Crime Insiders

Dr Peter Tickner is a seasoned auditor with over 40 years of experience across the NHS, central government and police.  Peter became Head of Internal Audit of Her Majesty’s Treasury in 1988. In 1995 Peter left to become Director of Internal Audit for the Met Police, a post he held until early retirement in 2009, when he set up his own consultancy and fraud investigation business. H...

A stolen car, a drunken joyride, and a woman left with injuries so severe, she’ll live with them for the rest of her life. What happens when a crime becomes a civil lawsuit?  When the thief becomes the victim and the driver becomes the one left holding the legal wheel? Miller v Miller is one of Australia's most significant legal challenges, determining if someone is still invo...

In 1997, two young girls from Bega in regional New South Wales were kidnapped, raped and murdered.  In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders | Detectives, former host Adam Shand talks with former NSW Detective Sergeant Mark Winterflood to sift through the details and process of receiving the first notifications of the missing girls.  He explains the hard reality of not pursuing clues and...

Aged just 13, Thomas Carrick was placed under covert surveillance by the Australian Federal Police and lured into online conversations with them, posing as fake ISIS operatives. Ultimately, he was charged with terrorism offences. The most powerful intelligence agencies in the country knew Thomas had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, and lived with an intellectual disability. Yet underc...

A woman wakes to a tragic accident on her rural Queensland property. She’s told one of her friends has fallen into a woodchipper. He was clearing trees with two other men at the time, but police soon suspect his death   was no mishap and a murder investigation commences. They want to find the people responsible, and after the news goes public, members of the community share some theorie...

Triple murderer Sef Gonzales has been granted the right to appeal against his life sentence. Gonzales was just 23 when he murdered his parents and sister over 20 years ago.  Sef has always maintained his innocence. Today, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal granted him the right to appeal because Gonzales successfully argued that he had lived with PTSD after being sexually abused as a child...

Twenty years ago this year, Michael Long set fire to the Palace Backpackers hostel in the regional Queensland town of Childers. Fifteen people were killed, nine men and six women. Long inititally admitted to the crimes, but later retracted his confession. In this episode of Crime Insiders | Judgement we go into his trial and also the Coroner's Inquiry to learn what happened on that fateful night t...

Richard Bassed is one of Australia's most experienced forensic odontologists. His work is complex and important in solving high profile murders - like that of The Vampire Gigolo - but also, in identifying victims of mass fatalities and mass disasters.  In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders | Forensics, former host Kathryn Fox discovers how forensic odontology is helping to solve and preven...

Former QLD Detective Inspector Mal Gundry was head of the Queensland Police Criminal Investigation Bureau at Indooroopilly in Brisbane. He was integral part of the investigation into Sean Sargent, a 24-year-old Australian Army lieutenant, who disappeared in the early hours of March 20, 1999, after attending a party in St Lucia, Brisbane. Originally from Mackay, Queensland, Sargent was stationed at...

Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter Khandalyce Pearce were tragically murdered in 2008 in a case that shocked Australia. Their deaths remained unsolved for several years, with their identities and the circumstances of their deaths only being uncovered in 2015. In this episode of Crime Insiders | Judgement we learn how police linked the two deaths and how they tracked down the man responsible....

A crime without a motive. A detective who investigated the unthinkable. On September 2nd, 2001, a father murdered his three children, Jackson (6), Taylah (11 months), and Mikaylah (11 weeks). To this day, his motive remains unknown.  Former Detective Carla Tomadini was on the frontline of the investigation. At the same time, she had two young children of her own. Carla spent nearly two decade...

Reporting a sexual assault is deeply challenging in any context, so what happens when you’re in a war-torn region, where infrastructure has crumbled, and justice systems are non-existent? Associate Professor David Wells retired as Victoria's top forensic physician in 2013. Since then, his work has taken him to some of the world's most volatile places, including Gaza, the West Bank, and other...

In the dead of night, Friday October 15, 2021, on the rugged coastline of Western Australia, four-year old Cleo Smith is abducted from a tent at a campsite. Her disappearance sparked a massive police search and captured the nation’s attention with ‘round the clock media coverage. The child was found 18 days later in what was one of Australia’s most successful police operations. W...

