'I didn't marry Martin Bryant because he wasn't smart': Ex-girlfriend breaks silence
An ex-girlfriend of the man behind Australia's most horrific mass murder has revealed intimate details about their dating life, including that she rejected his marriage proposal because she 'didn't think he was very smart'.
A year before he opened fire in Port Arthur and killed 35 people, Mary* was Martin Bryant's girlfriend, taking interstate trips and sharing a life with him for eight months.
“I said I wasn't interested in the money. I was more interested in what he had to offer as a person," Mary told Sunday Night in a chilling interview.
Mary was 16 and Bryant was 27. Despite their age difference, Bryant was serious about the relationship.
But Mary admits she wasn't ready for more than what they shared because Bryant 'wasn't smart'.
“I remember we were in a restaurant in Sydney and he was looking at the Age or something, and I could tell he wasn't really reading it," she said.
"I don't think he was that smart. He was only just pretending to try and impress me.
"I remember smiling at him and going along with it to make him feel good about himself, like, you know, he could be smart.”
On one particular date, Mary recounts Bryant becoming emotional when they ran out of petrol on a boat trip and were stranded for hours.
"I started cry... he started crying," she said.
"He thought we were going to die. I was hanging on to some hope that we might drift somewhere."
Mary said she thought it was 'strange' when compared with the horrific crimes Bryant committed at Port Arthur in 1996.
"He told some people that he thought he would either die or get captured, but he did it without crying," she said.
"I think he was genuinely remorseful that he got me in that situation too."
Mary also revealed Bryant asked her to marry him. She declined.
"I was honest with him. I didn't think he was too smart," she repeated.
Bryant was very sensitive to suggestions he had a low IQ, which is what led lawyer John Avery to convince him to plead guilty; so that he wouldn't look stupid.
Bryant is currently serving 35 life sentences without the chance of parole.
*Identity has been concealed.
