Sydney’s gay hate murrs: Dark secret behd glterg beach culture | — Atralia’s leadg news se

Contents:

• BONDI RISE MEMORIAL HONOURS VICTIMS OF SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM DURG 1970S TO 1990S
• DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?
• NOW THEY'RE 40-SOMETHG, WILL BONDI'S GAY-BASHG GANGS DOB KILLERS FOR $100,000
• AUTHOR DUNN MCNAB HOP ONE OF THE GAY HATE CRIME GANG MEMBERS FALLY SPEAKS OUT
• BLOODSPORT: THE BONDI GAY MURRS
• INVTIGATN REVEALED EVIL AND VLENCE DIRECTED AT GAY MEN ACROSS SYDNEY
• FALLY ABLE TO BE HIMSELF, KRCHIKORN BEME VICTIM OF SYDNEY’S GAY HATE MURRS
• AIRDATE: CIA: THE BONDI GAY MURRS
• QUTNS REMA OVER THE MARKS PARK ATHS THAT ROCKED SYDNEY'S GAY MUNY

BONDI RISE MEMORIAL HONOURS VICTIMS OF SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM DURG 1970S TO 1990S

"It was part of life beg a gay man Sydney at the time, you were aware of the hate crim … uld've been me, rather than the people I know, " Mr Wotherspoon lived through the 70s to 90s, a dark chapter of the Harbour Cy's history where dozens of mal were sla btal fashn. (ABC News: Harriet Tatham)Liberal MP Shayne Mallard chaired the parliamentary mtee rponsible for remendg the legal a victim of a homophobic asslt himself, he said was time for those rponsible to be serve time.

DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?

The unvarnished fact is that late at night, Marks Park, a grassy verge ppg the headland and the ncrete pathway skirtg the cliff face, had been a gay beat – a place where homosexual men would socialise and hook up – sce at least the late 1920s. Gangs like the Bondi Boys (otherwise known by their graffi tag PTK, or People that Kill) would prowl here, rryg out brazen acts of vlence; ’s likely that at least a few were serial offenrs; perpetrators of an anti-gay murr spree that swept across Sydney at the is no simple whodunn; volv a tangled tale of hate crim volvg multiple spects, gangs prisg up to 30 members, some of whom circulated among other gangs across Sydney, posg a dark mosaic of murr. This is a lot more than n be said for the other men killed here, or for that matter, the vast majory of other murrs of gay men blightg Sydney at the a year to the day earlier, on another eezg night July 1989, Ross Warren, a handsome, charismatic weatherman and newsrear om WIN-TV Wollongong, vanished on this headland the early hours of a Saturday morng.

NOW THEY'RE 40-SOMETHG, WILL BONDI'S GAY-BASHG GANGS DOB KILLERS FOR $100,000

”In what was perhaps another watershed moment this year, a 75-year-old man was arrted for the murr of Raymond Keam, a martial arts expert and father of two who was found beaten to ath January 1987 at Alison Park, Randwick, then a well-known gay beat Sydney’s east. As Sue Thompson, a former state ombudsman’s vtigator who joed the police force 1990 to ordate s liaison wh the gay and lbian muny, tells me the podst: “Cliffs were the easit weapon; you didn’t have to rry anythg wh you.

AUTHOR DUNN MCNAB HOP ONE OF THE GAY HATE CRIME GANG MEMBERS FALLY SPEAKS OUT

”For Thompson, beg a liaison officer was eply personal: one of her close iends, a gay man, had been murred only months before she took the role, and she was ls than imprsed wh the police rponse. Activists splattered red pat over 11 cy buildgs, cludg state parliament, the Downg Centre urt plex, and the headquarters of Channel 10 and The Sydney Morng Herald, then loted Jon Street, class were sprgg up ner-cy gyms and muny groups, and a group of gay volunteers – some of them former members of the army, navy and police force – began foot patrols along Oxford Street and Darlghurst Street foot patrol RtersStill, the murrs ntued. In May, one of their own, social science teacher Wayne Tonks, was murred his Artarmon apartment by two young men (not his stunts) was outrage when the so-lled gay panic fence, a cel wrkle the law that enabled killers to claim an alleged sexual advance provoked them to a murro rage, was ed the murr trial of Christopher McKnon, arrted for killg Mrice McCarty, a technician wh the Atralian Ballet, April 1991.

