Kidnapped Read online

  The voluminous and intricate scientific analysis of the trace evidence from the crime scene had convincingly established that Stephen Bradley was responsible for the kidnapping of Graeme Thorne. The scientific evidence implicating him now included: the pink-and-white mortar, the cypress seeds, the dog hairs, the human hairs, the twine, the string and the tassels on the picnic rug. As well as this matrix of scientific evidence, the police also had: the Ford Customline, the identification of Bradley by Freda and Bazil Thorne, the similarity of the man observed by Cecil and Dorothea Denmeade, the identification of the picnic rug by Joseph Fogel, the Bradleys’ visit to Grandview Grove to see a house next door to the vacant block of land where the body had been found, and of course Stephen Bradley’s European accent. The noose was now very firmly tied around Stephen Bradley’s neck. It was just that he didn’t know it.

  * * *

  On the same day that Dr Cramp was examining all the dog hairs in Sydney – 7 October 1960 – the SS Himalaya sailed from Fremantle into international waters of the Indian Ocean, bound for the next scheduled port – Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

  11

  INTERNATIONAL WATERS

  The P&O-Orient Line was immensely proud of the SS Himalaya. It had first gone into service in 1949 and in the post-war period was one of their new, impressive passenger liners, designed to make up for their massive losses during the Second World War. It was not only a splendid and luxurious liner, but also the fastest and largest ship that P&O had ever owned, having a top speed of 25 knots. She was able to cut the time of the trip from the United Kingdom to Bombay by five days and the overall voyage to Australia from thirty-eight days to just twenty-eight.1 She carried 758 first-class passengers and 401 in tourist class. The voyage from Sydney to England involved brief stopovers in Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle, and then the six-day Indian Ocean leg across the equator to Colombo. From there, the journey proceeded via Bombay, Aden, the Suez Canal, Port Said, Marseilles and Gibraltar to Southampton.

  Stephen, Magda and the three children, Paul, Helen and Ross, had the most wonderful time on board the SS Himalaya. It had been a long time since they had all been together for such an extended period of time. When they berthed in Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle, Stephen insisted that they all stay together on board the ship and not disembark for the few hours that passengers were permitted to go on-shore. They played deck games; they consumed voluminous amounts of food and drink; once the ship headed north from Fremantle, the weather warmed up and the children spent numerous hours playing in the open-deck swimming pool. Never before had they felt such togetherness as they did on this voyage. Stephen was more relaxed than he had been for many months, and Magda seemed to respond positively to the lack of tension emanating from her husband. The children were excited to be on an ocean liner for the first time and pleased to have both their parents’ undivided attention.

  * * *

  When the Himalaya berthed at the three Australian ports en route, Stephen was unable to dispel a sense of unease, and this was why he was reluctant to disembark with the other passengers who were eager to do some sightseeing. Only when they sailed out of Australian territorial waters was he able to fully relax, convinced that he had put Australia and his past behind him, and that a new start in England would enable them to lead a more prosperous life. He believed that it was unlikely that he would ever have to account for what had happened to Graeme Thorne, because now that he was gone, the police could hardly get the direct identification evidence that could link him to the crime. In any event, he would be able to get occasional Australian newspapers in London, and if it looked like the police were close to making an arrest, he could easily convince Magda to go with him to one of the many countries with warm climates that lacked an extradition treaty with Australia.

  * * *

  On 8 October 1960, the day after the Himalaya left Australian territorial waters, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Norman Allen, notified the Department of External Affairs in Canberra and the Australian High Commissioner in Ceylon of arrangements already in train to obtain a provisional warrant – designed to justify the holding of a suspect pending a formal extradition request – for the arrest of Stephen Bradley in Colombo. The warrant, charging Bradley with the murder of Graeme Thorne, was issued by a chamber magistrate in Sydney that night and transmitted via Interpol to Ceylon. The Australian warrant had no force outside Australia, but several days later a Colombo magistrate issued a locally enforceable provisional warrant for Bradley’s arrest. This was the first step towards having Bradley taken off the Himalaya and extradited back to Australia to face trial. Detective Sergeants JH (Jack) Bateman and J Coleman were directed to proceed to Colombo to facilitate the whole process, but due to a faulty plane engine, they did not arrive until 14 October, well after the Himalaya had docked and departed. Even in the absence of the Australian police, however, the Ceylonese police were content to arrest Bradley on the local provisional warrant.

