Murder of Ebony Simpson

Last updated

Murder of Ebony Simpson
Ebony1.jpg
Ebony Simpson
Date19 August 1992 (1992-08-19)
Location Bargo, New South Wales, Australia
Type Murder
Cause Abduction, rape and asphyxiation, caused by drowning
DeathsEbony Jane Simpson
(aged 9 years)
ConvictedAndrew Peter Garforth
Convictions Murder
Sentence Life imprisonment; no possibility of parole

The murder of Ebony Jane Simpson occurred on 19 August 1992 in Bargo, New South Wales, Australia. Aged nine years, Simpson was abducted, raped, and murdered by asphyxiation when Andrew Peter Garforth (born 5 August 1963) drowned her. Garforth pleaded guilty to the crimes and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Contents

Abduction and murder

On 19 August 1992, Simpson disembarked from her school bus. Her mother, who usually met her at the bus stop, was busy that day and had arranged for Simpson's older brother to meet her and accompany her home, after his bus reached the bus stop. Unfortunately his bus arrived later than usual and Simpson was not there. Simpson, not seeing her brother at the bus stop, decided to start walking home as it was only a short distance away. Simpson thought that she would meet her brother at home. [1]

Police immediately suspected that Simpson had been kidnapped rather than running away. Suspicion fell on a man who was seen working on his car near where Simpson had gotten off the bus. Over a hundred people began searching the area for Simpson, including police, firemen, State Emergency Service members, and volunteers. [2]

Two days later, on 21 August, police found Simpson's body in a dam at a wildlife sanctuary near her home. Her hands and feet were still bound. Later that day, 29 year old Andrew Peter Garforth was arrested and confessed to the murder. [3] With her house in sight, Garforth had grabbed Simpson, thrown her in the boot of his car and driven off to a remote dam. Once there, he bound her with wire, raped her, weighted her schoolbag and threw her into the dam's reservoir, where she drowned. [4] According to police, Garforth had participated in the search for Simpson on the day her body was found. [3]

Arrest

Garforth confessed to the crime after police detained him, showing no remorse for his actions during the confession and court sessions. He pleaded guilty to the murder of Simpson and was sentenced in 1993 to life imprisonment. [5] Justice Peter Newman refused to fix a non-parole period and ordered that Garforth's papers be marked "never to be released". [6]

Garforth appealed to the High Court of Australia, but he was refused special leave. [7] It is one of two similar cases which were refused special leave. [8] In discussing the meaning of "life imprisonment" when Garforth appealed his sentence the Judges said, "the community interest in retribution, deterrence, protection of children and the community in such situations may so strongly outweigh any regard for rehabilitation that a life sentence becomes the only option." [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

In 1995, Garforth lodged several claims for victims' compensation via his lawyers, relating to alleged assaults which occurred in prison. The claims were later withdrawn after public outrage. [6] Garforth's prisoner status was downgraded upon the recommendation of the Serious Offenders Review Council in 2015, giving him access to prison employment and rehabilitation courses. The council's decision was immediately reversed by Minister for Corrections David Elliott. [6]

Aftermath

Simpson's parents, Christine and Peter Simpson, joined forces with Grace and Garry Lynch, the parents of New South Wales 1986 murder victim Anita Cobby, to create the Homicide Victims Support Group. The group provides support to the families of murder victims and lobbies for victims' rights. [13]

Following the 1988 state election, the NSW Government introduced legislation in 1989 and 1990 broadly aimed at truth in sentencing. [14] [15] Garforth's case was often cited as a test case for the application of the principle of life sentencing [16] [17] and security classification. [18] [19] [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

A thrill killing is premeditated or random murder that is motivated by the sheer excitement of the act. While there have been attempts to categorize multiple murders, such as identifying "thrill killing" as a type of "hedonistic mass killing", actual details of events frequently overlap category definitions making attempts at such distinctions problematic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Rogerson</span> Australian disgraced detective sergeant and convicted murderer (1941–2024)

Roger Caleb Rogerson was an Australian detective sergeant in the New South Wales Police Force and a convicted murderer. During his career, Rogerson received at least thirteen awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty, before being implicated in two killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing, and then being dismissed from the force in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Anita Cobby</span> Australian murder case

Anita Lorraine Cobby was a 26-year-old Australian woman from Blacktown, New South Wales, who was kidnapped while walking home from Blacktown railway station just before 10:00 p.m. on 2 February 1986, and subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered.

