Australia’s most wanted: Killer Graham Potter and why he went on the run

TUBBY, greying and bespectacled, Graham Gene Potter doesn’t look like a hired killer. How did he become Australia’s most wanted man?

• Fugitive taskforce to hunt for Victoria’s most-wanted man

GRAHAM Gene Potter doesn’t look like a hired killer.

Tubby, greying and bespectacled, Potter can look like an ordinary bloke anywhere he travels in Australia.

So much so he has successfully eluded police since he skipped bail on February 1, 2010.

But even a master fugitive like Potter gets spotted from time to time.

One sighting that has been kept secret until this week was made midway through last year, when he was spotted — not for the first time — in the NSW Riverina district.

How Potter came to be on the run is extraordinary.

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Potter first came to public notoriety in 1981 after he brutally murdered Wollongong teenager Kim Barry, and then cut off her head and fingers.

Murder victim Kim Barry, who was killed by Graham Gene Potter in 1981. Picture: Supplied

The callous murder of Ms Barry, just 19, occurred at his flat after she spotted him at a bar in the town.

She knew Potter, then aged 23 and a coalminer, from dance classes they both took.

He denied killing Ms Barry, instead claiming two men broke into his flat and murdered her, then forced him to mutilate her body and dispose of the parts.

A jury took just over an hour to reject his bizarre claim, with Potter serving 16 years of a life sentence in prison.

It was time he used to connect with serious underworld figures.

Potter was given bail in 2009 when he was facing serious charges, accused of conspiring to kill two men on behalf of a mafia syndicate.

Those would-be mafia targets (who cannot be named for legal reasons) had been part of a huge drug smuggling operation, but there was a belief that they were also police snitches.

Potter was also facing charges over that drug enterprise.

Victoria Police had objected to Potter being released on bail.

Convicted murderer Graham Potter after being released from prison.

But it is understood he had been co-operating with federal authorities about a massive importation of ecstasy pills packed in tomato tins in 2008, after the haul sat for months at Melbourne’s docks.

It would be the world’s largest ecstasy bust, 15 million pills with a street value of $440 million.

The victims Potter was allegedly hired to eliminate included a well-known underworld identity, to be executed at Mick Gatto’s son’s wedding at Docklands in 2008.

There were two other occasions the failed hits were to take place: A kickboxing tournament at Docklands in Melbourne on March 28, 2008 and at the Reggio Calabria Club in Parkville on July 24 the same year.

His car broke down on the way to one aborted hit, with AFP investigators filming the incident.

Much like one of his other former criminal associates who infamously skipped bail, Tony

Mokbel, Potter tried to make himself invisible by donning disguises and for the most part stayed a step ahead of the law.

There have been sightings over the years, and even a near miss, and until this week it was speculated he was dead.

Graham Potter has been spotted in Far North NSW on several occasions. Image taken from 2010 sighting.

Credible sightings have been made in Queensland and the NSW Riverina district, near Griffith, where the Calabrian mafia has its roots.

In 2013, the fugitive ran from police in one near-capture after a routine intercept.

A police search recovered camping gear at a nearby caravan park where he had been staying for about six weeks.

Police say Potter not only changes his appearance often, but has a number of aliases including Josh Lawson, John Page, Jim Henderson and Peter Adams.

Victoria Police anti-gangs division head detective Superintendent Peter De Santo said Potter knew the Griffith area well.

Supt De Santo said Potter could be using old contacts to help him stay off the radar.

But it was also possible he was using his ability to live off the land to avoid detection — or being unwittingly helped by kind locals.

Graham Potter's property, 2023 Pipers Brook Road

“It’s possible he’s being innocently harboured by farmers and people like that,” Supt De Santo said.

A $100,000 reward was offered in February, 2011, for information leading to his capture.

Anyone who sights Potter is urged not to approach him and call triple-0 while anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.