  By the time the Himalaya arrived in Colombo on the afternoon of 10 October, Captain Hugh Slinn had already known for some days that a suspected kidnapper and murderer was on board his liner. The police in Sydney had contacted him by radio to ask him to keep Stephen Bradley under observation. Captain Slinn kept a discreet, but watchful eye on his male passenger and satisfied himself that neither the vessel nor its other passengers were at risk from this man.

  * * *

  When the Himalaya berthed in Colombo, Magda was desperate to get off the ship, as she was suffering from restlessness, having already been on board for fourteen days, and she was dying to see the capital of exotic Ceylon. The children also were anxious to disembark, because they had heard stories about the wonderful gifts that could be bought very cheaply. Stephen, however, was wary about leaving the ship at all. Magda put it down to nervousness about a foreign country, but when she suggested this explanation to Stephen, he laughed and offered the lame excuse that he just wanted to get to England as quickly as possible.

  The Himalaya had been in port for barely half an hour, and passengers had not yet been allowed to disembark, when uniformed members of the Colombo Harbour Patrol came on board. Stephen Bradley was buying some curios from native men who had come onto the ship, when a page boy called him to the ship’s Purser’s office. As he approached the office, he saw a group of men waiting and, with a skip of his heartbeat, instantly knew that they were police. The Harbour Patrol officers placed him under arrest. He was allowed to go briefly to his cabin to pack a few of his personal effects in a battered, brown suitcase. As he was doing so, Magda and the children arrived at the cabin, which now contained some very officious-looking men, most of whom were clearly local police in uniform. The officers read out some papers, but Magda didn’t understand what they were saying. Fear and panic seized her, but she managed to keep them in check so as not to unduly scare her children. Stephen asked her to remain on board the ship with the children and to continue their journey, saying that he would rejoin them when the misunderstanding had been cleared up. Magda nodded supportively, but deep down she knew perfectly well that she would be continuing this journey to England without him. As Stephen was escorted out of the cabin carrying his suitcase, Magda wondered whether she or their children would ever see him again.

  * * *

  Stephen Bradley was taken to the Ceylon Harbour lock-up, where he was kept overnight. The following morning he appeared briefly in the Colombo Magistrates Court, from where he was transferred to the Magazine Remand Prison, Colombo’s main, high-security gaol.

  In Sydney the following day, the news of Stephen Bradley’s arrest for the murder of Graeme Thorne was splashed across every front page and was the first item on every radio and television news broadcast. The Daily Mirror breached the sub judice rules by publishing a photograph of Stephen and Magda, which caused fury among police, because it meant that any further identification would be tainted by the public dissemination of the photo. As a result, the Attorney-General comm
enced contempt-of-court proceedings against the newspaper.

  * * *

  Stephen Bradley was severely shaken by the events of 10 October, when he was forcibly escorted from the Himalaya and placed into custody at the Ceylon Harbour lock-up. He was particularly disturbed that his wife and children had been forced to witness his humiliation. Surely, he thought, the police could have done it in a more respectful manner that would have allowed him to maintain his dignity. Once in custody, he had a chance to consider his position and think about what options might await him. He was determined that he would admit to nothing and would challenge the arrest at every opportunity. He was not going to make things easier for whoever had caused his family trip to be disrupted. He felt so sorry for Magda, knowing that she would now have to cope with the children on her own so far from home.

  The next day, during his first appearance in the Magistrates Court, he was astounded at how many journalists from many parts of the world were in the courtroom, and he realised that this attention in Colombo would translate into extensive publicity in the Australian papers, as well as on radio and television. He was concerned that if the newspapers published his photograph – and their cameramen had taken many at the dock as the police led him away from the ship – Bazil and Freda Thorne, or the woman living above them, might recognise him. He kept reassuring himself that the police in Australia could not have any cogent evidence against him. Identification by Bazil or Freda or the woman upstairs could hardly be enough to prove his involvement in the kidnapping, and his ownership of a Ford Customline was something he shared with numerous other people. He had got out of so many scrapes in the past, and he was confident that his street-smart, winning personality would get him out of this one.

