Denis Tanner. Twice unlucky or double murderer?

[Jim Beaux]

Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia

New push to clear Denis Tanner
Keith Moor
September 26, 2008 12:00am


THE Supreme Court has been asked to order new probes into the deaths
of Jennifer Tanner and transsexual prostitute Adele Bailey.

Retired police detective Ron Irwin has applied to overturn the Tanner
and Bailey inquests.

Mr Irwin presented the Supreme Court with a 14-volume dossier of what
he claims is fresh evidence that warrants new inquests.

He believes his material will clear former detective Denis Tanner, who
has been accused of killing his sister-in-law Jennifer and Ms Bailey.

Mr Irwin yesterday took advantage of a rarely used section of the
Coroners Act to launch his unusual bid during a Masters Court
directions hearing.

Under Section 59 of the Act, the court can order new inquests if it is
convinced there are new facts or evidence or if it considers there
were mistakes in the original findings.

Lawyers representing the Coroner's Office and Police Chief
Commissioner Christine Nixon yesterday successfully applied to adjourn
the case to October 27 to give them time to consider Mr Irwin's
material.

The first Jennifer Tanner inquest in 1985 returned an open finding.

Former state coroner Graeme Johnstone overturned that finding by
ruling during a second inquest in 1998 that Denis Tanner shot her.

Police have also accused Mr Tanner of killing Ms Bailey, 23.

Mr Tanner has not been charged over the deaths and has repeatedly
declared his innocence.

Ms Tanner, 27, died from gunshot wounds to the head at her Bonnie Doon
home in 1984.

Ms Bailey's skeletal remains were found in a mineshaft near the Tanner
family's Bonnie Doon property in 1995, 17 years after she disappeared
from St Kilda.

In a recent affidavit lodged with the Supreme Court, Mr Irwin claimed:

DENIS Tanner can produce new witnesses who will testify he was in
Melbourne on the night Jennifer Tanner died 190km away in Bonnie Doon.

FORENSIC experts will testify that X-rays and other evidence indicate
it was possible Ms Tanner committed suicide by shooting herself twice
in the head.

MEDICAL experts will give evidence that Ms Tanner was suffering
depression and failed to keep an appointment with a psychiatrist two
days before her death.

EVIDENCE suggests a serial killer who murdered several women and
dumped their bodies at Tynong North in 1980 may have killed Ms Bailey.

THE owner of the property where three of the four Tynong North bodies
were found also owned a Bonnie Doon property adjoining the mine where
Ms Bailey's body was discovered.

POLICE did not reveal the Tynong North connection during the Bailey
inquest because it detracted from their theory that Denis Tanner
killed Ms Bailey.

OTHER people should have been nominated as murder suspects in the
Bailey inquest, including three men found guilty of murdering her
transsexual flatmate six months after she disappeared.

CORONERS in both inquests were misled because significant evidence was
withheld or ignored.

POLICE presented unreliable and misleading evidence to the Bailey
inquest to enhance their case against Denis Tanner.

Mr Irwin said he was taking Supreme Court action because he had no
faith in the most recent police investigation into the deaths, which
found Mr Tanner was still a suspect in both cases.


http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24403757-661,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24403757-661,00.html)

[Jim Beaux]

http://www.bookworm.com.au/shop/scditem.asp?ProdID=136405

On 19 July 1995, two young men stumbled upon a partially clothed skeleton, wearing lingerie, high-heeled boots and jewellery, in a disused mineshaft near Bonnie Doon, Victoria.

The sensational find was identified as the remains of transsexual Melbourne prostitute Adele Bailey, who had been missing for more than 17 years.

[Jim Beaux]

Adele Evelyn Bailey was 23 when she went missing in Sep 1978. She was working as a transsexual prostitute in St Kilda, the red light district of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia). It appears she had been arrested by Denis Tanner on prostitution charges in May 1978, a few months before she went missing. Her remains were found in a disused mine shaft in Bonnie Doon, about 70miles NE of Melbourne.

