Bloody trail of drugs, bikies and death - who killed Anthony and Frances Perish

 

YOU could set the clock by Anthony and Frances Perish. Together forever, the church-going couple would lock the front gate of their flower-filled garden at 4pm in winter and be in bed by 8.30pm. The front and back doors were locked but never the patio doors. In leafy Leppington, where they had brought up three children and established a popular market garden, Anthony 91, and Frances, 93, never had cause to fear. Early one evening in June 1993, son Albert arrived to find the patio doors glued shut. Inside, the bodies of the couple, both shot dead, lay in their beds. Their killer had made a crude attempt using a trail of toilet paper, matches and a candle to set the home on fire to destroy evidence. The baffling murder of this couple without an enemy in the world began a police investigation that would uncover what Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin called "a level of criminality not previously seen in NSW". Related Coverage Man guilty of body-in-river murder plot The Daily Telegraph, 3 days ago Former Sydney male model jailed for murder The Daily Telegraph, 29 Jul 2011 Accused tried to frame me, court told The Daily Telegraph, 13 Jul 2011 Murder victim visited by 'men in suits' The Australian, 12 Jul 2011 Man 'locked in box, cut into pieces' Courier Mail, 11 Jul 2011 Twelve people including the couple's grandsons Anthony, 42, and Andrew, 40, are now behind bars. The final conviction came yesterday when former Kings Cross bouncer Michael Christiansen, 42, pleaded guilty in Downing Centre Local Court to conspiracy to murder Hells Angels boss Felix Lyle and Lyle's son Dallas Fitzgerald in 2002. Christiansen was connected to the Perish brothers through a criminal network, with links to drugs, firearms and bikies, that had not even been on the police radar until Strike Force Tuno was set up in 2001 by Insp Jubelin and Detective Sergeant Glenn Browne to investigate the abduction and murder of Terry Falconer. "It shows that you shouldn't underestimate the tenacity of the police to investigate criminals and crimes, no matter how old," Insp Jubelin said. The full story of one of the state's biggest murder investigations can now be told for the first time. Falconer was a career criminal, a Gypsy Jokers bikie - and a police informant. He knew the Perish brothers through mutual drug dealing. In November 2001, while on work release from jail at an Ingleburn smash repair shop, Falconer, 52, was kidnapped by three men pretending to be detectives. Ten days later his dismembered body was found in garbage bags in the Hastings River in northern NSW.Detectives got their first breakthrough in the form of a tough tattooed bikie, Witness A, who said the Perish brothers had asked him to dispose of a body at sea - the body of Terry Falconer. He said they blamed Falconer for their grandparents' murders. Andrew, a Rebels bikie, also believed Falconer was informing to police about the Rebels. Then police identified one of the "detectives" who abducted Falconer. Sean Waygood, now 41, was a clean-skin. A former commando, no convictions, security licence, taught boxing at a Police Boys Club, raised money for charity, married with a family. He was also a henchman for Anthony Perish, along with one-time truck driver Matthew Lawton, 45. Waygood had delivered Falconer to Anthony Perish and Lawton before Falconer was taken in a metal box to a farm on the north coast. STRIKE Force Tuno was upgraded to Tuno 2 with the discovery that Waygood's DNA matched that found on a balaclava in a van that had been used to fire three shots into JBs bar and grill in Sydney's Haymarket in 2002, hitting a tourist in the back. The unsolved crimes were mounting up. Surveillance put Waygood and Christiansen together and it emerged they had shot up JBs together, meaning to kill Lyle and Fitzgerald. The 27-year-old tourist was an accidental victim because, in a leather jacket and ponytail, he looked like a bikie. Christiansen was followed to a storage shed where police found money, guns and kilos of amphetamines. They also found a wallet belonging to Paul Elliott. Elliott had disappeared a few days earlier after going to visit drug dealer Tuan Tran, who had been ripping him off. Christiansen, who Tran had hired as muscle to protect him, shot Elliott dead. His body was dumped at sea. In 2008, Andrew Perish was arrested for large-scale supply and manufacture of amphetamines at his Camden produce store. A year later, police staged their biggest arrest, taking down Anthony Perish and Waygood as they had morning coffee at a trendy McMahons Point cafe. Last week in the District Court, Anthony Perish and Lawton were convicted of murdering and conspiracy to murder Falconer. Waygood had pleaded guilty to kidnapping Falconer and accessory after the fact to his murder. Andrew Perish was convicted of conspiracy to murder Falconer. The brothers never said why they thought Falconer killed their grandparents and there was no evidence Falconer was to blame. While Strike Force Tuno 2 yesterday cleaned out their offices, investigations into another five unsolved murders will continue. The murders of Anthony and Frances Perish remain unsolved.

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