Valmae Beck

Name

Valmae Beck

Status

Valmae Beck was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non parole period of 14 years in 1988. She died on 27 May 2008.

Background

Sian Kingi (16 December 1974 – 27 November 1987) was a 12-year-old New Zealand girl of Māori descent who was abducted, raped and killed in Noosa, Queensland, in 1987.

Barrie Watts and Valmae Beck were convicted in 1988 of the much-publicised crime, and were each sentenced to life imprisonment.

Barrie Watts was later tried in 1995 for the murder of Helen Mary Feeney, who was last seen alive one month before the murder of Kingi. Watts was convicted and sentenced to 14 years jail for manslaughter.

Beck had six children from a previous relationship before marrying Watts. In 2007 it was reported that Beck had legally changed her name to Fay Cramb.

Beck divorced Watts in 1990 saying she regretted everything she had ever done with him.

The offence

Kingi was riding her bicycle near Pinnaroo Park when Beck lured her into some nearby bushes. Beck said she was looking for her poodle and requested the girl's help.

Watts then grabbed Kingi from behind and forced her into a car where she was bound and driven 12 km to Tinbeerwah forest.

Kingi was raped by Watts before being stabbed and strangled.

Kingi’s body was dumped in a nearby creek bed and was located six days later.

During the events described, Watts placed a bedspread on the bank and his hour’s defilement crushed the grass beneath; heavy rain had made the creek bed run and all the grass on the bank was turned downstream, except for the bedspread square.

Investigation

Police began their search and investigation.

At 8.40pm, after walking into Noosa Heads police station with a photo of Sian, Detectives were involved in the case, with Detective-Sergeant Bob Atkinson serving as the senior of Noosa’s two detectives.

Detective-Sergeant Bob Atkinson rang his superior, Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Magnussen, and began a log.

Sian’s logbook status changed from MP to The Deceased.

Sian’s disappearance attracted 700 leads, each entered into computers and printed each morning for detectives to collect.

A lead developed from a report about a white Holden station wagon seen in the parking bay at Pinnaroo Park, with descriptions of its accessories varying.

Detective 1st Class Constable Graham Hall of Ipswich CIB followed a lead using number plate information, and the plate LLE 429 was eventually linked to the pair.

Sergeant Atkinson saw heavy rain washing away possible clues in the Tinbeerwah forest.

On the evening of Wednesday, December 2, Neil Clarke, 18, a fruit picker of Coveys Road, Tinbeerwah, noticed a strange odour as he walked home through the State forest. After seeing the news of Sian’s disappearance on television, he remembered: "That might be a body." At 8.50 the next morning he drove back, crept off the track a few metres and found Sian’s body.

Sian’s body lay on the bank of a shallow sandy creek. Her blue and white, vertical-striped school dress was pulled over her waist, and her pants lay nearby. Her green nylon school backpack was in the bush 10 metres off.

A pathology examination found two massive cuts to her throat, one through to the spine, a fierce, fatal injury. She had 12 stab wounds in the chest, three of which pierced her heart, each a fatal wound by itself.

Arrest

Watts and Beck hurriedly packed a few clothes and headed for Melbourne to sell the car. They maintained the house lease, hoping to return to Lowood when events cooled.

They were arrested at The Entrance.

Trial

Watts and Beck were extradited to Noosa Heads on Monday, December 14, returning by plane with Atkinson and Magnussen. They were entered into the Noosa Heads watch-house charge book.

Detective Sergeant Richard Nikola, Dallow’s offsider in the murder room, obtained a warrant from a Supreme Court judge to electronically bug the cells at Noosa to tape incriminating conversations between the pair.

Beck’s record of interview opened at 10.30pm and did not finish until 7.33 the next morning. Atkinson was her interlocutor, Magnussen corroborated, and Dallow was in the next room proof-reading each page.

Her confession was interrupted at times when she became overwrought.

Crucial among her admissions was the location of the bundle of murder scene items, including knife, belt and masking tape with pieces of Sian’s hair attached, thrown into Six Mile Creek.

A crew went there and water police arrived. On the first dive they struck the bundle. "That was enormous evidence," said Atkinson. "Only two people on God's Earth knew where that stuff was, and she was one of them."

Back in the cells, electronic bugs picked up the pair talking.

Watts abused Beck. "No-one saw us pick her up and throw her in the car, no-one seen her in the car, no-one seen us kill her. If you hadn't confessed, they didn't have a case."

The devices taped nearly 20 hours of cell conversations, edited to four hours for Watts’s trial.

