1978 Hilton bombing
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The Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing occurred on 13 February 1978, when a
bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...
exploded outside the Hilton Hotel in George Street, Sydney, Australia. At the time the hotel was hosting the first
Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM; or) is a biennial summit meeting of the governmental leaders from all Commonwealth nations. Despite the name, the head of state may be present in the meeting instead of the head of gov ...
(CHOGRM), a regional offshoot of the biennial meetings of the heads of government from across the Commonwealth of Nations. The bomb was planted in a rubbish bin and exploded when the bin was emptied into a garbage truck outside the hotel at 12:40 a.m. It killed two men, Alec Carter and William Favell, the garbage collectors who picked up the bin. A police officer guarding the entrance to the hotel lounge, Paul Burmistriw, died later. It also injured eleven others. Twelve foreign leaders were staying in the hotel at the time, but none were injured. Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser immediately called out the Australian Army for the remainder of the CHOGRM meeting. The Hilton case has been highly controversial due to allegations that Australian security forces, such as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), may have been responsible. This led to the
Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Eac ...
unanimously calling for the Commonwealth to hold an inquiry in 1991 and 1995. The Hilton bombing was described in Parliament as the first and only domestic terrorist event in Australia. Prior to the bombing the security forces had been under considerable pressure. In South Australia, the White inquiry into their police special branch was very critical, and ties with ASIO were cut. New South Wales was about to have a similar inquiry. After the bombing, the NSW inquiry was never held, and the Commonwealth increased support for the anti-terrorism activities of the intelligence services. An index can be found a

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Accusations of conspiracy

It has been asserted that there were a number of unusual circumstances, namely: * At the 1983 Walsh Coronial Inquest it was stated by Terry Griffiths and others that there was a continuous police presence outside the building since the previous morning. This may have prevented anyone placing a large bomb into the rubbish bin while the police were there. * The ABC documentary ''Conspiracy'' showed the driver of the garbage truck, Bill Ebb, claiming that the bins would normally be emptied several times each day, but police had prevented three earlier trucks from emptying the bin that contained the bomb even though it was overflowing with rubbish. * John Hatton (politician), John Hatton said in parliament that the garbage bin had not been searched for bombs and that searching bins is normally a high priority, and is specified in New South Wales police permanent circular 135. From 23:09 * Army dog handler Keith Burley said that his dogs could smell very small quantities of explosives, and were expected to be used for the event. Burley said they were unexpectedly called off a few days prior without explanation. * The entire truck and all bomb fragments were dumped immediately afterwards at an unrecorded location. This prevented forensic evidence, such as the type of explosive used, from being gathered. (Hatton compared that to the detailed evidence retrieved from the
Pan Am Flight 103 Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boeing ...
that exploded at 30,000 feet.) * In 1983, William Reeve-Parker provided a statutory declaration that an army officer had admitted planting the bomb by switching rubbish bins 24 hours earlier. Reeve-Parker denied knowledge of who the officer was, although he "had helped his son". Reeve-Parker was never called as a witness at the coronial inquest. * The officer-in-charge of police immediately after the bombing, Inspector Ian MacDonald, claimed there had been a cover-up. * In 1995,
Andrew Tink Andrew Arnold Tink AM (born 13 July 1953) is a former Australian politician, having served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the Liberal Party from 1988 to 2007. He was in the shadow cabinet from 1995 until March 2006 ...
said that it had been alleged former
Attorney General of New South Wales The Attorney General of New South Wales, in formal contexts also Attorney-General or Attorney General for New South Wales and usually known simply as the Attorney General, is a minister in the Government of New South Wales who has responsibil ...
Frank Walker and Federal Government Senator Gareth Evans had been told by a
CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...
scientist that under pressure from ASIO they had made two fake bombs in the week prior to the bombing. The bombs were designed not to explode but could do so in a garbage truck compactor. * The principal private secretary of a federal senator was told that the bomb squad was waiting nearby at this early hour of the morning. Barry Hall QC said that this would make it hard to claim that they were not involved. The government would not permit people from the bomb squad to be called as witnesses to the inquest. * Sgt Horton stated that he saw an occurrence pad entry that showed the warning call was received at 12:32, 8 minutes before the bomb exploded. It was not relayed instantly to the police out front. At the inquest four other versions of this pad were shown, each timing the call at 12:40. Many of these issues were identified by Terry Griffiths, a former policeman who was seriously injured in the bombing, who had called for an inquiry. Peter Collins, NSW Attorney General 1991–1992, said "The Hilton Bombing is a history of half truths, a litany of lies". Barry Hall QC, counsel for Griffiths, argued that ASIO may well have planted the bomb in order to justify their existence. The 1982 Walsh inquest had been terminated prematurely due to the finding of a prima facie case of murder.


