ParaFAL

British Paras with SLR type rifles, one scoped

Here's a photo of a rare scope-equipped FAL type rifle for long range marksmanship. Most of the FAL and SLR type infantry rifles were used with iron sights, since squad tactics at the time made the more-expensive optics unnecessary. Although this photo is of two British Paras in Belfast, this is the type of rifle located on the roof of an outbuilding at Seascape.

Serial number G3434, the origins of this rifle are unknown. Rifles with close serial numbers have been traced to Canada and North Africa, possibly coming to Australia via Brunei.

You should take some time to read the interview transcript, linked here. Martin Bryant cheerfully tells the truth about his life and difficulties, his relationships, his AR15, USAS-12 and AR10 firearms. Admitting that he owned the AR15, discovered damaged and burnt in the smoking ruins of Seascape was enough to seal his fate, so why deny ever seeing the FAL before? There's no benefit to him, and since he has a history of telling the truth in the interview, why switch to a lie at this point?

FN FAL #G3434 on the roof

Here's how the conversation went:

Q. Yeah. Alright, the next one we'll look at is a ahh, a 308 ahh, calibre, FN weapon.

A. Mmm.

Q. Do you remember where?

A. I've never seen that one before. Never. That's not one of mine.

Q. You sure?
A. No definitely not, never seen that in my life. It's nice though.

WARREN
Q. Have you ever had a 308?
A. Three 0 eight, yes. Had a 308.

Q. Mmm.

A. That was one Terry Hill was repairing.

PAINE

Q. I’ll just ask Mr Warren to pick up a scope we have there on the floor because that might be causing the confusion. I believe that that scope was probably fitted to that gun before we got it. Now does that.
A. No I've never seen that scope before in my life. Never. No. No I've never. Never seen that scope in my life.

Q. Now you say you've never seen that 308 before but you did in fact own a 308?

A. Yeah, definitely.

Q. Right.

A. ... (inaudible) ..., AR10.

Q. Just a sec, before I go onto that. Where did you get the 308 that?

A. I bought the 308 about, this is going back six, seven years now.

Q. Yes.

A. Out of a paper, out of the Mercury.

Q. Out of the Mercury?

A. Yes.

Q. Right. And where did you buy 308 ammunition?

A. Umm, I managed to get that, a load of it, about six, seven boxes with twenty in each box, ohh about four or five years ago but I had it stored away, been stored away, I never got to use that and, and it's only recently that I got to use it but, but they were the wrong bullets. So I went over to Terry Hill for the first time for years and he said you're using the wrong bullets Martin, you should be using the military hard, hard top bullets. He said the only ones I've got in stock, I've got a case of three thousand rounds and he said it'll cost you nine, think it was nine hundred and thirty dollars. And I said I'll think about it, I'll get back to you on Monday. So it was on the Friday, I phoned him up a few hours later, I said I've got the money, I'll come over and buy the rounds.

Q. So you bought three thousand?

A. Rounds. I couldn't buy anything smaller off him because that's all he had at the time and.

Q. And when was that?

A. That's going back five months.

Q. Ohh right.

A. Four or five months ago.

Q. And is that ammunition.

A. That.

Q. Difficult to buy. You can't can you buy it sort off any gun dealer?

A. Umm, yeah you can buy it, I think you can buy hard top from other gun dealers but it's fairly hard to get hold of.

Q. Alright, we'll have a look at the last gun which is on the floor. And this is a .223 calibre self-loading rifle.

A. Yep. I've never seen that one before. Mmm.

Q. Well we recovered that one.
A. It's nice isn't it.

Q. Ahh, from ahh, I believe, ahh, from a repairer, being repaired.

A. Mmm.

Q. Does that ring any bells?
A. Repairer. I've.

Q. Have you got any guns at the moment or did you have any guns.

A. That one was repaired for me, that other one, the AR10. That, I took over to Terry Hill.

Q. Ohh, so I've got them confused.

A. Yeah.

 

Here, they wander off track and talk about Martin's cars and SCUBA diving experience. Then Paine comes back to the rifles for a moment:

Q. Martin, just be, while, before I forget it, can we have a look at the 308 again please Mr Warren. The one with the scope. I'd like you to have a closer look at, look at it.

WARREN

Q. If I hold it up with the scope, you might.

PAINE

Q. If Mr Warren holds it like that.
A. Yeah. No, no, I've never seen that one before. Never.

So you can see from this that Martin's memory is pretty good and he is articulate. He doesn't know enough about firearms to check the bullets, and is sold a dud lot by the person advertising the AR10 in the Mercury. That person probably bought the wrong bullets, then managed to pass them off to Martin - lucky for them there's a sucker born every minute.

But then Martin's luck with guns turns even worse. Terry Hill does a brilliant sales job on Martin, offloading probably his entire stock of rare and slow-selling 308 bullets for almost a thousand dollars. To be fair to Terry, $0.31 per bullet is a reasonable deal, he wasn't ripping Martin off, but honestly, who is going to fire 3,000 rounds in rural Tasmania? It's not like they have deer, moose and buffalo season, do they? Imagine buying a car and the dealer says "you have to buy 3,000 spark plugs, $0.30 each" - sure it's a deal, but who is going to use 3,000 spark plugs in their car?

It also appears that the cops don't know much about firearms either. They get the AR10 and AR15 confused, simply because they look similar, and they don't know how to attach the scope to the FN FAL.

