Spotlight back on crimes that haunted nation
Two of Australia's most notorious crimes have come under renewed scrutiny following the emergence of fresh evidence in one case and a damning report of police investigations into the other.
The disappearance of nine-year-old Samantha Knight in 1986, and the unrelated murder of 14-year-old Leigh Leigh in 1989, have haunted Australians for years.
Samantha's disappearance has never been solved, while in Leigh's case, there are suspicions that more youths were involved than the one convicted.
Samantha was reported missing after she failed to return from an after-school visit to the shops in Bondi, Sydney, a decade ago.
Her disappearance prompted the largest police search that had been undertaken in Australia.
Police are now interviewing a middle-aged man, after tip-offs from witnesses who said the man talked frequently about Samantha in a manner that was strange and inappropriate.
The man, who has never been previously questioned, is also alleged to have shown people photos of Samantha and her friends.
The Daily Telegraph quoted a 'source close to the case' as saying the police had also stumbled upon 'something that no one but the man himself and a victim could have known'.
It is understood that the man is known to, but not close to, Samantha's family.
The girl's mother, Tess Knight, said: 'I was quite unaware of this person as a suspect. He was someone tangentially involved in our neighbourhood.
'There is at least one person, and he may have told others, who lives with the enormous burden of knowing what happened.' Meanwhile, in Leigh's case, lawyers representing her mother, Robyn Leigh, have reviewed all police records pertaining to Leigh's death, and claim more youths were involved than the one who pleaded guilty.
Mrs Leigh has long sought to have the case re-opened and says she was spat on in the streets of the community where the crime took place, by people who wanted her to leave the case alone.
Leigh was raped, sexually assaulted, beaten, and then bludgeoned to death with a rock during a party at a North Stockton surf club near Newcastle in New South Wales.
The attacks took place while friends and other party guests watched. Accounts of the party's degeneracy dwelt on the drug-taking and drinking that took place.
The 300-page report by Mrs Leigh's lawyers now says that as many as nine other youths may have been involved, kicking and spitting at Leigh.
The report says Leigh was assaulted by two groups of youths before her death, and the sexual assault she was subjected to may have been far more ferocious than previously realised.
The report accuses the police of failing to diligently investigate all the circumstances of the death.
