Andrew Garforth

Overview

Andrew Peter Garforth (born August 8, 1963) was an Australian criminal. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release on parole for the abduction and murder of 9-year-old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson in Bargo, New South Wales, Australia on August 19, 1992.

Timeline

• 19 August 1992 — Ebony Simpson disembarked from her school bus and walked past a parked Mazda 808 sedan owned by Garforth.
• 21 August 1992 — Garforth directed police to the body of Ebony; he was charged in Picton Courthouse with the murder of Ebony Simpson.
• August 1992 — Garforth was attacked by fellow inmates while exercising in a locked yard.
• July 1993 — Garforth was committed to stand trial and entered a plea of guilty.
• 9 July 1993 — Garforth was sentenced to life imprisonment; Justice Peter Newman refused to fix a non-parole period and ordered that his papers were marked “never to be released”.
• October 1993 — Garforth was attacked again by fellow inmates in protective custody.
• 1993 — Garforth’s sentence was given life imprisonment without the possibility of release on parole.
• 7 December 1994 — Garforth appealed his sentence in front of the High Court of Australia.
• 1995 — Garforth lodged several claims for victims’ compensation via his lawyers, Brezniak Neil-Smith and Co., relating to alleged assaults which occurred in prison; the claims were later withdrawn after public outrage.
• 1996 — The Premier of NSW officially opened Ebony House.

The offence

On August 19, 1992, 9-year-old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson disembarked from her school bus. She walked past a parked Mazda 808 sedan owned by Andrew Garforth in Bargo, New South Wales.

Garforth abducted her, put her in the boot (trunk) of his car, and drove to a remote location near Wirrimbirra Sanctuary. He sexually assaulted her repeatedly. He bound her, and he weighted her schoolbag with rocks from the bank of the dam. He threw her into a dam, where she drowned.

Ebony was last seen getting off the bus. An eyewitness described a light-coloured Mazda near the bus stop that day. Garforth abducted Ebony and drove away after closing the boot and the hood of the car.

Investigation

Police and emergency services searched for Ebony Simpson after she went missing. A team of over 200 volunteers and 100 police searched for her, including her killer.

Arrest and confession

Garforth was detained after police spotted a car matching the description given to them. Garforth was behind the wheel and matched the physical description, including being about 177cm tall with shoulder-length dirty blonde-brown hair and being quite thin and wearing black clothes.

Garforth told police he had abducted Ebony and had taken her to the dam where he assumed she drowned.

At 12.45am on Friday 21 August 1992, Garforth directed police to the body of Ebony. Police charged him in Picton Courthouse with the murder of Ebony Simpson later that same day.

During police questioning and during court sessions, Garforth showed no remorse for his actions.

Garforth made the following statement to police:

“(She) shouted help I walked away. When I left her she was trying to get back to the bank I believed she could have possibly drowned or maybe made it to the bank.”

Trial

Garforth entered a plea of guilty. The plea meant that the Simpson family was spared the added grief of a long and dragged out high profile trial.

Garforth was committed to stand trial in July 1993 only a few days before the trial was to begin.

Sentencing

Garforth’s sentencing was handed down on July 9, 1993.

Justice Peter Newman refused to fix a non-parole period and ordered that his papers were to be marked “ never to be released ”. Garforth was sentenced to life imprisonment, “never to be released”.

Justice Peter Newman stated:

“Fall squarely into the category of the worst type of case, (his) comments about what he expected the girl to do after he threw her, tied up, in the dam, was chilling in the extreme the indifference to the fate of his victim by the prisoner would appal any civilised human being his intention was not to cause grievous bodily harm his intention was to kill”

Garforth was given life imprisonment with no parole date.

Appeals

On 7 December 1994, Garforth appealed his sentence in front of the High Court of Australia. He argued that he was young at age 29 when he killed Ebony, meaning he would spend an estimated 42 years behind bars.

The defence also claimed:

“there was no finding that this applicant would remain dangerous for the rest of his life, there was no finding that he was beyond reform and this was not a case involving mass murder.”

The appeal was dismissed.

Garforth appealed to the High Court of Australia after his sentence, but he was refused special leave.

Outcome

Garforth was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release on parole in 1993, and his papers were marked “ never to be released ”.

Prison

While in prison, Garforth was attacked by fellow inmates in August 1992 while exercising in a locked yard. He was meant to alone at the time, but was somehow attacked.

Before too long, in October 1993, fellow inmates again attacked Garforth in protective custody.

Victims’ compensation claims

In 1995, Garforth lodged several claims for victims’ compensation via his lawyers, Brezniak Neil-Smith and Co., relating to alleged assaults which occurred in prison. The claims were later withdrawn after public outrage.

Other matters

Andrew Peter Garforth was also suspected of the unsolved 1979 murder of West Australian teenager Felicia Marie Wilson, 19, of Kwinana, Perth.

Felicia Marie Wilson was stripped naked and slashed before her killer smashed her skull with a 27 kg block of limestone as she walked home from work at the Kwinana Community Health Centre about 4.30pm on January 10, 1979.

A manhunt went cold until the early 1990s when WA detectives received information from NSW police about a man who reportedly had nightmares about Miss Wilson. By 1994, NSW police had further information linking Garforth, who lived in the area at the time, to Miss Wilson’s death. The investigation was ongoing.

Other details

The Simpson family included mother Christine, father Peter, and Ebony’s two older brothers Zackery and Tasman. Christine Simpson was unable to function for months after Ebony’s death.

Gary and Grace Lynch offered the Simpson family counselling coming from a family that had been through a similar heart-rending situation after the murder of Anita Cobby. Over time, the families combined forces and formed the Homicide Victims Support Group.

In 1996, the Premier of NSW officially opened Ebony House, described as a house where families of victims such as the international families of the Belanglo Forest Serial Murders were able to stay while attending court.