Cops slap on the cuffs 55 years after killing

Detectives have levelled Australia’s oldest cold-case charge, saying they used modern policing methods to solve a 55-year-old murder.

A handcuffed Vincent O’Dempsey, 80, before his appearance at Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday charged with the 1964 murder of Vincent Allen. Picture: AAP.

Queensland detectives have ­levelled Australia’s oldest cold-case charge, saying they used modern policing methods to solve a 55-year-old murder .

Vincent O’Dempsey, 80, ­appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday, charged with the 1964 murder of missing associate Vincent Raymond “Tommy” Allen.

Detective Senior Sergeant Tara Kentwell said it would be ­alleged Mr O’Dempsey murdered Allen, then 23, because of what he knew about two jewellery store robberies.

“I’d caution those responsible for cold-case murders to take no solace in the passage of time,” Sergeant Kentwell said. “Even after 55 years, a murder can be solved.”

Police Minister Mark Ryan said of the state’s homicide ­detectives and cold-case team: “They are the best, and today yet again we see evidence of that. Never before in Australia has a cold case this old produced a ­result like this.”

Allen had provided a statement to police about the robberies of the jewellery stores in Warwick, 130km southwest of Brisbane, agreeing to give evidence against Mr O’Dempsey.

Charges against Mr O’Dempsey over the robberies — in which safes and watches were stolen — were dropped following Allen’s disappearance.

Mr O’Dempsey was interviewed about the suspected murder in 1975 and 1979, and called as a witness at a 1980 inquest.

A coroner found Allen was dead, and that his death likely ­occurred in the Warwick area.

Detectives from the homicide squad’s cold-case team and the Brisbane police region launched a review last year. A $250,000 reward and indemnity from prosecution for any accomplice not involved in the actual murder was offered last month. Thousands of pieces of information dating back to 1964 were examined.

“We’ve located and interviewed witnesses and conducted a forensic review of exhibits,” Sergeant Kentwell said. “We have utilised modern policing methodologies to progress a historical ­investigation to this stage.”

Allen, one of 10 siblings, is survived by four sisters and two brothers. His parents have died. The family was ­“extremely relieved with the outcome”.

Australian police have had mixed results with prosecutions in historic murders.

In 2017, two men were jailed for life for the murders of Barbara McCulkin, 34, and her daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, in January 1974.

Also in 2017, NSW police charged a man with murdering three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer, who disappeared from Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong in 1970, then believed to be the ­nation’s oldest cold-case arrest, but the charge was dropped ­before trial.

Mr O’Dempsey and Allen met when they were working on construction of the Leslie Dam near Warwick. The last known sighting of Allen was of him getting into a maroon Holden sedan in Grafton Street, Warwick, on April 18, 1964. Allen was due to play rugby league for Eastern Suburbs the next day but didn’t arrive.

Police had called for a person to come forward who had a conversation with one of Allen’s teammates in the dressing sheds at the game.

There were suspicions Allen was buried in the Leslie Dam wall. “We believe there are still witnesses out there who hold vital information,” Sergeant Kentwell said.