sometimes caught a taxi and a taxi was reported as seen waiting in the vicinity of the shop about 5am on several occasions in the weeks before the murder. Police appealed through the taxi industry journal for taxi drivers who might have picked him up to come forward, but police never identified the 5am man. In a first for Victoria, police had the garbage worker hypnotised and produced an identikit picture of the 5am man from what the garbage man said about him while under hypnosis.