It’s National Science Week….Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology. In this episode of Crime Insiders Rewind, we re-visit three episodes of our Forensics series to learn how science helps us better understand how examining the human body contributes to solving crime or even someone being exonerated, and fibre and the role that fibre plays in solving crimes. We...

Kathleen Folbigg is front page of every newspaper and news website this morning after we learned the NSW government had paid her just $2million in compensation after she served twenty years in prison after being wrongfully jailed for the deaths of her four children. NSW Premier Chris Minns has said Ms Folbigg should sue his government if she wants more compensation.  Ms Folbigg told News Ltd...

In this episode, Brent Sanders speaks with former NSW Police officer Justyn Backhouse, who spent 25 years on the front lines of law enforcement. From high-speed pursuits to complex aerial rescues, Justin’s career spanned some of the most intense and demanding roles in policing. But behind the action was a hidden cost. Diagnosed with PTSD in 2021, Justin turned to writing to process his exper...

Here's all the evidence the jury in the mushroom triple murder trial wasn't allowed to hear. In this special episode, The Briefing's host Tara Cassidy joins us to reveal allegations that murderer Erin Patterson had tried to poison and kill her estranged ex-husband Simon multiple times. Until today, this information has been under a strict non-publication order by the Victorian Supreme Court. ...

Friday January 20, 2017 in Melbourne’s CBD. Bustling Bourke Street became the scene of unspeakable horror. Six people were killed, 27 others suffered horrific injuries when James Gargasoulas – high on drugs – deliberately drove his car through a crowd of shoppers. It was one of the worst examples of mass murder in Australian history. A warning: this episode contains details...

A tragedy that rocked Melbourne in the late 80s, and one that left the nation questioning its own attitude towards guns and violence.  Former Commissioner of Victoria Police Kel Glare was just a few months away from getting the top job when an armed gunman killed seven and injured 19 people in Melbourne's inner North. It's a case that stood out to Kel for its violence and senselessness, and o...

David Wells was the Victoria Police Surgeon during one of Australia’s most disturbing unsolved crime sprees - the abductions and assaults of three young girls, and the suspected murder of a fourth, by the predator known only as Mr Cruel. In this powerful and rare interview, Associate Professor Wells shares what it was like to examine the victims, the moment he returned a girl her parents bel...

In July 1995, sex worker Grace Heathcote was lured to a Cairns motel under the guise of friendship — but what unfolded was a brutal murder. Her body was discovered in a motel room with injuries so severe they shocked experienced forensic pathologists. Within days, two women — Kerry Catherine Lowrie and Kerri-Leah Michelle Ross — were identified as persons of interest. B...

Have you ever watched a movie where police exhume a body?  Why does it happen? And what do forensics learn by doing it? Dr Jo Duflou is a privately practicing forensic pathologist. He's worked across a range of forensic fields and has performed thousands of autopsies, examinations and post mortem analyses. In this Rewind episode of Crime Insiders with former Crime Insiders Forensics host...

David Raymond spent almost 30 years as a QLD Police dog handler.  He caught killers, found people reported missing and saved the lives of people who had attempted self harm. In this episode of Crime Insiders | Detectives, Brent Sanders sits down with David to learn what it's like to spend your life beside a working police dog.  It's a fascinating insight into what being a dog handler ent...

In 2012, Brisbane father and real estate agent Gerard Baden-Clay reported his wife missing. Ten days later, Allison Baden-Clay’s body was found beneath a bridge, and suspicion turned to her husband. This is a story of betrayal, an outstanding forensic investigation and a series of red flags that didn’t align with the story Gerard Baden-Clay was telling police and the public. His clande...

This Rewind episode tells the story of how the Newcastle Knights superstar was covertly surveilled and arrested for drug trafficking. It threw his career and sport into disrepute - and, gave an insight into the fascinating culture of organised crime and sport in Australia.  As well as arresting high profile sports stars, Former NSW Detective Sergeant Craig Semple has tackled some of Australia...