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| School teacher Wayne Tonks (screen capture) |
We finally got around to watching the Deep Water documentary from SBS last night after downloading it for the telly (torrent here, SBS on demand here).
David has often spoken to me about Wayne Tonks, a school teacher in eastern Sydney who was brutally murdered by one of his students because he was gay. Part of the doco was about Wayne and it bought back many memories for David.
I don't know how serious the relationship was as that's not for me to say, other than that David still talks about him and at times wonders if they'd still be together today had he not been killed.
Had nightmares all through last night. It's not every day you see crime scene photos of your partner's first ex after they were killed in one of Sydney's most publicised gay hate killings.
Needless to say there are some things about the killing that have never been released to the public (and no they won't be here either). David was interviewed by the detective on the doco who talked about the crime scene and how he'll never forget it. Wayne Tonks died a most horrible and painful death.
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| Crime scene photo (screen capture) |
Many might think how strange it is that a gay friendly place like Sydney has such a dark underbelly of hostility and hatred towards gays in the very recent decades. The Mardi Gras parade with all it's glitter and spectacle might indicate otherwise.
However the LGBT didn't get to where they are today without having to fight tooth and nail every step of the way. The Mardi Gras, born out of a protest march, celebrates the tenacity and Pride that has overcome so many obstacles.
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Hi David. I watched Deep Water again last night. I was a journo in Sydney around that time. It was terrible. I was appalled by the mentality that existed at the time. And now I've read about Peter. I am so terribly sorry for your loss, and hope you find some peace and happiness in the future. You deserve it.
ReplyDeleteI found out about the death of Wayne Tonks by accident whilst i was living in another state. It was years after his death. When I saw his picture my heart dropped. I knew him. I was a student at Cleveland Street. He had been my teacher.
ReplyDeleteI telephoned a gay friend in Sydney which he verified Mr Tonks death, saying didnt you know, i said no i had moved out of NSW years ago. He told me the murder had been done by two former students who had been caught and my guts sunk even lower. I found these twos names and glad to say i didnt know them thank god.
The feeling i felt when i learnt of his death shock me for a few days after., and this was around 2014 i had found out. Was deeply hurt and still upset by it
I came ro know the story about Wayne Tonks through some private research. He wasn't murdered by students from Cleveland School (Wayne was a Social Science teacher at Cleveland) but murdered by two students from St Gregory in south Sydney - Peter Kane and Ben Andrew. They managed to evade Police and a date with the Courts for several years and were finally arrested after Peter Kane's wife went to the Surry Hills Police with a story that she had been told by Peter Kane and Ben Andrew. An incredible turn of events. The details of the murder are indeed horrendous and involved torture and a cruel death. The murderers were 16 year olds at the time. Judge Brian Sully derided Peter Kane as a total liar. Peter Kane was sentenced to 10 years for murder. Ben Andrew was acquitted on a manslaughter charge. There is a Four Corners documentary 2005 where the Kane family are interviewed including the murderer and prisoner Peter Nicholas Kane. The documentary is quite disturbing. The Kane family are all interviewed and it is quite self serving. It's an LBGT hate crime from the 1990's where there is a victim, a tortured body, two murderers, DNA, and storyline that is so incredible. Wayne Tonks should be remembered. His family and friends should be proud of his life.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to correct the record that the murderers were not from Cleveland School but were attending students at St Gregory located in South Sydney.
Wayne Tonks was a teacher at Cleveland School and three students from Cleveland were implicated in another gay hate murder at the time. Wayne Tonks may have actually known or even had these boys in his class. I haven't done detailed research. It's an unrelated LBGT murder, that occurs before Wayne's death.
ReplyDeletePeter Kane's wife and the mother in law went to Surry Hills Police Station with what they knew about the murder. The Police then went to the Kane's house some 6 years after the murder and knocked on the family house front door. It's quite interesting that two people from outside the family, two people who had come to know the family would go to the Police and the n get as far away from the Kane family as possible. How a 16 year old boy would be able to commit such a horrendous crime is beyond belief. How he managed to keep the secret of the murder hidden from his family is quite incredible, yet tells his new wife and the mother in law about the murder?