On December 15, 1987, Watts and Beck were formally charged with Sian Kingi’s murder. It was the day before Sian would have turned 13.

On April 5, hundreds of people gathered outside Noosa Heads Magistrate’s Court and shouted abuse at the van carrying Watts and Beck to the committal hearings. The crowd’s anger melted to appreciation, and the crowd rendered three rousing cheers for the police.

The court proceedings included sentencing before the Queensland Supreme Court.

Sentencing

On October 20, 1988, in the Queensland Supreme Court, Justice Kelly sentenced Beck to three years for abduction, 10 years for rape and life for murder.

On October 20, 1988, Justice Kelly sentenced Watts to three years for abduction, 15 years for rape and life for murder. The judge recommended Watts’s papers be marked "Never to be released".

Beck’s non-parole period was 14 years, and she unsuccessfully applied for parole three times.

Beck had her non-parole period extended by 18 months for assisting in the disposal of the body of Helen Feeney.

Appeals

No appeal outcome was described.

Outcome

Beck was serving a life sentence.

Aftermath

In May 2008, Beck was placed in an induced coma following heart surgery.

Police hoped to obtain a death-bed confession from her regarding three other unsolved Brisbane-area murders of young women, but she died at 6:15 pm on 27 May 2008 without regaining consciousness.

Acting Police Minister Robert Schwarten confirmed Beck had died in Townsville General Hospital without having regained consciousness. "She got a life sentence and it turned out to be that,'' Mr Schwarten said. "Right until the end, she was no assistance to police,'' he said. "Harsh as it may sound, and people may judge me on that, I don't think there will be many Queenslanders who would shed a tear in her direction and there would be some who would cheer,'' he said.

Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson, involved in investigating Beck’s part in Sian Kingi’s murder, was expected to give a statement on Beck’s death.

A Queensland Corrective Services Department spokesman said Beck had been semi-conscious' in her final days but was in an incoherent state and not responding to verbal stimulus'. The exact cause of her death was not yet known, he said.

Detectives were at Beck’s bedside hoping she held the key to the disappearance of Brisbane shop assistant Sharron Phillips and to that of Helen Mary Feeney, who was last seen in October 1987, as well as several unsolved interstate cases involving missing "petite blonde virgins".

Beck had testified that Watts had dumped Ms Feeney’s body and burned it at a rubbish tip near Lowood, west of Brisbane. Watts was later acquitted of the murder, but police believed Beck knew exactly where Ms Feeney’s body was buried.

Other details

Beck and Watts were described as having met in Perth in 1983 and married in December 1986.

Watts was described as part Aboriginal, and as having been 35. Beck was described as 45 in the account.

In the described sequence of events, Beck used scissors to cut the tape from Sian’s mouth being careful not to cut Sian’s hair, and then cut Sian’s underpants away with a knife.

The account stated: "At no stage did Sian cry."

The account included reporting about police inquiries before the kidnapping.

"Frankly if there is any opportunity at all for Valmae Beck to put other families out of their distress, then I think she has got an obligation to pass that on," Ms Bligh said.

The Premier also stated: "Whether it is Valmae Beck or any other prisoner, when people turn up sick in our hospitals doctors have a duty to treat them,'' Ms Bligh said.

Liberal Senator George Brandis stated: "We don't want to live in a brutal society," he said.

Detective-Sergeant Bob Atkinson was quoted saying: "I would have thought that 5.30 in the afternoon in Noosa in summer would have been one of the safest places in Australia for a kiddie to be."

A mother of Sian, Lynda Kingi, was described as walking across nearby Pinnaroo Park.

The record included the quote from Detective-Sergeant Bob Atkinson: "You never get used to something like that," said Atkinson.

The record included the quote from Dallow: "I've never heard that happen before and I may never again. There were a few damp eyes after that."

The record included the quote: "I think we all understood that Sian's murder was like a bloody roulette wheel. She could have been anybody's child, could have been yours, could have been mine, it was just fate."

Beck’s confession quotations in the narrative included: "She was frightened, very frightened but she never cried, never shed one tear, a very brave little girl, she never uttered a peep."

Beck’s quotation also included: "Can't we just leave her and go?"

Watts’s quoted response included: "Don't be so f---ing stupid; I can't trust her not to give me up."

Kingi’s described utterance included: "You're hurting me."

Beck’s quotation included: "I'll never forget those sounds as long as I live."

Watts was quoted as saying: "It's all finished now, it's all over."