  * * *

  By the time of Stephen Bradley’s first appearance in the Colombo court, the Himalaya was already sailing away from Ceylon bound for Bombay in India. Magda was terribly distressed to be separated from her husband. She pretended to be calm for the sake of the children, who couldn’t understand why their father and stepfather was no longer on this exciting journey with them, but in reality she was anything but calm. How would she cope on her own with three children in England? How would she survive financially without Stephen’s support? Was Stephen really the monster who had snatched Graeme Thorne off a street in Bondi and murdered him in an attempt to get money from his parents? Was he callous enough to do such a terrible thing to Graeme’s poor parents? Was he responsible for his previous wife’s death? Did she really know this man at all?

  For Stephen’s daughter, Helen, and stepsons, Paul and Ross, the startling arrest in Colombo was the beginning of an increasingly traumatic period of their lives. Their idyllic holiday on-board ship had been disrupted and they couldn’t fail to notice Magda’s tension and worry. They tried to enjoy themselves, but Stephen’s absence hung around them like a thick fog.

  * * *

  When, about a week after the Himalaya sailed from Sydney, Dr Frank Laszlo in Melbourne learnt that Stephen Bradley and his wife had precipitously departed Australia without notifying family and friends, he was enraged – not because of anything to do with the murder of Graeme Thorne, but because his former son-in-law had taken away Frank and his wife Ilse’s beloved granddaughter, Helen. The now sixty-six-year-old Frank Laszlo had never liked his son-in-law, especially after his daughter Eva had suddenly died in a suspicious car accident. Over the years he had always harboured a secret belief that somehow, in some way, his son-in-law had been responsible for Eva’s death. Frank had never said anything about his suspicions directly to Stephen, because to have done so would have ensured that Frank and Ilse would lose contact with their granddaughter. Even so, after Magda came on the scene, it was a rare event for Frank and Ilse to have substantial contact with Helen, and after the Bradleys moved to Sydney there was even less interaction. However, Frank and Ilse still dearly loved Helen.

  When the news first emerged on 11 October that Stephen Bradley had been taken off the ship and arrested in Colombo for the murder of Graeme Thorne, and that the New South Wales government was seeking to extradite him, Dr Laszlo saw an opportunity to retrieve his granddaughter. He ascertained from the Union Steamship company offices in Melbourne that Magda and the three children had remained on the Himalaya bound for England. By that time, the ship was already on its way to Bombay.

  Dr Laszlo immediately sought legal advice from a specialist firm of lawyers in Melbourne about his chances of forcing Magda Bradley to return Helen to Australia and to hand over custody of the child to Frank and his wife. After all, Magda had no blood relationship with Helen; neither had she formally adopted the child. With Stephen now locked up in a Ceylonese prison, Frank Laszlo held the view that Magda had no legal right to the custody of his granddaughter, that he and Ilse were now the child’s next of kin and the obvious ones to take care of her. Frank was advised to obtain an emergency ex parte order from a court in Melbourne, and then seek to enforce it overseas. His lawyers advised him that to have any chance of success, he should take steps to enforce the court order in a country that had a British common-law system of justice. Frank was determined to act as soon as possible, rather than waiting until Magda and the children arrived in England. There was insufficient time to obtain a Victorian court order and convey it by air to Bombay before the Himalaya left, but there was enough time to get it to Aden, a small British colonial outpost on the southern tip of Yemen.

  Frank Laszlo’s solicitors obtained an urgent court order from the Victorian Supreme Court making Helen a ward of the court and requiring the return of the child to that State. Frank secured the services of a firm of solicitors in Aden and caught the next plane, armed with multiple copies of the order. He arrived in Aden several days after the Himalaya, but in the meantime his solicitors had obtained from the local Supreme Court an interim habeas corpus order that prevented the child from leaving the jurisdiction pending a further court order. When served with this order, Magda refused to leave Helen on her own in Aden, so all four of them disembarked.

