MANNIX CHANGES HIS NAME; OFF to NZ
25.03.1986
By: KOCH A Source: QNP
Mannix changes his name, leaves Coast to start on a new life It's a miracle that Barry is not in jail " " " " ' ' ' By TONY KOCH BARRY Mannix no longer exists. He has changed his name by deed poll, left his Gold Coast home and job, and is trying to rebuild his life.
A life which includes the stigma of being charged and imprisoned for the crime of murdering his father by stabbing him and cutting his throat.
But his closest friend, his mother, Mrs Raewyn Mannix, said yesterday that Barry and other family members would never have had to go through the trauma if he had been granted basic civil rights.
She said that no 18-year-old should be held and questioned by police without being allowed to contact his parents or a legal representative.
""It's a miracle that Barry is not in jail. I lost one member of my family and promised that I would not cry until this was all over, having faced the prospect of losing two,'' she said.
""But I could not keep that promise past last Thursday night when the findings of the Police Complaints Tribunal were publicised. What frightens me is that it is true what the public says _ you can't win against the police.''
Mrs Mannix also was critical of the tribunal report, which included color photographs of the murder victim and the murder scene.
""I believe the tribunal's action in printing police photographs of my husband's body was completely unnecessary,'' she said.
""It was upsetting enough sitting through two hearings where his possessions _ the clothes he was murdered in _ and photographs were handed about.''
Mrs Mannix and Barry, as well as their solicitor, Mr Paul Hopgood, also are critical of the lack of opportunity given to identify police against whom the complaints were made by Barry that he was forced to confess to the murder.
They said that no photographs of police were made available so they could put a name to the ones against whom they were making allegations, and no opportunity was given to identify them in person.
They questioned how the tribunal could investigate their charges thoroughly if the police officers they were accusing could not be identified by them for the tribunal to question.
Mannix said he was treated no differently from other prisoners at Brisbane Jail, but an incident which most disturbed him occurred on his first night there.
""I came out of my cell in the morning and a prison officer had chalked on my door in large letters "The Slasher'. I didn't think that was too impressive,'' he said.
He denied statements in the tribunal's report that, when he discovered his father's body on June 22, 1984, he had said to a woman that his father had a heart attack.
The body, with the head covered in white surgical tape, also had severe lacerations to the throat and stab wounds to the chest.
""Why would I say that? The woman rang the ambulance and police, and I rang Dad's business partner. I was in a state of shock,'' Mannix said.
""I still really don't know why I didn't ring Mum. It is a position where you don't know what you are going to do until it happens.
""I rang Frank Oreskovic because, as far as I knew, he was the last person who would have seen my father.''
Mannix said that on July 6, 1984, when police took him to the Broadbeach police station, they wanted help to sort out some statements made by other people.
He asked twice that day for permission to telephone his mother, but was refused.
Mrs Mannix was questioned at Broadbeach station that day, but was not allowed to speak to her son. After she went home at night, she telephoned twice and was told that Barry would be driven home.
Detectives came to her house at 11.30 p.m. and asked her to come to the station. They told her then that he was to be charged with the murder.
Mannix said that the only time he was physically assaulted at Broadbeach was by a detective who said he was from the Brisbane CIB. He did not know his name.
""In the afternoon about 4.45, the detective with a fairly large build came in and sat down. I remember him because he was chewing on a pen. He told me the CIB were fed up with me lying,'' Mannix said.
""He kept asking me if I'd done it _ how I had killed my father and asked why I done it.
""He obviously was convinced I had. I said, "Look, I know nothing about it'. He looked very agitated and slammed his fist on the table, got up and grabbed me by the hair on the back of my neck.
""He put his other hand in a clenched fist and said he would smash me in the face. I raised my hands to stop him. He kept on making as if he was going to punch me and told me not to look away from the wall, not to look at him.
""After a while he stopped and said he was going to leave and come back in five minutes and when he got back we could be mates. "That is if you want to be mates. That is up to you,' he said, and then left.
""About five minutes later he came back into the room and said "How are you, buddy, pal, mate?' I said, "Well, we are not going to be mates'.
""He then got up and backhanded me across the back of the head and left the room.''
Mannix said police later told him that if he did not confess, they would bring in photographs of his father's autopsy.
He said he asked then to speak with his mother and the police said they would get somebody to ring her. They came back and said there was nobody answering.
Mannix disputes this because his grandparents were in the house and did not leave it that night.
The Police Complaints Tribunal found that, based on Barry Mannix's complaint, no charge against any police officer could possibly succeed.