For context, the discovery of Adele Bailey's remains led to a second inquiry in into the death of Jennifer Tanner, and that second inquiry had taken place in 1998.


-------------------------------------------------------------------
June 1999
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s27850.htm
After the conclusion of the inquiry into Adele Bailey, where an open verdict was returned.

Today's findings stated there was no evidence to link Detective Sergeant Denis Tanner to Adele Bailey's death or disappearance.

However, in December, Coroner Graeme Johnston named the Victorian policeman as the person who in 1984 had shot dead his sister-in-law, Jennifer Tanner, in a farmhouse near the mine shaft where Adele Bailey's skeleton was found.

A subsequent investigation by the Department of Public Prosecutions found there was not enough evidence to convict Denis Tanner of Jennifer Tanner's murder.

Jacqueline Stirrup, Bailey's sister, had told the coroner Adele had written to her saying she was having a sexual relationship with a police officer named Denis Tanner.

The mine shaft where Adele was found is located near a property owned at the time by Detective Sergeant Denis Tanner.

The coroner said Adele Bailey had been afraid about an impending court case where she was to give evidence against an undercover policeman.

Jacqueline Stirrup said she burnt the letters her sister wrote to her.

[Jim Beaux]

March 2008
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/street-prostitutes-given-green-light-by-police/2008/03/11/1205125911288.html (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/street-prostitutes-given-green-light-by-police/2008/03/11/1205125911288.html)

THE Office of Police Integrity has uncovered evidence that appears to support claims a group of police have protected transsexual prostitutes in exchange for sexual favours.

OPI investigators have tracked down several street prostitutes who said they were given the "green light" on the condition they provided free sex for the small group of police.

It is believed the inquiry has found a series of arrest warrants issued against the transsexual prostitutes in the St Kilda area which were not served, allowing them to continue to work.

In the late 1990s a taskforce investigating the murder of transsexual prostitute Adele Bailey in St Kilda in 1978 found evidence of corrupt links between St Kilda police and local sex workers. The sex-for-favours scandal is part of a long-term investigation by the OPI into serving and former police who have worked at St Kilda in recent years. It has uncovered an ongoing power struggle between police who want to follow procedures and the smaller but influential group of "cowboys".

[Ecstatic]

Reminds me of a recent plot on the TV show BONES....

[Jim Beaux]

Reminds me of a recent plot on the TV show BONES....

I only meant to do the OP. Trouble is, 5 minutes on the Internet and it just got weird.

-----------------------------------------------------------

July 1998, shortly before the second inquest into Jennifer Tanner’s death.
From ABC Radio National, a discussion with Robin Bowles (who wrote a book on Jennifer Tanner).
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/lstories/lr980721.htm (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/lstories/lr980721.htm)

Jennifer Tanner was found with her 21 month old son Sam asleep in a room across the hallway. There was a half full cup of coffee with three biscuits on a plate.

Bowles went to a gun shop, borrowed a .22 BRNO bolt action rifle, the same as the one found held by Tanner, and tried to re-enact the suicide theory.

Tanner was supposed to have shot herself once, operated the bolt, stood on one leg and fired a second time using her toe. Combined with the evidence of gunshot wounds to each hand, Bowles found it impossible to believe Tanner had committed suicide.

It was not until the autopsy that a second shot to the head was found. Junior rank police at the scene saw what looked like a suicide. From that initial point, nothing was done in a rigorous manner.

Two constables attended the scene. A week before, a senior officer had attended after a valuable dog belonging to the Tanners had been found shot dead. No senior officer attended when Jennifer Tanner died. The scene was not secured.

The bullets from Tanner’s brain were extracted by the pathologist and never sent to the police. These had disappeared by the time of the first inquest. There was no ballistics evidence that matched these bullets to the rifle clutched by Tanner.

NB For timeline purposes, Jennifer Tanner died on a Wednesday evening, Denis Tanner cleaned up the scene on Thursday morning, the autopsy was carried out on Friday and Jennifer Tanner was buried on Saturday.

