John William MILLWARD
John William MILLWARD
AKA BILL
Late of Harrington, formerly of Cessnock
“Possibly” related to Andrew Scott MILLWARD, NSWPF # 8014 ?
N.G. MILLWARD, NSWPF # 21962 ?
NSW Redfern Police Academy – Class 097
New South Wales Police Force
Regd. # 10838
Rank: Commenced Training at Redfern Police Academy on Monday 28 October 1963 ( aged 27 years, 6 months, 17 days )
Probationary Constable – appointed Friday 6 December 1963 ( aged 27 years, 7 months, 25 days )
Constable – appointed 28 October 1964
Constable 1st Class – appointed 28 October 1968
Senior Constable – appointed 28 October 1972
Sergeant 3rd Class – appointed ? ? ?
Final Rank – Sergeant 3rd Class
Stations: ?, North East District, Central – ( 1 Division – A District ) – Retirement
Service: From Monday 28 October 1963 to 21 March 1981 ( Medical H.O.D. Discharge ? ) = 17 years, 4 months, 21 days Service
Age at Retirement: 44 years, 11 months, 10 days
Time in Retirement: 37 years, 2 months, 27 days
Awards: * Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct ( Imperial ) – granted 17 December 1974 ( Apprehension of armed man )
National Medal – granted 1 September 1982
Born: Saturday 11 April 1936
Died on: Sunday 17 June 2018
Age: 82 years, 2 months, 6 days
Cause: Cancer ( 3 years )
Event location: ?
Event date: ?
Funeral date: Monday 25 June 2018 @ 11am
Funeral location: St John’s Anglican Church, Westcott St, Cessnock, NSW
Funeral Parlour: C.R. Smyth & Son, Cessnock – 4990 1425
Buried at: ?
Memorial located at: ?
BILL is NOT mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance *NEED MORE INFO
FURTHER INFORMATION IS NEEDED ABOUT THIS PERSON, THEIR LIFE, THEIR CAREER AND THEIR DEATH.
PLEASE SEND PHOTOS AND INFORMATION TO Cal
May they forever Rest In Peace
Published in The Newcastle Herald on June 23, 2018
Kevin Crump and Allan Baker were convicted criminals who had met in prison whilst serving sentences for such offences as breaking and entering, and larceny. After they were released, they met up and opted for a life of robbing for a living – and as it turned out, murder. Their new life began on November 3, 1973.[1]
On that date, and whilst driving a previously stolen vehicle, they used a .308 rifle to murder Ian James Lamb, 43, who was sleeping in his car next to the road to save accommodation costs while he was in the area to look for seasonal work.[2] The murder appeared to be a thrill killing as the pair did not know Lamb.[3]
Three days later they camped near the home of Brian and Virginia Morse in Collarenebri, where one of them had previously worked, as a migrant farm labourer. After watching the house for two days, they abducted 35-year-old Virginia Morse when her husband and their three children left the property. The men drove via back roads towards Queensland, stopping at hotels and garages along the way, and buying beer and petrol with the $30 they had stolen from the Morse homestead. They drove mainly at night to avoid detection. During the journey, Morse sobbed and pleaded for her life. The men stopped south of the Queensland border, tied Virginia Morse to a tree and took turns raping her repeatedly. They then threw her back in the car and continued on their journey.
When they stopped by the Weir River near Moonie they tied Virginia Morse to another tree. They raped and tortured her repeatedly before one of the men shot her between the eyes in an execution style killing. They rolled her body into the river, burnt her clothes then drove back to their camp site.
Arrest
On November 13, ten days after Lamb‘s murder, the pair headed towards the Hunter Region, intending to commit a burglary. However, after their stolen vehicle was spotted near Maitland, the pair took flight from the scene. A police vehicle responding to the attempted burglary intercepted their vehicle en route and a high speed chase ensued. The police car was rammed off the road, and the chase taken up by a second police unit. A police officer in this vehicle was seriously injured when the fugitives shot him in the face. The car chase culminated at a police roadblock at Woodville, where the pair ran off, shooting at police as they fled into the bush. An intensive ground and air search of the area followed, and the two men were eventually arrested in a nearby river three hours later.
