The Murder of Lauren Barry & Nichole Collins   

I believe that the case of the abduction and sexually motivated murders of Lauren Barry and Nichole Collins is one of the worst in Australia's criminal history. Yet you say the girls' names to people and the response is often a blank expression. Yet if you say Ebony Simpson or Anita Cobby to anyone the cases are talked about and everyone has an opinion. It is one of the reasons I decided to write the case of Nichole and Lauren. To date their story has not been told, and their memory is fading, they were two pretty young girls who had not a care in the world. They were trusting and loving, it was these traits that may have attributed to their murders.

Lauren Barry

Lauren Margaret Barry was born on October 11, 1982 to Garret and Cheryl Barry She grew up in the town of Bega and enjoyed the close-knit group of friends she had through out her short life. Lauren enjoyed life and was extremely close to her best friend Nichole Collins. Lauren was in Year 9 at the local Bega High School while Nichole was in year 11.

For Lauren’s fifteenth birthday she and Nichole planned a camping party at the local camping area at White Rock near Kalaru where they lived. With a public holiday on the Monday it was a perfect time to have the party. It meant the party could last all weekend long.

Lauren was taller than her best friend Nichole even though she was younger. She had shoulder length brown hair. She enjoyed the sun and had a little pink freckled nose in summer to prove it. Her smile was full of warmth and her eyes were full of a future that would never come.

Nichole Collins

Nichole Emma Collins was born to Graeme and Delma Collins on November 14, 1980. She was older then her best friend but the age difference did not worry the girls. The families lived in the small hamlet of Kalaru.  Kalaru was a small town of Bega. It's residents numbered only 400.

Nichole was physically quite different from her best friend. Nichole was shorter than Lauren and had fair skin and golden hair. She wore glasses and her smile was often hidden behind her shyness. Nonetheless the girls found their kindred spirit in each other. 

Camilleri

Leslie Alfred Camilleri was born in May 1969 in Liverpool, a south-western suburb of Sydney, NSW, where crime and unemployment were high. So it was quite natural that Camilleri would follow others into a life of crime.

By the time he was twelve-years-old he was in trouble with the police and brought before the juvenile courts. His first appearance in Minda Children's court was for breaking and entering and stealing. He was not deterred by his arrest and continued to steal for the next several years adding several more criminal offences to his record including theft, motor vehicle offences, carrying a weapon, possession and absconding.

In 1986, Camilleri decided to illegally leave NSW while on a good behaviour bond and headed to Queensland to start fresh, attempting to leave his criminal record behind him. However he was not in Queensland long before he was again in front of the court.

In 1989 he was charged with a various number of offences including 15 motor vehicle thefts, eight break and enters and 92 counts of stealing. He was a compulsive thief who stole everything he could. For the accumulation of crimes he was sentenced to three year in prison

When Camilleri was released from prison he met and moved in with Helen Souvlis and her nine-year-old daughter. The relationship had only been going for four months when Camilleri decided to move back to NSW. He travelled to the small country town of Binnalong near Yass. Helen and her daughter followed Camilleri and soon the couple were together again. By March 1994 Helen gave birth to Camilleri’s daughter Jade and the family soon moved to a bigger house in the town of Yass.

In Yass, Camilleri met Lindsay Beckett who was called “Kiwi” by all who knew him. The two became friends. You could say as thick as thieves.

Beckett

Lindsay Hoani Beckett was born in March 1974 in a small New Zealand North Island town called Opotiki. According to some his father was a rapist who had raped his mother when she was 15-years-old. His mother later married a man who would drink heavily and beat and abuse her and the children.

One day his step-father stabbed Beckett in the hand when he could not find the car keys. When the family car was stolen, Beckett's step-father took his anger out on the Lindsay by beating him with an electrical cord and kicking him mercilessly into unconsciousness.