Arguments against a conspiracy

The then Indian prime minister Morarji Desai claimed that
Ananda Marga Ānanda Mārga ("The Path of Bliss", also spelled Anand Marg and Ananda Marg) or officially Ānanda Mārga Pracāraka Saṃgha (organization for the propagation of the path of bliss), is a world-wide socio-spiritual organisation founded in J ...
had attempted to kill him due to the imprisonment of the organisation's spiritual leader,
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (21 May 1921 – 21 October 1990), also known by his spiritual name Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (Ánanda Múrti="Bliss Embodiment"), and known as Bábá ("Father") to his disciples, was a spiritual Guru, philosopher, so ...
. (There had been other alleged attacks by Ananda Marga, namely on 15 September 1977 the military attaché at the
Indian High Commission, Canberra Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South As ...
, Colonel Singh and his wife, were attacked in
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
. Just over a month later an Air India employee in Melbourne was stabbed.) ASIO had infiltrated the Ananda Marga from 1976 and were monitoring it. In 1998,
Ben Hills Ben Hills (1942 – 10 June 2018) was an Australian freelance journalist and author. Early life and career Hills was born in Grassington, England and migrated with his family to Australia in 1959. He worked on various regional newspapers befo ...
wrote an article called "The Hilton Fiasco", published in the ''
Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...
''. He argued that members of Ananda Marga were responsible for the Hilton bombing, saying that Evan Pederick was recruited for the bombing by Tim Anderson, while a man called Abhiik Kumar was the likely mastermind. He also asserted that ASIO had information which would have helped in the police investigation, but withheld it. In ''Who Bombed the Hilton?'' (2016), film-maker
Rachel Landers Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her ...
addressed the accusation that the bins outside the Hilton were left unemptied, with a bomb secreted inside one of them, as part of a conspiracy by Australian police or security agencies. Landers asserts: "An enormous number of people are free to shove any number of objects (including an enormous placard) into the bin, lean on it or use it as a convenient seat over a very long period of time. For the conspiracists to be correct, the following have to be lying in their statements: seven garbage men (including a street sweeper), an accountant, two hippies, a sign-writer, a father of two out for the day with his kids, an anarchist and the Hilton commissionaire. They also have to be colluding with each other, the police who have been told to wave away garbage trucks and, one assumes, ASIO and their mates at Special Branch." Landers also draws attention to the activities of Abhiik Kumar. She maintains that Kumar had been in almost every country where there was a threat, an attack or cases of Margis being arrested for violence against an Indian national. This included Kumar being in Sydney the day before the Hilton bombing. In ''The Hilton Bombing: Evan Pederick and the Ananda Marga'' (2019),
Imre Salusinszky Imre Salusinszky (born 1955) is an Australian journalist, political adviser and English literature academic who is currently media adviser to former Australian Government Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, P ...
argued that "not a single shred of evidence has emerged to support any of the conspiracy theories about the Hilton bombing." He said "the official cover-up, if indeed there is one, has remained tight as a drum". Salusinszky gives a detailed account of Pederick's involvement in AM activities. This included planting the bomb outside the Hilton and then going to Brisbane on the same day. He also covers in detail Pederick's decision to confess to a Catholic priest after eleven years of guilt and torment.


