McGowan promises murder inquiry
Opposition Leader Mark McGowan has committed to launching an independent inquiry into the Claremont serial killings if Labor wins office in March 2017 and the crimes remain unsolved.
Mr McGowan's vow came after Premier Colin Barnett ruled out an inquest during Channel 7's Sunday Night program in favour of supporting the continuing WA Police task force and encouraging people to come forward with information.
Two former WA Police officers appeared on the nationally televised program to question or criticise elements of Australia's longest-running criminal investigation.
The Macro taskforce's original lead investigator, former homicide detective Paul Ferguson, admitted that "perhaps we should have" released CCTV footage of victim Jane Rimmer sooner than the 12 years it took to make it public.
And former prostitution task force chief Con Bayens claimed Mr Ferguson had been sidelined from the case after two years in favour of former homicide detective David Caporn.
Mr Caporn, who worked on the investigation underpinning the wrongful murder conviction of Andrew Mallard, "didn't want to know" about intelligence gathered by the prostitution squad because he had focused on one suspect, Mr Bayens alleged.
Mr Bayens also told the program he pulled over a kerb crawler in Highgate in the early 2000s whose car contained cable ties, masking tape, pliers and a plastic-lined boot, but Macro did nothing with the information.
Mr McGowan yesterday said the Claremont murders had a profound effect on Perth's psyche, comparing them to the killings carried out by David and Catherine Birnie in the 1980s and Eric Edgar Cooke in the 1950s and 1960s.
Shadow attorney-general John Quigley appeared on the program to call for an inquest by an interstate coroner, and Mr McGowan said he would "make it a priority to establish an inquiry of that nature".
A WA Police spokesman told Sunday Night Mr Bayens' information had been investigated and deemed unconnected to Macro. A spokeswoman for WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said he would not comment on the investigation.
