Vicious Irish killer allowed to stay in Australia

No doubt he will be on the streets again in a few years



This man was returned to Melbourne's streets after serving just a year in jail for torturing a woman for 12 hours in front of her children. Instead of being deported home to Northern Ireland after his release, Francis John McCullagh was allowed to stay. His freedom cost another young mother, Melanie Ann Harden, her life on September 11, 1999. Yesterday a jury took 2 1/2 hours to convict him of Ms Harnden's murder -- for a third time.

McCullagh pleaded not guilty, claiming he was so drug-crazed after a three-day binge that he didn't know what he was doing. Two other juries quickly rejected his defence -- one in an hour, one in just 35 minutes -- but he won retrials on technicalities.

Belfast-born McCullagh, 36, strangled Ms Harnden and dumped her body in the bush near Skye after an argument about a missing Celtic cross his grandmother had given him. At the time he had 47 assault convictions and was on parole for brutally attacking an ex-girlfriend. He was also on the run from police after breaching the parole by brawling with hotel bouncers. An arrest warrant was issued but police couldn't find him.

McCullagh, formerly of Swan Walk, Chelsea, is not an Australian citizen but has spent much of his life here. He said he had been taking amphetamines, cannabis and ecstasy and had not slept for three days when he killed Ms Harnden, 21, as they drove to an engagement party. His lawyer, Damian Sheales, said he was guilty of manslaughter by a dangerous and unlawful act, not of murder because he had not been able to intentionally kill or seriously harm Ms Harnden. The prosecution said he was alert enough to drive, to tie up the body and to hide it in scrub.

He was released from jail in April 1998 after serving 12 months of a two-year sentence for a vicious 12-hour attack on his de facto wife in front of their three children. He re-offended just months after being freed. Ms Harnden, the mother of a young daughter, weighed just 48kg [110lb]. "I just grabbed her and was pulling her hair . . . All I remember is choking her and she stopped f------ breathing," McCullagh told police. Justice Betty King remanded McCullagh in custody for a pre-sentence hearing today.

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