Martin Bryant Birthday Series, Part 4: “Yes I kidnapped Rick, Sorry about That”

Map sketched by Dee McLachlan for the 2016 Melbourne Fringe

By Mary Maxwell

Martin Bryant claims that on April 28, 1996, he started out from his home northwest of Hobart, at 11am, drove northeast toward Sorell, and stopped at the Convict Bakery for a coffee. Continuing eastward he came to Dunalley, which is where one crosses onto the Forestier Peninsula. He then continued to Eaglehawk, which is where one enters the Tasman Peninsula. On the peninsula he went westward to Roaring Beach “for a bit of surfing,” and ate a toasted sandwich at Nubeena.

Martin Bryant claims that he then swung down, going counterclockwise. He drove past the entry to the Port Arthur Historic Site. A few more kilometers north he paid a visit to Roger Larner around 1.05pm (Larner confirmed this). Then Martin did his Fortescue kidnap caper, finally arriving at Seascape. He remained inside Seascape till next morning.

At the Adelaide Fringe, on the Ides of March 2017, I presented a play entitled “A Moot Court Trial for Martin Bryant” (in four acts). Act II is called “The Kidnapping of a Man.” Here we find a major flaw in the Crown case against Bryant. In the Interview of Record, dated July 4, 1996, Bryant was interrogated by four policepersons, including Inspector John Warren and Officer Ross Paine. Bryant came up with an implausible story about having politely asked a man to get out of his BMW – and to climb into the boot!

The point of the Fringe play was to give Martin a chance to present his own case, aided by a new lawyer named Anna Blue.

Since it was a rule of this play that all material had to come straight from the record, our actors read from the official transcript verbatim (except that it’s greatly abridged — the cops discussed many things that day that are not about the kidnapping).

In Part II of the Moot Court trial, we hear the DPP, Damian Bugg, QC, give the Crown side of the story. Then we hear Ms Blue question it. (Note: I declare the playscript public domain.)

Act II, Scene 1. Bugg gives the official story

Bugg:  Your Honor, Here is what happened.  After Martin Bryant left the area of the buses outside Broad Arrow Café, he put his sports bag in the Volvo and drove toward the tollbooth. He shot dead a woman with her two children.

He then killed four others and stole their BMW, abandoning his own yellow car at the tollbooth.

Just across the street from that tollbooth is the General Store, owned by Jim Laycock.  As the accused entered the carpark of the General Store, a couple in a white Corolla was trying to exit. Martin Bryant blocked them and told the man to get out and climb into the boot of the BMW. That man is Glen Pears.

His girlfriend Zoe Hall, in the front seat of the Corolla, was then shot dead by Martin. This took place less than 15 minutes after the carnage at Broad Arrow Café. Martin then drove his newly acquired BMW to Seascape.

He used handcuffs to escort Glen Pears into the Seascape cottage, and kept him there as a hostage.  We are not sure if Bryant shot him, or if it was the fire the next morning that killed Mr Pears. Either way, Bryant is responsible for the death of that hostage.

Anna:  Your Honour, that is how my learned friend alleges it happened, but the handcuffs he refers to are figments of his imagination. No handcuffs were ever found. Surely they would have been on the body of the deceased Glen Pears.

Your Honour, a Prosecutor is not permitted to mention handcuffs to you if he has not entered them into evidence.

As for the kidnapping, why not pay attention to what Martin himself said, when interviewed in prison by the police.  He told police that after he visited Roger Larner, he was up at the Fortescue Turnoff and did a kidnapping.

Doesn’t it go against the odds that two kidnappings would occur on the same day, in a parallel way?  The court will have to sort this out. It won’t do to simply ignore my client’s side of the story.

So now we will listen to the exact way Martin described the kidnapping that he supposedly did, at Fortescue turnoff, not at the Port Arthur General Store.

Act II, Scene 2 – Police Interview Martin in Prison

BRYANT. It was on the corner of Palmers Lookout. I was in the Volvo, I stopped the car on the corner, there was a nice looking BMW and I asked them to get out of the car but the

WARREN. How many people were in it?