[Jim Beaux]

March 1999, shortly after the Director of Public Prosecutions said Denis Tanner would not face a murder trial.
From ABC National Radio
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/lstories/lr990323.htm (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/lstories/lr990323.htm)

A coroner works to a lower level of proof than a criminal trial. Inquests use the Brigham Shaw Test. Crudely, this means taking into account the balance of probabilities, plus taking into account the seriousness of the allegation, here unlawful killing.

David Curtin, QC, said that for the coroner to find that Denis Tanner had killed his sister-in-law, the coroner must have been satisfied to a fairly high standard on the civil test. However, the coroner can hear evidence a criminal trial cannot use, plus by the date of the DPP’s decision, much of the evidence had been lost.

The radio interviewer said the coroner had heard evidence that Denis Tanner intensely disliked his sister-in-law, and that he had once threatened her while loading a rifle.

David Curtin, QC noted that at both inquests, the coroner had been very critical about the way Denis Tanner interfered with the crime scene.

Curtin also pointed out that the child would be able to bring a civil action against Denis Tanner for loss of dependency on his mother. That case can be raised until the child reaches 24. Such a claim would be subject to the Brigham Shaw Test.

[Jim Beaux]

Feb 2003, after Denis Tanner and Ron Irwin claim there is new evidence.
The article writer claims this alters nothing.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/24/1046063962630.html (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/24/1046063962630.html)

Two months after Adele Bailey’s remains were found, the old Tanner farmhouse, empty at the time, burns down.

Tanner was then stationed close to Bonnie Doon.

Jennifer Tanner had 2 bullets in her brain and was shot through both hands. Australia’s leading gunshot expert, Dr Kevin Lee concluded “It’s homicide until proven otherwise”.

The rifle had a bolt operating mechanism.

The writer asks why Denis Tanner hired a prominent Melbourne defence barrister to represent himself and his brother at the first inquest into Jennifer Tanner’s death, in 1985.
At the second inquiry in 1998 he declined to give evidence on the ground he might incriminate himself.

The new evidence ( Feb 03 ) is to attack the credibility of the taskforce that investigated the case for the second inquest. The writer points out that the task force members were selected because none knew Denis Tanner.

[Jim Beaux]

From the OP. Ron Irwin - evidence suggests a serial killer who murdered several women and dumped their bodies at Tynong North in 1980 may have killed Ms Bailey.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three bodies were found in dense scrub in Tynong North (Victoria, Australia) in Dec 1980. A fourth was found close by 3 years later in 1983.

Tynong North is about 40 miles SE of Melbourne. Bonnie Doon is about 70 miles NE of Melbourne. There is no short route between the two. The choice is along minor roads or to go nearly into Melbourne from one then back out to the other.

Police thought the four bodies found at Tynong North were connected to two more found in dense scrub at Frankston in 1980/1981. Frankston is about 30 miles west of Tynong North, with good road connections.

Police believed the common denominator was that the women disappeared while waiting for public transport or walking along a road.

Catherine Headland, 14 (or 15), went missing in Berwick on 28th Aug 1980, and her body was found at Tynong North on 6th Dec 1980. Ann-Marie Sargent (???), 19, of Cranbourne was found the same day. Bertha Miller, 73, of Glen Iris, was found the next day. Narumol Stephenson, 34, was found nearby in 1983.

Cranbourne is mid-way between Tynong North and Frankston. Berwick is on one possible route between the two, on the direct route from Tynong North to Melbourne. Glen Iris is in or very close to Melbourne. None of these is in the Melbourne to Bonnie Doon direction.

An official report on serial killers in Australia records the method of killing these four as ‘unknown’.

In Mar 2001, DS Clive Rust said they were investigating a 68 year old man for 6 murders.

As at Oct 2008, it would appear that the case is still open.

The two bodies at Frankston linked by the police to the four at Tynong North are hard to pick out from other murders in Frankston. Serial killer Paul Charles Denyer is serving 30 to life for killing 3 women in Frankston in 1993.

A woman requested information on murders in Frankston in Aug 2008. The police restricted disclosure to 1994 to 2008 (i.e. starting the year after serial killer Denyer). The total was 34 murders in this period.