By 14 years of age, Beckett was a heavy smoker and would often turn to marijuana to block out the pain of his family life. When he was 16, he left school and fled his father’s beatings and moved to Australia to live with his mother's relatives

Beckett first lived with an uncle in Colac but was unsteady and soon began to travel along the New South Wales coast. He was sometimes caught for damaging property or assault on his travels. 

By 1992 he had began going out with a young girl called Lauralee Tatt. When she became pregnant Beckett moved in with her. The couple lived together in Griffith and over the ensuing years produced three more children.  The relationship was not a steady one. The couple often fought and Beckett would often beat his girlfriend. By 1995 the couple moved to Yass where Beckett met Les Camilleri.

Camilleri and Beckett

Together the two men were an extremely dangerous combination. Camilleri was the smarter of the two men and enjoyed the power he had over Beckett. Beckett would do whatever Camilleri told him to do like a lost puppy.

Yet Camilleri was always being charged for crimes. On 4 October 1995 he was charged with 10 counts sexual crime - including six of sexual intercourse with a child under 16 and one of indecent assault - allegedly committed against an 11-year-old girl.

By the beginning of 1997 the two men began taking harder drugs. Before then they had both smoked marijuana but now they found a better thrill with amphetamines and speed. The men had been a menace before taking the harder drugs. With the drugs they were terrifying.

In April 1997 Camilleri was again in front of the court charged with receiving and being in possession of stolen goods. At the same time Beckett was suspended for driving after being stopped by police with a high-range alcohol limit as well as being charged for improper conduct and drugs found in his car.

As 1997 continues the two men appear time and time again in court for a range of charges. A charge that is later dropped, against Camilleri by a young girl who claims that he forced his way into her home and tried to rape her.

With all of the mounting charges Camilleri finds himself sentence to periodic detention. He is to attend prison every weekend for four months. His first days at Campbelltown detention centre were September 5 and 6, 1997. He hated doing the weekend detention and changed the days to mid-week. The change did not mean much to Camilleri he rarely turned up anyway.

The sexual abuse case was heard on Monday 8 September 1997 before Judge Frederick Kirkham in the Queanbeyan District Court. The child gave evidence that over a period of 12 months he had molested and penetrated her a number of times. Once, she said, he made her perform oral sex on him. ``He was counting while I sucked him and every time my tooth touched it he said I had to do those ones again,'' she claimed. The trial was aborted due to a speech made by the Police Minister about child abuse in the media.

Camilleri was free to enjoy himself again. With Beckett, Camilleri decided they should go for a drive to Canberra.

Rosamari Gandarias

On Saturday night, 13 September 1997, the two men found themselves at Garema Place, it is a junkies' hangout in Canberra. There they met a young woman called Rosamari Gandarias. She was nineteen years old but looked several years younger. Camilleri introduced himself as Les and asked her if she would mind doing the speed injection for him and his mate "Kiwi" neither of them really knew how to do injections. Les told Rosamari the drugs were in the car and would she mind coming out to the car to do it, perhaps even go for a drive. She felt that the two men were paranoid about being there with the drugs and she went with them when they drove to Canberra Showground. When she had finished doing the drugs for the men, she asked to be taken back to Garema Place. But the men ignored her request and drove away towards Yass.

 As Beckett drove the car, Camilleri climbed into the back of the car with the woman. The ordeal was only beginning. Camilleri looked at the woman and told her "We're going to fuck you now" The young Rosamari replied that she did not want to have sex with him. Then he pulled out a 10-centimetre folding knife, like a pig-hunting knife, and there was no more arguing.

 For the next twelve hours Rosamari was held captive by the two men who took turns in orally, vaginally and anally raping the woman. Camilleri who would threaten to tie her up if she did not comply with their demands repeatedly bashed her around the head.

 "If you don't do as you're told we'll drag you behind the car"

 He said Camilleri forced her to perform oral sex.

 "Do it properly don't use your teeth."

 Camilleri would tell Lauren the same thing during her ordeal.

