Case 329: Roseanne Beckett

Episode Transcript
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Please see the show notes for this episode on your
app or on our website. During the late nineteen eighties,

(01:29):
a growing number of residents in the small New South
Wales town of Taree had concerns about a woman named
Roseanne cat. In July of nineteen eighty nine, one man
decided to do something about it. Adrian Mull had met
Roseanne a couple of years earlier when she married Adrian's
good friend Barry Cat. It was a second marriage for

(01:53):
both parties. Roseanne and Barry had previously divorced their first
spouses and both had children from these prior relationships. Forty
two year old Roseanne was a well known figure in Taree,
which sits on the mid north coast of New South Wales.
Although Roseanne only moved there less than a decade earlier,

(02:16):
she became a familiar face after purchasing a delicatessen, a
business that had her interacting with lots of locals. Forty
four year old Barry had a small business too. He
was a motor mechanic with his own auto repair shop
called Caddie's Body Repairs. Barry struck up a romance with

(02:36):
Roseanne after hiring her son, and the two were married
in August of nineteen eighty seven. But Adrian Mule wasn't
happy that his friend had found a love again because
Adrian had never trusted Roseanne ever since Barry had met her.
His life had been turned upside down, and it appeared
to be Roseanne's doing. There had been worrying rumors. Even

(03:00):
before the couple was married. Family and friends of Barry
reported that Roseanne complained about Barry NonStop, calling his business
a mess and describing his friends as no hopers. Barry's
sister Mary said that one week before their wedding, Roseanne
told her, you are next of kin now, but next week,

(03:24):
when I marry him, I will be and I will
have him committed. Sure enough, the couple had been married
for less than two weeks when Barry was admitted to
a psychiatric facility. Things only worsened from there. Although Barry
returned to the couple's home within a week, he was

(03:45):
readmitted and released several more times in quick succession. Barry
had previously been diagnosed with manic depressive disorder now known
as bipolar disorder, and it seemed to some who knew
him that rose Amne was exploiting this for her own advantage.
They suspected that she wanted to take control of his

(04:06):
business and other assets. Over the next couple of years,
issues escalated. Word spread that Roseanne had attacked her husband
on multiple occasions with a rock, a cricket bat, and
even a knife. Roseanne sometimes complained to Adrian about Barry,
saying that he was mad and that she wanted him

(04:29):
put away. She told Adrian that she would do a
much better job of running Barry's auto repair business than
he was. Adrian started paying closer attention to his friend's
situation in case there really was something wrong. As he
subsequently noted in an official statement, Adrian saw that Barry

(04:50):
was behaving strangely. He was unsteady on his feet, his
speech was slow, and his thinking was confused. No matter
how much sleep Barry had, he always looked to groggy
and exhausted. It was as though he was drunk, yet
he never smelled of alcohol. Adrian began to worry that

(05:11):
his friend was being poisoned. Things I observed and things
I was told confirmed my suspicions that Roseanne had a plan,
Adrian later stated. By late July of nineteen eighty nine,
adrianne decided that something had to be done before his

(05:32):
friend's life completely fell apart. Adrian Null didn't want to

(06:02):
report his concerns to the local police in Taree. He
later explained that this was because he didn't trust them
to investigate Roseanne cat properly. Years earlier, in nineteen eighty three,
Roseanne had been charged with arson after the delicatessen she
owned went up in flames. This charge had later been dropped,

(06:24):
which Adrian said was due to Roseanne putting pressure on
the authorities. Roseanne then sold the business in nineteen eighty six.
Adrian didn't like Roseanne and he'd seen her relationship with
Barry decline rapidly. The truth was their marriage had deteriorated

(06:44):
so quickly after their wedding that law enforcement was already
involved and they appeared to be taking Roseanne's side. On
Monday May two, nineteen eighty eight, just the nine months
after the couple was married, there had been a violent
altercation at the home of Barry's sister Mary. Mary reported

(07:06):
that Roseanne had shown up at her house along with
her nineteen year old son Peter, and a young man
named to Jack Harris, not his real name. Both Peter
and Jack were apprentice mechanics at Barry's panel beating shop.
Mary and Roseanne had never gotten along, According to Mary,
Roseanne picked a fight, accusing Mary of having incestuous sex

(07:30):
with her brother Barry and saying that Mary's children were illegitimate.
Mary tried to close the door on her sister in law,
prompting Roseanne to slap her across the face, grab the
keys out of the door, and throw them into a
rock garden set up in the yard nearby. Roseanne and
the two young men eventually got back in Roseanne's car

(07:53):
and were about to leave when Barry pulled up at
the property. He'd realized something must be going on after
discovering both of his apprentices at left work along with Roseanne.
Barry approached Roseanne as she sat in the driver's seat,
and the two began arguing. Barry turned the car's ignition off.

(08:15):
According to Mary, Roseanne then yelled at Barry and hit
him with the back of her hand. Barry struck Roseanne back,
then stormed off, jumping out of the car. Roseanne followed
and started pommeling him in the back with her hands.
Barry hit back and told Roseanne wake up to yourself.

(08:39):
According to Mary, Roseanne then urged Peter and Jack to
step in, pushing Barry to the ground where he knelt
on all fours. At this point, Mary said that Roseanne
picked up a large five kilogram rock from the rock
garden and hurled it at Barry while shouting fire can

(09:00):
kill you, you coun't. Barry later testified that a neighbor drove
him to the hospital after this altercation, and he'd needed
four stitches for a wound in his head. Roseenne immediately
reported Barry for assault and filed an apprehended violence order
or a VO against him. This was granted, forcing Barry

(09:24):
to move into the offices of Caddy's Body Repairs, which
was just across the street from his home, where Roseenne
was staying with his children. The couple hadn't lived together since,
but that had only been the start of their legal issues.
Taree was a small town and their lives were still

(09:46):
intertwined even if they were living apart. Ten months later,
in March nineteen eighty nine, a general practitioner named doctor
Goddard went to Caddy's Body Repairs to have a car
looked at. While he was there, Barry cat showed him
a wound that he had sustained to the left side

(10:06):
of his torso. According to Barry, he and Roseanne had
been having a picnic a few days earlier at a
scenic spot called a Swan's Crossing, located in the Kerawong
State Forest, about an hour's drive from Tai. Barry and
Roseanne were both wearing their bathers as they chattered and
drank stout on a picnic rug, but an argument soon

(10:29):
broke out. Roseanne, who had been slicing up lemons at
the time, began angrily stubbing the knife into the picnic blanket.
She then threatened to stab Barry as well, before prodding
him with a knife and then driving it into his
left side beneath the ribs. Barry said he was horrified

(10:51):
as blood spurted from the wound, describing it as something
you'd see in the movies. He ran away and flagged
down a man who was barbecuing nearby. The man gave
Barry his t shirt to stem the bleeding. Then Barry
he hiked home. Barry didn't seek treatment at the hospital

(11:12):
because quote, Roseanne would get the police and twisted around,
and I'd be back in jail again as usual. I
was like a sitting duck on a restraining order. Two
months after that, Roseanne called the police and reported that
Barry had physically attacked his two young sons after they

(11:35):
went to his workplace looking for stationary supplies. When she
went to the children's defense, Barry threw a bottle of
eucalyptus oil at her. Barry's version of events was different.
He said that he'd been on his office phone chatting
to a female friend when Roseanne had picked up the

(11:55):
other hand, sat in the cat residence and intercepted the call.
I don't want you talking to that slut, she said,
before hanging up and turning up at Barry's office with
his sons. Five minutes later, Barry accused Roseanne of picking
up a cricket bat that one of the boys was
carrying and hitting the right side of his face while

(12:18):
threatening to kill him. When police showed up at the scene,
they saw Barry had a bleeding cut on his right eyebrow.
Barry had the cut sutured at a nearby hospital, but
Roseanne requested he be the one charged with assault. All
of these allegations were starting to add up for Adrian Mule,

(12:40):
but the most shocking moment of all was when Roseanne
began accusing Barry of sexually abusing his children. Adrian later
reported to police that in early nineteen eighty eight, Roseanne
told him that Barry had been raping his children for years.
I don't believe it, Adrian had replied, I don't believe

(13:03):
it could be true, but I certainly would not support
him if it turns out that it is. It was
at that point that he started paying closer attention to
Roseanne and Barry's relationship, trying to understand what was really
going on. Nothing Adrian saw made him think that Barry

(13:24):
was the problem. In fact, he suspected Barry was the victim,
that everything Roseanne had said and done was part of
a bigger scheme she'd set in motion to gain access
to all of his financial assets. As Adrian later said
in an official statement, quote, in a very short period

(13:46):
after marrying Barry, Roseanne set about to absolutely and systematically
discredit him. She had him committed to institutions where his
family and friends were responsible for his release. Gninually discredited
him verbally, saying to any person who went near the place,
he's mad, he's unreliable, he's a child molester, he's a

(14:09):
drug addict. I know that hundreds and I say hundreds
of people can corroborate this. Despite being confident in his assertions,
Adrian didn't want to report his concerns to the tai police,
as Roseanne had repeatedly boasted about the influence she had
over them. He had an alternative plan in mind. On

(14:39):
Tuesday July twenty five, nineteen eighty nine, Adrian Mule made
the three and a half hour drive south to the
New South Wales capital of Sydney. There he visited the
headquarters of AIKAK, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which is
responsible for investigating corruption in New South Wales public sector.