Sef Gonzales is a Filipino Australian man who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the July 2001 murders of his father Teodoro "Teddy" Gonzales (46), his mother Mary Loiva Gonzales (43), and his sister Clodine Gonzales (18), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. As a result of notoriety surrounding the sale of the house where the crimes occurred, the New South Wales government made it illegal to not disclose information related to the history of a property.

This is a timeline of major crimes in Australia.

The Bega schoolgirl murders refer to the abduction, rape and murder of two Australian schoolgirls; 14-year-old Lauren Margaret Barry and 16-year-old Nichole Emma Collins of Bega, New South Wales, Australia on 6 October 1997. They were abducted by Leslie Camilleri and Lindsay Beckett, both from the New South Wales town of Yass. The men subjected the girls to repeated rapes and sexual assaults on five or more separate occasions, while driving them to remote locations throughout rural New South Wales and Victoria. Over a twelve-hour period, the girls had been driven several hundred kilometres from Bega to Fiddler's Green Creek in Victoria, where they were stabbed to death by Beckett under the order of Camilleri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarke brothers</span> Australian bushrangers

Brothers Thomas and John Clarke were Australian bushrangers from the Braidwood district of New South Wales. They committed a series of high-profile crimes which led to the enacting of the Felons' Apprehension Act (1866), a law that introduced the concept of outlawry in the colony and authorised citizens to kill bushrangers on sight. Thomas was proclaimed an outlaw on 31 May 1866.

In England and Wales, life imprisonment is a sentence that lasts until the death of the prisoner, although in most cases the prisoner will be eligible for parole after a minimum term set by the judge. In exceptional cases a judge may impose a "whole life order", meaning that the offender is never considered for parole, although they may still be released on compassionate grounds at the discretion of the Home Secretary. Whole life orders are usually imposed for aggravated murder, and can only be imposed where the offender was at least 21 years old at the time of the offence being committed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Dupas</span> Australian serial killer and rapist

Peter Norris Dupas is an Australian convicted serial killer, currently serving three life sentences without parole for murder and primarily for being a serious habitual offender. He has a very significant criminal history involving serious sexual and violent offences, with his violent criminal history spanning more than three decades, and with every release from prison has been known to commit further crimes against women with increasing levels of violence. His criminal signature is to remove the breasts of his female victims.

Bargo is a town in the Macarthur Region of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, in the Wollondilly Shire. It is located approximately halfway between Campbelltown and Bowral, about 100 km south west of the Sydney CBD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Janine Balding</span> Australian murder case

Janine Kerrie Balding was a homicide victim who was abducted, raped and murdered by a homeless gang of five on 8 September 1988, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Balding's murder is often compared to the 1986 murder of Sydney nurse Anita Cobby.

Mark Valera is an Australian serial killer who was convicted in 2000 of the murders of David O'Hearn and Frank Arkell in Wollongong, New South Wales. Valera handed himself into police after the murders, and in court accused his father of violent and sexual abuse, citing this as the reason he himself turned violent. His sister, Belinda van Krevel, later organised for their father to be murdered by a family friend. Valera is currently incarcerated at the Goulburn Correctional Centre, where he is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

The Mount Rennie rape case is the only gang rape in Sydney, Australia during the 1880s that led to a full conviction of the participants involved in the crime—young larrikins of the "Waterloo Push". The attack is sometimes referred to as the "Mount Rennie Outrage" or the "Waterloo Outrage". The crime was a pivotal point in New South Wales history, coming after a history of failure of other gang-rape trials in that time period.

<i>Crimes Act 1900</i> Legislation of NSW, Australia that establishes a majority of criminal offences

The Crimes Act1900 (NSW) is an Act of the Parliament of New South Wales that defines an extensive list of offences and sets out punishments for the majority of criminal offences in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The Act, alongside the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) and the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), form the almost complete basis of criminal law for the State. It is the primary criminal law statute of NSW, and which formed the basis for the Australian Capital Territory's Crimes Act1900 (ACT).

Allan Baker and Kevin Crump are a notorious Australian duo of rapists and double murderers who were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974. Baker is serving his sentence at Clarence Correctional Centre whereas Crump died incarcerated at Wellington Correctional Centre in 2023.

