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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-18 Daily Xml
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Duncan, Dr G.I.O.

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter:

That this council—

1. Acknowledges that 10 May 2022 marks 50 years since the murder of Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan;

2. Notes the long-lasting impacts of Dr Duncan’s death on law reform and the LGBTIQ community;

3. Recognises the risks of discrimination and violence still faced by LGBTIQ people today; and

4. Resolves to continue to work toward safety and equality for all LGBTIQ people.

(Continued from 4 May 2023.)

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (16:10): I rise in support of the Hon. Ian Hunter's motion. The murder of Dr George Duncan would be familiar to many South Australians and, as we have approached the 50th anniversary of his death, his story has been the subject of renewed interest. Dr Duncan travelled from his native London to take up a position as a law lecturer at the University of Adelaide. The banks of the Torrens were a well-known meeting spot for gay men and, subsequently, became a well-known spot to South Australian police for targeted harassment of those men.

On 10 May 1972, Dr Duncan was thrown into the River Torrens by a group of men and drowned. He was 41 years old and had been in Adelaide barely six weeks. Reports of police involvement in his death resulted in the trial, but ultimate acquittal, of two South Australian police officers. His death forms part of an epidemic of gay bashings, murders and disappearances that plagued Australia in the second half of the 20th century. There is no shortage of unsolved murders of gay men, with some of these cold cases being reopened in recent years as we confront this dark part of our history.

Dr Duncan's senseless murder and the investigation into his death created momentum for criminal law reform in South Australia. The Dunstan government became the first in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality. In an upsetting contrast, this state also bears the shame of being the last jurisdiction in Australia to abolish the gay panic provocation defence. This defence could be used to downgrade a charge of murder to manslaughter where the defendant could prove they were provoked by a homosexual advance. It is astonishing to think that as recently as 2020 we had a criminal defence which supported the notion that a same-sex advance was a valid justification for taking someone's life.

The changes made in LGBTIQ law reform since the death of Dr Duncan have been hard won. Many of these fights were won more recently than the public would imagine, and there are fights still on the horizon. The rights of same-sex couples to adopt and their rights to access assisted reproductive technology are relatively new achievements at law, having only occurred within the last 10 years. The damaging practice of conversion therapy, promulgated by some religious groups, still has no legislative ban in South Australia despite such bans being in place in Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.

The death of Dr Duncan was the catalyst for a process of legislative change that is ongoing. Those members in this chamber and those individuals outside of this chamber who seek to turn back the clock in terms of reform are no more than continuing to perpetuate and encourage an ideology of discrimination and violence.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (16:14): I also rise to speak in support of this motion. May 10 this year marked the 51st anniversary of the drowning and murder of Dr George Duncan. Dr Duncan, who was 41, had returned to Australia from London to take up a lectureship in law at the University of Adelaide, teaching in Roman law. He was an extremely shy, intensely private man, and he may never have publicly identified as a homosexual. Dr Duncan had only been in Adelaide for six weeks when he was thrown into the River Torrens near Kintore Avenue. The River Torrens was a well-known meeting place for gay men at that time and on the night that Dr Duncan ventured down to the riverbank male homosexual acts were still illegal in all Australian states and territories.

The law effectively criminalised gay men because of who and what they were. The law made gay men the targets of violence. At around 11pm on 10 May 1972, Dr Duncan was thrown into the river by a group of men. Dr Duncan was unable to swim and he drowned. The events that followed are well documented, but it is important to note that this event was a catalytic event for our state. The death of Dr Duncan was not isolated, many gay men at that time were victims of homophobic violence and hate crimes, but his death did spark a public outcry and eventually led to several attempts to reform the law, to decriminalise homosexuality, and led to South Australia being a leader in this space.

I want to honour the work of Don Dunstan, as Premier at that time, and Peter Duncan, who it should be noted is no relation to Dr Duncan, who introduced a bill to reform those oppressive laws. I often remark, when I talk about the death of Dr Duncan and the gay law reform project, on how lucky I am as an out and proud gay man to have been a beneficiary of the changes that have been made over many years.

The Hon. Ian Hunter is not here today but I acknowledge that he has been a long-term advocate for gay law reform in this state, and someone who has been out and proud in public life for many years. As a result of the advocacy of people like Mr Hunter, and gay men of his generation, society has changed for the better for people like myself, so I am really appreciative of that.

The other day was International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, and that is also an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come on the road for equality and justice for LGBTI people. I mentioned that it is a lot easier these days being in public life as an out gay man, but I was recently reminded of some of the terrible discrimination that still exists in the community and that gay men can face, even in parliaments, when I saw the despicable comments made by Mark Latham in New South Wales in relation to Alex Greenwich, who is an out and proud gay man in that parliament.

Those despicable comments—hateful, revolting comments—really were a reminder of the discrimination that gay men can still face. I still hear reports of gay men experiencing homophobic abuse out on our streets, people being scared of coming out in their workplaces and people being scared of revealing their sexuality to their friends and their families, so there is still lots of work to do.