(15:00):
Adrian spoke with an EIKAC employee and lodged an official
complaint about Roseanne cat. He said that Roseanne had put
pressure on the Attorney General to drop the arson charge
against her after her delicatessen had burnt down. According to Adrian,
Roseanne knew the then Attorney General and had some influence

(15:22):
over him. Adrian claimed that not only had Roseanne been
responsible for that fire, but she de lit other fires
as well. He also alleged that police in Taree had
exhibited favoritism towards Roseanne and that she was involved with
the drugs and had violently attacked her husband with a rock.

(15:46):
Adrian was particularly concerned about this because he thought that
Roseenne earned a rifle as well as an unlicensed pistol
that she kept in her handbag. What if her violence
escalated and the next time she shot her husband. Adrian
also paid a visit to police headquarters in Sydney, requesting

(16:07):
that an independent detective investigate the case. His efforts paid off.
A detective by the name of Peter Thomas soon took
interest in the case. Detective Thomas lived two hours away
from Tare in the harbour city of Newcastle and worked
for the Regional Crime Squad, where he was responsible for

(16:29):
arson investigations. On Saturday, July twenty nine, the detective Thomas
drove to Tare to meet with Adrian Yule. In addition
to the information he'd passed on to Wykak, Adrian also
told the detective about how Barry had been behaving as
though he was drugged. Adrian had also happened to notice

(16:51):
some strange sediment in the bottom of a beverage bottle
in Barry's fridge. He suspected that Roseanne was poisoning Barty
by spiking his drinks. Adrian had spoken to Barry's psychiatrist,
doctor Ray Sandfield, and asked whether Barry's strange behavior could
be due to an overdose of lithium, a drug prescribed

(17:14):
to Barry to treat his bipolar disorder. Doctor Sandfield agreed
that it could be. However, as lithium was a drug
with a slower reaction time, Barry's rapid deterioration could also
be attributed to an excess of clenazepam, a benzodiazepine medication
also used to treat bipolar disorder. Barry cat had a

(17:38):
prescription for that as well. Doctor Sandfield gave Adrian some
empty specimen containers which he could decant beverages into for testing.
On Sunday, July thirty, the day after Adrian met with
Detective Thomas, he paid a visit to Barry's office, where

(17:58):
Barry was still resor. It was empty at the time,
giving Adrian the opportunity to move about freely. He went
to the refrigerator. Inside were cartons of plain milk, chocolate milk,
and orange juice, all of which Barry was known to
drink a lot of. Adrian grabbed all three and took

(18:22):
them home with him, carefully storing them in his fridge.
The following day, Detective Thomas went to Adrian's home and
observed as Adrian decanted some liquid from each of the
cartons into specimen containers. Adrian then handed the cartains over
to the detective, who took them in as police evidence.

(18:45):
The specimen containers were passed along to doctor Sandfield, who
in turn gave them to a clinical chemist that Royal
Newcastle Hospital. Doctor Sandfield requested that the specimens be tested
for lithium and clenazepam. One week later, the first result
came back the orange juice contained higher concentrations of lithium.

(19:13):
Further testing revealed high concentrations of both lithium and clenazepam
in the other beverages as well. On Monday, August seven,
Detective Thomas asked Barry Kat to visit Newcastle Police Station
for an interview. He informed Barry that his drinks had
been spiked with prescription medication, which would explain why he

(19:35):
had been feeling so groggy and exhausted lately. It was
Detective Thomas's contention that Barry's wife, Roseanne, had been poisoning him.
Barry said that he usually picked up his own prescriptions
from the chemist, but sometimes Roseanne filled them instead. When

(19:56):
she did, she kept the tablets at the family residence
instead of the office where Barry had been living for
over a year. If Barry ever ran out of his tablets,
he asked Roseanne if she had any, and she normally did.
Roseanne often asked Barry if he had his medication and
would sometimes get it for him. She knew exactly where

(20:20):
he kept it. Barry said he'd been unaware that Adrian
Nule had taken his drinks for testing. He said he'd
purchased these drinks on the evening of Thursday July twenty seven,
three days before Adrian took them away, and had drunk
both the plain milk and chocolate milk on Friday, July

(20:41):
twenty eight without feeling any effects. He tended to avoid
his office on the weekends as there was more chance
of Roseanne being there, so he hadn't touched the drinks
over the weekend. This timeline indicated that if Roseanne had
done it, she must have spiked the cartons sometime after

(21:03):
Barry drank from them month Friday July twenty eight, and
before Adrian took them away on Sunday, July thirty. Detective
Thomas continued his investigation and learned of the allegations that
Roseanne had hurled a heavy rock at Barry's head and
threatened to kill him. There was also the stabbing allegation

(21:28):
at Swan's Crossing, which Barry detailed to the detective, as
well as the alleged attack with the cricket bat. Barry
also said that Roseanne owned an unlicensed pistol. He claimed
she'd shown it to him a couple of months before
their wedding. Two other witnesses provided statements that Roseanne had

(21:49):
discussed her firearm with them as well. Allegations emerged that
Roseanne had also tried to enlist others in a quest
to get rid of her husband, and Barry said that
on Saturday June twenty four, nineteen eighty nine, he and
Roseanne had gone to the tare Leagues Club after attending

(22:09):
a wedding. Barry was standing at the bar when he
noticed Roseanne talking to a friend of his named Tim Smith,
not his real name, who owned a farm nearby. The
pair looked curiously deep in conversation, so Barry seated himself
behind them so he could eavesdrop. Barry said he overheard

(22:33):
Roseenne offering Tim money to kill him, and, alarmingly to Barry,
he seemed open to the idea. Tim said he would
shoot Barry and get rid of his body if Roseanne
could find a way to lure him to Tim's farm.
Jack Harris, one of Barry's apprentices, also alleged that Roseanne

(22:55):
had once asked him if he'd be willing to kill
her husband for money. When Jack said he wasn't interested,
Roseanne asked, do you know anyone else who will? Another
man named James Morris alleged that he'd received a similar
proposition from Roseanne. On the night of Friday, July twenty eight,

(23:17):
just one day before Detective Thomas drove down to Taree
to begin his investigation. James was at the local RSL
club with his sister having a few drinks. James was
an Aboriginal liaison officer who worked with police to address
issues within the local indigenous community. He'd never met Roseanne

(23:38):
cat before, but she approached him that night and started chatting.
Both of them had drunk quite a bit, and James
said Roseanne began telling him how her husband was a
monster who'd sexually abused his children. According to James, she
then asked him if he wanted to make some money.

(24:01):
James asked, how to do a job on my husband?
Roseanne replied, a good job on my husband, James said.
She went on to offer him ten thousand dollars to
break Barry's arms and legs. If James killed Barry, she
would apparently give him a bonus. James's sister stated she

(24:25):
had been present for the entire conversation and corroborated his allegations.
James didn't accept Roseanne's offer, but he bumped into her
a week later and she asked if he'd thought about
it any further. Another man named Vernon reported a similar situation.

