Lazy Australian police ignore a murder

Getting police to investigate ANYTHING (unless you start smoking in a bar, or criticize homosexuality, of course) is an uphill battle in both Australia and Britain these days. Only constant pressure from relatives in this case finally got justice

It was a beautiful summer's evening and the moon was up. Too beautiful to be identifying bodies at the Glebe Morgue. About 10 pm on Sunday, January 9, 2000, Alan Urwin and his wife, Margaret, cigarettes in hand, stood at the back entrance of the morgue. They were still in shock after identifying Margaret's sister and brother-in-law, Pam, 50, and Bill Weightman, 51, who had been killed in a car accident earlier that day. As they stood bewildered in the laneway, Mr Urwin remarked that the Weightmans looked like they'd been in a fight rather than a car accident. "Pam's hair was matted," he said, "and Bill looked as though he'd been punched in the mouth and the eye."

Just before 10am a park ranger had found their car down an embankment off Pipeline Road, which runs off Heathcote Road, near Heathcote in Sydney's south. According to post-mortems which were conducted on the Monday morning, Mr Weightman had been found squashed under the steering wheel, not wearing a seat belt. He had a number of bruises on his arms and legs. Mrs Weightman was sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle held up by her seatbelt with her head resting against the front passenger window.

"There were no skid marks on the road approaching the embankment and no damage to the guard rail before the entrance," recorded a forensic pathologist, Dr Allan Cala. He also said: "There was minor damage to the front of the vehicle but otherwise the vehicle appeared intact." While noting extensive bruising on Mrs Weightman's arms, as well as Mr Weightman's legs and arms, fractures in the bones of his neck and traces of sleeping tablets in both, Dr Cala concluded there "was no positive evidence to indicate foul play at this point in time".

The Urwins had been called to identify the bodies because police had been unable to locate the Weightmans' only child, David, 20, who lived with his adoptive parents in Glen Alpine in Sydney's south-west. At 3am on that Monday, the Urwins finally tracked down their nephew at a friend's house. Mrs Urwin was sobbing as she tried to tell Weightman that his parents were dead. But she received no response. As she recalled: "He sort of shrugged his shoulders and then Richard [Rehfeldt], one of his friends, put his arm around him and said, 'Are you all right, mate?'."

Weightman went home with his aunt and uncle. They found it odd that he didn't ask for any details about his parents' death. He knocked back a couple of whiskies and went to bed. At nine he rose asking for tea and toast. Later that day, he put his parents' house on the market. "He finds out at 3am his parents are dead. By two o'clock that same afternoon their house is up for sale," Mr Urwin said.

Later that afternoon, when the Urwins went round to the Weightmans' house, they noticed Mrs Weightman's jewellery, including her wedding ring, sitting by a computer. "She wouldn't go out without her wedding ring," Mrs Urwin said . Making them more concerned was that their beds had not been slept in.

Having viewed the accident scene, the Urwins were completely puzzled. Why would the Weightmans be driving in the Heathcote National Park, a long way from their home, late on a Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday morning? And how had the accident happened given there were no skid marks? "I'm just a humble boilermaker, with no training of any detective work, but it looked wrong to me," Mr Urwin said.

The following day the Urwins went to the police to air their suspicions that their nephew had played a part in his parents' death. In her statement to police on January 11, Mrs Urwin said: "The accident all appears very strange to me, as I cannot imagine why they were on Heathcote Road, or how the accident could have possibly occurred." The police did not agree, telling the Urwins that the deaths were suspected to be suicide.

Mrs Urwin had trouble coping after the funeral. Her weight fell to 40 kilograms. A grief counsellor at Glebe Coroner's Court arranged a meeting with Dr Cala in April. The Urwins pointed out that Mrs Weightman's injuries appeared greater than her husband's, her hair was matted, every toe was bruised and yet it was Mr Weightman who wasn't wearing a seat belt.

Mr Urwin: "I said to Dr Cala, 'I feel a bit awkward saying this but I honestly feel that Pam and Bill were murdered and that David murdered them."' Mr Urwin recalled Dr Cala laughing, saying: "No, you're becoming paranoid. I can assure you that the bruising is consistent with the motor vehicle going down the embankment." The pair left feeling they had no alternative but to accept Dr Cala's explanation.

Not long after, Mr Urwin gave a copy of Dr Cala's report to a clerical worker in the police force to photocopy for him. "She came back and said, 'I think this couple was murdered and I think you should go to the police . I'm telling you he murdered them and he'll be coming after you and your family."' Mr Urwin kept pestering the police with his murder theories.

In mid-2001 Dr Cala was asked to review the case. He discovered he had made an "incredible error", as he later told a misconduct inquiry. When he concluded Mrs Weightman died of massive head injuries, he had been looking at someone else's brain. He claimed he had immediately contacted the coroner.

Other people went to the Campbelltown police with tales of Weightman boasting to friends that he had got away with his parents' murder, but still nothing happened.

The Urwins bought the house from Weightman after an unsuccessful marketing campaign. He went through $500,000 in two years on drugs, motorbikes and overseas travel. But the Urwins were always on his case, pestering him for details about his parents' deaths . Finally, in February 2004, four years after their death, Weightman admitted that he and a friend, Terry Donai, had killed them. He later admitted doing it because they would not let him buy a motorbike. "The motorbike," he said, "was the icing on the cake."

Weightman pleaded guilty and got a lighter sentence by lying to psychiatrists about hearing voices at the time of the murders. He also received a discount on his sentence for agreeing to give evidence against Donai.

This time the police did swing into action. Weightman's confession was suppressed and an undercover investigation was mounted. It took another two years for Donai to be arrested after confessing to an undercover police operative that he had helped dispose of the bodies. Later last year, a complaint by the Urwins led to Dr Cala being found guilty of professional misconduct over his handling of the case, although the Health Care Complaints Commission issued a suppression order on the case. It was lifted in June this year.

The Professional Standards Committee found that while Dr Cala had made a significant mistake, he was not alone in the bungling. "It was the Urwins' persistence, not police activity, that changed the outcome of the case."

Yesterday a jury found Donai guilty of the couple's murder, but that verdict has still not brought closure for the Urwins. "Why can't the police apologise to my wife and I?" Mr Urwin demanded. "When I left England in 1975 I thought I was coming to a First World country. Instead I've found a Third World police force." Why, he asked, "is the work of citizens to investigate the deaths of their relatives? . If it was not for my wife and I, two murderers would be in society today."

In a statement police yesterday acknowledged "errors in the original investigation". "Since then NSW Police has made significant changes to callout procedures for the Crash Investigation Unit and the management of crime scenes," the statement said.

Mr Urwin also said the Police Commissioner's office became involved in the court case against Donai to prevent the release of information about police operations. NSW police said legal advice showed complainants were not legally entitled to copies of the investigator's report or the Internal Review Panel papers.

A call by the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, for a full inquiry into the case has been dismissed by the Premier, Morris Iemma. In a letter to Mr O'Farrell, Mr Iemma wrote: "As the failings that occurred during the initial investigation have been acknowledged and addressed through numerous processes, I do not believe there would be any new information to be gained from another inquiry."

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