Crime Insiders

When former Queensland Police Setective Keith Banks joined the force, he thought he was signing up to fight crime, not work alongside it. In this episode of Crime Insiders Detectives, Keith takes host Brent Sanders inside the world of outlaw motorcycle gangs, where power, loyalty and fear ruled the streets. But the real danger, he says, was within the Queensland Police itself. During the era of th...

Have you ever heard of the Australian cult The Family...? It was led by a woman named Anne Hamilton-Byrne. How did she control her followers? How did the police eventually catch her? And what happened to the dozens of children that were in the 'care' of The Family. Lex de Man investigated The Family for more than four years, and helped rescue dozens of children from the abuse of Anne Hamilton-Byrn...

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In the early 1990s, former New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange found himself at the center of a defamation storm in Australia. The ABC re-broadcast allegations suggesting he acted improperly while in office. Lange sued, sparking a legal battle that reached the High Court and tested the limits of free political communication under the Constitution.  Lange v ABC set a landmark precedent: pol...

The body of 27-year-old mother of two, Samantha Bodsworth, was found in Noosa, surrounded by wattle trees.  The killer thinks it’s the perfect crime, but what they underestimated was the power of the tiny, silent witnesses clinging to almost everything they touched – pollen. In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders | Forensics, former host Kathryn Fox talks to Dr Lynne Milne, the...

Andrew Atkinson is a former Victorian police officer.  In this episode of Crime Insiders | Detectives, Andrew discusses his journey from general duties to the Technical Surveillance Unit and his deployments with the United Nations in Timor and Iraq. He candidly addresses the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder on his life and career, emphasising the importance of mental health awareness...

A ship is wrecked off the coast of Western Australia. It’s cargo sank with it. Many of those on board perished in the tragedy. Who owns what remains on board the ship at the bottom of the Ocean? Back in the 1970s, one man decided to find out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you be able to get away with lying? In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders | Detectives, expert lie detector Steve Van Aperen talks to former host Adam Shand about the clear give aways of liars, how certain criminals have tried to clear a lie detector test and some of the biggest murder cases that have been brought to justice through a simple line of deceptive questioning. See omnystudio.c...

In this special bonus episode of Crime Insiders, we go behind the scenes with our Forensics host, Liz Porter to find out what it was about forensics that lured her into her extraordinary career. Weekend Briefing host Antoinette Lattouf digs deep with Liz about how forensics is not what you see on television and how and why Liz came to be a forensics author and podcast host.   See omnystudio.c...

A murder, a conviction and a twenty-year fight to clear your name. This is the story of Henry James Keogh who was convicted and served twenty years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. How did he finally receive justice and what can we learn from the botched forensic procedures that led to his wrongful conviction See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More Aussies have tattoos than ever before; 1 in 5 of us have at least 1 tattoo. That number is growing. Even when removed or burnt, forensic experts can use tattoos to identify offenders and victims of crimes. This is one of many techniques forensic photographers like Karen Byrne use to document everything from crime scenes to autopsies. In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders | Forensics, forme...

Professor Paul Bleakley is a Gold Coast-born academic based in Kentucky in the United States. He’s an expert on child abuse and investigative developments.  In this episode of Crime Insiders | Detectives, Paul talks us through Queensland’s Strike Force Argos.  He also tells host Brent Sanders about the Mr Big operation, the sting that caught Daniel Morcombe's killer, mad...

Police employee Curtis Cheng was shot dead outside Police Headquarters in Parramatta, Sydney, 10 years ago this week. The gunman was a 15-year-old boy radicalised by religious extremists. In this episode of Crime Insiders Judgements , uncover how a teenager came to be wielding a pistol on a quiet Friday afternoon, and the important role of community leaders in responding to growing concerns about...

Sydney standover man Tony Hines' body was found strewn against a cliff face in Maroubra in 2003. How did police begin their investigation, and what contributed to the eventual outcome of the case? Former NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Owens is one of the state's most respected officers, and has seen some of NSW's most infamous criminal operations unfold. In this Rewind episode of Crime Inside...

Five bodies. Three generations. One room. Zero answers.  In 2008, a luxury home in California’s Orange County became the site of an unimaginable discovery. Inside were the decomposed bodies of five family members, spanning three generations. But there was no note, no clear motive, and no sign of struggle. Outwardly, the family seemed perfectly normal. In this episode of Crime Insiders F...

In the 1990s, young women began vanishing from Perth’s wealthy suburb of Claremont. The disappearances sparked fear across the city, and launched Australia’s longest-running homicide investigation. For nearly two decades, the Claremont Serial Killer remained a mystery. Then, advances in DNA technology cracked the case wide open. In this episode of Crime Insiders Judgements, we go into...

A merciless serial killer terrorised women in the United Kingdom with a spate of brutal attacks, leaving police and forensic experts stumped. Now, almost 50 years later, forensics has learned, and built more advanced technologies that could've helped catch the killer sooner, and potentially saved lives. In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders Forensics, former host Kathryn Fox sits down with Dr M...

In 1986, a car bomb ripped through Melbourne’s Russell Street Police Headquarters, killing one and injuring 21. It was Australia’s first taste of domestic terrorism, a shocking ‘revenge attack’ that turned the heart of the city into a war zone. Among the injured was then-21-year-old Constable Debra Richardson.  Deb spent more than 3 decades in fear of what would happen...

In 1992, the High Court handed down a ruling that shattered centuries of denial. Eddie Mabo’s fight for recognition overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius and forever changed Australia’s relationship with its First Peoples. This landmark decision not only rewrote the nation’s story but also paved the way for the Native Title Act, reshaping law, land, and history. In this e...

In March 1991, five violent offenders stole a prison garbage truck and smashed their way through the gates of Brisbane’s notorious Boggo Road Gaol. The pursuit that followed left the country and those watching live on Channel 7 stunned. Shaun O'Gorman is one of Queensland's most experienced police dog handlers. He worked in the K9 unit for much of his career, and became one of the state's mo...

In 2006, underworld figure Lee Patrick Torney vanished without a trace. Nearly a year later, forensic anthropologist Dr. Soren Blau was lowered into an abandoned mineshaft outside the old gold-mining township of Chewton, near Castlemaine, Victoria. Soren pieced together the secret clues hidden on the surface of bones and what they showed about injuries and the circumstances of death. Soren also re...

In 2021, a neatly dressed man in his 60s walks into a Sydney Police Station. He looks like a regular guy. But police are stunned - this isn’t just any man. It’s Darko Desic. A fugitive who escaped from Grafton Prison with a hacksaw and bolt cutters three decades earlier. A man who was a prolific weed grower. A man who lived in hiding for 30 years - right under the noses of the police.&...

Two people vanish without a trace from Logan, south of Brisbane in Queensland.  They hadn’t been seen in days. Their phones rang out. Their social media...silent.  Something had happened, but no one could possibly have predicted what was about to unfold… This episode contains references to violent crime. If you or anyone you know needs assistance, contact Lifeline on 13 11 1...

It took 37 years, a failed murder trial, and an Australian mathematician to finally prosecute one of Scotland's most infamous serial killers. Professor David Balding is a pioneer in the field of mathematical computational genetics. In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders Forensics, former host Kathryn Fox learns how David uses tools like probability to calculate the likelihood of DNA belonging to...

The courtroom drama that gripped Australia has finally reached its conclusion. Erin Patterson, the woman at the centre of the nation’s most infamous murder case in recent history, has been sentenced to life for three counts of murder.   Justice Beale did not hold back in his scathing remarks, saying Erin had zero remorse, chilling premeditation, and victims left across generations.&nbsp...