(24:47):
He said that he'd paid a few visits to Barry's
auto repair shop late in nineteen eighty eight and durly
nineteen eighty nine. He'd admired Roseanne's car, which was a Corvette,
and asked if he could photograph it. Soon, he was
visiting Caddy's body repairs two or three times a week
and Roseanne started opening up to him. According to Vernon,

(25:12):
she told him how Barry had sexually abused his children
and asked if Vernon owned any guns. He did, as
he was a professional kangaroo shooter. A few weeks after that,
Roseanne allegedly asked Vernon if he'd do a job for her, adding,
I want you to bump him off for me, because

(25:34):
if he's out of the road, it is all finished
and there will be no more problems. Vernon understood that
Roseanne was talking about killing Barry. He said she offered
him twenty thousand dollars to do it, but he refused.
Vernon claims that Roseanne persisted in asking, but eventually accepted

(25:58):
that he wouldn't take her up on her He said
that she told him not to tell anybody what she'd asked.
If he did, or if he reported her to the police,
she would know about it because she had friends within
the force who would do anything for her. Detective Peter

(26:21):
Thomas applied for a warrant to search the cat home
for firearms. On the morning of Thursday, August twenty four,
nineteen eighty nine. Roseanne and Barry's children had just finished
their breakfast when police arrived at the front door. Roseanne
was still wearing her nighty and dressing gown when she
was handcuffed and seated on a stool outside of her bedroom.

(26:46):
A female constable took Barrie's children to the police station
while her colleagues moved from room to room searching the property.
Various items were collected and taken into evidence, including nine
abs and photo albums. A black handbag was reported to
have been found tucked away in a drawer in the

(27:07):
main bedroom. It contained two medication bottles. One was labeled
lithium and the other was labeled Revatrol, a brand name
of Klenazepan. Inside the bedroom wardrobe was a twenty two
caliber rifle. Another officer turned her attention to the bedrooms

(27:29):
on suite. She checked the cupboards under the sink and
noticed several bottles of alcohol. She then opened a drawer
of the bathroom vanity and saw a small handgun lying there. Oh,
look what I found? She called. The police had found
the evidence they'd been looking for. Roseanne was told to

(27:54):
get dressed and was then escorted out of the house
in handcuffs. By this several reporters and photographers had gathered outside,
and they snapped pictures of Roseanne as she was marched
out and taken into custody. That afternoon, Roseanne Cat was

(28:14):
charged with a range of offenses against her husband, including assault, occasioning,
bodily harm, malicious wounding, poisoning, and solicitation of murder. She
was held in custody for several weeks before being granted bail.
A committal hearing was held in May of nineteen ninety

(28:35):
after which Roseanne was ordered to stand trial. Her trial
finally began in May nineteen ninety one, almost two years
after her arrest. Although she was initially charged with fourteen offenses,
she was only indicted on nine of these. The prosecution

(28:56):
was alleging that Roseanne Cat had planned to kill her
hub husband so that she could assume control of his
business and other assets, including seven blocks of land he
owned that were valued at around six hundred thousand dollars.
Their case primarily consisted of testimony from dozens of witnesses.

(29:18):
Barry Kat took the stand and testified at length about
his troubled marriage. He told the court how Roseanne had
taken control of his auto repair shop following their marriage
and paid him wages while keeping most of the income
for herself. She paid her son double of what she

(29:38):
paid Barry, even though he was still an apprentice. Barry
told the court that Roseanne had engaged in multiple physical
attacks against him, including stabbing him at their picnic, hitting
him with a cricket bat, and dropping a rock on
his head. His accounts were corroborated by others who said

(29:58):
they had either witnessed or or overheard aspects of them.
These included a man who said he had helped Barry
tend to his wound after the stabbing, a female friend
who had been on the phone with Barry immediately prior
to the alleged cricket bat attack, and his sister Mary
and apprentice Jack Harris, who were present for the rock

(30:19):
throwing incident. Barry said that Roseenne had frequently threatened to
kill him or have someone else do it. Adrian Mule
also gave evidence about his suspicions that Barry was being poisoned.
He said he had felt the need to report his
fears to the police because at the time his friend

(30:40):
seemed reluctant to report his wife, seemingly out of a
desire to work on his marriage. Experts spoke about the
spiking of Barry's drinks. A detective who had attended the
search of Roseanne's home described how he'd found a black
handbag in a bedroom drawer which maintained bottles of the

(31:01):
prescription medication Barry was suspected of having been drugged. With
the detective who launched the investigation into Roseanne. Peter Thomas
served as another key witness for the prosecution. The men
who said Roseanne had asked them to kill Barry gave evidence,

(31:21):
as did other witnesses who'd seen or heard concerning things.
A woman named Amanda said she'd been visiting the Cat
family home when she saw Roseanne pour a glass of wine,
then add two white tablets that she took from her handbag.
Roseanne had apparently placed the glass on a table, then stated,

(31:44):
I hope it kills him. Another woman named Marie Whalan
testified that Roseanne had told her of her plans to
go to Sydney to buy a gun, and how she
had subsequently shown Marie the handgun she had purchased. The
trial came to an end after four months, with the

(32:05):
jury deliberating for two and a half days before returning
their verdict. They found a Roseanne Cat guilty of eight
of the nine counts against her. She was found not
guilty on one count, that of soliciting Tim Smith to
murder Barry Cat. Forty four year old Roseanne stood expressionless

(32:29):
as the verdict was delivered. Barry Cat wasn't present in
the courtroom. To see his ex wife convicted. It was
subsequently reported that he was drinking at a pub across
the road. Roseanne was sentenced to twelve years in prison
and would have to serve a minimum of ten before

(32:50):
she would be eligible for parole. This was a longer
sentence than some other individuals in the state had received
after being convicted of murder. Case Detective Peter Thomas spoke
to the media following the verdict, noting that he would
be looking into recharging Roseenne with arson after burning down

(33:11):
her Delegatessen eight years earlier, adding she's the most dangerous
woman I have ever met in my life. Case file
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(33:34):
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Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting
our sponsors, you support case File to continue to deliver
our quality content. Roseanne Cat was sent to Malowa, the
most violent women's prison in New South Wales. The inmates

(34:50):
who was housed with constantly screamed, cried, and thought. Some
threatened Roseanne with physical violence and even death. One repeatedly
punched Roseanne in the head, knocking her unconscious. The guards
weren't much better. On one occasion, a female guard sexually

(35:10):
assaulted Roseanne while she changed uniforms. More than a year
into Roseanne's sentence, a letter arrived for her. She recognized
the handwriting on the envelope immediately. It was her ex husband, Barries.
There was no note inside, just two photographs from their

(35:31):
wedding day. The images filled Roseanne with horror and revulsion.
They were a reminder of the chain of events that
had led her here. Roseanne's version was quite different to
what the prosecution alleged in her criminal trial. Originally from
the New South Wales South Coast, Roseanne had relocated to

(35:54):
Taree after leaving her abusive and controlling first marriage in
her mid thirties. At the time, she purchased her own
house to raise her two children in and Boord a
delicatessen with a business partner. The business did well and
helped Roseanne familiarize herself with the local community. Although she

(36:15):
had to temporarily close the delicatessen after a fire late
in nineteen eighty three, she soon managed to have the
business up and running again. Roseanne crossed paths with Barry
Kat after her son Peter, was hired to work at
his auto repair shop. Although Roseanne didn't know Barry, he
appeared to have been admiring her from afar, as he

(36:38):
constantly talked to Peter about what a wonderful lady she was.
One day, Roseanne went to visit Barry's shop to see
where Peter would be working. She noticed that the office
was in terrible disarray, and Barry explained that he struggled
to complete all of the paperwork. He was a single
father with four children who had reached been left by

(37:01):
his partner. Roseanne offered to help out and began sorting
through all of Barry's bills and invoices free of charge.
She even fixed up Barry's tax return. Roseanne felt bad
for Barry. His house was in as bad a state
as his office, with maggots on the floor and mess everywhere.

(37:23):
Her pity increased when Barry visited her at home one day,
only to pass out on the bathroom floor. He told
Roseanne that his ex girlfriend had been poisoning him, which
must have caused him to collapse. When Roseanne met Barry's
young children, her heart went out to them too. All

(37:44):
four appeared emaciated and had sores on their skin. Feeling
she had to do something to help, Roseanne set about
cleaning and improving Barry's home so that it was appropriate
for children. She even paid for it to be renovated
to include an extra bass droom with an no sweet
Roseanne also invested in Barry's business after he invited her

(38:06):
to become a partner, as she had sold her delicatessen
some time earlier and could afford a new venture. Roseanne
agreed and spent about eighty thousand dollars of her own
money improving the Audo repair shop Barry's children quickly grew
attached to Roseanne. They didn't appear to be close with

(38:27):
their father. Soon they were visiting Roseanne's home every night
for meals, and she took care of their medical appointments,
made sure they went to school, and taught them about hygiene.
Roseanne caring for Barry's children led to the two of
them entering a romantic relationship. She eventually moved in to

(38:47):
the cat residence, while her own son, Peter, now an adult,
continued living at her house. Barry could be gentle, funny,
and sweet, and Roseanne found him physically attractive. He was
a fan of Elvis Presley and would slick back his
hair in the same style as the rock and roll legend.

