High Court will not hear Bowraville appeal

The relatives of three children murdered decades ago have protested at the High Court after it refused to reopen the unsolved cases.

Colleen Walker was 16 when she disappeared from the northern NSW town of Bowraville. The High Court has ruled that it will not hear Bowraville appeal. Picture: Supplied

The High Court has refused to hear an appeal against a recent court decision regarding the unsolved murder of three Aboriginal children in New South Wales, effectively drawing a line under the case almost 29 years after the first child went missing.

Relatives of the three children painted their bodies in ochre and left white handprints on the walls of the Law Courts building in Sydney following the decision.

“This is for you Colleen, this is for Evelyn, this is for Clinton,” said Dolly Jerome, the aunt of one of the murdered children, 16-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux, outside the court.

“We’ve come this far, this far, and they shut the door on us. How dare they? How dare they?” Ms Jerome said.

Elijah Duroux outside the High Court in Sydney today. Picture: Britta Campion

“Three kids! Three kids and their murderer is still walking around today.”

Evelyn Greenup’s aunt Michelle Jarrett said the families would never give up the fight for justice.

“This is not the end of the road for us,” she said. “We will be coming back, we will be petitioning the NSW government to support David Shoebridge’s double jeopardy law.”

The Greens MP told reporters the case was “a gross injustice” and his proposed amendment to the law “opens up a very narrow and fresh gateway for the families in Bowraville”.

“We’ve come this far, this far and they’ve shut the door on us. How dare they? How dare they?”
Dolly Jerome, aunt of murdered 16 year old Clinton Speedy-Duroux.#Bowraville

— Dan Box (@DanBox10) March 21, 2019

The case centres around the disappearance of three Aboriginal children from the town of Bowraville, on the NSW mid-north coast, over five months between 1990 -1991.

Sixteen-year-old Colleen Walker was the first to go missing, followed by Evelyn Greenup, 4, and Clinton.

All three were staying in houses on the town’s Aboriginal mission at the time they disappeared. Two of their bodies were found months later dumped beside a dirt road outside town.

Colleen’s clothes were recovered from the water near where that road passes over a river. Her body has not been found.

A man was tried twice over the murder of Evelyn and Clinton and found not guilty on each occasion.

Four-year-old Evelyn Greenup disappeared after a party at her grandmother’s house. Picture: Supplied

In 2016, following a campaign by the children’s families and renewed coverage of the case in The Australian, the NSW Government referred the case to the appeal court, seeking to have those verdicts overturned.

The Court of Criminal Appeal declined to do so in 2018 and the NSW Government then sought to challenge that verdict in the High Court.

After legal argument, which focused on the meaning of individual words in the relevant legislation, the High Court declined to take the case further this morning.

“We can find no reason to doubt the construction of the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal,” Chief Justice Susan Keifel said.

“It follows that there is no basis for the grant of special leave (to appeal) and the application must be refused.”

Additional reporting: AAP