 Beckett continued to drive the car towards Sydney at each stop the men raped the woman. At a rest area off the Highway near Bowral, Rosamari told her captors that she needed to use the toilet. They unassumingly let her go alone. Rosamari saw her opportunity and fled for her life. She ran into the nearby bushes only wearing a t-shirt and shoes. The branches tore at her body but she continued to run. The men spotted her running and gave chase.

 Rosamari hid in a large wombat warren as the men ran past her. Once they were out of sight, Rosamari came out of her hiding spot and ran to a farmhouse where she raised the alarm. According to Beckett Camilleri had planned to kill the woman when they were finished with her. The plan was to drop her off a bridge. The police were called to the farmhouse, but Rosamari did not want to make a statement especially after the two men had arrived at the scene with their own version of events. They claimed that the sex was consensual and was in return for drugs.

 She was lucky to escape with her life. With Rosamari not making a formal statement the men escaped any retribution. Had the incident been pursued, Lauren and Nichole may still be alive.

 The events unfold

On Friday October 3, 1997 Nichole's father helped the two girls set up a tent and other camping equipment at White Rock, near Tathra Bega Road. It was a popular camping ground and the girls often enjoyed camping out on their own and aware from the parents. They were normal teenagers who enjoyed the freedom.

 It was the start of the school holidays and the perfect time for a party. There were parties happening all over Bega in conjunction with the Music Festival. So Nichole and Lauren thought it would be good to combine Lauren's birthday party with all of the merriment.

 The first day, Friday was spent horse-riding. The girls had camped her often. They would head home occasionally to wash and get fresh clothes. Their parents dropped in to check on them. They went horse riding or swimming down at Macarthur, rode down to Boulder Bay, but mainly kept to the camp, listening to music, talking, reading magazines with their friends Sarah Darcy, Malcolm Denning and Damien Brown and, off and on, Lauren's brother Nathan and a friend from Sydney, Todd Hadenham.

The next morning, Saturday October 4, the two girls enjoyed more of the same before Lauren rode home to wish her mother a happy birthday. The trip to and from the campsite was not far and Lauren did it in no time.

Lauren ate birthday cake with her family and another school friend Rebecca Kemble before kissing her family goodbye and heading back to the party at the camping ground.

When she arrived back at the camp, Lauren found Nichole in a reflective mood. Though she felt she still loved her boyfriend Andrew Irving she thought maybe the time was not right and wanted to break off the relationship with him. Nichole chatted with Lauren about Andrew but decided to stay to celebrate her friends coming 15th birthday.

October 5, 1997

Camilleri decided that he and Beckett should leave the area and decided to drive to Rose's new house in Bega. They used the same banged up old Ford Telstar for the drive that they used to abduct Rosamari. The car's back doors did not open from the inside and the two men always kept various knives in the car. The car had been stolen from Andrew Smart, a friend on Camilleri's who had owed him money. Camilleri also took the man's pink portable colour TV and a cheque book.

About 10am on Sunday October 5, 1997, Beckett cashed a cheque made out to him in the name of A.J. Smart for $44 and bought a bottle of Bundaberg rum and a slab of VB stubbies at the Monaro Pub in Cooma. The manager had a bad feeling about the man and watched him walk to a car and took down the number QUX-928. There was a taller, blond-haired man sitting in the driver's seat of the car.

The men then took the alcohol back to Helen Souvlis' house and began drinking and doing drugs. By 8pm that evening Helen threw the men out when she got sick and tired of their lazy and abusive ways.

So the two men left the house in the car and went driving around Bega. They continued to drink and inject each other with "speed".

Nichole was still thinking about Andrew late on Sunday evening and decided maybe she should go and talk to him about their relationship. She knew he would be at a party at the nearby suburb of Jellat Jellat 8kms away.

She left the camp saying she was going to sort out her life. Lauren was concerned about her friend walking that far at night on her own and decided to join her. With the two girls chatting together the trip won't seem nearly as long. The two girls did not get far before a car pulled over.