(39:07):
But over time Roseanne noticed that Barry exhibited some disturbing behaviors.
He was short tempered and often started ranting angrily about
his children, calling them fucking little bastards. Sometimes his rages
would include complaints about Roseanne. When Barry was on one

(39:28):
of these rampages, Roseanne sometimes left the house to escape,
but she felt uneasy leaving the children alone with their
father in that state. After a little while, Barry asked
Roseanne to marry him. She said no, having already decided
that she never wanted to marry again, but Barry continued

(39:49):
to ask, begging her in public to be his wife. Once,
he got down on his knees whil though having dinner
at the pub and yelled out, come on, wonder woman,
marry me. Another time, as they drove together through town,
he started beerping the car horn non stop, shouting marry me.

(40:10):
I won't take my hand off the horn until you
say yes. Roseanne was mortified by the looks and attention
that Barry's behavior garnered. He promised to change, saying if
you marry me, I'll be better. No more outbursts. Eventually,
Roseanne gave in, hoping that being married might make life easier.

(40:36):
Life didn't improve after they were married. According to Roseanne,
Barry would disappear for long stretches of time, sometimes overnight.
If Roseanne asked where he'd been, he would burst into
an angry tirade. Eleven days into the marriage, Barry walked
into the house as Roseanne and the children were having breakfast.

(40:59):
Without say saying anything to them. He started screaming and
punching himself in the head. He soon turned his rage
on his children, verbally abusing one of his sons before
punching him in the mouth. Roseanne said that another child
jumped up and tried to defend his brother, which resulted
in Barry punching him in the stomach. Roseanne grabbed both

(41:22):
boys and ran to her bedroom, locking the door behind
them as Barry yelled at her to open the door.
She helped the boys jump out of the window and
told them to run for help. Barry eventually kicked in
the bedroom door, dragging his two daughters with him by
their hair. He held them with one hand and hit

(41:43):
them with the other. Roseanne tried to pull Barry away,
but he grabbed her by the throat and threw her
on the bed, where he choked her. Suddenly, he stopped
and ran out of the house, looking for his two sons.
Roseanne said she called for help and an ambulance arrived
to take her and the girls to the hospital. Meanwhile,

(42:06):
the two catboys who fled out the window made it
to their aunt Mary's house for help, only for Barry
to find them there. He put both boys in his car,
but they were intercepted by the police as they were
heading out of town. Following this incident, Barry was taken
to a psychiatric hospital and admitted as an involuntary patient.

(42:28):
Roseanne discovered that her husband had previously been diagnosed with
bipolar disorder and had spent several stints in psychiatric care
long before the two had met. Despite the claims Barry
and his friends later made about Roseanne trying to betray
him as unstable and attempting to have him removed from
the home, it actually appeared that this had been an

(42:49):
ongoing issue for many years. Just under a week later,
Barry returned home. At first he was calm and quiet,
but five days later he is said to have attacked
his family again. Police and paramedics attended the home and
three of them had to hold Barry down as he

(43:11):
fought violently against them. A pattern soon emerged throughout late
nineteen eighty seven where Barry would be taken to hospital
for a few days before being released for a brief
period and then readmitted again. This lack of stability and
Barry's aggression towards his children prompted hospital staff to make

(43:32):
a report to the New South Wales Department of Family
and Community Services. Barry's children were taken into temporary foster
care and provided with counseling, where terrible allegations came to light.

(43:53):
In January of nineteen eighty eight, Roseanne was informed that
during their counseling sessions, Barry us children alleged that they'd
been sexually abused by their father as well as another relative.
According to Roseanne, all of the counselors who the children
spoke to believed their allegations and found them credible. Roseanne

(44:15):
had never suspected sexual abuse and was horrified by what
she was told. There would be a police investigation, and
Roseanne was informed that the children would be split up
into different foster homes unless she was willing to foster
all four of them. Roseanne agreed. In March nineteen eighty eight,

(44:36):
proceedings began to grant Roseanne guardianship of Barrye's children. By
this stage, Barry was back in Taree, but spent little
time at his home. Two months later, at the beginning
of May, an incident took place that would later be
framed as Roseanne attempting to kill her husband. There had

(44:57):
been a dispute between Roseanne's son Pete, his fellow apprentice
to Jack Harris and Barry's nephew, Robert Tisdall. Roseanne took
both the young men over to Barry's sister Mary's home,
where Robert lived, so they could sort the matter out.
As soon as they arrived, Mary began shouting at Roseanne

(45:17):
and she realized it had been a mistake to stop by.
Roseanne and the young man got back in her car
when Barry pulled up and raced over to Roseanne's car door,
pulling the keys out of the ignition and punching her
in the head. According to Roseanne, Peter and Jack jumped
out to a stream Barry, which led to a scuffle

(45:39):
between the three on the front lawn. Meanwhile, Roseanne claimed
it was Mary who picked up a rock and threw
it at her. She was able to dodge the blow,
but it still knocked the glasses off her face. Mary
then picked up the rock again and went to throw
it at Peter and Jack. Roseanne shouted a warning, prompting

(46:02):
Peter and Jack to jump back. The rock hid Barry
instead grazing his head, and he was subsequently charged with
assault for hitting Roseanne during this altercation. The event was
later dubbed the rock incident with Barry and Mary testifying
that Roseanne had been the one to deliberately throw the

(46:24):
rock at Barry's head, and Roseanne was charged with malicious
wounding as a result. Immediately after this incident, Roseanne obtained
an apprehended violence order to prevent Barry from being in
contact with her or the children. Barry subsequently moved into
his office across the street. The proximity of his new

(46:48):
home rendered the AVO effectively useless, and Roseanne said he
continued to harass them all. He made abusive phone calls
to them constantly and lurked across the street, shouting at
any visitors who came and went. Sometimes, Roseanne and the
children smelt cigarette smoke emanating from the floorboards, and when

(47:09):
they checked under the house, they saw Barry hiding there smoking.
Barry also resorted to cutting the property's phone line, which
repeatedly had to be repaired. Roseanne would notify the police
when Barry breached his AVO, but nothing was done. He
was eventually issued a one hundred and fifty dollar fine,

(47:31):
but this didn't deter him, and he maintained his campaign
of harassment. Meanwhile, the investigation into the cat Children's abuse
allegations was handed over to detectives from the Newcastle Police
Child Mistreatment Unit, a squad that existed during the late
nineteen eighties. On Friday February ten, nineteen eighty nine, Barry

(47:54):
Cat and another relative were each charged with fifteen counts
of sexual assault. One month later, on the weekend of Saturday,
March eleven, Roseanne was visiting the beachside city of Port Macquarie,
about an hour's drive north from Tai, for a conference.
When she returned to her motel room that night, she

(48:17):
was shocked to find Barry asleep in her bed. He
had followed her there. Roseanne fled and went back to
the conference center. When she returned a couple of hours later,
Barry was gone. The next day, she drove to Swan's
Crossing in the Karrawong State Forest on her way home,

(48:38):
where she'd planned to have a picnic. Her adult children
were driving the Cat children to join her. Roseanne set
up a picnic rug and was waiting for the children
to arrive when she saw Barry striding towards her. She
told him to leave, but he didn't. Instead, Roseanne and

(49:00):
said he began stabbing the picnic rug with a small
knife In turn, Roseanne stuck out her foot as Barry
walked towards her, causing him to trip over. He left
shortly after, uninjured, as far as Roseanne was aware. It
was several days later that Barry showed a wound on

(49:21):
his abdomen to a doctor who visited his auto repair shop,
claiming his wife had stabbed him during a picnic. Barry's
version of this event became known as the Swan's Crossing incident.
The second incident in which Roseanne was accused of trying
to kill her husband. Another supposed attack took place two

(49:43):
months later. On the morning of Saturday, May sixth. Roseanne
had been at home with the cat children when the
two boys discovered they needed stationary supplies to complete their schoolwork.
Believing their father was out, they went over the road
to his office to find but Barry was there, and
he confronted them aggressively. Roseanne heard the children scream and

(50:08):
ran over to see what was the matter. According to Roseanne,
Barry grabbed a bottle of eucalyptus oil from his desk
and threw it at her, hitting her in the face.
Her eyes burned from the oil. Barry's sun had been
hit with the oil as well. Roseanne and the two
boys fled from the building, with Barry hurling more items

(50:31):
at them as they ran. He was subsequently arrested and
held in custody for the rest of the weekend. He
pleaded guilty to assault and to breaching his AVO, and
was ordered to pay a fine. Barry later reframed this
incident in court, stating that Roseanne had been the aggressor

(50:52):
and had struck him with a cricker bat. Almost three
months later, at the end of July, had a committal
hearing regarding the fifteen counts of sexual assault he had
been charged with. After two days in court, he was
committed to stand trial on Tuesday, August one, nineteen eighty nine.

