THIS MAN SHOULD HANG, COURT TOLD
28.02.1985
This man should hang, detective tells magistrate SOUTHPORT._ One of the men charged with the murders of Kevin Mannix and Lovina Cunningham was ""the greatest argument for the death penalty there ever was'', a detective told the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday.
Another detective told the court he still believed that Barry Mannix was involved in some way in his father's murder.
Det. Sgt Pat Glancy said Craig Andrew McConnell was a cold, calculating killer.
""It wouldn't be a sad day if he went to the gallows,'' he said.
Sgt Glancy, looking towards the dock where Nigel Phillip Vincent Andrews and Anthony Michael Duncan Rau were seated, said: ""These men are evil murderers.''
McConnell, 20, printer of Paradise Waters, Andrews, 25, panel beater, of Sorrento, Rau, 22, unemployed, of Helensvale, and Nicholas Koutras, 21, hotel employee, of Moana Park, have not entered pleas to charges of having murdered Kevin Mannix, 40, at Palm Beach on June 22 last year.
McConnell, Rau and Andrews are also charged with having murdered Surfers Paradise call girl, Lovina Cunningham, 45, on August 24.
On Tuesday, Mr B. Latham, SM, committed McConnell for trial on both murder charges after his counsel, Mr R. Mulholland, finished cross-examining witnesses and agreed that there was a prima facie case against his client.
The hearing of charges against Rau, Andrews and Koutras continued yesterday.
Sgt Glancy's comments about McConnell came while he was being cross-examined by Mr C. Nyst, for Koutras, about a record of interview with Koutras.
Glancy said Koutras, who voluntarily returned from Greece to answer the allegations, had refused to answer his questions.
""There are eight pages of "no comment'. He came back all that way just to sit there like a dummy,'' Glancy said.
Mr Nyst asked Glancy if he conceded that suspects had the right to refuse to answer questions.
""I have to. But that is why there is so much crime around,'' Glancy said."Cold killer' Glancy said he did not like to see anyone getting away ""scot-free'' for murder. ""I believe that McConnell is a cold, calculating killer. There is no disputing that,'' he said.
My Nyst asked him that if that was the case, should not Barry Mannix now be a corpse in the ground?
Glancy said: ""He (Barry Mannix) may have been charged before they got an opportunity to get to him.''
In a statement tendered to the court earlier, Rau said Barry Mannix had seen his father's murder and he confessed to it because he was afraid ""he was next''.
[In December, a murder charge against Barry Mannix, 19, who was accused of killing his father, was dropped.] Glancy later told Mr Nyst that an undercover detective with a concealed tape recorder had been put in the Southport Watchhouse with Koutras after he was charged.
Glancy agreed with Mr Nyst that when Koutras was charged, police did not have sufficient evidence against him.
He agreed that he thought there was a chance that Koutras might make an admission to a fellow inmate in the watchhouse.
Glancy said the tape recording quality was poor because of background noise.
But at one stage, Koutras had broken down and cried while talking to the undercover detective and allegedly said: ""I didn't know they were going to kill him (Mannix). I only waited in the car.'' Glancy said this conversation was not recorded.
He agreed with Mr Nyst that about one week after the undercover detective had been in the watchhouse, Koutras allegedly made some admissions about the Mannix murder to an inmate, Gordon Sutton.
Mr Nyst suggested that it was fortunate for the police that Koutras had allegedly spoken to Sutton.
Glancy said: ""Somebody up there must like us.''
Later, Det. Sen. Constable Peter Le Gros told Mr Nyst that he still felt that Barry Mannix was involved in some way in his father's murder.
Le Gros said he did not know why Barry Mannix had confessed to the murder but he denied any impropriety by police.
He said he knew what Barry Mannix had alleged to the Police Complaints Tribunal. ""I know the allegations are not true,'' he said.
Le Gros said he was at the Broadbeach police station on July 6 when Mannix allegedly told police how he killed his father.
He had seen Mannix walking around the station on several occasions and he had not appeared to be upset or agitated.
The hearing continues today.
