RETIRED Tasmania Police Detective Inspector David Plumpton says he has confidence in the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions, who will soon review the Lucille Butterworth investigation before deciding whether to press charges.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Plumpton – the former lead detective on Ms Butterworth’s case – retired in December, after 40 years with the force.
This week, Mr Plumpton spoke about Ms Butterworth’s coronial inquest and said he could not predict what would happen next.
Coroner Simon Cooper this week handed down his findings into the death of Ms Butterworth, in which he concluded that rapist and murderer Geoffrey Hunt likely killed her in 1969.
While police have been unable to find her body, Mr Plumpton expects DPP Daryl Coates SC will strongly consider Mr Cooper’s findings before deciding whether to lay charges.
“At the end of the day Daryl Coates will make the determination based on the law, not anything else. That's how it should be.
“He's an excellent DPP. I am more than content that our DPP will rule on the law.”
Mr Plumpton said it was his priority to find Ms Butterworth’s remains and bring closure to her family.
While he was unsuccessful, he is satisfied with the result of the coronial inquest.
“I'm just very happy we've got the file to this situation and the family can feel somewhat appeased. That hasn't happened before.
“I have mixed emotions.”
Before a coronial inquest, Tasmania Police hands its case file to a coroner, who assesses the evidence.
The coroner then chooses to call witnesses during an inquest, to try and determine how the person died and what can be learnt from their death.
Following the release of Mr Cooper’s findings, Tasmania Police said it would consider the inquest, before approaching Mr Coates.
Mr Plumpton said it was rare for the state to convict someone of murder without a finding the victim’s body.
“But it's about the totality of any evidence. What people saw, heard, any number of things.”
On Friday, Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine issued a public apology to the Butterworth family, following the organisation’s mishandled investigation in the 1960s and 1970s.
“Ms Butterworth’s family may have had the answers they deserve if her disappearance had been treated differently by police at the time,” he said.
At the time, Detective Inspector Aub Canning became “wrongly” fixated with the idea that fellow officer John Lonergan was Ms Butterworth’s killer.
Commissioner Hine plans to apologise to the Butterworths personally as well.