After their capture, Crump tried to evade responsibility for Morse‘s murder in his police statement. “I was forced to kill Mrs. Morse by Baker, because he wanted me to be in as deep as him. He said he was going to kill me if I didn’t. I admit that I was prepared to kidnap Mrs. Morse and even to sleep with her, but once again, as with Mr. Lamb, I did not want to be a part of her death… It was a choice of either me or Mrs. Morse.”[4]
Even though there was compelling evidence that Crump had murdered Virginia Morse, he was not charged with this crime, as she had been murdered in Queensland, outside the jurisdiction of the Government of New South Wales. However he was charged with the murder of Ian James Lamb and with rape and conspiracy to murder Virginia Morse.[3]
Trial
Crump and Baker were tried in the Supreme Court of NSW. At their trial, Crump and Baker pleaded not guilty to the four charges of murdering Ian James Lamb, conspiracy to murder Virginia Morse, maliciously wounding a police officer with intent to prevent lawful apprehension and shooting at police with intent to prevent lawful apprehension. It took the jury an hour and 45 minutes to convict Baker and Crump on all charges. Baker showed no emotion at the verdict, while Crump appeared to stare at the floor and shudder.[2]
Mr. Justice Taylor then sentenced both men to life imprisonment plus 55 years. The judge said: “You have outraged all accepted standards of the behaviour of men. The description of ‘men’ ill becomes you. You would be more aptly described as animals, and obscene animals at that. … I believe that you should spend the rest of your lives in gaol and there you should die. If ever there was a case where life imprisonment should mean what it says – imprisonment for the whole of your lives – this is it.”[5]
Details of the torture Virginia Morse endured at the hands of Baker and Crump were suppressed during the trial as the information was deemed too graphic and disturbing for the public.[citation needed]
Parole, legislation and court appeals
In 1997, Kevin Crump successfully applied to the Supreme Court of NSW to convert his life sentence into a minimum term and an additional term. McInerney J sentenced Crump to a minimum term of 30 years and an additional term for the remainder of his life [6][7]
In response to this determination the Parliament of New South Wales passed legislation that was intended to ensure that 10 named individuals remained incarcerated for the rest of their lives. The people named in Parliament were Baker and Crump, together with Michael Murphy, Leslie Murphy, Gary Murphy, John Travers and Michael Murdoch who were convicted of the murder of Anita Cobby and Stephen Jamieson, Matthew Elliot and Bronson Blessington who were convicted of the murder of Janine Balding.[8] The legislation required the Parole Board to give substantial weight to the recommendations, observations and comments made by the original sentencing court.[9]
Baker challenged this legislation in the High Court of Australia arguing that it was invalid and incompatible with the integrity, independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court. In October 2004 the High Court rejected his challenge, holding that there was nothing repugnant to the notion of judicial power in requiring significant weight be given to a past judicial recommendation.[10][11]
The effect of the 1997 determination by McInerney J was that Crump had some prospect, however minimal, of being released on parole after November 2003. In 2001 the Parliament of NSW passed further legislation that was intended to ensure that Baker, Crump and other never-to-be-released prisoners could only ever be released on their death beds or if they were so incapacitated that they would pose a threat to nobody.[12][13] In 2003 Crump sought parole; however, this was rejected by the Parole Board due to the 2001 legislation. In May 2012 the High Court rejected Crump‘s challenge to the 2001 legislation, despite the ad hominem component of legislation apparent in the Second Reading Speech.[14] [15]
In February 2016 the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Crump‘s application for leave to appeal the 1997 sentence determination of McInerney J.[16][17]
Virginia Morse’s killer Kevin Crump pleads for chance of parole
With his oversized spectacles, balding head and stubby hands, Kevin Crump bore little resemblance to someone described by former premier Bob Carr as “evil incarnate”.
As he rifled through reams of paperwork and struggled to enunciate his arguments, Crump, 66, looked quite ordinary.
Crump is one of the state’s current longest-serving prisoners, having been in jail for more than 42 years for the callous rape, torture and murder of housewife Virginia Morse, 35, and shooting murder of itinerant worker Ian Lamb, 43, in 1973.
In sentencing Crump and his co-offender Allan Baker in 1974, Justice Robert Taylor said the pair should never be released.
“If ever there was a case where life imprisonment should mean what it says – imprisonment for the whole of your lives – this is it.”
However, prior to “truth in sentencing” reforms in 1990, life did not mean life and people sentenced to life imprisonment were released on parole after serving an average of 11 to 12 years.
In 1997, Crump’s sentence was re-determined to a minimum of 30 years, expiring on November 12, 2003, with a maximum of life imprisonment.
Justice Peter McInerney said expert psychiatric reports found he was largely rehabilitated and would not be a danger if released.
Following a public outcry, the NSW government made several legislative changes to ensure Crump and nine others – the men who killed Anita Cobby and Janine Balding – are virtually never released on parole.
The changes provide that if a “non release recommendation” has been made by the original sentencing judge, the offender is to remain behind bars until he is so physically incapacitated or close to death that he poses no risk to the community.
In introducing the laws, Mr Carr said the changes would “cement them to their cells”.
In 2012, Crump lost a High Court challenge to the laws.
As a result, he remains in Wellington Correctional Centre in protective custody despite becoming eligible for parole almost 12 years ago.
Appearing via video-link in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday, Crump pleaded for another chance to appeal against his sentence. First, he has to convince the court grant him an 18-year extension of time to seek leave against the 1997 judgment.
He said he was representing himself in court because he was unable to get Legal Aid assistance and apologised several times for “not having me paperwork in order”.
He told Justices Anthony Meagher, Geoffrey Bellew and Stephen Rothman: “I believe the sentence I received is over the limit of what I should have received.
“I believe that I should never have received a life sentence because it was not in the worst category of murder cases.”
Crown Advocate Natalie Adams, SC, opposed Crump’s application.
Ms Adams said that, even if Crump won the right to be re-sentenced, the effect of the 1999 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act is that whatever non-parole period the appeal judges thought appropriate, the court would still have to impose a head sentence of life, which is what he already has.
Crump and Baker killed Mr Lamb at Narrabri on November 4, 1973, by shooting him four times to the head. Soon after, they abducted Mrs Morse, a mother of three, at her homestead, subjected her to 22 hours of atrocities including sexual assault, before shooting her once they were across the border in southern Queensland. They threw her body into a billabong.
Crump was convicted of conspiracy to murder Mrs Morse in NSW and in theory could still be tried in Queensland for her murder, although that is unlikely to eventuate.
The court reserved its decision and told Crump to expect a judgment in two to three weeks.
