Three awards of AU$100,000 each are being offered for information relating to the disappearance and suspected deaths of two gay men, and the death of another, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in the 1980s. Giles Mattaini Giles Mattaini, a 27-year-old French national living in Bondi, was last seen walking along the coastal walking track at Tamarama on 15 September 1985 by a neighbour. He was not reported missing until 2002, with the Coroner later finding he was deceased. Ross Warren Ross Warren, 24, a news presenter from Wollongong, was last seen driving along Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, on 22 July 1989 after socialising with friends. His keys were found two days later on rocks below the cliff top at Marks Park, Tamarama, and his car was located nearby. His body has never been found but the Coroner found he was deceased. John Russell John Russell, 31, a barman who worked in the eastern suburbs, was last seen alive drinking with friends at a hotel in Bondi on 23 November 1989. His body was found the next morning at the bottom of the cliff top at Marks Park, Tamarama, suffering injuries consistent with a fall from a cliff. Since the 80s, it’s emerged gangs of youths had been mugging gay men and throwing them to their deaths, off cliffs in Sydney's eastern suburbs. A man who witnessed, but says he was not involved in, such “poofter bashing rampages” has come forward to help the family of one man who is believed to have met such a fate – Scott Johnson. A Sydney coroner has ordered a fresh inquest into his unresolved 1988 death, which was initially ruled a suicide. The circumstances surrounding the cases above have been the subject of a review by the New South Wales Homicide Squad’s Unsolved Homicide Team in recent years. Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Michael Willing, says the matters have been reviewed based on the Coroner’s findings that they were suspicious in nature and possibly the result of gay hate-related crimes. “We believe there are still people in the community who know what happened to these men and we hope these rewards will be an incentive for those people to come forward,” he says. “We will follow up each and every piece of information that is provided to us. We are committed to resolving these three cases and being able to provide answers for the families of these three men.” Peter Rolfe from the Survivors After Murder support group says for the past 26 years the families of Mattaini, Warren and Russell have been haunted by their deaths, and suspect there are witnesses or others who have information about these matters that are similarly haunted by the knowledge that they hold. “We would implore you to take advantage of the rewards being offered, so that not only may our haunting be resolved but in some small way, your haunting may also be relieved.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 23rd June 2015 - 2:19pm