(51:14):
At the same time, Adrian Newell was seeking to have
Roseanne Cat investigated for attempted murder and suspected poisoning. Rather
than report his concerns to the local tai police, Adrian
made allegations that they were compromised and sought to have
an outside investigator look into the case. The problem was

(51:36):
that the investigator who was assigned was anything but an
impartial outsider. Detective Peter Thomas first adjoined the new South
Wales Police in nineteen seventy when he was tasked with
investigating Adrian Newell's allegations. In nineteen eighty nine, he was

(51:58):
stationed in Newcastle, but just a few years earlier he
had been working in Taree. He already knew Adrian Newle
and Barry Cat. In fact, Detective Thomas and Barry Cat
were friends. Barry had come to the detective's aid after
the detective caused the car accident that damaged another vehicle.

(52:21):
Barry had repaired the damaged vehicle and helped strike a
deal with its owner that would prevent Detective Thomas being
held responsible for the crash. Not only was Detective Thomas
on good terms with Barry Cat, but he knew Roseanne
Cat as well. They had crossed paths some years before
Roseanne met Barry in late nineteen eighty three. By then,

(52:46):
Roseanne had been running her delicatessen in downtown Taree for
two years. At three am on Christmas morning of that year,
she received a call informing her that her business was
on fire and been severely damaged. Initially, it was indicated
that the fire was due to an electrical fault, but

(53:08):
Roseanne soon fell under suspicion for arson, and the detective
investigating her was Peter Thomas. There was very little evidence
to indicate that Roseanne had burnt her business down. She
had actually cut back on her business's insurance policies just
two months earlier, and there was an alternative suspect. It

(53:34):
turned out that the owner of the building where the
delicatessen was located had recently been ordered by the local
council to undertake renovations to comply with fire regulations. These
renovations would have cost sixty thousand dollars. The owner didn't
take any steps to bring the building up to fire code. Instead,

(53:57):
they took out two new insurance policies, one that covered
the building and another for loss of rant. The security
guard who'd first noticed the fire also reported that he'd
seen something unusual while doing a patrol at two a m.
The building security light had been out, so the guard

(54:19):
went to take a closer look. Drawing near to the building,
he saw the owner was there with another person he
didn't recognize. The security guard had offered to fix the
broken light, but the owner refused his offer, explaining that
they just come down to the building to pick up
something they'd left behind earlier that day. This seemed strange

(54:42):
to the security guard given the late hour, but he
left without further questions. Half an hour later, he had
been driving down Taree's main road when he saw smoke
coming from the building. The security guard reported this to
the police, but Detective Thomas still arrested Roseanne. According to Roseanne,

(55:07):
Detective Thomas had behaved inappropriately towards her during the investigation,
calling her persistently and repeatedly. At home, he sexually harassed
her by making suggestive remarks and saying that the Dolly
Parton and Kenny Rodgers Duwet Islands in the Stream could
be our song. At one point during an interview, he

(55:30):
made lude remarks about Roseanne's body before pulling out his
wallet and running his fingers across the cash inside. Roseanne
took this to mean that to make the case go away,
she would either have to sleep with him or pay
him off. Roseanne also noticed that Detective Thomas often wreaked

(55:50):
of alcohol. Roseanne and her business partner were ultimately charged
with arson and subsequently received no insurance money for the damage. However,
the building's owner received a full payout, while on bail.
Roseanne managed to repair the delicatessen and reopened it with

(56:11):
support from family and friends. Eventually there was a committal
hearing for harass and charges. The prosecution's case fell apart
when the owner gave evidence and it emerged that they
had been seen outside the building immediately before the fire started.
The owner also struggled to answer questions about why they

(56:33):
had increased their insurance immediately preceding the fire. Ultimately, the
Attorney General opted against indicting Roseanne and the charges against
her were dropped. Not long after the fire, a man
named Errol Taylor paid Roseanne a visit at the delicatessen.

(56:55):
He explained he'd also had a problematic encounter with Detective Thomas.
Eryl had been accused of growing and supplying cannabis after
a plantation was discovered in a state forest near his home.
Errol had been arrested and taken into custody, where Detective
Thomas handcuffed him to a desk for sixteen hours. He

(57:17):
also punched Errol in the face several times. Errol could
smell alcohol on the detective's breath. Furious about the way
he had been treated, Eryl Taylor began putting together a
report for the New South Wales Ombudsman, an independent integrity
officer responsible for investigating complaints against the government. Errol had

(57:40):
heard of other incidents Detective Thomas had been involved in,
including Roseanne's case, and invited her to join him in
filing a complaint. Roseanne agreed. Roseanne's job at the delicatessen
made her well known and trusted in town, and she
soon found that other law loculs began disclosing their own

(58:01):
stories about Detective Thomas to her. There were reports that
he had assaulted people and engaged in corrupt practices such
as paying witnesses off. He had also been in several
car accidents when he drove police vehicles while drunk. As
people in Taree learned that Errol and Roseanne were filing

(58:23):
official complaints, Moore and Moore joined in with concerns of
their own. In the end, between twenty and thirty complaints
were included in Errol Taylor's report, which led to an
inquiry being held. The inquiry was ultimately inconclusive, but it
did lead to Detective Peter Thomas being transferred from Taree

(58:45):
to Newcastle. While he wasn't demoted his promotion to detective
sergeant had been delayed by two years. The fact that
he had been investigated at all would make any further
promotions more difficult to come by. After Detective Thomas was
relocated to Newcastle, Roseanne didn't see or hear of him

(59:08):
for a couple of years. When she first married Barry Cat,
she had no idea how close he was with the detective.
After she left Barry and he was charged with abusing
his children, Barry began making threats that directly referenced Detective Thomas.
By early August nineteen eighty nine, Barry had been ordered

(59:31):
to stand trial on the abuse charges. Roseanne retained custody
of Barry's children, as well as control of Caddy's body repairs.
She was made trustee of the auto repair shop and
given permission to remain living at the family home with
the Cat children. A couple of days later, Roseanne received

(59:52):
a call from Barry, during which he stated, you're sitting
on a time bomb. Tomo and I I have got
it all worked out. We're gonna change the charges from
me to you. Roseanne knew that Tomo was Barry's nickname
for Detective Peter Thomas. Some of Roseanne's friends warned her

(01:00:14):
about the connection between the two men as well. Errol Taylor,
who had filed the complaint against the detective, encouraged Roseanne
to leave Tare in mid August. He had often heard
Barry Cat boast about how Detective Thomas owed him a
favor and would do anything he asked. On Thursday August

(01:00:36):
twenty four, just two weeks after retaining custody of the
children and being made trustee of the auto repair shop,
Detective Thomas turned up at Roseanne's front door, armed with
a search warrant and accompanied by a large group of
police officers. Roseanne Cat found herself charged with fourteen offenses,

(01:01:00):
including assault, malicious wounding, solicitation to murder, attempted poisoning, and
possession of an unlicensed pistol. Around the same time that
her husband, Barry would be facing court for sexual assault,
she would be going to trial for trying to kill him.
Barry Cat's trial began in November nineteen ninety. Roseanne's testimony

(01:01:25):
was attacked by the defense, who introduced evidence aimed to
undermine her credibility, such as photographs of Roseanne at parties
and witnesses set to testify against Roseanne at her own
impending trial. It was suggested that Roseanne had been the
mastermind behind the sexual abuse allegations, hypnotizing or brainwashing Barry's