BRYANT. There was a child in there, in the back and a lady and the man. I got him out the car, I had my gun with me and I said I want to take your car. His wife or girlfriend got into the Volvo with the child and I drove off.

WARREN. So you drove away in the BMW?

BRYANT. Yes, and the man was in the boot. I put him in the boot.

WARREN. How did he get into the boot?

BRYANT. Bit like the Ben Morrison case isn’t it?

WARREN.  You remember the Ben Morrison case?

BRYANT. Yeah.   … A. ‘Cos Radloff’s in here, in Risdon.

PAINE.   Who’s in here?

BRYANT. Radloff, the man that was involved in the Ben Morrison.

WARREN.   Have you ever met him have you?

BRYANT. No, never. …

PAINE.   Have you met him Martin?

BRYANT. No, I’ve only read things about him in the paper.

WARREN.  What do you think about him?

BRYANT. I don’t know. Funny guy. I think things went wrong with him. … Like they did with me — and later on you’ll think twice, why did you do these things?

PAINE.   Martin, just back to the BMW. How did this guy get in the boot?

BRYANT. I put him in the boot because I had a gun.

PAINE. Did he just get in or did you handcuff him or anything like that?

BRYANT.  Um, handcuffed him? No.

PAINE. Well do you own any handcuffs?

BRYANT. No, never, never owned handcuffs in my life.

PAINE. Which gun did you have?

BRYANT. I had the AR15.

PAINE. Can Mr Warren hold it up?

BRYANT. Yes. That was the one. It’s a sweet little gun. Because it’s so light. How light is it?

PAINE. Can you remember what you said to this fellow?

BRYANT. “Hey mate, can you get out of your car please, I’m gonna take your car.”

PAINE. And you had this pointed at him did you?

BRYANT. Yeah I had it pointed at him. And moving it backwards and forwards with his wife and child too.

PAINE.  Was the gun loaded?

BRYANT. Yeah the gun was loaded, it had about nine rounds in it.

PAINE. And where did this take place, Martin, sorry?

BRYANT. At the For-tes-cue Bay turn-off.

PAINE. Right. And where did you drive then?

BRYANT. I drove full speed, I was going about 140 Ks up the road and went into Seascape. Just drove down there in the BMW.

WARREN.  Where, can you remember where you drove when you went into Seascape?

BRYANT. I remember skidding on some grass, and I had a heap of petrol with me, I put some petrol in the BMW.

PAINE.   And what happened then?

BRYANT. Well what happened then, I knocked on the door to see the Martins but there was no answer. And what happened is I remember the explosion. .

PAINE. Where was the man?

BRYANT. He must’ve been trapped in the boot, the hostage.

PAINE. Tipped petrol —  where’d you tip the petrol?

BRYANT. I don’t recall because it was a vast explosion and I had my gun strapped around me.

PAINE. Which one?

BRYANT. The AR15 there.

PAINE. The one Mr Warren lifted up a short time ago?

BRYANT. Yeah. Mmm.

PAINE. Right. And what’d you do with that?

BRYANT. And, umm, I also had me shotgun.

WARREN.   Where did you have the shotgun Martin?

BRYANT. I left that in the Volvo.

PAINE. Did you actually knock on the door at Seascape?

BRYANT. Mmm, a few times, went around the back, knocked on the door, no answer.

WARREN. You’ve already said that you remembered me going to see you at the hospital?

BRYANT. Oh yes.

WARREN. And that I told you that you were being charged with …

BRYANT. A murder count.

WARREN. What recollection have you got of that?

BRYANT. Must’ve been the hostage, the bloke in the BMW must’ve died.

WARREN. That’s what you think it is, is it?

BRYANT. Mmm.

WARREN. Do you remember me telling you who you were charged with murdering?

BRYANT. No I don’t … inaudible …

WARREN. Do you remember me mentioning a name?

