Bronwyn podcast: Suspected killer Jon Winfield ‘can be made to take DNA test’

The secret daughter of murder suspect Jon Winfield could take legal action to force him to undergo a paternity test to expose his lying after he denied being her biological father, lawyers say | NEW EPISODE

Suspected killer Jon Whitfield denies he is the father of Sonia Lee. Picture: Liam Mendes

The secret daughter of murder suspect Jon Winfield could take legal action to force him to undergo a paternity test to expose his lying after he denied being her biological father, lawyers say.

Sonia Lee has a right under NSW law to take the issue to court, as a new episode of the Bronwyn podcast reveals Mr Winfield’s side of the story from his one and only formal police statement about the 1993 dis­appearance of his estranged wife, Bronwyn.

In an 84-minute interview with detectives in 1998, Mr Winfield revealed Bronwyn’s reaction when he visited her on the night she vanished from Lennox Head on the NSW far north coast.

He had caught a flight to the town from Sydney that evening after learning she had moved with her two young daughters back into the family home.

“All of a sudden I was on the doorstep, you know, so I suppose she was a bit taken aback. I mean she wasn’t hostile or anything like that,” he said.

Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor, now retired, asked Mr Winfield more than 400 questions and has told the podcast: “He still wanted to project in the interview that he was concerned for her and he had nothing to hide, he’d done nothing wrong.”

Mr Winfield, 69, maintains he had no involvement in Bronwyn’s disappearance and he has never been charged in connection to it.

However, his previously unknown first-born child has urged his other daughters to reconsider everything they think they know about the unsolved case.

Sonia Lee has sensationally come forward on the Bronwyn podcast, which returned this week after a break, to try to help solve Bronwyn’s disappearance 31 years ago.

She has a strong resemblance to Mr Winfield, and was in her 20s when she first learnt from her mother that he was her biological father. She grew up in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire and is now 51.

Bringing to light Mr Winfield’s significant lie about not being her father could lead others to volunteer information that resolves Bronwyn’s case, she said in a new episode of the podcast released on Friday.

If Mr Winfield continued to deny paternity, she could consider seeking to legally compel him to take a DNA test, lawyers told The Weekend Australian.

When Sonia Lee was born in November 1972, her mother had just turned 16 and Mr Winfield was a few months away from turning 17. r Winfield went on to have a daughter, Jodie, in a subsequent relationship, and another, Lauren, with Bronwyn.

He is also stepfather to Bronwyn’s daughter from a previous relationship, Chrystal Winfield, who has called him “dad” since she was five.

Sonia Lee has questioned if the sisters she has never met knew she existed. Chrystal, at least, appears to have been kept in the dark. Asked before this week’s episodes aired if there were any other siblings, she said there was no one else.

Solicitor Martin Mallon, an estate litigation specialist from Attwood Marshall Lawyers, said Sonia Lee could confirm paternity by applying to the NSW Supreme Court for orders under the state’s Status of Children Act.

It would require affidavits supporting her claim to be Mr Winfield’s biological daughter.

“The court would direct the parties to obtain a DNA test,” Mr Mallon said. “I’ve come across matters where people want to find this information out to know what health issues they should be looking out for. Some people may just want to know who their biological parents are. You don’t need to say why you’re seeking the order.”

Sonia Lee has not expressed an interest in an inheritance from Mr Winfield, but Mr Mallon confirmed she could also be entitled to some of his estate.

Sonia Lee, pictured as a child at Christmas in 1981.

“If you’re an eligible person and you’ve been left out of the will, or you receive significantly less than the other beneficiaries, you can file an application to seek further provision, so money from the estate is paid to you for your proper maintenance and support,” he said.

“If she can establish she’s the biological daughter, then she would have standing to file a claim against the estate.”

Gerard Basha, a wills and estates specialist and partner with Bartier Perry Lawyers, said Sonia Lee could seek court orders compelling DNA tests even after Mr Winfield had died, through medical or post mortem samples or from relatives.

The podcast revealed NSW police took a statement from Sonia Lee’s mother during their investigations into Bronwyn’s disappearance. Retired detective Damian Loone said detectives may have been building a profile on Mr Winfield.

“One of the good things about when you speak to former partners is you get a bit of an idea about their behaviour, if they’ve shown traits of aggression or violence or all sorts of things,” Mr Loone said.

“You’re building up a picture of the person’s background. They would go and speak to them for that reason.”

Sonia Lee discovered much about her past through her late grandmother, spending almost every day together before her death.

“During that time, a lot of conversations were had. Stories were told, secrets were shared,” she said.

Estranged wife Bronwyn Winfield.

“Back in 1972 things weren’t great financially. And my grandma at mid-pregnancy thought it would be a great idea to separate the two of them for my mother’s benefit – mental and emotional reasons, which at the time wasn’t told to my mother in truth. She thought her heart had been broken. Jon was breaking up with her. Whereas in fact, my grandmother separated the two of them for the final stages of the pregnancy. She never said a nice word about him. She never said a nice word about the Winfields. My grandmother sensed something and removed my mother and myself from that circle.”

When Mr Winfield denied being the father, it devastated her teenage mother and left her with a baby to provide for. They had been “boyfriend and girlfriend for a long time”.

Her grandparents had no money and lived day to day on the fares her taxidriver grandfather brought home. Initially, the family explored abortion, but could not afford to pay for travel to South Australia where it could be done.

Next, they planned to pretend Sonia Lee was her grandmother’s baby, until neighbours saw her mother heavily pregnant and their cover was blown. Then she was to be adopted, but on the day she was born her grandfather became involved and refused.

“Moving forward through the 70s, 80s, my bond with my grandmother was inseparable. She was like my mum. I pretty much went from the hospital to her. Mum was 16. She didn’t know anything. My grandma had already raised two girls, so she knew exactly what was going on.”

Her grandfather fell ill, suffered many heart attacks and died.

“He was like my dad. So I didn’t miss having a mum and dad figure. It’s just that my real mum was really, really young and she was off establishing her career.

“So when grandma was sitting with me, passing away and telling me the truth of the story, to me as an adult, it hadn’t affected my life for 47 years, and it hasn’t affected my life since then.

“I’ve known that he (Mr Winfield) didn’t want me. I’ve known that his parents thought horrible things about my mother and ­vocalised those things.

“It wasn’t just her having sex. He was involved as well. But he was the golden child within his family and very, very heavily influenced by his mother.”

Until she saw Mr Winfield’s face for the first time in a photograph on the front page of The Australian earlier this year, she had not appreciated just how similar they looked. “That part with my mum has been difficult. There’s a photo on my great aunt’s TV. And it’s a photo of me in a school uniform at 12 or 13. “And that photo on the front page, where he has a moustache when he’s younger, that’s me. That is that photo, less the moustache.

“Until I saw that I never actually got what Mum was saying. Because sometimes she’d say to me, ‘oh, for God’s sake, can you go and put a shirt on? I just can’t see your arms or your shoulders’. I’m that much for her a resemblance.

“My grandmother had said to me that ‘they’re all kidding themselves if they don’t believe that you exist. He knows you’re his’.”

She had never missed having a biological father or sisters, because “if you have never had it, you can’t miss it”, she said.

“I do know that I have no inclination to have them in my life. That was his choice back in the 70s. You can make a choice, that’s fine. But you can’t live your life denying. If the girls need to question anyone’s truths – his truths – start questioning them.”

Do you know something about this case? Contact Hedley Thomas confidentially at [e-mail]