Australian True Crime

If you haven't listened to the first part of this story, you might want to go back and listen before diving into this episode. It contains a lot of background you need to know about Vanessa's own story, but it's also a unique insight into how one human being's life can be completely derailed by the intervention of another, particularly during childhood...

This is the first of a two part Australian True Crime special because Vanessa’s story just refused to be contained in a single episode. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a story that shouldn’t be rushed. It’s not every day you have the opportunity to hear first hand how a well-behaved, studious, happy child, from a loving home found herself estranged from her family and living on the streets before her twentieth birthday. But that’s Vanessa’s story...

Roger Eichler is a former country copper who served in NSW police from the 1990's. Like so many others, too many others, Roger eventually left the service on a medical discharge with debilitating PTSD. Roger Eichler has written a book on his experience as a country copper, it's called "The Price Of Protecting Others", and he joins us today to talk about it.

You can buy Roger's book here: https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-price-of-protecting-others-roger-eichler/book/9780228863038...

As Jeffrey Lindsell’s family and friends gathered around his hospital bed in the days after his house caught on fire, attention turned to his volatile on-off relationship with Amanda Zukowski. It seemed as though Jeffrey had been living in an abusive relationship and had been a victim of coercive control and intimate partner violence...

Jason Roberts, 41 years old, was recently freed for the first time in twenty two years by the Supreme Court of Victoria. He was seventeen years old when two police officers, Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller were shot and murdered on Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, Victoria. Roberts was one of two who were convicted of the murders all those years ago. It's a very infamous case in Australia, and a very complicated one...

The Magistrates’ Court is the workhorse of the legal system, hearing both criminal and civil matters. Magistrates’ Courts around Australia hear the vast majority of sentenced court cases - more than 90 per cent in fact.

Michael Challinger is a criminal barrister based in Melbourne and has been working in Victorian courts since 1975 – representing clients, mostly in the Victorian Magistrates’ Court and Children’s Court...

We've spoken a great deal on this show over the years about the work of our state coroners, and today we finally got to meet one. Leveaaque Peterson was appointed a coroner by the Victorian state government in February 2020, and throughout her career in the legal system has chosen to take on some big and uncomfortable challenges. We'll find out why she finds that kind of law interesting, and also, what being a coroner actually entails...

Many offenders who remain incarcerated can use their superannuation upon release to return to their lives luxuriating in their super, whilst their survivors generally are unemployed due to the longstanding impact these horrendous crimes have had on them...

Dr Ahona Guha is a Melbourne-based Forensic and Clinical Psychologist...

Australia in the mid twentieth century has a dark history of forced adoption. Women who did not fit the moral expectations of the time (usually those who were young and unmarried) had their children taken from them at birth, often with little to no information left behind for them to be reunited.

Our guest today, Lily Arthur, is one story of many, and it is an absolutely heartbreaking one...