For Luke Rankin, now an inspector at Bourke: ‘Tuno was a big part of my career. It was a challenging investigation and the calibre of the leaders was high. I wish I’d been there at the end. It is really awesome to see how it unfolded.’
‘If you think of intensity, you think of Gary Jubelin,’ says Andrew Waterman. ‘He could have been promoted higher if he wanted to, but I suspect he doesn’t want that, because if he went any higher he’d lose all hands-on control. Tuno is very highly regarded, one of the premier murder investigations.’
Success was achieved at a cost. ‘Tuno is an amazing achievement, the biggest murder investigation in New South Wales and perhaps Australia,’ says Pamela Young. ‘If anyone other than Gary had done it, it wouldn’t have been half as successful. But you can’t achieve that success without damage—he always wants more from people, and is such a hard man.’ Some colleagues, she says, have been hurt. ‘I hope he can repair some of that.’
It is difficult, more so than most of us can imagine. ‘Homicide is the pinnacle of police work,’ Waterman reflects. ‘Your head has to be in the right place, you have to be able to pay attention to the family of the victim and yet not let it get to you. If you’re too emotional, you won’t be a good homicide investigator. To be given a homicide investigation means you’ve been given the ultimate trust. It’s very significant work because of the life and death aspect, and also because often the investigation is not quick or easy. I was rotated out after a long time, and I wouldn’t have gone of my own volition. Maybe it was for the best, maybe you need a tap on the shoulder, sometimes.’
Says Pamela Young: ‘There is a certain thrill, an addictive element in the work, the sense in each case of going where no one’s ever gone before. I am fascinated by human beings and why they behave the way they do. I take on an element of the tragedy, the trauma and anguish and anger. But I can’t be deterred by that from doing a good job, I use it to give me motivation and energy. That’s why I can expose myself to horrible people and scenes: it has an effect on me, but it doesn’t discourage me.’
There are different ways of being a good homicide detective, but there is one quality they all speak of as vital: sheer, bloody-minded, often personally destructive, often provocative, determination.
Gary Jubelin: ‘That’s a problem I have. Once I get hold of something, I find it hard to let go.’
POSTSCRIPT
At the time of this book going to print in mid-2012, Anthony Perish and Matthew Lawton had announced their intentions to appeal their convictions. The Director of Public Prosecutions was appealing the sentence of Brad Curtis, seeking to have his discount reduced because of his unhelpfulness at the trial of Terry Falconer’s killers.
Nineteen years after their deaths, no one has been charged with the murders of Anthony and Frances Perish.
APPENDIX
The men and women of Tuno
Strike Force Tuno (2001–2008)*
SC Camille Alavoine
DSC Stephen Brown
DSC Glen Browne
DSC Sarah Clark
DSC John Edwards
DSC Jason Evers
DS Gary Jubelin
DSC Luke Rankin
DSC Mario Rubelj
DSC Nathan Surplice
DSC Nigel Warren
Strike Force Tuno 2 (2008–2011)*
SC Camille Alavoine
DSC Stephen Brown
DS Glen Browne
DS Joe Doueihi
DSC John Edwards
DSC Simon Ellis
DSC Matthew Fitzgerald
DI Gary Jubelin
DSC Tim Kelly
DSC Roxane McGee
DSC Kaan McGregor
DS Glen Morfoot
DSC Brendan Plummer
DSC Peter Robinson
DSC Mario Rubelj
SC Joanne Sinclair
DSC Nathan Surplice
DSC Andrew Taylor
DSC Andrew Tesoriero
DSC Kelly Veness
DSC Patricia Walsh
* There were also several dozen other officers working on Tuno in its early months
* Two members of Strike Force Tuno 2 have asked not to be named.
SOURCES & THANKS
Most of the information in this book comes from evidence given at the trial of Terry Falconer’s killers, transcripts of the inquests into the deaths of Anthony and Frances Perish, the agreed statements of fact provided to courts in the cases of criminals who pleaded guilty, court files, and conversation with police officers.
Many members of the New South Wales Police Force and related agencies I talked to asked not to be thanked here. I am grateful to them for their help, and also to Tim Archer and Mick Garrahy of Police Corporate Communications, and the following current or former homicide detectives: Joe Doueihi, Darren Edwards, Jason Evers, Matt Fitzgerald, Paul Jacob, Gary Jubelin, Luke Rankin, Andrew Tesoriero, Nigel Warren, Andrew Waterman, Michael Willing and Pamela Young.
I thank others connected with the investigation in various ways, who also asked not to be named. I did not seek interviews with any of the accused men in the book because the people who run New South Wales’ prisons deny writers access to the people in their care.
I thank those who work in our courts, including the coroner’s court. Various officials were helpful with some of the practical issues in covering a long trial, while public information officers, judges and judges’ associates assisted with access to information relied on here, and I am grateful for their assistance.
Parts of this story have been covered by dozens of journalists. In particular I acknowledge Geesche Jacobsen at the Sydney Morning Herald, Simon Lomax at the Courier Mail, and Janet Fife Yeomans at the Daily Telegraph. The work of Andrew Rule and John Silvester helped me with aspects of the career of Paul Elliott. I thank my editors at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun Herald, who enabled me to cover the trial and report on Strike Force Tuno more generally over a lengthy period. Two of those editors left Fairfax as the book was being finished, as I did too. Due to changes in newspapers, it is unlikely many books like this will be published in the future. Information in Chapter 4 about bikies and Strike Force Sibret comes from other articles I wrote for these newspapers. Statistics on the illegal drug industry are from various reports of the Australian Crime Commission. Details of the Jeffrey Hillsley case come from Nigel Warren’s article ‘Who Do You Trust’ in the Australian Police Journal, December 2006.
After I started to write the book, I learned of a forthcoming television series on the same subject, and my publisher decided to bring the book out at the same time as Underbelly: Badness. I am particularly grateful to those who helped produce it so quickly, especially Margaret Connolly, Jane Palfreyman, Elizabeth Cowell, Denis Tracey, Jo Jarrah, and my family. The contribution of Bookhouse typesetters, who dealt with numerous changes, was heroic. At Radio National I thank Paul Comrie Thomson and Ian Coombe for tolerating my occasional need to be in the city’s courts at short notice, and for their support more generally.
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