Trials and Investigations

A few days after the bombing, Richard Seary offered his services to the police Special Branch as an informant. He expressed the view that the
Ananda Marga Ānanda Mārga ("The Path of Bliss", also spelled Anand Marg and Ananda Marg) or officially Ānanda Mārga Pracāraka Saṃgha (organization for the propagation of the path of bliss), is a world-wide socio-spiritual organisation founded in J ...
society might be involved with the Hilton bombing; he soon infiltrated that organization, which had its headquarters in three adjacent houses in Queen Street, Newtown. On 15 June, Seary told Special Branch that members of Ananda Marga intended to bomb the home of Robert Cameron, a member of the far-right National Front of Australia, that night at his home in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona. Two members of the society — Ross Dunn and Paul Alister — were subsequently apprehended at Yagoona in Seary's company and charged with conspiracy to murder Robert Cameron. It was alleged that Dunn and Alister had intended to plant a bomb at Cameron's home. Dunn and Alister stated that they intended only to write graffiti at Cameron's home and had no knowledge of the bomb, which they claimed had been brought by Seary. Seary having already given discredited evidence accusing Dunn and Alister at the initial Hilton bombing inquest, was considered an unreliable witness in the written judgement of the High Court in ''Alister v R'' (1984): ( 983HCA154; CLR 404; Decision dismissing application to appeal the Court of Criminal Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales decision on the Cameron conspiracy and attempted murder case.) However, there was also some police evidence, and the prosecution had strongly associated the matter with the Sydney Hilton bombing. The trial relating to the alleged plot to bomb Cameron's home began in February 1979, but the jury could not come to a verdict. A second trial was held in July and all three defendants were convicted. A coronial
inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...
into the bombing itself was eventually held in 1982. Stipendiary Magistrate Walsh found a
prima facie ''Prima facie'' (; ) is a Latin expression meaning ''at first sight'' or ''based on first impression''. The literal translation would be 'at first face' or 'at first appearance', from the feminine forms of ''primus'' ('first') and ''facies'' (' ...
case of murder against two members of
Ananda Marga Ānanda Mārga ("The Path of Bliss", also spelled Anand Marg and Ananda Marg) or officially Ānanda Mārga Pracāraka Saṃgha (organization for the propagation of the path of bliss), is a world-wide socio-spiritual organisation founded in J ...
—Ross Dunn and Paul Alister (but not Tim Anderson)—based on evidence from Richard Seary which was later discredited. Coronial inquiries are limited in their scope. No person appearing before the coroner has a right to subpoena evidence without permission from the coroner, and in this inquest Walsh rejected all applications. In 1984, the Attorney-General,
Paul Landa David Paul Landa, QC (29 May 194124 November 1984) was an Australian politician. In public life, he was called "Paul Landa". He was a Labor member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1973 to 1984, and the member for Peats in the ...
, established an inquiry to investigate the convictions of Dunn, Alister and Anderson. The inquiry was similar to a Royal Commission, and was headed by Justice Wood. Richard Seary was in England at the time and did not take part, but after the inquiry indicated that he was willing to take part. Justice Wood reconvened the inquiry and it ran through to February 1985. The result was that Justice Wood recommended the pardoning of the three, and they were released in 1985. (The inquiry did not directly cover the Hilton Bombing.) The pardoned trio received compensation from the NSW Government. Alister ploughed his compensation money into land on Bridge Creek Road near
Maleny Maleny (pronounced ''mah-lay-knee'') is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. At the , the locality of Maleny had a population of 3,959 people. Maleny was a timber town ...
, Queensland, which would become his home, and also the site of the Ananda Marga River School. According to Paul Alister's later assertions, points that emerged during the inquiry included: * Tapes of conversations between Richard Seary and his Special Branch contact showed that Seary had originally suggested that the Hare Krishna group might have been responsible for the Hilton bombing * Police ignored the Hare Krishna suggestion and told Seary to spy on Ananda Marga. * Seary infiltrated Ananda Marga one month later than he had originally stated in court * Seary knew how to obtain explosives illegally, although he had said in court that he did not * Seary had told police about the alleged Cameron bombing plan five days earlier than he originally stated * Dr Emanuel Fischer, who had done a psychiatric assessment of Seary, said he was schizoid and psychopathic * Seary's girlfriend Wendy said that Seary had told her that he had thought they were going to Robert Cameron's house to put up posters, and he had been surprised that explosives were brought along * Wendy said that Seary had not volunteered to spy on Ananda Marga but had been pressured by the police * Seary's friend Dok said that Seary had a plan to bomb an abattoir when he had been in the Hare Krishnas Paul Alister later speculated about Richard Seary's motives, saying he was a "wild card" because he seemed to have his own agenda. He stated that Seary seemed to have a mixture of motives for what he said, and seemed to dislike the police. Seary's girlfriend indicated that Seary had been pressured by the police to find evidence that incriminated the "Margiis". Alister and his colleagues speculated that perhaps Seary was being blackmailed into informing because of his former activity as a drug addict. Seary had also been present when someone had died of a drug overdose; this may have given the police leverage over him because he could be charged. In 1989, Anderson was re-arrested for the Sydney Hilton bombing, tried, convicted and sentenced to fourteen years. The crown prosecutor was
Mark Tedeschi Mark Tedeschi, (born 1952) is an Australian barrister, law professor, photographer and author. He is in private practice at Wardell Chambers in Sydney. He was formerly the Senior Crown prosecutor for New South Wales and the Head of Chambers ...
QC. However Anderson was acquitted in 1991 by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, which held that the verdicts of guilty were unsafe and unsatisfactory. Chief Justice Gleeson concluded: Instead of ordering a new trial, the Court entered a judgement of acquittal.R v Anderson (1991) 53 A Crim R 421 Pederick had confessed to the bombing and so was convicted without detailed scrutiny of his confession. However, in the Anderson appeal, Chief Justice Gleeson said Pederick's account of the bombing was "clearly unreliable". He found: "On any view of the matter, his account of the events of 12 February 1978, and in particular of the circumstances relating to his actual attempt at assassination, is clearly unreliable. He is incapable of giving a description of those events which does not involve serious error." Questions about Pederick's sanity were raised in the Anderson appeal. Gleeson criticised the trial judge's directions to the jury that Pederick must be assumed to be "sane". He described Pederick as "a witness who said that on a particular occasion he stood in George Street in Sydney and tried to blow up the Prime Minister of India, the Prime Minister of Australia, and a number of other people besides, and, when his attempt was unsuccessful, attributed its failure to the supernatural intervention of his guru". The Chief Justice added: "He seems to have been a person whose reasoning processes were somewhat unorthodox. There was a significant danger of confusing the jurors by telling them that the law presumed him to be sane". Pederick did (unsuccessfully) appeal his own conviction in 1996, the year before his release. The appeal was rejected when he produced no evidence to explain why his original confession had been false. Pederick was released after serving eight years in jail and stated: "I guess I was quite unique in the prison system in that I had to keep proving my guilt, whereas everyone else said they were innocent." The two failed prosecutions against Tim Anderson and his friends have been cited as instances of Australian miscarriages of justice, for example in Kerry Carrington's 1991 book ''Travesty! Miscarriages of Justice'' and in other law texts including notes on compensation practice. A plaque was unveiled at the site of the explosion in George Street on 13 February 2008, the 30th anniversary of the blast. The then-Premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma, commended the City of Sydney Council for restoring the memorial plaque to its original home, and said he hoped there will never be a need for another.


