News

This is every parents’ worst nightmare: Justice or closure?

Jun 01, 2017

Leveson's parents never gave up hope that their son's body would be found and combed the area themselves for the past nine years.

Michael Atkins was acquitted of murdering his young lover eight years ago but finally broke his silence and told police where Matthew Leveson’s body was – in exchange for immunity from further prosecution.

It was the result of a heartbreaking decision by Leveson’s parents, to agree that Atkins should be given immunity from prosecution in return for revealing the location of their son’s remains.

The 20-year-old disappeared in 2007, on the same day Atkins was caught on CCTV buying a mattock and duct tape.

Leveson’s parents Mark and Faye backed the rare decision by New South Wales’ Deputy State Coroner Elaine Truscott to grant Atkins a certificate under section 61 of the Coroners Act 2009, meaning any evidence provided by Atkins could not be used against him.

The Levesons had said they wanted to find their son’s body to take him home for a proper burial.

The pair had been consulted on the decision to grant Atkins immunity from prosecution, which Matthew’s mother said was a terrible decision to have to make.

“In the way we look at it, it’s a win-lose situation, otherwise it would be a lose-lose situation,” Faye Leveson said. “Without it we have no hope.”

Detectives and forensic crews have spent eight days in the past two weeks searching the Royal National Park south of Sydney, before yesterday discovering what appeared to be human remains. It was the 20th dig by police, after eight days of searching around the area in November 2016 and four days in January 2016.

Leveson was last seen outside Sydney nightclub ARQ in September 2007 with Atkins, his boyfriend at the time. His car was later found dumped, and a receipt for the mattock and duct tape were in the boot, along with Atkins’ fingerprint.

Atkins was charged with Leveson’s murder and manslaughter in 2009 but a jury found him not guilty.

However, he was forced to give evidence last year at a coronial inquest into his lover’s disappearance and again at a hearing this month, under the proviso that any incriminating information he gave could not be used against him by police. This information led police to what they believe are the Leveson’s remains.

Mark and Faye Leveson had never given up hope that their son’s body would eventually be found. The pair regularly visited the park with their own mattock to try and find him as they always believed he had been buried there.

“It’s been nine years, eight months and eight days but we made a promise and we kept it and now we can lay him to rest if it turns out to be Matt,” Faye Leveson told ABC News, as she watched police discover what she hoped were her son’s remains.

While DNA confirmation that the bones are Leveson’s still has to happen, his parents said things were “looking good”.

“Our goal was to bring Matt back home and lay him to rest and now hopefully we can do that,” Mark Leveson told the ABC.

The unusual case comes as Queensland mulls a law that would see convicted killers’ parole appeals rejected unless they revealed the location of the remains of their victim. The state government is currently considering ‘no body, no parole’ legislation that would be applied retrospectively.

A parents’ pain over never finding the last resting place was underlined in recent weeks, when British child killer Ian Brady took the location of the body of 12-year-old Keith Bennett to his grave. Bennett’s mother Winnie had died in 2012 without knowing where Brady and his parter-in-crime Myra Hindley had hidden Keith’s body, something they refused to reveal despite repeated appeals by the boy’s mother.