BLOODSPORT: THE BONDI GAY MURRS

”Parkhill nces that the culture of the NSW police force reflected broar societal norms of the time, although possibly exacerbated by a mostly male staff and the AIDS crisis, which provid those wh an agenda agast gay men wh the perfect ammunn to stigmatise the LGBTQ muny even more. Earlier this year, the fdgs om an 18-month parliamentary quiry, Gay and Transgenr Hate Crim between 1970 and 2010, found that the NSW Police Force had failed s rponsibily to properly vtigate historil hate crim.

INVTIGATN REVEALED EVIL AND VLENCE DIRECTED AT GAY MEN ACROSS SYDNEY

NSW Police effectively reversed ronial fdgs about three potential gay-hate related murrs Bondi whout speakg to dozens of persons of tert or tellg the roner, an quiry has ’s special missn of quiry to LGBTIQ hate crim has heard police set up the secretive Strike Force Neiwand 2015 to revtigate the aths of Ross Warren, John Rsell and Gill Mattai, who died or disappeared the 1980s around Bondi’s Marks Park, a known gay Rsell, Ross Warren and Gill The Sydney Morng HeraldTheir aths had already been the subject of a police strike force and ronial puty state roner Jacquele Milledge found 2005 that Warren and Rsell had died after meetg wh “foul play”, while the e and manner of ath of Mattai was untermed.

In 2012 the New South Wal puty state roner Carmel Forb overturned the suici fdg but uld not terme how he police have formed Operatn Parrabell, a team of eight tectiv who will apply an FBI measure of hate bias – creria to terme if a crime is motivated by bias agast, for stance, sexual orientatn – to see if as many as 88 Sydney aths datg om the 1970s onward, cludg 30 unsolved s, were gay hate s were marked suici or e unknown, but past police nclns are now beg lled to qutn.

FALLY ABLE TO BE HIMSELF, KRCHIKORN BEME VICTIM OF SYDNEY’S GAY HATE MURRS

A new SBS vtigatn has unvered “ser mistak” were ma the ial vtigatns, cludg the misspellg of one ad man’s Johnson tells Guardian Atralia that applyg the FBI hate bias creria is unlikely to unver gay hate crim bee the strgent checklist requir s to be solved, perpetrators to be intified and their hatred of victims to be proclaimed.

The aim is to attract a natnal dience to the story, and to unver more possible gay hate crim and murrs producer, Darren Dale, says he was spired by hearg 2012 about the murr of Ahmed Ghoniem, who was found Sydney apartment wh multiple stab wounds and blunt trma juri. “I live Potts Pot [ Sydney], and I thought, if there is someone attackg and murrg gay men – more gay people livg there than I spect anywhere else Atralia – then how e ’s not any of the papers, ’s not been the news?

Shawn Seet, the director of the ld Canberra polil drama The Co, is at the the prent day, fictnal Detective Senr Constable Tori Ltigman, played by Yael Stone of Orange Is the New Black, her own DNA to see if match DNA found on a piece of lead pipg, which she spects may be her gay brother’s. His 1989 drowng had been rerd as a drama’s central ncerns are: Did the fictnal Kyle “Hammers” Hampton (Craig McLachlan) – a one-time member of a gay-bashg gang – play a role the men’s aths? Photograph: Sean O'Reilly/SBSThe ‘gay ATM’It was not until 2005, 17 years after Stt Johnson’s ath, that Steve realised his beloved brother might have died vlently: he had been sent a clippg about the vlent aths of three other gay men year the NSW senr puty state roner Jacquele Milledge found that the televisn newsrear Ross Warren, 25, and barman John Rsell, 31, had been murred two separate attacks 1989, most probably thrown off a cliff at Bondi’s Marks Park, which was known as a gay beat.

