73 seconds to a tragic death
Tyler Cassidy was a troubled kid. Police officers Colin Dods and Richie Blundell were working an afternoon shift in the Northcote divisional van. Their lives would collide on a balmy summer evening in late 2008 at a Northcote skate park. A distraught Cassidy, 15, was in no mood to negotiate with t…
The cyber cop chasing the crypto criminals
Very few people have heard of Detective Sergeant Dion Achtypis - but there may well be no more important investigator in Australia. You won’t see him holding a press conference at a murder scene or commanding a squad of detectives. And he doesn’t use a sledgehammer during raids - he gains access i…
Belinda's partner was beyond help. Now, he helps her save strangers
Belinda Bozykowski was never a police officer. But her partner, Laurie Fox, was. On the last day of 2012, Fox took his own life, leaving her with two young sons, a broken heart and a million questions. Belinda is as brave as any Valour Award winner. After her partner's death, she completed her mi…
Bread, water and the Liquorice Mile: Inside Pentridge Prison
Prodigious armed robber and expert escaper John Killick escaped custody in three states, once in a helicopter hijacked by his girlfriend. Most of the police and prison officers who chased or caged him over more than 50 years are long gone, while John has written five books. But the brutality of …
Kaera was shot in cold blood on a city street, and we blamed her
It was early on Monday, June 18, 2007, just as city workers were arriving at their jobs that Hells Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson finally imploded. First he beat and kicked a woman in a strip club before dragging her along King Street. Then he saw his girlfriend, Kaera Douglas, who had just arr…
Kid Currie: Life and death in the Special Operations Group
As a policeman, Tony “Kid” Currie lived on the edge. In the SOG he shot and killed one suspect and in a second incident left one with life-altering injuries. Some thought he was a loose cannon and were happy when he resigned. Tony and his wife Michelle take us through the shootings and his career …
Blood on the steps of Flinders St: The brave men who chased a police killer
Keith Pickering was just 19 and a young cop when he was on point duty outside Flinders Street Station in January 1974. He heard a vendor yell out and saw a man crouching with a bloodied carving knife. The mentally disturbed man, James Belsey, had just fatally cut the throat of Constable Norm Curso…
The double murder-suicide that rocked a small country town
Kevin Knowles was a brute, a thug and a suspected double murderer. Kirkstall was a lovely county town inhabited mainly by young families looking to build a safe and caring community. That is until Knowles moved into town. Travis Cashmore was a quiet hippy type bloke, well regarded by the locals…
A cultish nightmare: David’s 12 years in hell with The Family
From the age of two, David Freeman was hidden with a group of children in a remote country house, described as a school that was actually a prison. The cult, led by the charismatic and seriously loopy Anne Hamilton-Byrne, survived for 20 years. David spent most of his adult life trying to forget …
The judge who committed three deadly sins
Howard Nathan was a Supreme Court judge for 14 years. Many of his peers did not accept him because he was gay, Jewish and left-wing. One judge did not speak to him during his entire time on the bench. In a frank interview, Nathan talks of the hypocrisy of the establishment where gays were hounded,…