Bruce Allan Burrell was an Australian convicted kidnapper and double murderer, who in 2006 was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment plus 44 years for the 1995 murder of 74-year-old Dorothy Davis and the 1997 murder of 39-year-old Kerry Whelan, neither of whom were ever found, with Burrell not revealing the location of his victims' bodies. Burrell died at the Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick, whilst still in prison custody on 4 August 2016, aged 63, from lung and liver cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Milat</span> Australian serial killer (1944–2019)

Ivan Robert Marko Milat, commonly referred to in media as the Backpacker Murderer, was an Australian serial killer who abducted, assaulted, robbed and murdered two men and five women in New South Wales between 1989 and 1992. His modus operandi was to approach backpackers along the Hume Highway under the guise of providing them transport to areas of southern New South Wales, then take his victims into the Belanglo State Forest where he would incapacitate and murder them. Milat is also suspected of having committed many other similar offences around Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of violence against LGBT people in the United Kingdom</span>

The history of violence against LGBT people in the United Kingdom is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex individuals (LGBTQI), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United Kingdom. Those targeted by such violence are perceived to violate heteronormative rules and religious beliefs and contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBTQI may also be targeted.

On 15 September 2003, two Singaporean students and flatmates Tay Chow Lyang (郑潮亮) and Tony Tan Poh Chuan (陈宝川), were found brutally murdered in their flat in Sydney. The boys' fellow classmate and friend Ram Puneet Tiwary, also a Singaporean, was accused of these two violent murders. The case, dubbed the "Sydney double murders" in media, made headlines in both Singapore and Australia.

References

  1. ↑ Humphries, Glen (17 April 2014). "Mother recounts Ebony Simpson tragedy in new crime series". Illawarra Mercury . Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  2. ↑ "Town shocked at schoolgirl's disappearance". The Canberra Times . 21 August 1992. p. 3. Retrieved 1 June 2019– via Trove.
  3. 1 2 "Angry crowd waits as man faces charge of killing Bargo girl". The Canberra Times. 22 August 1992. p. 3. Retrieved 1 June 2019– via Trove.
  4. ↑ Tullis, Ashleigh (17 August 2017). "Ebony Simpson's murder remembered 25 years on". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  5. ↑ "Ebony's killer to spend rest of his life in jail". The Canberra Times. 10 July 1993. p. 3. Retrieved 1 June 2019– via Trove.
  6. 1 2 3 "Ebony Simpson's abduction and murder by Andrew Peter Garforth placed in 'worst category' by judge". The Daily Telegraph . Sydney. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  7. ↑ Garforth v The Queen [1994] HCATrans 149.
  8. 1 2 Anderson, John (17 November 1998). "The Law Report". Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original (transcript) on 1 May 2004. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
  9. ↑ Nicholson, John C. (Justice) (n.d.). "When Life Means Life". Public Defenders Office. Government of New South Wales . Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  10. ↑ Kernohan, Liz; Chikarovski, Kerry (23 November 1994). "Garforth High Court Appeal". Hansard . Legislative Assembly of New South Wales . Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  11. ↑ Nile, Fred; Hannaford, John (15 November 1994). "Garforth High Court Appeal". Hansard . Legislative Council of New South Wales . Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  12. ↑ Nile, Fred; Hannaford, John (12 April 1994). "Criminal Convictions Appeals". Hansard . Legislative Council of New South Wales . Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  13. ↑ Verity, William (17 April 2014). "A life sentence for victims of crime". Illawarra Mercury. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  14. ↑ Patty, Anne (13 September 2013). "NSW sentencing laws to be simplified". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  15. ↑ Cunneen, Chris (March 1992). "Dangers and opportunities in the sentencing crisis" (PDF). Current Issues in Criminal Justice . 3 (3). Sydney Law School: 349. doi:10.1080/10345329.1992.12036539 . Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  16. ↑ Andreson, John L. (2006). "'Indefinite, inhumane, inequitable' – The principle of equal application of the law and the natural life sentence for murder: A reform agenda" (.rtf). University of New South Wales Law Journal. 41. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  17. ↑ Arnold, Ann (2 February 1997). Enough Is Enough: Victims of Crime (transcript). Background Briefing, Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  18. ↑ Security classification and management of inmates sentenced to life imprisonment (PDF). Legislative Council of New South Wales, Parliament of New South Wales. 4 April 2016. ISBN   9781922258144 . Retrieved 11 May 2018.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  19. ↑ "Life Prisoners' Inquiry: The Hearing Report". Justice Action. 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  20. ↑ Nedim, Ugur (17 July 2015). "How Are Prison Inmates Classified?". Sydney Criminal Lawyers.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.