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise how widely known this story was. Even today a generation later it is still known and is still of keen interest. It is an intriguing story. In the Kane family there is the father Peter Nicholas Kane and his wife Julie Kane. They have two children a boy named Peter Nicholas Kane (same name as as the father) and a daughter Jennifer Kane (now known as Jenny Read). At the son's wedding the groom (Peter Kane) and the best man (Ben Andrew) both knew about the murder of Wayne Tonks, as they were both involved. They will both be charged with the crime 5-6 years after the wedding. The bride (new wife) apparently is told about the murder and the brides mother (mother-in-law) is also told about the murder by either Peter Kane or Ben Andrew (or both) - there is some dispute among the parties on this fact. So at some stage 4 people involved in the Kane family have knowledge of the crime (the family secret). There is also a group of other people associated with St Gregory college that also have knowledge gained direct from Ben Andrew. So in the various associations the knowledge of the murderer and murderers is everywhere. But it's going to take a family dispute in the Kane clan to bring it to the fore. The family secret is going to turn family member against family member, wife against husband, children against parents - it's a mess and also involves legal action in the family court. The real key to the mystery is the secret held in the DNA evidence left at the scene of the crime. Sitting quietly in the Police evidence archives waiting for the moment. DNA information that binds the family is going to shock the family 6 years later and haunt the family for decades to come. It's a crime that has had an impact on alot of people in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteThe father Peter Nicholas Kane and his son (same name) attend Surry.Hills police station for an interview. In the first interview Kane (son) says he knows nothing about the murder and he wasn't involved. Before the second interview, he is told that DNA evidence exists from the crime scene and the Police have already taken statements from Andrew, Peter Kane's wife and the mother-in-law. What a shock that must have been, but Peter Kane is not finished. He comes up with a second story totally contradicting the first story in an attempt to get out of the ensuing mess. This new account of what happened was 6 years in the making. Peter Kane will attack his wife in the interview, attack the mother-in-law, and attack Andrew by laying the blame on him. He will also attack the victim Wayne Tonks and will attack the victim at the various court hearings. These vile attacks on a man that was brutally murdered at the hands of Peter Kane add to this incredible story. Tonks being deceased could not defend himself, but his friends could and they did. Peter Kane's attack was demonstrably false.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly Peter Kane and Julie Kane (the parents) claimed they didn't know anything about the murder. This claim that the son didn't tell the parents, yet told the wife and the mother-in-law is quite interesting. Ben Andrew knew the Kane family quite well, knew the daughter Jenny Kane and the brother. He knew Peter Kane's new wife and most likely mother-in-law (Andrew was the best man at the wedding). Andrew, the wife and the mother-in-law all knew about the murder including Peter Kane.
There is a tie in with St Gregory the school that Kane and Andrew attended.
Did some futrther research and discovered a teacher at St Gregory reported a conversation he had with Ben Andrew to the Police. The teacher claimed the Police never cameback to him, that is never followed up or investigated. The teacher at St Gregory had been told something by Ben Andrew and had did his own research and had connected the St Gregory student back to the murder of Wayne Tonks from Cleveland. This actually fits in with other reports at the time and post the 1990s, that the NSW Police were not following up or investigating gay hate crime. A report from by school teacher about a murder committed by a student is not followed up??? Another interesting fact in a quite bizarre set of circumstances. I'm hoping to do some further research to discover who else at St Gregory knew and what involvement the Police had in this truly peculiar story.
ReplyDeleteI went to uni with Ben Andrew in 1992-1993 (I think that's when he dropped out) and initially most found him to be entertaining but full-on (he was a natural MC for our drama night), and tiring in large doses. He was a bit younger than most and a self-proclaimed "prodigy" who'd managed to graduate high school earlier than usual. Once we were talking about our lives and he confided "I've done things you wouldn't believe - really horrific things" but I put his disclosure down to his usual OTT bragging and attention seeking, and he didn't elaborate. He seemed a bit self-destructive socially and would rather people actively disliked him than ignored him. He told a few of us he'd once been pack-raped while hitchhiking and while that elicited sympathy, it soon became part of a narrative of claims you might or might not believe, as he said it so matter-of-factly. To some it was just another of his tedious attempts to seek a reaction, like his insistence on introducing himself as "Hi - I'm Ben. I'm gay" as if that was supposed to shock, A strange and I guess sad young man, who we now know carried the burden of an awful secret.
ReplyDeleteSo Ben Andrew went to Uni 1992-1993? So he finished school at St. Gregory, Campbelltown and went off to University. The police catch up with him in 1997. I wonder what he was doing in the intervening years?
ReplyDeletePeter Kane gets married during the six years.
Wayne Tonks family were living with not knowing who bashed Wayne, bound his hands and then aphyicated him with the plastic bag for these years. I have no sympathy for Ben Andrew or Peter Kane - none whatsoever. They murdered Wayne Tonks. Brutally murdered an innocent man in his home.