See also

*
List of disasters in Australia by death toll This is a list of disasters in Australia by death toll. 100 or more deaths 50 to 99 deaths 20 to 49 deaths Between 10 and 20 Gallery Image:Port arthur outside.jpg, The Port Arthur massacre claimed 35 lives in 1996 when Martin Bryan ...
*
Juanita Nielsen Juanita Joan Nielsen (; 22 April 1937 – disappeared 4 July 1975) was an Australian homicide victim, who was a newspaper owner, publisher and journalist, a model, businesswoman, urban conservationist, and heiress. She was notable for her advo ...
* , includes brief mention of police informant, Richard John Seary *


Notes


References


Sources


Books

*


Journal articles

* * * * (Search for "Hilton")


News reports and other media

* Dellora, Daryl (1995
''Conspiracy''
Produced by Film Art Doco for Australian Broadcasting Corporation, documentary (shown on '' True Stories'' series). * Reviews of Dellora (1995) ''Conspiracy'' documentary: ** Negus, George (2009
ABC George Negus
discussion with Daryl Dellora. ** Dixon, Norm (2008

"The Hilton Bombing Revisited" ** Freeman, Jane (6 February 1995) "The Hilton bombing" ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' ** Head, Mike (13 February 2008

''World Socialist'' ebsite(International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI))


Further reading

* Article questions why ASIO could not stop Ananda Marga. * * * Contains long quotations from Terry Griffiths. * * * *


External links


Richard Seary Photos and Information
from Neil Paton's web page
Collection of documents, submissions, and commentary campaigning for the exoneration of Alister, Dunn and Anderson
(1979–1984) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sydney Hilton Bombing 1970s in Sydney 1978 murders in Australia Attacks on buildings and structures in Australia Attacks on hotels in Oceania Crime in Sydney Explosions in 1978 February 1978 events in Australia Hilton Hotels & Resorts hotels Hotel bombings Improvised explosive device bombings in Australia Terrorist incidents in Australia Terrorist incidents in Australia in the 1970s Terrorist incidents in Oceania in 1978 Murder in Sydney Attacks on buildings and structures in 1978