Jacqui Crouch from the NSW DPP says Bronwyn Winfield’s suspected murder ‘always stayed with me’

An insider from the NSW DPP’s Lismore office says the suspected murder of Bronwyn Winfield has never left her, breaking ranks to reveal her concerns that ‘shortcuts were taken’ in cases.

Bronwyn Winfield, and Jacqui Crouch, who worked for 30 years in the NSW office of the Director of Public Prosecutions .

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

An insider from the NSW Director of Public Prosecution’s Lismore office says the suspected murder of missing mother Bronwyn Winfield has never left her, breaking ranks to reveal her concerns that “shortcuts were taken” in cases.

Jacqui Crouch saw hundreds of cases in her decades working with the DPP and told The Australian’s investigative podcast, Bronwyn, she was never comfortable with the treatment of the evidence relating to Ms Winfield.

Bronwyn and Jon Winfield.

“In my 30 years of working for the DPP, there’s probably only between three and five matters that have stayed with me. This was one that particularly stayed with me,” she said. “She’s No 1. You see something and you feel in your spirit, gut, heart that it’s not right. You remember.”

Ms Crouch isn’t a lawyer but her role included reading and organising briefs of evidence that would be passed on to crown solicitors. Providing a rare insight into the inner workings of the independent prosecution office, she said she observed corners being cut in various cases and vast differences in the dedication of lawyers she worked alongside, from the “brilliant” to the “lazy”.

Little was done by police to investigate Bronwyn Winfield’s disappearance until 1998, when detective Glenn Taylor took charge and started seriously investigating it as a potential homicide for the first time.

Mr Taylor took the case to the DPP for advice on whether there was enough evidence to take the matter further. He was considering a possible murder charge against Winfield’s estranged husband, bricklayer Jon Winfield, who has always denied any ­involvement.

NSW police say the reinvestigation resulted in the office of the DPP “advising against proceedings in 2000”.

Ms Crouch recalled the brief going to a lawyer manager in the Lismore DPP’s office. She would have closely read the lawyer’s advice at the time. “Initially he said to me, ‘I’m getting rid of it, it’s going back’. Words to that effect. When I pushed him, he said ‘I’m pissing it off, you just do your job’.”

She added: “If there’s not enough, you ask for more. If you think it’s light on, ask for more. He didn’t do it. It went straight back.”

The lawyer responsible for assessing the brief in Winfield’s case declined to comment.

In 2002, then deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich held an inquest and recommended Mr Winfield be prosecuted over his wife’s alleged murder.

Ms Crouch said the findings would have gone to the same lawyer manager in Lismore who previously rejected it.

Then-NSW DPP Nicholas Cowdery, who was ultimately responsible for the final decision, declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence.

Prosecutors can send briefs back to police with advice on further work needed, known as ­requisitions.

Mr Taylor on Wednesday said he did not recall any such suggestions being made by the DPP prior to the inquest.

Former NSW detective Glenn Taylor began investigating in 1998 and went to the DPP’s Lismore office for advice. Picture: Bianca Farmarkis

Ms Crouch said: “I had a lot of respect from a lot of very good lawyers, but a lot of lawyers like to remind me of my role and that I should stay in it.

“I was entitled to my own opinion and thoughts. I’d been there a long time and seen a lot of stuff. There were shortcuts being taken, there were things not being done 100 per cent correctly.”

She added: “I did see matters that were discontinued that perhaps shouldn’t have been. It’s hard to jump over that. We all make errors. And very often (they) aren’t admitted.”

With its work done behind closed doors and its detailed reasoning subject to legal professional privilege, there is no external accountability for the DPP’s decisions.

Winfield’s brother, Andy Read, on Wednesday said the DPP’s lack of accountability was “alarming”.

“How much effort do you put into attempting to do the right thing and into making the right decisions or doing your job properly if there’s no accountability?” he said.

Mr Read said prosecutors should be examining the case again as a result of the podcast’s new witnesses, including nurse Judy Singh, who believes she saw Bronwyn’s body being transported by her husband. “Surely they should be aware of it now. Do they still have their heads in the sand? We wouldn’t know.”

Secrecy surrounding the DPP’s work means that if during a review of a police brief an error is made, such as a misunderstanding of key evidence, the mistake will be concealed along with the rest of the decision-making ­process.

Police and someone in the ­office of the DPP mistakenly believed missing mother Lyn Dawson, now known as Lyn Simms, was seen in a fruit barn by a friend.

After the case was investigated in The Australian’s podcast The Teacher’s Pet, her husband Chris Dawson was convicted of murder. It was only then that it emerged the error with the sighting led to a homicide investigation being abandoned in the early 1990s.

The fallibility of the DPP was also exposed in the office’s handling of the death of Lynette Daley, who bled to death at Ten Mile Beach north of Yamba on Australia Day in 2011, after being raped and subjected to a violent sex act.

After refusing to prosecute her boyfriend, Adrian Attwater, and his friend Paul Maris, the DPP yielded following a public outcry and external review; a jury took just 32 minutes to convict them.

Coincidentally, the Lismore DPP’s office was behind the original refusal to prosecute in Daley’s case.

Ms Crouch first emailed The Australian’s national chief correspondent, Hedley Thomas, in Aug­ust 2022, the day after Dawson was convicted of murder.

Her email drew attention to the Winfield case. “I’ve never ­really felt comfortable about this matter … You may be interested in having a look at it. I feel there is a place for investigative journalists and podcasts in our justice system,” she wrote.

She was unaware that in the background Thomas was already looking into Bronwyn Winfield’s disappearance.