The Stranger, inspired by the manhunt for Daniel Morcombe s killer will still be shown at the Melbourne Film Festival despite the victim s parents publicly condemning the movie.
Australia has a long history of children disappearing in mysterious circumstances but for high-profile cases such as Cleo s this ending seems unprecedented, writes STEPHEN GIBBS.
Disturbing CCTV footage shows a gray haired man spraying graffiti over a banner on the Sunshine Coast promoting a charity walk for murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe.
Killer who raped, abducted and murdered a school girl has applied for parole
Barrie Watts killed 12-year-old Sian Kingi on Sunshine Coast on November 1987
Sian s young school friends are begging the government to dismiss his request
They say Watts stripped them of their innocence when he murdered Kingi
Local authorities and Sian s family have expressed outrage at the killer s plea
The killer who abducted, raped and murdered a 12-year-old girl in a sickening crime that shocked Australia nearly 35 years ago has made a plea for freedom.
Barrie Watts brutally killed young school girl Sian Kingi on the Sunshine Coast on November 27, 1987 with the help of his then-wife and mother-of-six Valmae Beck.
The pair lured 12-year-old Sian to help look for a white poodle with a pink bow before Watts abducted her into the backseat of a Holden Kingswood station wagon.
After gagging Sian and driving her to a remote forest, Watts performed a fantasy he shared with Beck by repeatedly sexually assaulting Sian before strangling and stabbing her.