Friday, July 14, 2017
Bungled DNA evidence again
<i>It's not proof against crooked cops</i>
The son of a Melbourne mum murdered almost 40 years ago is angry police bungled the investigation by mixing up DNA evidence.
Victoria Police admitted on Thursday DNA taken from bloody pillowcase, and used to rule out priest Anthony Bongiorno as a suspect, came from an unrelated case.
Maria James, 38, was killed in 1980 in her Thornbury bookshop and the priest, who's since died, was a key person of interest.
Her sons Mark and Adam were 13 and 11, respectively, when she died.
The siblings have long suspected the Catholic priest was involved because he had abused Adam as a child. Adam James recently detailed his abuse to an ABC Trace podcast looking into the case. 'I remember he said to me 'Adam, can you come with me and I don't want you to tell your mum or Mark',' he told the ABC.
Bongiorno abused him before Ms James came to collect her son, Adam said.
Mark James says he's angry around the latest turn in the Victoria Police investigation. 'I am actually angry. I feel quite indignant,' he told ABC television on Thursday.
But despite the disappointment, Mark's also relieved. 'When I was originally told that Father Anthony Bongiorno had been eliminated through some form of DNA-type testing, I found it difficult to accept,' he said. 'But now that police have confirmed that Father Bongiorno and others are actually not eliminated, I'm feeling some relief.'
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana the DNA mix up was the result of a 'human error' made three decades ago.
'Basically, this means we need to go back and re-examine all the exhibits from the Maria James investigation.' Persons of interest previously ruled out of the investigation would now be re-examined.
'We've got to go back and ... see whether we can actually identify whether the offender has left any trace evidence behind,'Mr Fontana said. 'We don't have a profile on the suspect at this stage.'
Mark is seeking clarification about when the unrelated DNA was introduced to the investigation. 'I accept it was human error but the clarification I am seeking was, specifically, did this interference occur before Father Bongiorno became a suspect in this case?'
Mr Fontana said the error was discovered this year after a cold case inquiry into Ms James' death began. The James family say they have applied to the Victorian Coroner to re-examine the case as well.
Mr Fontana does not expect the exhumation of bodies, including the remains of Father Bongiorno, will be needed as a new investigation gets underway.
The admittance comes after it was revealed Ms James issued her son Mark a chilling warning just hours before her death. 'If anything happens to me, make sure [your brother] Adam is looked after,' she told him.
The conversation took place at the breakfast table, and by the time Mark, then 13, and his younger brother Adam, then 11, returned home from school, their lives had changed forever, reported ABC's Trace Podcast.
Father Bongiorno picked the boys up from school and broke the news.
It is believed she was killed with a small knife with a green handle, taken from her own kitchen drawer.
When she was killed, she was on the phone to her ex-husband John. She had briefly put down the phone and never returned. Police arrived to find the phone still off the hook.
Despite police finding blood at the scene which they believe belongs to the killer, Maria's murderer has never been found.
Officers investigated multiple leads, but all of them went cold.
Detective Ron Iddles, who is widely regarded as Australia's greatest detective, was unable to solve the case, and though he retired from Victoria Police this year, will continue trying to hunt down the mother's killer. He told Trace the amount of stab wounds Maria received suggested her killer was certainly someone she knew.
'I've investigated over 320 homicides. Those where you have absolute multiple stab wounds like this, I don't think I've ever charged anyone where there is no connection between the killer,' he said.
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4691182/Melbourne-police-examine-Maria-James-investigation.html">SOURCE</a>
<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/australias-lurch-to-the-left-will-lead-it-down-the-same-path-as-greece/news-story/7cb6b5544ef2d06ebfed1c97fb08c3c7">SOURCE</a>
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
There was also links to one of the clerical suspects to this murder,a Father O'Keefe, with links to the now also deceased Father John Kevin O'Donnell and Devil worship. This Father O'Keefe, was known to be an assistant to Father Bongiorno, during this time (circa 1980).
ReplyDeleteAlso there's this Spanish girl(now a middle-age lady) called "Maritza" who claimed to have been sexually abused by 1)her brother in law-Tony (full name withheld)
ReplyDelete2) Fr O'Donnell
This Maritza claimed to have given birth to her 2 sons, after being raped by these 2 men, during the 1980s, even though Maritza was married to a fellow Spaniard, by that stage,& lied to the poor guy about the true "parentage" of their 2 boys.(One boy was Tony's the other boy was believed to be the bastard child of Fr Kevin O'Donnell).
Maritza also had 2 nephews (sobrinos) called Luis & Ramon.
It is suspected that these 2 Spanish boys (along with another male cousin) were also sexually abused by Fr Kevin O'Donnell, at the Sacred Heart Oakleigh parish during the 1970s & early 1980s.
Luis(full name withheld) in particular is "not well" and is a well-known "psycho" who has made serious "death threats" to many many other people (inc myself) in regards to Father John Kevin O'Donnell and his "commerical" relationship with their equally disgraced father Mr Anthony (full name withheld)- as their father was a well-known business partner with the disgraced & late father O'Donnell-where the 2 men purchased many real estate properties around the SE suburbs of Melbourne , over the years. The 2 men also had links to the disgraced Fr Bongiorno, where Fr Bongiorno claimed it was a "Spanish Custom" for the Priest to sleep with the altar boys (Un Costumbre Espanol y Un Tradiccion Espanol) , I suppose old Tony also was brought up with this "Costumbre Especial"in his childhood in Galica in Spain, during the 1940s & 50s-and he knows who he is!