  * * *

  When the Himalaya berthed in Aden at 6am on 15 October, Magda was at a very low ebb, being still traumatised by the arrest of her husband in Colombo. As soon as the ship docked, she was called to the Purser’s office. Expecting to receive some mail or news from Stephen, she hurried excitedly to that part of the ship, where the Purser handed her the court papers he had been given by a local firm of solicitors acting on behalf of Dr Laszlo. The papers required Magda to produce Helen to the Court that very morning. The Himalaya was due to leave Aden at noon that day. Magda was firm in her resolve to resist her husband’s former father-in-law’s application. Helen was terribly upset at the threat of being separated from the only mother she had ever known, and became increasingly clingy with Magda. When they arrived at the court, Magda was told that nothing could be done until Dr Laszlo arrived in several days’ time. Being determined to oppose the application and not prepared to leave Helen with strangers in Aden, Magda returned to the ship, packed up their belongings and disembarked with all three children. The local employees of the Orient Steamship Company assured Magda that once she sorted out her legal problems, she and the children could embark on the next P&O ship that passed through the port bound for England, and that there would be no additional charge. They took up residence at a cheap hotel in Aden, where the local papers reported that their first outdoor venture was to the pool at the Royal Airforce Swimming Club.

  Several days later, at a hearing in the Supreme Court of Aden, Dr Laszlo was represented by a senior barrister. Magda appeared with a legal aid solicitor. The newspapers reported:

  Dr Laszlo arrived at the court this morning with his lawyer, Mr Westby Nunn. Mrs Bradley dressed in a smart black hat and a black and white striped frock, conferred with Mr Horrocks [her solicitor] before and after the case was heard in the chambers of the Chief Justice. She said later: ‘If the welfare of the child is at stake, she should be mine. I love her as mine and have cared for her s
ince she was a baby.’ Mrs Bradley met Dr Laszlo for the first time today.2

  * * *

  When Stephen Bradley heard about Frank Laszlo’s attempt to wrestle Helen away from Magda, he was incensed at the effrontery of a grandparent trying to take a child away from the only mother she had ever truly known, and he was sure that Helen would prefer to stay in Magda’s care. He immediately sought advice from his counsel in Colombo, and at his suggestion, an affidavit was prepared and forwarded to Magda in Aden informing the Court there that he, as the sole surviving parent, had authorised Magda to take the child to London. Surely that would be the end of the matter! However, some time later, Stephen changed his mind about where he thought Helen should reside. He reasoned that if he was extradited to Australia, Helen’s dependency on him would provide a convincing argument for his release on bail to look after her. So, he countermanded his earlier instructions and communicated his wish that Helen be transferred to a convent in Sydney to await his arrival and release, at which time he could resume his parental responsibilities. According to the newspapers, Bradley’s solicitor in Colombo, Mr De Silva, announced:

  Stephen Bradley wants his wife Magda and her two sons to go to London and his daughter Helen to return to Sydney if he is extradited. Mr De Silva said that Bradley wanted Helen ‘kept in a convent in Sydney until such time as his trial is over’. Mr De Silva said he would cable Mrs Bradley today setting out Bradley’s request. He said he did not think Dr Laszlo or a court would object to Bradley’s desire to have his daughter remain in a convent temporarily.3

  * * *

  At the hearing in Aden before the Chief Justice Mr Justice Le Gallais, Dr Laszlo applied for an order of the court that custody of the child be immediately handed over to him so that she could be returned to the State of Victoria where a final custody order would be made. He alleged that Magda’s real plan was to take Helen to live in Hungary. Magda’s legal aid solicitor, though young and inexperienced, was keen and bright, and he pointed out that none of the parties, including Helen, had the required residency status in Aden that would give the court jurisdiction to make any order affecting this child. The Chief Justice agreed and dismissed Dr Laszlo’s application, ordering him to pay Magda’s legal costs and her hotel bill.