AR15 in .223 with Colt 4x20 scope - recovered from Seascape

AR10 looks similar to the AR15 but they are different

But it's the FAL that raises all the questions. It's a rare rifle for Australia, since the majority of ours were domestically manufactured SLR versions. And making it even more rare,this one has a scope attached. Martin has never seen it before - he is quite clear about that and even adds that he has never seen the scope before either.

Scoped FN FAL in Qld, mid 1980s

This introduces what is called "reasonable doubt" into the case. In Australia, we theoretically have a principle called "innocent until proven guilty" where the police have to prove the charges against you are true and valid. In civil cases, the burden of proof is called the "balance of probabilities" - are the odds you did it higher than the odds you didn't. Criminal cases are held to a higher standard. The charges must be proved "beyond reasonable doubt" and this is where the prosecution case comes unstuck.

Without Reasonable Doubt, there is nothing stopping the Police from just arresting you at home one evening, and saying to the judge 'Yeah, look, we found this rocket launcher, and we think he bought it, so just lock him up, will you?'

Over 200 years of legal activity has refined the rules and standards for evidence, in order to try to give people a fair trial. The onus is on the prosecution to prove Beyond Reasonable Doubt where and when and how you did the things you are accused of.

Can you imagine the conversations that happened inside the DPP offices? With intense political and media pressure to get a conviction, but the lawyers refusing to take this steaming pile of fertiliser into court?

The Police Commissioner is there in his uniform, covered in gold leaf. 'We need to wrap this up as quickly as possible, get him locked away so we can put it behind us and get the tourists back. How long until we can go to trial?'
The prosecution lawyer shrugs, pointing at the brief on his desk. 'No way can we take this into court. We'll get slaughtered.'
His boss sees the expression on the Commissioner's face and winces. He tries to lower the temperature in the room. 'How much longer do you need?'
The lawyer's face goes red. 'It's not about time. It's about evidence. It's just not there.'
The Commissioner tries to calm down by taking a deep breath. 'What do you mean?'
'Okay, in no particular order,' sighs the lawyer:
'Who made the phone call to tip off the police about the drug stash?
How did Bryant get the unpublished new phone number for Nubeena Police Station?
Where did the FN FAL come from? Martin says it wasn't his and we can't prove it.
Who fired three shots at 6.30pm, as stated in Leanne Godwin's witness statement?
Who fired the shots we can hear in the background on the negotiation tape with Terry McCarthy?
Why did Martin sit in the Volvo with the Salzmann's and speak with them, before shooting them and Jim Pollard and Rose Nixon? Nicholas Cheok saw the whole thing.
Why do Jim Laycock and Graham Collyer both say it wasn't Martin Bryant who shot them?
Where is Martin's DNA evidence from the Solo can and eating utensils?
Why is Wendy Scurr going around saying she picked shotgun pellets out of Dennis Olson, when we are saying the shotgun wasn't used in the massacre?'
Both other men are silent. The Commissioner squirms a little as the lawyer finishes his spray.
'There's a principle in law - you may have heard of it. It's called REASONABLE DOUBT and if it exists in that court, we won't get a conviction. And believe me, this brief is FULL of reasonable doubt. Gunston could be drunk on the floor and get him off. My ten year old kid could be Martin's defence lawyer and get him off, because this brief, this brief is FULL of reasonable doubt that he did it alone. If they put just ONE of those witnesses on the stand, there is no way a judge or jury will convict, no matter how much the media primes their minds that he did it.'
The Commissioner turns to the lawyer's boss. 'Any suggestions?'
'No way can we take this into a trial, mate. It's not like we are going to find new damning evidence, or have a Perry Mason epiphany on the day.'
'So, we can't have a trial then.'
'Not unless you want to be the next Standish.'
'Huh? What?'
'Standish. Victorian Police Commissioner in 1854. He basically caused the Kelly Gang to go on the run, turned public opinion in favour of the gang, and was sacked after the Glenrowan siege debacle. Funny, it's also the only siege where the Police set fire to the building, so there's precedent for YOU to be sacked as well...'
The Commissioner turns purple and has difficulty breathing for a moment. At last, he calms down.
'Best we not have a trial then. Just get him to plead guilty.'
The DPP lawyers nod. 'I'll have a word with David Gunston, get him to step aside.'
The Commissioner breathes a sigh of relief. 'Good. Any idea who to replace him?'
The DPP head looks around the room. 'Someone expendable, they'll be persona non grata in Tasmania for a long time.' He raises his voice and calls out, 'Avery? Would you step in here a minute, please?'

***

In case you think Martin Bryant's wrongful conviction is something rare, please check out the Innocence Project. They have an ever-increasing file of falsely imprisoned people who they have freed, some after more than 25 years in prison for crimes they did not do - sometimes even crimes that did not happen. If you can donate a few dollars to them, it will help get innocent people out of jail and that's a very good use of your money.

In order to present a plausible, possible alternative to the official story, I have written a novel, based on the witness statements and court documents. The 2nd Empty Chair: The Port Arthur Paradox is an action thriller that reads like a Hollywood movie script.
It's very easy to read and "pokes more holes in the official story than a Pastafarian's colander." You can buy it from Amazon or Lulu if Amazon won't ship to your location.

If you've already read the story, thanks for your support and please leave a review - that's very important for the algorithm that tracks interest in the book.