True Crime Tonight: Snowtown Killer Gets Parole

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Warning, this is a True Crime Segment and not suitable for children. It contains references to sexual violence and suicide, which some listeners may find distressing. If you need support, you are not alone. Contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, or visit lifeline.org.au for 24 hour support.

SPEAKER_3 (0:20)

It's a voice that will send shivers down your spine.

SPEAKER_1 (0:25)

Step 19 times. The suspect lured the victim into the water.

Meshel Laurie (0:29)

Biggest legal dramas in Hollywood. Today is a major win to show what the system can do.

Jeremy Pudney (0:34)

This is True Crime Tonight.

Meshel Laurie (0:38)

Hello there, this is True Crime Tonight. I'm your host, Meshel Laurie, and I'm here with one producer this week. That's Matthew Tankard.

Matthew Tankard (0:44)

Hey, Meshel.

Meshel Laurie (0:44)

Hello, Ruby is not here.

Matthew Tankard (0:46)

No Ruby.

Meshel Laurie (0:46)

She's in Bali. I'm just gonna tell you that right now.

Matthew Tankard (0:48)

She's in Bali.

Meshel Laurie (0:49)

I'm so jealous. She is not thinking about crime. She is relaxing by a pool.

And she'll be back next week, though. And we're here to bring you some True Crime recommendations. We've got some listeners to hear from, which I love so much. And we've got a very big Australian True Crime story this week. A big sort of update.

Matthew Tankard (1:07)

Update, yep.

Meshel Laurie (1:08)

On a story. That's all coming up. And part of the update is our main interview tonight, by the way. We're going to hear from a man called Jeremy Pudney, who is a journalist and an author. And he wrote the definitive book On the Snowtown, Bodies in the Barrels, Murders.

Matthew Tankard (1:24)

So that'll give you a hint.

Meshel Laurie (1:25)

That is a massive hint as to what I'm really frothing about this week on True Crime Tonight. Welcome back to True Crime Tonight. You're hearing this around Australia. And hello, wherever you are in Australia, we have a message from a Kiwi cousin.

Matthew Tankard (1:38)

We do. Yeah, Lee sent us a message on our True Crime Hotline. You can find a link to send us your own message in any episode of Australian True Crime. Let's listen to this week's.

SPEAKER_3 (1:46)

Hi, Michelle. I've just been listening to Meggie's story. And I think if anyone can move along, it should be Meggie's bus. Because all the survivors in her bus, she's a hero. She came across as very meek and very mild. But my goodness, she is, she's got some some guts. And they weren't her children, but they were Australia's children. I just wonder where the common sense is when it comes to this. I'm struggling with the lack of common sense around SA.

Why can't we lock them up for a very, very long time?

Because look at the lives that have been ruined. And Dennis gets to lay on a nice warm bed. And there's no consequences. There's no remorse.

Meshel Laurie (2:33)

Maggie was a guest on the podcast, Australian True Crime, and she told us the most incredible story. It's really popped off, hasn't it, Matthew?

Matthew Tankard (2:40)

Dennis McKenna, he was a, he's kind of labelled as, even though you hear this a few times with different people, but whenever I look him up, he's labelled as Western Australia's worst child sex offender.

Meshel Laurie (2:51)

Isn't that horrible? And you're right, in Australia, we do hear that, especially in the last however many years, it's been 10 or 15 years since we had a Royal Commission into such a long-winded name, isn't it?

Matthew Tankard (3:01)

Institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Meshel Laurie (3:04)

Well done. And ever since then, unfortunately, there have been a few individuals who have been called Australia's worst ever pedophile. So this one happened in Western Australia.

Matthew Tankard (3:15)

Yeah, in the town of Katanning.

Meshel Laurie (3:17)

Katanning. I'm so sorry if you're listening from Katanning, because it's not a great mark on the town. There are a couple of officials in the town that Maggie took this news to. She went to and said, look, some young people have disclosed to me that they have been victimized in this establishment and that it's an ongoing thing and the guy who runs it is a pedophile.

Matthew Tankard (3:38)

Yeah, it was the St. Andrew's Youth Hostel, which, you know, I think you and I were both thinking it was something else.

Meshel Laurie (3:44)

I thought it was a boy's home.

Matthew Tankard (3:46)

Yeah, it's not.

Meshel Laurie (3:46)

Like for naughty boys.

Matthew Tankard (3:47)

Not at all. It was where kids would go so they could get to school easily.