Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Saturday 23 January 1988, page 8


Courts

Inquest held into

decapitations

The inquest into the deaths of a couple near the Cotter reserve last year found wilful decapitation in both

cases.

The headless bodies of the two, Mr Michael Gerard Gibbons, 28, and Ms Deborah Ann Lindstrom, 22, were found in their car on an embankment at Murrays Corner on October 30.

Information gathered by Detective Sergeant Thomas McQuillan suggested that Mr Gibbons, facing a charge of abduction of Ms Lindstrom's former boyfriend, was terrified that he might be jailed. The offcnce carried a maximum of 14 years imprisonment. Ms Lindstrom was also fearful and had expressed the view to her sister two weeks before the bodies were found that the only way out was "to end their

lives".

Factories to

stay closed:

row goes on

SYDNEY: Factory owner Mr Nick Baric is taking his long-running battle with Liverpool City Council to the NSW Court of Appeal.

This follows the decision yesterday by Justice Cripps in the Land and Environment Court to rejcct Mr Banc's plea for a stay of execution on seques

trators.

Defence counsel Mr Julian Millar had argued that the Baric family had suffered considerable financial hardship since the sequestrators had been called in on November 20.

Mr Baric, 49, had to meet monthly mortgage repayments of $2500 on his factories and support his family.

"But he isn't able to meet these bills because the sequestrators are taking the profit from his factories," he told

the court.

However, Justice Cripps said that the reason he had ordered the sequestration of the factories in the first place was "to put pressure on Mr Baric to make him comply with the Liverpool City Council order to cease operations and demolish the buildings".

Hardship was not sufficient reason for overturning earlier decisions. Justice Cripps suggested Mr Banc's case should be directed to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Baric spent five months in jail last year for failing to obey a demolition order on each of the buildings.

Her former boyfriend, Mr Stephen Ibell, told police Ms Lindstrom had run her life "sort of like they do on the TV show Days of Our Lives". He believed she was frightened of the violent behaviour of Mr Gibbons, who in his opinion was psychotic when under the influence of alcohol and paranoid about his and Ms Lindstromi's previous relationship.

Two handwritten wills were found in the couple's Kambah house, which had been left neat and tidy, and also a writing pad containing a poem. A number of books on the occult and two

library books entitled The Handbook of Seamen's Knots and The Harrison Book of Knots were also found.

The wills have been released to the families' solicitor for action in the Supreme Court.

Speed offender

fined $1200

A 23-year-old Rivett man had ridden his motorbike at speeds of up to 200km/h along three Canberra roads, the ACT Magistrates Court heard yesterday.

In what Chief Magistrate Cahill described as the worst case of driving at a speed dangerous to the public that he had heard, Mr Anthony Southall, of Casuarina Street, Rivett, pleaded guilty to the offence. The court was told a constable chased him from the Cotter Road, on to Adelaide Avenue and finally on to State Circle. He was caught at the new Parliament House site. The offence occurred shortly after noon on November 25, 1987. A suspended six-month jail sentence, a $2000 two-year good-behaviour bond, and a fine of $1000 was imposed. Mr Southall's licence was suspended for 12 months. On additional charges of being unregistered and uninsured he was fined a total of $100, and $100 for failing to stop on

request.

Brewarrina stabbing

SYDNEY: An 18-year-old man appeared in Bourke court yesterday chargcd with murder after a stabbing on Thursday night at Brewarrina, in

the state's west.

Mr Wayne John Wise, of Brewarrina, was remanded to appear in Dubbo court on January 25.

Police allege that Mr Wise stabbed Mr Brendan Craig Hughes, 19, outside his home in Bathurst Street, Brewarrina, around 11.40pm on Thursday.