BRYANT. Yes, I remember you mentioning a name but …

WARREN. I told you that you were being charged with the murder of a woman called Kate Scott.

BRYANT. Oh.

WARREN. Does that register with you?

BRYANT. No. I mean I let the lady get into the Volvo, I didn’t hurt her or anything. No I don’t register. It doesn’t register.

Act II, Scene 3  A ‘Fantasy’ Theory of the Kidnapping

Anna:  So! we have two opposing stories as to how “Martin Bryant” carjacked a BMW, and kidnapped the driver in the boot. My client says he may have blown up the car.

Bugg: Your Honour, we have a photo of the burnt car on the grass at Seascape.  [SCREEN: car, leave it on till curtains].

Anna: As to the other report of a carjacking, please recall the reliable witness, Jim Laycock who owns the General Store. He saw it happen at close range. So yes, a man was coerced into the boot of a BMW and his girlfriend was shot dead in the Corolla. And Laycock, who had known Bryant since age 10, said Martin Bryant is not the person who forced a man into the boot.

My client’s confession in that police interview is far-fetched. Who would be aggressive enough to accost a man, knowing that he would instinctively protect his wife and child? And wouldn’t that wife have sought emergency police help? There is no record of a call to that area. Martin’s recollection smacks of fantasy.

Bugg. But he does feel guilty over it.

[Curtain].

Anniversary Again!

Last week, on April 28th, we had the 21st anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre. It was carried out by persons other than Martin Bryant. Isn’t it time we discover who did it?

I wanted to keep the Fringe show clean — you know, “general audiences, no nudity,” etc. Nothing too demanding on the public’s mind. Hence the play is only about Martin’s innocence, not anyone else’s guilt.

I took pains to keep “conspiracy theory” out of the play. But I didn’t keep it out of the book Port Arthur: Enough Is Enough (co-authored by Dee McLachlan). Towards the end of the book I say I think SAC-PAV did the massacre. (The Australian group SAC-PAV is like the US’s Homeland Security, but more sub rosa).

The point of having an “Act II Kidnapping” in the play is to show that Martin believed he had performed some sort of deed involving a man with a wife and child in a Volvo. I presume that man is a covert agent, and that he choreographed a scene in which Martin performed “kidnap light.”

The purpose was to ensure that Martin would appear in the right place at the right time (Seascape before 2pm) and also to create some guilt in his mind.

The Real Zoe Hall and Glen Pears

There is no reason to doubt Jim Laycock, who stated to police that he saw a blond man (a blond man other than Bryant) put a guy into the boot of a BMW and shoot dead that guy’s female companion while she sat in a white Corolla.

Although the official story names those two persons as Glen Pears and Zoe Hall, those identities are not necessarily genuine. There’s a mountain of dishonest narrative in the official case.

A couple had to appear exactly at the right moment at the General Store, for the official story. Thus the man and woman whom Jim Laycock saw must be part of SAC-PAV or similar — they would have been instructed to show up there (around 1.45pm).  The man-in-the-boot, who is referred to as Glen Pears, probably did not end up in Seascape.

My guess is that he survived, and that he’s not the man that Bryant (aka Jamie) refers to as Rick – “the hostage” at Seascape, during the evening of April 28^th. More likely, “Rick” is a player in this false-flag event. On the negotiator tape, Bryant sounds very comfortable with Rick, like old friends.

It’s very telling that the negotiator, Sgt Terry McCarthy, did not ask probing questions about Rick, or ask for clarification when Jamie said Rick’s wife is a high-up person in “intelligence.” Good heavens.

Likewise, on July 4^th 1996, John Warren and Ross Paine did not interrogate Bryant in such a way as to pin down the Fortescue kidnap story. I think the negotiator and those interviewing cops must have been told not to delve deep.

Note: all three are still alive and could be asked to explain.

— Mary W Maxwell requests that you do whatever is in your power to get the “wrong man” out of jail. You will be doing yourself an enormous favor.