 At around 10pm on the evening of October 5, 1997 the men saw two girls walking single-file along the Bega-Tathra Road. Camilleri was driving the car and Beckett was in the front passenger seat. Camilleri pointed out the two girls on the side of the road and did a u-turn, pulling up beside them.

 The men appeared friendly enough when they began to strike up a conversation with the girls. They asked them about the music festival in town and if they wanted to go down to a beach party the men knew about.

  For some unknown reason the two teenagers got into the car with the two men, Camilleri was 28 at the time, Beckett four years younger. Beckett opened the back door for the girls to get in, but had to take out the pink TV set that was in the back sat. There wasn't any room in the boot for the TV so the men decided to just leave it where they were.

 The four in the car drove to Tathra Beach and stayed a little while before the girls decided to head back to the camp. Camilleri said he would gladly drive the girls back to the site and headed along the dirt track back to White Rock. The road was quite rough and soon the rocks that the car was throwing up banged out the bottom of the car. Camilleri stopped the car and in his frustration at the damage began to yell at the girls.

 Camilleri produced a knife he had secreted into the car's door and told the girls, `Just shut up and don't say a word. He looked at Beckett and told him to get out his knife as well. The girls sat frozen. The fear obvious on their faces.

 Camilleri reversed the car out along the dirt-track and turned left driving towards Kalaru. He continued driving along Old Wallagoot Road and towards the Sapphire Coast Highway. The men spotted a small clearing and Camilleri parked the car.

 Beckett grabbed Lauren and got her out of the car. The frightened girl complied with the man's demand of taking off her pants and underwear. Lauren tried to prevent the man from having sex with her by telling him that she currently was having her periods (menstruation) and that she was virgin. The reasons she gave did nothing to stop Beckett raping the young woman. Lauren cried in pain and fear as Beckett continued to rape her for half an hour before ejaculating inside her.

 While Beckett was raping Lauren, Camilleri was inflicting a similar assault on Nichole.

 Camilleri and Beckett forced both of the girls back into the back seat of the car and drove away. The car headed along Old Wallagoot Road past Merimbula and along the Princes Highway towards Eden.  Just before the entrance to Eden Camilleri turned the car into the Ben Boyd National Park. Camilleri told Beckett he wanted to have sex with Lauren this time.

  With Lauren in tow, Camilleri walked away from the car and into the night. He tried to rape Lauren but her vagina was "too tight" for him to be able to penetrate her. Beckett orally raped Nichole while Camilleri and Lauren were away.

 Beckett admitted that the two girls were too scared to even attempt to fight. The knives the men had and the threats they told the girls kept them compliant.

  After the sexual assaults were finished, the four people got back and in the car and Camilleri drove into Eden. They continued to a U-turn bay where again the car was stopped and the girls were forced to perform sexual acts for the men. This time Beckett made Nichole fellate him while he sat in the front of the car. Camilleri got out of the car and stood up with Lauren kneeling down in front of him. He kept telling the fourteen year old girl to suck his penis and not to let her teeth touch him in any way. Any time he felt her teeth touch his penis he would belt her very hard across the held. Lauren would yelp in pain but she was forced to continue.

 Beckett finally stopped making Nichole suck his penis when he failed to maintain an erection. Camilleri soon stopped as well and the girls were forced into back seat of the car once more as the men continued to travel south.

 Soon the car was driving into Victoria, Camilleri had fallen asleep during the trip and woke up to find them heading towards Orbost.  As they continued the trip, Camilleri had Lauren perform fellatio, by sitting on the floor of the car in front of him.

 The car was pulled off the main highway and onto a secluded area. Camilleri was upset that he was unable to penetrate Lauren earlier and wanted to find a spot where he could try again.

