‘The next morning, Monday 6th June 1983, I had a head cold and a sore throat. I was not well enough to go to work. My sister came around at about 9.30 a.m. and then went to pick up Mum. My mother came home later that morning and she and I stayed home the rest of the day until I went to Dr Cowan’s surgery, but there seemed to be nobody there so I came home.
‘Later that night I went to Dennis St Dennis to get my hair done. His cousin and mother were there. I told them I had a wog. Dennis was going on holidays and it was the only time he could do my hair.
‘On Tuesday 7 June, I was feeling worse and my mother made an appointment for me at her clinic and I saw Dr Munro, as you have heard. He examined me and told me I had what was going around. He prescribed Amoxil, which I got from the chemist on the way home. He also gave me a sickness certificate for a week. My mother was home during that week and I slept a fair bit. Apart from taking my mother shopping at Target one afternoon, I did not go out at all later that week. Lynn Pratt from work came over on Thursday night with my pay. I was sick in bed when she came.
‘The next weekend was a long weekend. I do not remember doing anything on the Saturday but on the Sunday night I went out as I told the police. On the Monday night some friends from the Harp Society came to our place. I went back to work on Tuesday, 14 June and worked there every workday until I went overseas on 11 August 1983.
‘In the period from Tuesday, 14 June to Sunday, 10 July 1983, I do not specifically remember what I did most nights or on weekends. My mother was at home at nights and as far as I can remember at weekends too. My mother does not drive a car and if she went out at night in that period it would have been with me. I do recall that in the June/July period I worked back a fair bit as Mr Martin, my boss, said.
‘Three nights that I do specifically remember now are: Tuesday, 21 June, when my mother and I went to a dinner party at a member of the Harp Society’s house; Wednesday, 6 July, when I went to a Harp Society meeting; and Sunday, 10 July, when my mother and I went to a birthday party for a relative, Mrs Gladys Amoy.
‘I slept in as usual on the Sunday morning and we arrived at the Amoy’s some time late in the afternoon. We stayed there until about 10.30 p.m. or so. We took a lady by the name of Mabel Gough to her home and arrived home at about 11 p.m. I went to bed and did not go out again that night. I went to work the next day.’
It was interesting that everything that von Einem told about related to family and the Harp Society. Obviously, he didn’t want to talk about any of his other friends — the businessman, the transvestites, the transsexuals and his young male friends.
‘On Thursday, 28 July 1983 Detective Kipling questioned me about Richard Kelvin’s disappearance and death. As you already know I did not tell Detective Kipling the truth about my involvement with Richard Kelvin on Sunday, 5 June. I did not want my mother to know that Richard Kelvin had been in her home. I realise now that I should have told the police the truth but as time passed I was frightened to tell anyone.
‘As you have heard, the police found a number of different types of drugs at my home. You have also been told about medication that has been prescribed for me over the years. All the drugs found at my house were prescribed for me. Over the years I have required a lot of drugs for nerves, sleeplessness, anxiety and depression. The medication which I did not often use was kept on a ledge behind the mirror of my wardrobe. I have never been prescribed, nor have I ever used, Amytalobarbitone.
‘On the night of Sunday, 5 June 1983, I did not give Richard Kelvin any drugs; I did not abduct Richard Kelvin or have any further contact with him after I dropped him off on North Terrace that Sunday night. I do not know what happened to him after that.
‘I ask you to find me not guilty of murder.’
Von Einem’s statement would have been written for him. He was intelligent enough to make up one of his own, but obviously Barry and Helena wanted to cover all of the points given by the witnesses. Von Einem’s unsworn statement did not address the issue of hair and fibres. His defence team knew that would get him into trouble, so they left it alone.
Barry Jennings then asked Janet Amoy to take the stand. This was one of the defence team’s last throws of the dice. Janet Amoy was the daughter of an elderly relative of Bevan’s mother and she told of a birthday party for her mother that happened on 10 July 1983, the day Richard Kelvin was most likely dumped at the airstrip. She said that von Einem and his mother were at the birthday party from about 5.30 [p.m.] until 10.30 p.m. on that Sunday. If this was true, then at the most likely time Richard was dumped von Einem’s presence was not possible.
Evidence was given by the dog man that he was walking his terriers on the airstrip on that Sunday afternoon. He walked his four dogs into the scrub where Richard was found and the body wasn’t there at that time. Therefore, Richard had to be dumped on Sunday night, after von