(01:01:48):
children into believing they had been abused as a way
of commanding control over his business and other assets. Detective
Peter Thomas testified in defense of Barry, and other witnesses
who had initially provided statements in support of the charges
suddenly changed their stories. One such witness was a woman

(01:02:09):
named Marie Whalen. She had known Barry cap for a
long time and had worked as his housekeeper. In late
July nineteen eighty nine, Marie had signed a statement confirming
that she had witnessed Barry abuse his children. A few
days later, she had also obtained an AVO against Barry,
But in court more than a year later, she changed

(01:02:32):
her story, saying that her signed statement was a forgery
and that she had never witnessed any abuse of the children.
In a memoir Roseanne later published, she described Barrie's trial
as a farce. Quote, we had this ridiculous situation where
if the Crown won, it would destroy their upcoming case

(01:02:53):
against me, in which I was supposed to be an
evil manipulator. I was a Crown witness in this case
and Barry was a Crown witness in mine. Only one
could win. The trial lasted two weeks. In closing, the
Crown prosecutor informed the judge that they would not be

(01:03:16):
encouraging the jury to convict Barry due to one satisfactory evidence.
This led to Barry cat being found not guilty of
all charges. Roseanne's trial began five months later. Barry was
the star witness, testifying for days on the stand about

(01:03:37):
how Roseanne repeatedly threatened, verbally, abused and assaulted him. He
said she had told him that she planned to have
him killed, despite the fact that he loved her and
thought she was fabulous. Barry accused Roseanne of separating him
from his children, claiming he hadn't seen them in eighteen months.

(01:04:00):
Supported Barry's claims, including several people who had previously made
statements to the contrary. Jack Harris, one of Barry's apprentices,
had originally supported Roseanne and her son's version of the
rock throwing incident during the initial police investigation, but in
court he took Barry's side and also claimed Roseanne had

(01:04:24):
asked him to kill Barry. Then there were the charges
related to attempted poisoning. Barry's friend Adrian Nuwell, had said
he suspected Roseanne was drugging Barry because of how strangely
Barry was behaving. When Adrian took several beverages from Barry's
office fridge and had them tested, it was found that

(01:04:46):
they had been spiked with lithium and clenazepam. Yet, during
the period when Roseanne was supposedly drugging Barry, he was
having blood tests every three weeks as part of his
psychiatric treatment. Levels for lithium and clnazepam always came back
as normal. As for the pistol found in Roseanne's home,

(01:05:08):
the defense alleged that Detective Peter Thomas had planted it
there as part of a conspiracy to frame Roseanne. The
pistol had been dusted for fingerprints, but had none honored
at all. The rifle recovered from Roseanne's wardrobe had actually
belonged to Barry, and one of his children had stored
it there. The defense argued that Roseanne was the victim

(01:05:34):
of collusion between many of the prosecution witnesses and presented
her version of events Roseanne testified about Barry's fits of
anger and violent rages. She provided a different perspective on
all of the incidents she had been charged for, asserting
that she was the victim, not Barry. All of Barry's

(01:05:56):
children supported Roseanne at her trial. Of his daughters detailed
how her father had always been abusive, punching his children
and sometimes swerving his car at them while they walked
to school. She also said that when she was younger,
police officers had visited her family home to watch pornographic
films with her father. Detective Thomas had been one of them.

(01:06:22):
The teen went on to state that she and her
siblings regularly drank the beverages stored in her father's office fridge,
and they never noticed anything strange about them, nor had
Roseanne ever warned them to steer clear of them. A
doctor testified that orange juice or milk spiked with lithium
would have tasted very bitter and unpleasant. At the end

(01:06:46):
of the four month trial, the judge advised to the
jury that they would need to decide whether Roseanne Cat
was an evil, manipulative woman or the victim of a
monstrous conspiracy. Seemingly Convinced by the number of witnesses who
had testified against Roseanne, the jury opted for the former,

(01:07:08):
finding her guilty of eight of the nine chargers. Case
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our sponsors, you support case File to continue to deliver
our quality content. Roseanne appealed her conviction in nineteen ninety three,

(01:08:40):
but lost. She stopped using her married surname and reverted
to her maiden name, Roseanne Beckett. Meanwhile, Barry Kat and
Detective Peter Thomas went on with their lives. In nineteen
ninety three, Barry applied to the States Victim's Compensation Board
for dammit caused by Roseanne. He was ultimately paid eighty

(01:09:04):
nine thousand dollars for his injuries, even though the evidence
he'd provided was inconsistent with medical evidence. Barrykat's children continued
to support Roseanne in the years immediately following her conviction,
and resided for some time with Roseanne's sister. Their world
had been upended by Roseanne's conviction. After she was first arrested,

(01:09:30):
Adrian Yuell had taken custody of them. Detective Thomas refused
to tell the Department of Family and Community Services where
the children were staying. Social workers also reported being subject
to ongoing intimidation and threats from Detective Thomas. One even
gave evidence that Barry Cat had threatened to rape her.

(01:09:54):
This prompted the Department of Family and Community Services to
file a complaint against Detective Thomas, which led to another
internal review by New South Wales Police. What the jury
at Roseanne's trial hadn't known was that, in the months
before Thomas took the stand to testify against Roseanne. He
had been under investigation for misconduct and violation of child

(01:10:18):
protection orders. There had also been another allegation made against
him related to a drug case. Thomas had reportedly said
he would destroy evidence in exchange for thirty thousand dollars.
Internal Affairs was just about to charge Thomas with a
disciplinary offense when he suddenly resigned in January of nineteen

(01:10:41):
ninety one. Once he left the police, Thomas was no
longer under their jurisdiction, and to the investigation was dropped.
It had been the fourth such adverse finding into Thomas's
conduct during his twenty one year career, in addition to
the dozens of complaints been the subject of facing no consequences,

(01:11:04):
Thomas relocated north to the neighboring state of Queensland and
entered the private sector. He became a private inquiry agent
hired by insurance agencies to investigate fires they had received claims.
For investigating arson had been Thomas's specialty while employed as
a police officer, even though his work there had been

(01:11:26):
checkered at best. In addition to the nineteen eighty three
fire at Roseanne's delicatessen, which Thomas charged her for despite
a total lack of evidence. There had been several other
controversial investigations he was responsible for. In nineteen eighty seven,
Thomas arrested a hotel owner for arson. This charge was

(01:11:49):
later dropped due to the extremely weak circumstantial evidence. In
another case from nineteen eighty nine, Thomas charged a couple
with planting a fire bomb their restaurant. Covert recordings later
revealed that Thomas had promised the wife she could walk
if she helped implicate her husband, stating, in the long run,

(01:12:12):
we will shake the life out of both of you.
The couple was acquitted after Thomas left the force, with
a judge describing his evidence as patently insufficient and his
conduct as reprehensible. Despite Thomas's history of problematic arts and investigations,

(01:12:33):
he did well in the insurance industry, which was far
more lucrative than working for the police because insurance companies
had a vested interest in not paying out policies. Thomas
received ten thousand dollars every time his work led to
a customer's claim being rejected. He quickly climbed the career

(01:12:54):
ladder and from nineteen ninety three to nineteen ninety five,
he served as president of the Queensland Association of Fire Investigators. But,
just as it had in New South Wales, a familiar
pattern of complaints and concerns about Thomas's methods soon emerged.