And his son Luis (from what I heard & learned) is now very closely connected to Victorian Police & Federal
Police, well-known as a MAJOR POLICE INFORMANT, helping the Police out with their "enquiries" regarding serious homicides,involving major crime figures (eg- Bikies-names withheld) and this Luis guy is hiding out at his daddy's home in Moorabbin & no surprise as a result,this Luis guy is "paranoid" as F##k, would have more enemies after him than anyone else in Australia (next to Terry "talkative" Hodson-later shot dead in Kew). If this Luis dude ever goes to Jail, he'd have to go to the Ararat Pedophile/ex-cops prison, because Luis would be killed in a mainstream prison, like Port Phillip, some accuse him of being a bigger DOG than Carl Williams!
POINT NO 3-on the ABC Radio special (introduced by Phillip Adams, also features retired Detective,Ron Iddles)-Mark & Adam talk about Fr Bongiorno, back in their Northcote days and also mentioned another "rogue" Priest, whom helped Fr Bongiorno, called Fr O'Keefe(I hope this is the correct name?).Another sexual abuse victim said he was an altar boy in Doveton(next to Dandenong, where Fr O'Donnell was a PP, for awhile until 1976-when Fr O'Donnell moved to Sacred Heart Oakleigh-where he got to "know" the Spanish boys & later the Foster girls-as Fr O'Donnell had a "sexual fetish" for dark olive complexioned kids like them),anyway this man was also on the ABC special, saying he was molested by Fr O'Keefe in the Dandenong area and later was forced to participate in Devil Worship with this Fr O'Keefe, whom was also assisted by Fr Bongiorno and also both Priests was both sub-servient to Fr John Kevin O'Donnell, where according to this man's childhood recollection, was in fact the ring-leader of the hidden Satanic Church Cult, where homeless "winos", stray pets (cats & dogs), drug addicts & prostitutes(from the streets of St Kilda), and some pesty native animals (like possums & kangaroos) were all "sacrificed" to these Demons, where Fr O'Donnell was eye-witnessed to have seen slicing these poor creature's throats and their blood drunk (especially the animals) and then the dead cadavers (human & animal) were burnt in some kind of incinerator, to get rid of the evidence (along with rubbish, as they still had industrial incinators at Catholic schools those days),this man told the audience, this evidence "is hard to believe", but he swore this was true!Also this Maritza was accused by her own Spanish Gipsy sister (Hermana Gitana Espanol), also happens to be Tony's wife (Marida Espanol), a lady called Lucy(full name withheld), where Lucy accused her estranged sister, Maritza, of being into Devil Worship (Adoraccion por El Diablo) along with the late Fr Kevin O'Donnell-whom Maritza was alleged to have given birth to his bastard son (hijo bastardo), along with also giving birth to Tony's "bastard" son, which Lucy accepts. Tony was also reported to have been heard saying he hopes his late other sister-in-law(Hermana en Ley) "..burns in Hell!.."-of course Tony was referring to Marisol, whom it was believed her son in particular was also molested by Fr O'Donnell!
ReplyDeleteThis cold murder case gets more & more interesting, many Victorian Police Senior Members (inc my late uncle in Geelong) were High-ranking Senior police Officers and did not want the public to find out about any of this at the time!
As stated before,many Senior Police officers (esp my late uncle in Geelong) were devout Roman Catholics , and these serious allegations of Parish Priests (Sacredotes) being into Devil Worship and participating in child sex pedo-rings, had to be covered up at all costs. By disturbing the DNA evidence of the Maria James (she was an Italian) homicide scene, was essential to these Senior (Knights of Malta-Opus Dei) Police Officers.
ReplyDeleteThe radio program, also made mention of Maria James was over-heard arguing with Fr Bongiorno (in parlo Italiano) in their native Italian tongue, as the Irish-Aussie gardener/handyman over-heard them on the day of Maria's murder, as he distinctly knew a bit of Italian (recalled Maria yelling-..no, mi filo,no,no,bastardo.. etc etc) as opposed to the more complex Greek language (as many Greek & Italian migrants lived in Northcote at that time),he distinctly recalled the argument being in Italian.
Then later another tradie saw Fr Bongiorno walk out towards the Presbytery with blood-stained hands and the tradie asked the PP ; "If he was alright?", the PP (Fr Bongiorno, failed to reply). Also this lady journalist (originally wrote for the now defunct Argus newspaper), called Dorothy Wentworth-Walsh, said Fr Bongiorno claimed to have told her, someone came into his confession booth (was it Fr O'Keefe or Fr O'Donnell?) and "confessed" to have killed Maria James in a "rage" but Fr Bongirono was alleged to have told old Dorothy that he wasn't allowed to "reveal" whom confessed to him, as it was Vatican protocol, not to reveal the confessors to police.