Bega schoolgirl murders

The men subjected the girls to repeated rapes and sexual assaults on five or more separate occasions, while driving them to remote locations throughout rural New South Wales and Victoria.

[2] Over a twelve-hour period, the girls had been driven several hundred kilometres from Bega to Fiddler's Green Creek in Victoria[citation needed], where they were stabbed to death by Beckett under the order of Camilleri.

The girls were reported missing on the day of their disappearance, and a massive manhunt consisting of family, friends, police and community volunteers searched the area but failed to locate any sign of them.

[3] Camilleri, who claimed he was innocent of any crime and insisted Beckett acted alone, was facing existing charges relating to other sexual assaults against minors at the time of the murders.

A psychiatric report prepared in 1993 spoke of Camilleri's deprived childhood, and "a pattern of theft and vandalism which have been his reaction to social ostracism, leading to frustration, which because of poor impulse control has ended in explosive outbursts of destructive behaviour".

[2] In 2012, Camilleri appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court via videolink from HM Prison Barwon to be charged with murdering 13-year-old schoolgirl Prudence "Prue" Bird, who disappeared from her Glenroy home in February 1992.

At the time of the murders, Beckett lived in Yass and had come to associate with Camilleri, five years his senior, in criminal pursuits.

In sentencing Beckett to life imprisonment, Justice Vincent described him as having "quite a low IQ" and as someone "who had fallen under the influence of an older individual of much stronger personality".

On 3 October 1997, a campsite was set up by the father of Nichole Collins at White Rock, near Bega, for his teenage daughter to invite friends over for the coming Labour Day weekend.

Collins's father regularly called at the camp site to check on the children and did so on the day the girls disappeared.

About 9:00 p.m. on 5 October,[2] Collins, wearing her high school jacket, and her younger friend Barry, left the camp site and walked off for a nearby party.

According to Beckett, Camilleri spotted the girls walking single file along the Bega-Tathra Road in Evan's Hill and stopped to offer them a lift.

A pink portable television, which had earlier been taken by Camilleri and Beckett from a friend in lieu of a drug-related debt, was removed from the back seat of the vehicle and discarded at the side of the road to provide room for the girls to sit.

[1] Beckett told police the group travelled to Tathra Beach and spent some time there before returning to the campsite at White Rock.

[1] Rather than being returned to the campsite as earlier promised, the girls were driven to a rubbish dump off Old Wallagoot Road, not far from their homes in Kalaru, where they were both sexually assaulted.

During this time Beckett recalled Camilleri repeating the words, "They can't go back", referring to his intention to murder the girls to avoid detection for their crimes.

Beckett slashed Collins throat several times then began to punch and kick her when he realised she had not died instantly from the knife wounds.

They stopped at Theodore Lookout on the Monaro Highway and burned their blood-stained clothing, ropes and gags used to restrain the girls.

The pair later threw their knives from the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge into Lake Burley Griffin before returning to their homes in Yass.

Members of the Australian Federal Police arrested Beckett on 27 October on car theft charges and remanded him in custody.

[1] On 12 November, Beckett made a full confession to police and agreed to guide them to the crime scene at Fiddler's Green Creek, where the girls' remains were discovered.

Camilleri, who was at this time also remanded in custody for breaching bail conditions, was awaiting trial at Goulburn Correctional Centre.

Camilleri continued his claims that he was in a stupor when the girls were with them in the car, and that he barely remembered them, hoping to lay the entire blame for the murders on his associate Beckett.

[1] Camilleri was found guilty by the Supreme Court jury and on 27 April 1999 was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders, never to be released.

[1] … It is terrible to contemplate the prospect that, as a consequence of the order which in my view justice and a proper appreciation of sentencing principles would require in your case, you may never be released from prison.