AIRDATE: CIA: THE BONDI GAY MURRS

Photograph: Steve JohnsonSteve Johnson believ, along wh many others, that herent bias play a role both the mimal media verage of the stori and the public and police rponse to vlent crim agast gay people. His brother says this was an implsible ncln: many gay men have told his vtigatn that the area had been a popular beat sce the 1960s but gay men were often too sred to report asslts bee “police treated them like perpetrators, not victims”’s vtigatn also clud terviewg former gay-bashg gang members, who had sentially operated wh impuny bee there was still a “lot of hatred towards gays”, he says.

Olr today, and probably wiser, perhaps they've grown a nscience, or a maybe, after all the years, they will be tempted by the $100, 000 rewards announced on Tuday to dob the killers of three gay men who died separately more than 25 years ago.

It giv weight to the origal police fdg that he mted report, by Detective Chief Inspector Pamela Young of the Unsolved Homici Team, also sts doubt on the epimic theory of experts, cludg the former police gay liaison Sue Thompson, who had intified up to 30 potential unsolved gay-hate murrs om the late 1970s to late 1990s. The report puts eight unsolved murrs the gay-hate Inspector Young, who had a publicised fd wh the Johnson fay, has been removed om that se at the requt of State Coroner Michael Barn, who plaed that an "unprecented" terview she gave to the ABC's Latele uld unrme public nfince her impartialy. ”Steve Johnson would return to Atralia several tim, doggedly termed to prove his brother uld not have killed the way, Steve and a team of supporters and vtigators would learn of chillgly siar aths other astal of young men were turng up at the bottom of cliffs, not only at Blue Fish Pot where Stt had been found, but at another betiful astal spot the harbour cy’s the men simply vanished, their bodi never to be found, at a place lled Marks Park, which the 1980s was a killg ground for a gang of youths aged as young as 15 huntg gay Stt Johnson died, he had left his cloth neatly fold at the top of Blue Fish Pot.

QUTNS REMA OVER THE MARKS PARK ATHS THAT ROCKED SYDNEY'S GAY MUNY

“Took off his cloth, laid down, and so somebody probably walked up to Stt while he was there and proposed sex, proposed somethg, ” Steve told Atralian began vtigatg whether Blue Fish Pot, like Marks Park, was a known as a beat among Sydney’s gay muny.

Homosexualy was only crimalised Atralia the two s between the start of the 1970s and the end of the 1980s, up to 88 gay men Sydney’s east and metro areas were documented to have disappeared spic circumstanc, or were the victims of 1985, 27-year-old French natnal Gill Mattai was livg was last seen walkg along the astal walkg track at Tamarama on September 15 that year by a neighbour.

Between 1989 and 1999 around 46 known gay hate murrs took place New South Wal, many of them still one month alone 1990, 38 gay-related beatgs were reported to Surry Hills or Kgs Cross 2000, rpondg to pleas om fai of the murred or missg, NSW Police reopened thoands of s and took more than 400 2002, they prented a brief to then-Deputy State Coroner Jacquele Milledge. The Sydney Cliff murrs were a strg of murrs om the 80’s through the 90’s agast gay men the of Sydney, Atralia which may have had as many as 90 victims — primarily Marks Park at the top of the Bondi Beach cliffs, which was a popular cisg spot for gay men, but also some other areas that were popular “gay beats”. Acrdg to retired High Court jtice Michael Kirby, the police viewed gay men as low level crimals (even though sodomy was crimalized there 1984) and thought that homosexuals should pretty much expect to be hurt or killed.