 Beckett spotted a property with a giant green gate. The gate was opened and the men drove through. It was still dark and dawn was still a while away. Camilleri told Beckett to stop the car at a clearing and got out, forcing Lauren from the car as well. Camilleri dug around and grabbed a piece of cardboard from a case of bear and put it on the ground as a marker. He told Beckett to go further and have sex with Nichole and when he returned the cardboard make-shift marker would show Beckett where to stop.

 Both of the girls again are repeatedly raped by their attackers. According to Beckett both of the girls were "shocked...frightened" to say the least.

 Beckett returns the car to the spot where the cardboard is and waits for Camilleri and Lauren to return. When they do, Camilleri is shirtless. Lauren has on his t-shirt.

 Dawn soon came, the girls had been held captive for over 9 hours and were tired, scared and injured. They both had severe lacerations around their heads and vaginas. They were continuously hit by Camilleri if they did not please him.

 The girls and their captor returned to the car and again they headed towards Orbost along the Princes Highway. Camilleri again fell asleep and when he woke he was extremely agitated that they were in Victoria. He had plans to throw the girls off a bridge along the highway towards Sydney

 The men began to whisper together. They had to plan what they were going to do with the girls. Camilleri said that the girls could not be allowed to live. They would be able to identify their attackers.

 Beckett sees a secluded road and turns off the highway. Lauren, almost in a catatonic state with fear asks the men if they were going to kill them. Camilleri assure her that they just wanted to tie them up so the men could get a head start and go into hiding. But Camilleri knew he was not going to let the girls live.

 At 8am on October 6, 1997 Beckett stopped the car near Fiddlers Green Creek in Victoria. The girls's hands were tied with rope from the car and they were both dragged by their captors through the brush to the creek.

 Camilleri told Beckett to untie Nichole and then demanded that she get into the water and wash her vagina. Nichole was tired and abused Camilleri for the way he had treated them. Camilleri again produced his knife and told her to "get the fuck in there" and wash out her vagina. She said she was cold in the water but she had to remain their until Camilleri was satisfied that she had done a decent job. She was then told to get dressed again.

 Lauren was untied and told to do the same thing. She again asked if they were about to die and Camilleri assured her that they had planned to let the girls go once the evidence was washed away.

 Once Lauren was dressed her hands were tied together again and both of the girls were told to lie down on their stomachs. Camilleri had brought rope with him from the car. He hog-tied Nichole so she was unable to move and was tied in a crumpled ball. Lauren was taken to spot where she could no longer see Nichole and tied to a tree. Again she asked Beckett is they were about to die. Beckett ignored her question.

 Beckett returned to where Camilleri was standing and asked him what they were going to do next. Camilleri told Beckett to kill the girls. Beckett baulked at the command until Camilleri produced his knife again and said if he didn't he kill him.

 Beckett decided it was the girls' lives or his own. He chose to save his own. He went to where Lauren was lying on the ground still hog-tied. She could not move at all. Beckett grabbed the girl and dragged her to the water's edge. In his confession to police Beckett calmly describes the murders.

 "I held her head under the water. She was struggling and she knocked me into the water. One of my knees went into the water. This pissed me off a little bit and I opened my knife I stabbed Lauren in the left side of the neck After a couple of seconds after I stabbed her she stopped moving After I stabbed Lauren, I ran up the bank to where I tied Nichole up I walked around to her left side and I cut her throat two or three times. After this she just started thrashing around on the ground she was trying to scream but nothing was coming out I kicked her and put my foot on her to keep her still. This didn't work so I stabbed her in the throat. I aimed and stabbed at the hard thing (her windpipe) in her neck. I pushed the knife all the way in but she still wouldn't keep still so I worked out where her heart would be and I stabbed her on the left side of the chest. She still didn't stop moving so I stabbed her in the front of the chest. I was aiming for her heart. I needed two hands to get the through her chest (plate). She kept moving so I kicked her in the head a couple of time. She still kept moving but she was slowing down. I waited until she stopped moving which didn't take long."