(01:13:18):
In nineteen ninety three, Brisbane couple Bruce and Beth Gutteridge
suffered a terrible tragedy when their beautiful heritage home burned down.
The grand residence had originally been built in the eighteen
sixties and the couple had spent fifteen years restoring it.
Beth had been home alone when the fire broke out,

(01:13:40):
and she escaped the blaze unharmed, but the house was destroyed,
with the damages estimated at two million dollars. As Bruce
Gutteridge was a Vietnam War veteran, the property had been
ensured with Defense Service Homes, which was owned by the
federal government. They engaged the agency Peter Thomas was working

(01:14:03):
with at the time to investigate the fire, and Thomas
led the investigation. Thomas soon became convinced that Beth Gutteridge
had deliberately lit the fire. Years earlier, Beth had suffered
a skiing accident that left her with chronic pain to
manage this pain, Her doctor prescribed her a strong tranquilizer,

(01:14:26):
which was primarily used to treat mental illnesses. Thomas decided
that Beth was unstable and had lit the fire because
she hated the house. He pressured witnesses to agree with him,
prompting at least one person to warn the Gutteridges about
Thomas's methods. There was no physical evidence to corroborate Thomas's theory,

(01:14:51):
which Beth's loved one said was ridiculous. She had adored
her house, but Thomas was so certain that he and
took the matter to Queensland Police and managed to convince
them to look into it. This led to an inquiry
by the coroner, who found the Gutteradges had no case

(01:15:11):
to answer. Regardless, the process had been traumatic, with Beth's
private medical history made public. The Gutterages later sued their
insurer and settled in the Supreme Court. Bruce Gutteridge said
he had been fortunate to have the financial resources to
pursue the matter. Those who didn't might not have been

(01:15:35):
as lucky. In a subsequent case, Peter Thomas accused an
invalid pensioner of burning down his home. The pensioner faced
criminal charges, which he was acquitted of, but he didn't
receive his insurance payout. The same happened to another homeowner

(01:15:55):
in nineteen ninety seven. In nineteen ninety eight, baker in
central Queensland had his business satellite after burglars broke in,
attacked him and tied him up. Firefighters had to use
bolt cutters to set him free. Thomas was tasked with
investigating and concluded that the baker was responsible. This led

(01:16:19):
to a police inquiry and insurance money once again being denied.
In another case where a pub burnt down, a woman
who was friends with its owner said Thomas had offered
her ten thousand dollars if she would say the owner
had admitted to lighting the fire himself. She refused, and
there was no evidence the pub owner had lit the fire.

(01:16:43):
In fact, one month before the blaze, he had spent
almost one hundred thousand dollars refurbishing it. The fire was
thought to have been caused by an electric blanket a
guest had admitted to using.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
It.

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
Later emerged that Thomas had aid the guest one thousand
dollars to say he'd never used the electric blanket. Eventually,
Thomas's antics caught the attention of the press. On Saturday
October twenty one, two thousand, Sydney Morning Herald journalist Wendy
Bacon published a story about Peter Thomas's work as a

(01:17:20):
private fire investigator. This was followed three days later with
a feature article about Roseanne's case headlined should this woman
be in jail? That same week, the ABC's current affairs
program Four Corners released an episode called Burned, in which

(01:17:40):
a number of witnesses spoke openly about their dealings with Thomas,
calling him slime, a con man, and a liar. Roseanne
Beckett's friend, Errol Taylor, was one of these witnesses, telling
four Corners about his own experiences with Peter Thomas almost
twenty years earlier. The episode also explored Roseanne's case, with

(01:18:04):
the show's host Sally Nabar stating the arrest and conviction
of Roseanne cat was the crowning achievement of Detective Peter Thomas.
It was announced that a new defense attorney had taken
on Roseanne as a client and he was requesting a
new inquiry into the case. In addition to the countless

(01:18:28):
complaints of corruption and misconduct against Peter Thomas, Roseanne's defense
team had uncovered a new witness who was willing to
provide a sworn statement. When Peter Thomas first started working
as a private arson investigator in Queensland, he had worked
alongside a man named Peter Caesar. Peter Caesar told Roseanne's

(01:18:49):
attorney that Thomas had boasted about his days in New
South Wales police, bragging about occasions where he had people
bashed and kneecapped. But the topic Thomas seemed most fixated
on was that of Roseanne Beckett. He had an open
fixation with her, speaking about her often and still carrying

(01:19:11):
her case file with him despite having left the police.
He even admitted to framing Roseanne, telling Peter Caesar, it's
common knowledge I planted the gun on the bitch. This
act of planting a pistol in Roseanne's home was something
Thomas boasted of frequently. He also bragged, if you get

(01:19:36):
three or four good guys around you basically plan your attack.
In court, everyone sticks to their story and the person's
charged and jailed. Peter Caesar had seen firsthand how intimidating
Thomas could be once he clashed with a woman who
worked in their office and threatened to do her in.

(01:19:59):
After a female co worker filed a sexual harassment claim
against Thomas, he told her he would set her up
like he did that bitch. Peter eventually fell out with
Thomas after Thomas attacked him while drunk, then later threatened
to send the police after him. Peter Caesar's statement was

(01:20:21):
fresh evidence that could be used to reopen Roseanne Beckett's case.
It was filed alongside dozens of other affidavits from witnesses
who were prepared to give evidence in Roseanne's defense. After
reviewing the evidence, the New South Wales Attorney General referred
the case to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a review.

(01:20:42):
On Monday August six, two thousand one, Roseanne was released
from prison, having served ten years of her twelve year sentence.
The judge who released her addressed the new evidence that
had been submitted, noting that it could indicate something went
very wrong with this trial. The review of Roseanne's case

(01:21:08):
didn't begin until early February two thousand and three, a
year and a half after her release. Many shocking revelations
came to light, such as the fact that the internal
affairs department at New South Wales Police had found that
Peter Thomas should be charged with misconduct before Roseanne's trial
even began. At one point, Thomas had been ordered off

(01:21:32):
the case by his superiors. He protested, claiming the order
was unlawful, and was ultimately permitted to continue leading the investigation.
Multiple judges had also called out the fact that the
case's a lead detective had a history with Roseanne and
felt intense acrimony towards her. A judge who had granted

(01:21:55):
Roseanne bail prior to the trial had said that the
case should be handed over to a more new utual
investigator in the interests of justice. The trial judge had
remarked if there was any member of the New South
Wales Police who should not have been assigned to the case,
it was Peter Thomas due to his history of antagonism

(01:22:16):
with Roseanne Cat. Evidence suggested that Peter Thomas hadn't even
conducted the investigation at the local police station. He had
based it out of an unoccupied house owned by Adrian Newell,
Barrycat's close friend. Multiple witnesses had been taken to this
house and interrogated for hours at a time, with no

(01:22:38):
official oversight from New South Wales Police. A woman named
Marie Whalen had originally supported Roseanne's case, providing a sworn
statement that she had witnessed to Barry Cat abuse his children.
She also took out an AVL against Barry, whom she
had previously been involved with. It was a aledged that

(01:23:00):
on Wednesday, August twenty three, nineteen eighty nine, the day
before the police would raid Roseanne's house, Detective Thomas and
one of his colleagues picked up Marie and escorted her
to the residence owned by Adrian Newell. They spent three
and a half hours interviewing her, then wrote up statements

(01:23:20):
for her to sign. These statements reneged on the initial
version Marie had provided and instead claimed that Roseanne had
told Marie of her plans to buy a gun. Roseanne
denies any such conversation ever took place. After this incident,
Marie Whalen told at least four people that she had

(01:23:43):
been taken away by the police and made to sign
statements that weren't true. She was terrified. Jack Harris was
taken to the same house. He was a witness to
the rock throwing incident, a violent altercation at the home
of Barrycat's sister, which had led to Barry being charged
with assault and Roseanne accused of attempted murder. Jack's version

(01:24:09):
of events initially aligned with Roseannes and that of her
son Peter. The same day that Detective Thomas and a
colleague took Marie Whalen to the deserted house, they picked
Jack Harris up from his workplace and drove him to
the same property. Thomas told Jack, if you are telling

(01:24:30):
lies and we find out, you will be charged with perjury.
After that, Jack changed his story. He also suddenly claimed
that Roseanne had tried to solicit him to kill Barry.
There were questions raised when it came to the solicitation
of murder charges. Roseanne was convicted of Aboriginal Liaison officer

(01:24:55):
James Morris had been one of several men who'd accused
Roseanne of trying to him to kill Barry. He said
Roseanne had proposed the idea to him while they were
both out at the local RSL. Although Morris knew Barry well,
Roseanne didn't know Morris and completely denied that the conversation

(01:25:16):
had ever taken place. Another witness who had seen both
Roseanne and James Morris at the RSL on the night
in question, said that Morris had been extremely drunk and
there had been no conversation between him and Roseanne. Barry's
friend Vernon had also accused Roseanne of asking him to

(01:25:37):
kill Barry for money. While he never reported this alleged
solicitation to the police, he made a statement about it
after Detective Thomas and others visited him at his home.
Allegations that Roseanne poisoned Barry were also found to be questionable.
The levels of lithium and clnazepam found in the drinks

(01:25:59):
a drink collected from Barrie's work office was so high
they exceeded the amount of drugs Barry had been prescribed.
Whoever had spiked the drinks had access to more pills
than Barry was ever given. At Roseanne's trial, a detective
had testified to having found two pill bottles in Roseanne's