The death of Dr Duncan is a reminder of how far we have come. It is an opportunity to recognise his legacy and the legacy of those gay rights activists at that time, and it is also a time for us to strengthen our resolve to keep on fighting and to overcome homophobia and discrimination wherever we confront it.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (16:19): I thank the honourable member for bringing this motion to the chamber, 51 years since the death—a suspected murder or manslaughter—of Dr George Duncan in the River Torrens close to Kintore Avenue. This was a watershed moment in gay hate crime in South Australia. Homosexuality was still outlawed and it would be another five years before the then Premier Don Dunstan changed those discriminatory laws.

Homophobia was rife in Australia, particularly in the 1970s. Such was the shocking intolerance, gay men risked violence and abuse in the community should they be identified. In 1972, Dr Duncan had only recently returned to Adelaide to take up a post as a lecturer at Adelaide University. On the evening of 10 May, he attended a well-known gay beat at the time on the banks of the River Torrens near Jolleys Boathouse. It was also an area frequented by gay bashers—usually men looking to rough up gay men and then throw them in the river for a lark.

Three unidentified men, accompanied by another, attacked Dr Duncan, along with two others in separate incidents, throwing him and them in the river. Dr Duncan could not swim and subsequently drowned. In 1972, I had just started work as a copyboy at The News on North Terrace. It was common knowledge among journalists, particularly those who covered police rounds or the courts where I worked, that vice squad police would also visit the area and, after having a few drinks at a nearby pub, would toss gay men into the river as if it was a fun-filled pastime.

I will share this story that has not been reported, nor was it reported at the time, but seemed to fill some staff where I worked with some merriment. As The News was being readied for its first city state edition on 11 May, the report had come into the office of a body being fished out of the River Torrens. The chief of staff dispatched a reporter and photographer to the scene. At the same time, other news teams from television, radio and The Advertiser newspaper rolled up. By this time, Dr Duncan's body, twisted in rigor mortis, was lying on its back on the bank of the river with police and forensic pathologists, including the notorious and unqualified Dr Colin Manock, present.

It should have been declared and prepared as being a major crime scene, but such was the lackadaisical approach by police at the time—and perhaps a sign of their own homophobia—they acceded to a bizarre and rather unethical request from the waiting media. They got there too late to record the police and scuba divers retrieving the body from the river and asked whether they could put the body back in the water and bring it out again. The police, with most likely the imprimatur of their chief forensic pathologist, duly obliged. The media got their pictures, much to the appalling indignity of the deceased and his family.

Although there were witnesses that night, they were reluctant to come forward, fearing they could be targeted. The assailants were never identified, but years later one witness came forward claiming he saw three police officers attacking Dr Duncan, reporting that he had also heard bones being broken. After throwing him into the river, one of the assailants apparently stripped his clothes and went in looking for Dr Duncan, with no success. There was also a fourth person with the policemen who was never identified, although rumours swirled about the person's identity for years.

Police Commissioner Harold Salisbury called in detectives from New Scotland Yard to investigate the crime. Detective Chief Superintendent Bob McGowan's report, which was not made public until tabled in parliament in 2002, indicated that vice squad officers Francis John Cawley, Michael Kenneth Clayton and Brian Edwin Hudson had taken part in the three assaults. The inquiry described the crime as 'a high-spirited frolic that went wrong' and that it had failed to find sufficient evidence to prosecute any of the officers due to a lack of witness testimony.

The detectives were called upon to give evidence at the inquest but had refused to answer any of the questions put to them and were subsequently suspended from duty and eventually they resigned. The Coroner returned an open finding on 5 July 1972, which led to the Crown Solicitor announcing on 24 October 1972 that he had decided against proceeding with any prosecution.

On 30 July 1985, former vice squad officer Mick O'Shea, who had resigned in 1981, told The Advertiser that the group involved in Duncan's death were vice squad officers and that there was a cover-up to protect them. On 5 February 1986, Cawley, Clayton and Hudson were charged with the manslaughter of Dr Duncan. Cawley and Clayton eventually went to trial in 1988, with both being acquitted of the charges on 30 September after refusing to testify.

During the trial, O'Shea made specific allegations that it was a common practice for vice squad officers to throw homosexual men into the river, that certain members assaulted homosexual men and that on one occasion they had chased an individual while firing shots. A further allegation was later raised that there had been an attempt to influence a juror to find the two officers charged not guilty. A police task force was set up, reporting to the SA Parliament in 1990 that there was insufficient evidence to charge any person with the murder. Repeated calls for a royal commission have been ignored.

In 1985, while I was at The News,and then years later with Channel 7, I spoke at length on a number of occasions with Mick O'Shea. I found him to be credible and truthful in his accounts. The corruption he observed within SAPOL in his time made him totally disillusioned. At the time, the SAPOL hierarchy tried to dismiss and discredit him as a malcontent with an axe to grind. A compliant Adelaide media swallowed the police versions hook, line and sinker.

I also contacted two of the police officers allegedly involved, one of whom had gone on to work in a crash repair business in Perth. They rejected any involvement or ever being involved in gay bashings. One claimed he had evidence that would clear his name locked away in his safe should he ever face charges again. I do not recall that evidence ever being presented to a court.

The crime remains unsolved. Dr Duncan's assailants remain free, but South Australia and Australia are now a far more tolerant and inclusive society. Dr Duncan's cruel and tragic fate is perhaps the legacy left behind in righting the terrible wrongs that existed at the time. I commend the motion to the chamber.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. L.A. Henderson.

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