 Beckett then removed all of the girls' ropes and walked back to the car where Camilleri was waiting.

 The men got into the car and drove away. Over the next few days they burned the clothes they were wearing and the clothes taken from the girls. They threw their knives in to Lake Burley Griffin, one was later recovered. They scrubbed the car to remove any traces of the girls being in the car. The men then returned to Yass and their respective partners before travelling on to Sydney.

 On October 28, 1997 Camilleri was finally arrested for breach of his periodic detention and remanded into custody.

 On November 5, 1997 Beckett was formally asked about his knowledge of the suspected abduction of Nichole and Lauren. At first the 24 year old denied any knowledge of the girls. A week later when interviewed again, Beckett gave a detailed confession about his part in the girls' abduction and subsequent murders and also details about his partner in the crimes.

Beckett also told police where they would find the bodies of the missing girls.

 Finally the girl's decomposing bodies were located. It was 10pm on Wednesday November 12, 1997.  It had been a long six weeks wait for their grieving parents.

 On November 15 Beckett was extradited to Victoria to face formal charges regarding the girls' murders.

 With Beckett's confession Camilleri was also extradited to Victoria to face formal charges of murder.

 The girls had simply vanished into thin air.

 On October 27, 1997 Beckett was arrested by the Federal Police for unrelated matters of theft. During the search of the stolen car he was driving a map of Bega was found. The officers decided it may be worth forwarding the information onto the local authorities looking for Lauren and Nichole.

 The arrest of the men, the girls are located

By this time the girls had been reported missing. The never arrived at the party and so the alarm was raised quickly. The girls' families, friends, the polie and the State Emergency Services all were out searching for the girls. For weeks the families held a vigil hoping for the safe return of their daughters but had feared the worst.

 The most amazing part in most murder cases is the lack of a voice for the victim. In this case Justice Vincent echoes these sentiments:

  "there is silence concerning what your young victims may have said or done or how they felt during the hours of their captivity. It is, as I have earlier commented, a terrible silence, filled with nightmarish images of terror, tears, and death for their parents, family members, friends as well as for thousands upon thousands of members of the wider community who look at their own children, sense the pain of those close to the girls, and wonder how they personally could endure such an event."

  Beckett and Camilleri are Sentenced

On June 26, 1998 at his arraignment Beckett pleaded guilty to the murders of the two girls.

 At his sentencing on August 20, 1998 Justice Vincent stated:

 "Lindsay Hoani Beckett, you have pleaded guilty to the murder at Fiddlers Green Creek in the State of Victoria on or about 6 October 1997 of two young persons named Lauren Margaret Barry and Nichole Emma Collins You represent the dark in which our women and children fearfully walk"

 With those words Justice Vincent sentenced Beckett to two life sentences in prison. For being so co-operative with police by confessing and informing on Camilleri, the judge set a non-parole period of no less than thirty-five years.  The longest non-parole period yet set.

 It was not the maximum penalty available, however Beckett was not to be released from prison for a long time.

 When the judge handed down a life sentence, with a minimum 35 years, Nichole's mother, Mrs Delma Collins, jumped from her seat in the gallery and shouted: "Yes."

Lauren's mother, Ms Cheryl Barry, said to Beckett as he was led away: "I hope you rot in hell.''

On Friday April 9, 1999 after deliberating for seven hours after a seven-week trial found 29-year-old Camilleri guilty of murdering the girls. As the verdicts of guilty of murder for both of the girls were read out to the court, Camilleri yawned. Completely disinterested and feeling no remorse for his crimes.  

Camilleri was given the maximum sentence available in Australia, life in prison with no possibility of release on parole.

Bibliography

R v Beckett [1988]

R v Camilleri [1999]

A verbal interview with officers from the case and perusal of the case files.

By Korey Sifuentes.
Copyright © 1999 by [The Crime Web]. All rights reserved.
Original Written: 12 April, 1999

Revised: 24 Feb 2002 18:18:45 -0800 .