(01:26:21):
purse when her home was searched. One was labeled lithium
and the other was labeled revatrol, a brand name of klnazepam.
This was presented as proof that Roseanne had access to
the medications and was using them to spike Barr's drinks.
The problem was photos from the search showed no images

(01:26:45):
of the purse or the bottles. Neither were they recorded
in the police exhibit book. The defense's position was dealt
a major setback when the Cat Children, now adults, denied
any abuse at acurred and claimed Roseanne had influence to
their earlier accounts. They had vehemently supported Roseanne for years

(01:27:08):
after her conviction, but gradually lost contact with her. In
nineteen ninety three, just before Roseanne's unsuccessful appeal, the Crown
Prosecutor Patrick Power and police spoke to one of Barry's children.
He subsequently withdrew his previous allegations of sexual abuse and

(01:27:29):
adopted the Crown's case that Roseanne had brainwashed him and
his siblings. So did one of Barry's daughters. The Cat
Children gave evidence at the inquiry claiming that back in
nineteen eighty nine, Roseanne had ordered them to crush tablets
and to pour them into Barry's food and drinks. The

(01:27:50):
defense argued that the cat Children were unreliable witnesses due
to having changed their stories. There was also a problematic
factor when it came to Crown Prosecutor Patrick Power. In
two thousand and six, Power was found to have a
large amount of child abuse material in his possession. He

(01:28:11):
was charged for this crime, pleaded guilty, and sentenced to
fifteen months. Roseanne's advocates pointed out the inappropriateness of such
a man speaking with alleged survivors of child sexual abuse.
Although it had likely been clear to the jury at

(01:28:32):
Roseanne's trial that Peter Thomas had disliked Roseanne, they hadn't
known the extent of it, nor had they known just
how renowned the detective was for bribing, threatening, and intimidating
witnesses into providing the testimony he wanted. In two thousand
and four, it seemed clear to many that this corrupt

(01:28:54):
approach was persisting to the present day. Several defense witnesses
reported being threatened after they had agreed to give evidence.
At Roseanne's new inquiry, a tare woman named Patricia testified
about Barry Kat's pattern of violent behavior towards women. After
Patricia rejected Barry's romantic advances in the late nineteen nineties,

(01:29:18):
he stalked her for two years, attacked her with an
iron bar, and punched her in the face. Patricia had
Barry charged with assault, but the Taree chamber magistrate, who
was friends with Barry, refused to take the case further.
Barry also made incessant phone calls to Patricia, calling her

(01:29:39):
seventy times in a five day period. Terrified, Patricia recorded
many of these calls, which frequently featured angry rants and
threats of violence. Sometimes he spoke of Roseanne. After Roseanne
was released and granted a new inquiry, Barry told Patricia

(01:30:01):
I set her up sent her to jail for eleven years.
He mentioned that he, Peter Thomas, and some other acquaintances
would fix it up so that Roseanne would be returned
to prison for an even longer sentence. After Patricia returned
home from testifying at Roseanne's inquiry, she found her pet

(01:30:22):
dog hanging dead at her property. Some documents and tapes
she needed for an upcoming court case were missing. Another
tare witness said that Barry kat had once asked him
to obtain a gun so that Barry could arrange for
Roseanne to be shot in prison. After word got out

(01:30:44):
that he would be testifying at Roseanne's inquiry, two men
approached him and handed over a bullet, which he took
as a threat. Phone records revealed that key prosecution witnesses
had been in near constant contact with one another throughout
the inquiry, despite a judge's orders that they not speak.

(01:31:05):
These included Peter Thomas, Barry Cat, and another detective. It
took more than a year for the inquiry to conclude
and for the judge to deliver his findings. On Wednesday,
October twenty seven, two thousand four, Judge Tom Davidson found

(01:31:26):
that Roseanne Beckett might have been falsely convicted on unreliable
evidence provided by Barry Cat, Peter Thomas and others. Judge
Davidson believed there was evidence that Roseanne had been framed
by prosecution witnesses, including that the pistol in her home
was likely planted by Peter Thomas. The judge determined that

(01:31:50):
Thomas pressured witnesses in a way that encouraged them to
give false evidence. He described Barry Cat as verbose, rambling
and at times irrelevant to the point of incomprehensibility. This
finding paved the way for Roseanne to lodge a new appeal,
and the following year, the new South Wales Cort of

(01:32:12):
Criminal Appeal quashed most of the charges Roseanne had been
convicted of. These included attempting to poison, possession of an
unregistered firearm, assault, perjury and solicitation of murder. The charges
of malicious wounding and assault, which related to the rock
throwing incident and the alleged stabbing at Swan's Crossing, were

(01:32:35):
upheld due to no new evidence being admitted for those convictions.
Despite being cleared of almost all of her convictions, Roseanne
wasn't offered any financial compensation by the New South Wales government.
Individuals who have been victims of government wrongdoing can be
offered payment as an acknowledgment of their pain, suffering and losses. However,

(01:33:00):
the Crown still insisted Roseanne was guilty. In turn, Roseanne
sued the New South Wales government for malicious prosecution. Her
legal team set out to prove that Peter Thomas had
acted with malice and had no reasonable cause to charge
her with the crime. Roseanne had lost a decade of

(01:33:22):
her life due to her wrongful conviction, and she had
no income more retirement savings. Her children's lives had been
significantly impacted as well, and a personal tragedy only increased
the family's suffering. In two thousand and seven, Roseanne's daughter
was in a terrible car accident in Canada, which left
her quadriplegic. Roseanne became her primary career, which made receiving

(01:33:48):
compensation even more important. Suing the state government was her
only avenue. The government fought back against Roseanne and in
twenty ten even issued her a bill for eighty nine
thousand dollars for Barry Kat's victims compensation payout. It took

(01:34:09):
another decade for the matter to be resolved, but Roseanne
ultimately won her malicious prosecution case in August of twenty fifteen.
After ruling in Roseanne's favor, the presiding judge spoke of
just how much Roseanne had lost due to the Crown's
wrongful prosecution, stating the enormity of this loss is made

(01:34:33):
still more staggering by the significant period of time for
which that loss was suffered. The drawn out process Roseanne
had been made to endure was made even worse when
it was revealed that New South Wales Police had held
doubts about her conviction as far back as two thousand.
They had revisited the case after receiving media inquiries, which

(01:34:56):
led to senior police officers referring the matter to the
Police BA Commissioner due to their concerns that Roseanne might
have been framed. Despite this, Roseanne had been held in
prison for another ten months, more than a quarter of
a century after Roseanne Beckett was first arrested. The New

(01:35:16):
South Wales government was ordered to pay her more than
four million dollars in damages and interest, plus legal expenses.
Peter Thomas and Barry Cat were never held accountable for
their roles in having Roseanne Beckett imprisoned. They weren't called
by the Crown to testify during the malicious prosecution case,

(01:35:40):
which meant Roseanne's team couldn't cross examine them either. On Sunday,
August twenty four, twenty fourteen, while Roseanne's malicious prosecution case
was still before the court, Peter Thomas died of prostate
cancer at the age of sixty five. His death coincided
with the twenty fifth anniversary of his raid on Roseanne

(01:36:03):
Beckett's home. Barry Kat died later that same year. He
had remained living in Tare and a number of other
people had taken out avios against him over the years.
Roseanne Beckett credits her faith in God with helping her
survive prison while incarcerated, she formed strong relationships with religious

(01:36:27):
volunteers who visited the prison, including a female chaplain and
an administrative manager, who made it their mission to help
Roseanne find justice. This support, and the support Roseanne received
from her family, friends, and legal team, provided counterpoints to
the persecution she'd experienced at the hands of her former

(01:36:49):
husband and Peter Thomas. In two thousand and five, Roseanne
published a memoir about her experiences titled ten Years, which
was named for the time she spent serving her sentence.
In the book's final chapter, Roseanne detailed the younger she
has lived with for decades as a result of Peter

(01:37:10):
Thomas's actions and the failure of the authorities to stop
him or hold him accountable. This anger only compounded when
Roseanne saw how others who came forward to speak in
her defense were threatened and harassed as well. Following her
vindication in court, Roseanne knew she had to find a

(01:37:30):
way to move forward. She wrote, this matter has consumed
not only my every moment, but those of my two
beautiful children, my family, and now my supporters. It is
going to take all my concentration to let it go.
To realize that I don't have to fight anymore. I've

(01:37:52):
got to dust myself off and pick up my life
where I left it the day I met Barry Kat

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