A curtain twitched inside the Thornbury bookshop where Maria James was killed.
Her killer waited behind it for his chance to flee as her ex-husband forced his way into the back of the property. In that moment he dashed out the front door and disappeared.
For more than 40 years the identity of who bound the single mum’s hands and stabbed her 68 times remained a mystery.
But her sons Mark and Adam James believe they are a step closer to finding out who killed their mum in June 1980 after they fought for a second coronial inquest to reinvestigate their mother’s slaying.
They were just 13 and 11 when their mum was murdered.
“Mum would have been proud of Adam and I that, you know, we’ve really fought hard to try to get justice for her,” Mark James told NCA NewsWire.
In an 80 page report handed down on Thursday the Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English published an open finding into her death and said an unknown person killed her.
While her sons were disappointed with the finding Mr James said it was positive the coroner highlighted inadequacies with the investigation, mishandling of evidence and identified two “main suspects”.
Those “significant” persons of interest Coroner English identified were Father Anthony Bongiorno and convicted killer Peter Keogh. Both are dead.
THE PRIEST
Mrs James’ youngest son Adam – who has cerebral palsy and Tourette’s Syndrome – revealed to his older brother in 2013 their parish priest – Fr Bongiorno – molested him as a child. The shocking revelation prompted the new inquest.
The coroner said the priest had “motive, proximity and opportunity” for the crime.
This was because of the sexual abuse allegations, evidence she was on the phone to the parish the morning of her death and a discredited alibi.
Two witnesses saw the “aggressive and domineering” priest outside the shop before and immediately after Mrs James death, the court was told during the inquest.
Her sons believe the priest was responsible for his mother’s murder because she was due to confront him about the sexual abuse allegations.
“What I believe has happened is that my mum found out that parish priests were sexually assaulting my handicapped brother. She’s gone to confront them and was killed,” Mr James said.
He also said he wished the coroner waited for more evidence before handing down her finding and wanted police to speak to others who could put Fr Bongiorno at the bookshop before the murder.
One of those was a witness in Italy and schoolgirls nearby at the time, Mr James said.
The priest was not considered a suspect at the time of the murder but the coroner urged police to continue their investigation into his potential involvement.
Mr James said they were considering pushing for an exhumation of Fr Bongiorno who is buried in an unmarked grave in Melbourne’s southeast in order to get DNA evidence.
CONVICTED KILLER
Peter Keogh was also a “significant” person of interest in the murder of Mrs James, the coroner said.
He brutally stabbed his ex-girlfriend Vicki Cleary to death outside her work in 1987 but spent less than four years in jail for the crime because he was found guilty of manslaughter under a now-defunct defence.
Despite a violent past including a knife attack on a woman in 1970 police did not consider Keogh a suspect in the initial investigation, the coroner said.
They also failed to get a statement from his then-girlfriend who gave him an alibi on the day of the murder, the coroner said.
“There appeared no understanding or consideration of her position as a potentially vulnerable witness given Mr Keogh’s violent history,” she wrote of that decision
The coroner was also critical of how police at the time ignored the voices of women in the case including a social worker who flagged her suspicions that Keogh could be involved in the months after the crime.
They also failed to follow up information in 1982 from the sisters' of the woman who gave Keogh an alibi. They told police he carried a knife, was a butcher and attacked his girlfriend with a blade.
“He had opportunity and proximity to the area, and he may well have known Mrs James and been aware she was alone in the bookshop,” Coroner English said of Keogh in the report.
Keogh was “quickly eliminated as a suspect without proper grounds”, she said.
Former VFL star Phil Cleary told NCA Newswire he felt The lack of investigation into Keogh was “shameful”.
He also contacted police in 1989 to name Keogh as a potential suspect in the Maria James murder but was never spoken to and is frustrated others were ignored.
“It’s shameful that Keogh wasn’t properly interviewed and examined when he was named by a string of women as Maria James’ killer in 1980 and 1982,” Mr Cleary said.
“How could the sisters of Keogh’s alibi name Keogh as Maria’s murderer in 1982 and not be interviewed?”
During the inquest he said his sister “might not have died at [Keogh’s] hands” if he had been properly investigated for the earlier murder.
The former federal politician became an champion for law reform and continues to speak out about violence against women. Speaking generally, he said there is a “shameful story” of systemic failure to protect women from violent misogynists.
“Systemic failure, that’s the moral of the coroner’s findings, and for that there must be an apology,” Mr Cleary said.
Mrs James’ sons are adamant Keogh is not the killer but are frustrated he wasn’t properly looked into.
“Even though I don’t believe he’s the killer they should have investigated more closely,” Mark James said.
He was an “evil man” who terrorised women and would make comments to scare them, Mr James said.
Keogh told Vicki Cleary: “I’ll do to you what I did to that girl in the bookshop,”
THE ‘GREATEST FAILURE’
But the most frustrating parts of the coronial report were how police handled crucial clues, according to Mr James.
“I think police need to reflect upon this and take a cold, hard look at themselves in the mirror,” Mr James said.
The investigation was riddled with errors and led to “potentially lost opportunities” to identify the 38-year-old woman’s killer, Coroner English found.
They didn’t fingerprint the front door where the killer fled or a knife block where a blade was missing, the court was told.
Mrs James body and shoes were moved while crime scene photos were taken and no pictures were taken of the internal curtain which witnesses saw moving. There was also no close up shot of a bloodstained quilt.
But the “greatest failure” was that the clothes Mrs James wore when she was killed and two pillow slips vanished and have not been found despite being taken into police custody, Coroner English said.
Other exhibit errors included that the bloodstained quilt disappeared for a decade before it was uncovered and a pillow mistakenly added to the evidence which was linked to a different murder and then tested for DNA.
This excluded several people and set back the investigation, the inquest was told.
“When I heard the sheer volume of mistakes that were made particularly with the exhibits … I became progressively more and more disgusted,” Mr James said.
“It’s very, very disappointing.”
Mr James believes the police oversights “led to a (potential) miscarriage of justice” and he together with his legal team at Slater and Gordon are considering whether to sue the force.
He was also pleased the coroner called on Victoria Police to do a physical search for the evidence, look into it’s investigation and intelligence management system and review the police manual into case management.
Despite the issues in the case the brothers remain “hopeful” the case will be solved.
“I’m hoping the police are going to get off their backsides and really press hard on this,” he said.
In a statement Victoria Police said it would review the findings and considered the investigation into Mrs James murder “active and ongoing”.
