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He was violent and controlling. She knew he was a killer

Paul Wilkinson fabricated death threats against his wife and child to get them out of the house while he was having an affair. Michael Duffy reports on the case of a master manipulator in the May 29, 2009 issue of the Sydney Morning Herald. [REDWatch is carrying this media article as Paul Wilkinson provided evidence regarding the death of TJ Hicky and Redfern Police to the 2004 Inquiry into Redfern Waterloo].

Julie Thurecht knew her husband was a killer. But fearing for her life, she hid her knowledge from him during the 2½ years it took before the police finally arrested him for the murder of his pregnant lover.

Last Friday Thurecht's husband, Paul Wilkinson, was sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in jail for the murder of Kylie Labouchardiere, and for setting fire to his house to confuse the subsequent three-year investigation.

Julie Thurecht, aware of his guilt for much of that time, said she was not alone in fearing for her life. "I think the police were scared too," she said, "that we'd have an argument and I'd end up six foot under."

Thurecht's stormy relationship with Wilkinson, an Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer at Redfern, began when she was a trainee at the Police Academy. He convinced her to abandon her ambition, because if she became a police officer, "I'd have more power than him at home."

Thurecht says Wilkinson was controlling but also very charming and funny. He seemed to have a good relationship with his colleagues; many officers from Redfern were at their wedding in early 2003.

In November of that year Thurecht gave birth, and when she was discharged from hospital, Wilkinson took her to her parents' home and insisted she stay there for much of the next five months. He said their lives were in danger for various reasons connected with his work. In the February, when the death of Thomas "T. J." Hickey, whom he claimed was a relative, sparked the Redfern riots, he said they were at risk because of what he knew about the real cause of Hickey's death.

Wilkinson went to considerable lengths to support these claims, producing threatening letters he said had been placed under his car's windscreen wiper at work or put in the letterbox. Police later determined these had been written by Kylie Labouchardiere. When Thurecht insisted on coming home, she found one of her child's teddy bears pinned to a wall with a sharp knife through its throat. Nearby were the words "bye bye baby" and the child's name.

The threats stopped in late April 2004. Later that year, when detectives interviewed Thurecht, she learnt that this was when Labouchardiere had been killed. Wilkinson had been having an affair with her and the death threats had been a ruse to get his wife out of the house.

Thurecht separated from Wilkinson in January 2005 but continued to see him from time to time. In May 2006 he drove her to the Royal National Park to show her the place where, he claimed, Labouchardiere had been killed by a policeman named Geoff Lowe and buried.

"The police told me I had to act completely normal around Paul," she said. "If I'd suddenly backed off and stopped seeing him, he would have woken up."

Thurecht passed on information to detectives during this time.

Reflecting on her marriage, she said: "In the beginning he was loving and had a lot of good qualities, but he had a shocking temper and hit me at times. He was very controlling. I wasn't allowed to have any male friends and he tried to alienate me from a lot of my female friends. One of his best friends told me: 'With women, Paul turns on the charm, and when he's got them the claws come out.' "

She has expressed her sympathy for Kylie Labouchardiere's family and Wilkinson's parents. "They're victims too," she says.

The police force has refused to comment until Wilkinson decides whether to appeal.

One police officer who has agreed to talk is Lowe, whose life has been shaken by an extraordinary series of links to Wilkinson. In January 2001, well before Lowe and Thurecht married other people, they had a brief fling. After Thurecht began her relationship with Wilkinson, he learnt about Lowe. He became intensely jealous and tried without success to persuade Thurecht to tell police she'd been raped by Lowe and to fabricate diary entries supporting this.

In October 2004 Lowe helped colleagues arrest Wilkinson, who was drunk outside the Engadine RSL. Wilkinson accused him of rape in front of a number of people.

In March 2005 Wilkinson and Thurecht found themselves waiting at traffic lights next to Lowe. Wilkinson complained to police that Lowe had threatened them. There was an investigation, which concluded when Thurecht refused to support Wilkinson's version of what had happened.

In 2005 Lowe also learnt he was under investigation again because police had been told he was a major drug dealer. Later that year his wife met Julie Thurecht purely by chance in a nightclub and the next day Thurecht came to their house and handed them a copy of an allegation Wilkinson had given the Police Integrity Commission, claiming Lowe was the killer of Kylie Labouchardiere.

"I only met this bloke for five minutes," Lowe said, "and he turned my life upside down.

It was like being in The Twilight Zone."

Lowe was cleared of all allegations but it was a long process. Meanwhile, Wilkinson remained a free man (he was not charged until April 2007), living in a nearby suburb. Lowe learnt from Detective Constable Glenn Smith, who investigated Labouchardiere's murder, that Wilkinson had been following his wife. Lowe made numerous complaints to his superiors about the harassment by Wilkinson and believes he did not receive the support he deserved.

"I kept telling my wife the police will look after us," he said. "They look after their own."

He now believes the police force responded poorly because Wilkinson's actions were so unusual it simply didn't know how to react.

Lowe and his wife took evasive action, which included changing their cars and phones, altering their travel habits, moving house and eventually fleeing Sydney for the north of the state. He said this week that because of the effects Wilkinson's actions had on his life, his wife eventually left him, taking their son with her, and his chances of promotion have been destroyed. He is on stress leave and has been seeing a psychologist.

Last week Geoff Lowe decided to leave the police force. He has been a cop for 25 years, has family members in the force and still loves the job. But Paul Wilkinson has shattered his life.

"I've lost my job, I've lost my wife, I've lost everything, basically," he said. "I never thought I'd ever see a psychologist. And if I did, I never thought I'd tell anyone about it. I'm just a normal bloke."

Source: www.smh.com.au/national/he-was-violent-and-controlling-she-knew-he-was-a-killer-20090528-bozp.html