Police, priorities and what they DON'T do that really matters.

POLICE PRIORITIES AND WHAT THEY DON’T DO THAT REALLY MATTERS

These days Police will not be first responders to home burglar alarms.  They refuse to attend minor car accidents.  They will not take finger prints or DNA from a simple car theft or a home break and enter unless additional crimes have been committed. 

In the 1980’s, Detective Sergeant Graham Rosetta and his team of detectives at Blacktown Police Station in Sydney’s western suburbs, became the lap dog of the then Superintendent of Internal Investigation Unit within the Department of Corrective Services, Ronald George Woodham. 

Together they set their priorities on setting up a number of innocent Prison Officers at Parklea Prison.  Among them were Michael Kay, (you can read about his case in my eBook “Australia’s Best Prison Stories”), and of course myself, (you can read about my case in my bestselling eBook “It’s all in the Fall”).

What D.S. Rosetta failed to do was look for two extremely dangerous and wanted men who were roaming the streets committing atrocities on the people within his own Policing district. 

John Travis was wanted in three states, Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales for violent, sexual offenses.  Michael Murphy had escaped from Silverwater Prison on 27^th December 1985.  He was serving a sentence of 24 and a half years imprisonment.  Both men had families living within the Blacktown Police district.  They had been on many occasions living and associating with their families in D.S. Rosetta’s precinct.

It seems to me both these violent criminals were not in any way whatsoever on D.S. Rosetta’s radar.  I believe it is fair to say, he was asleep at the desk in relation to these wanted men.  I can find no records of Blacktown Detectives taking any pro active steps to re-capture Michael Murphy or arrest John Travis. 

On 2^nd February 1986, some 37 days following Michael Murphy’s escape from Silverwater Prison, he in company with John Travis, Michael Murdoch and Michael Murphy’s two brothers, Leslie and Gary Murphy, abducted, humiliated, brutalised, raped and brutally murdered Anita Lorraine Cobby.  Michael Murphy and John Travis were the two ring leaders and major influences over the other three perpetrators of these heinous crimes. 

Anita Cobby’s body was not found until 4^th February 1986, some two days after her murder by a hapless farmer who had leased the paddock from the Water Board.  D.S. Rosetta was one of the first responding investigators to attend the scene, one that I might suggest would not have existed had he pursued Michael Murphy and John Travis prior to this horrific murder taking place.  

Detective Inspector Ian “Speedy” Kennedy from the Homicide Squad based at Police Headquarters in Sydney was called to the scene and to take charge of a task force to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. 

I have no doubt members of the task force, including Detectives Kennedy, Rosetta and Raue spent many hours in their endeavours to resolve this case in order to bring it to a quick conclusion, however it took the task force 19 days before they made their first arrest when D.S. Rosetta, along with members of the TRG entered a home at Wentworthville where they found John Travis and Michael Murdoch in bed together in what could only be described as a compromising position and they were both taken into custody at that point.  At the same time a second team led by D.I. Kennedy raided the family home of John Travis where they located Leslie Murphy and took him into custody.  It was not until 26^th February 1986, 24 days following Anita Cobby’s murder, that Detectives Kennedy, Rosetta and Raue, along with more than 50 TRG Officers surrounded a home in Tari Place Glenfield where they arrested Michael and Gary Murphy.

There is a great deal more to this story involving the incompetence and lack of proper investigative procedures that were carried out by these Blacktown Detectives. You can read all about this case in my new book to be released in the coming months, titled “Officers, Criminals and Amazing Prison Stories”.

Needless to say, D.S. Rosetta and his cohorts received special commendations for their detective work in bringing this case to a conclusion.  I believe they should have been reprimanded for their lack of diligence in carrying out their duties in protecting the people within their Police precinct by pursuing the two major influences in the Anita Cobby murder, being the dangerous escapee Michael Murphy and the equally dangerous John Travis, wanted in three states, who were both living and associating with their families close by Blacktown Police Station, right under D.S. Rosetta’s nose.  This horrific murder should never have occurred. 

Michael Murphy, John Travis, Michael Murdoch, Leslie and Gary Murphy were all sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation, “NEVER TO BE RELEASED”. 

Watch out for my next eBook “Officers, Criminals and Amazing Prison Stories” due out within the next few months. 

This I believe.

Peter T. Egge

Anita Lorraine Cobby's final resting place