Former drug dealer tells court man accused of Barbara McCulkin ‘confessed’

A FORMER drug trafficker told a court a man accused of one of Queensland’s most enduring murder mysteries confessed to the killings and revealed he had “several notches on my gun”.

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A FORMER drug trafficker told a court a man accused of one of Queensland’s most enduring murder mysteries confessed to the killings and revealed he had “several notches on my gun”.

Warren McDonald gave evidence to a committal hearing in Brisbane for Garry Dubois and Vincent O’Dempsey, the two men charged with the murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters Vicki and Leanne.

Mr McDonald claimed he once shared a car ride with O’Dempsey en route to Warwick in which the accused revealed he’d killed the McCulkins, who vanished from their Highgate Hill home in January 1974.

The alleged admission followed a discussion about getting a “notch in your gun” — criminal parlance for killing someone, Mr McDonald explained.

Defence lawyer Terry O’Gorman pressed the witness on the otherwise tight-lipped O’Dempsey’s supposedly candid confession. “Literally out of the sky above ... O’Dempsey says to you that he killed the McCulkins?” he posed at Monday’s hearing.

But Mr McDonald said O’Dempsey — himself listening with special hearing aids from the dock — had indeed said he murdered the McCulkin women.

He said O’Dempsey had then told him he should never repeat the information if he wanted to live “a long and healthy life”.

But Mr McDonald denied Mr O’Gorman’s suggestion he had researched O’Dempsey online before talking with police because he knew they wanted valuable information on his supposed link to the infamous murders.

O’Dempsey, 76, and Dubois, 68, deny police allegations against them.

They are both facing three counts of murder, three counts of deprivation of liberty and other charges.

The committal at Brisbane’s Magistrates Court previously heard evidence from Dubois’s sister Gail and brother Paul on the first of what’s expected to be a five-day hearing.

Gail recalled being told by a detective her younger brother had been charged in relation to the mysterious killings.

“(They said) that he was charged with the murder ... of the girls, which I couldn’t believe, but anyway that’s what it was,” she said.

Paul said his brother had told him he had nothing to do with the murders and O’Dempsey was to blame.

The prosecution tendered 87 witness statements at the opening of the hearing.