'It's just not me'

In granting the order, Mr Wilson found that Mr Kirkland ``seemed to relish the notoriety'' of being a rumoured suspect in the slaying of Italian tourist Miss Cafasso.

Mr Kirkland, 35, hit back late yesterday, saying the justice system had been victimising him since 1995.

``It's just not me,'' Mr Kirkland said.

``I haven't done anything wrong.

``I've been victimised all along: the police, the whole system.

``It (the Cafasso killing) was a terrible thing, but I'm p ..... off that I got accused of it,'' he said.

Mr Kirkland said he had had more than a dozen ``visits'' from police since 1995, most of them in the first year after Miss Cafasso's death.

The Beaumaris girl applied for the interim order several months ago, alleging that Mr Kirkland had stalked and threatened her between May and July this year.

She claimed his behaviour included following her in his car, driving past her home, blowing kisses to her in the street, sexually propositioning her and threatening to kill her.

Mr Kirkland, who is married with a 10-year- old daughter, said during the hearing that he had wanted a sexual relationship with the girl but denied harassing her.

Mr Wilson rejected most of Mr Kirkland's evidence, favouring the girl's version of events.

Mr Kirkland did not say when any appeal might be launched. A Launceston magistrate yesterday found that a Scamander fisherman ``seemed to relish the notoriety'' of being a rumoured suspect in the brutal 1995 slaying of Italian tourist Victoria Cafasso.

After granting a 17-year-old Beaumaris schoolgirl an interim restraint order against the man, Magistrate Peter Wilson described the character of Tony Lance Kirkland, 35, as ``seriously disturbing''.

In his published findings, Mr Wilson found that Mr Kirkland _ who is married and has a 10-year-old daughter _ had made a number of death threats against the girl and said that Mr Kirkland's sexual pursuit of her was ``unhealthy and absurd''.

The girl applied for a restraint order several months ago, alleging that Mr Kirkland had stalked and threatened her between May and July this year.

Mr Wilson said yesterday that Mr Kirkland believed the girl wanted to have a ``fling'' with him.

``He (Mr Kirkland) also believed that (the girl's) mother was encouraging her in this, and in an extraordinary statement said this might be due to a desire to `get on the bandwagon with this murder episode', a reference to a community rumour that he is the person responsible for the unsolved murder of Victoria Cafasso,'' Mr Wilson said.

``He showed no sign of distress regarding this, indeed he seemed to relish the notoriety.

``While this could be explicable on the basis of the glee of a guilty man outwitting the authorities, there are, of course, other possible bases for such a peculiar attitude.

Those might include some perverse joy at being thrust into the limelight, excitement or stimulation on being so marked, or taking pleasure in unnerving those he might perceive as vulnerable ...

``.. he is exposed as possessed of a character which relishes a reputation which most would find odious.

hen that aspect of his nature is aligned with his unhealthy and absurd sexual interest in this patently naive, inexperienced and retiring young girl, it is something I find seriously disturbing.''

During the hearing, which was held in the St Helens Court of Petty Sessions over the past several months, the girl told the court that Mr Kirkland's behaviour had included following her in his car, driving past her house and blowing kisses to her in the street, sexual propositions and death threats. While sunbaking on Beaumaris beach on the East Coast on October 11, 1995, Italian law student Victoria Cafasso, 20, was brutally murdered by an unknown attacker.

Miss Cafasso had come to Tasmania to meet up with her cousin Simon de Salis. But on that Wednesday afternoon, she was stabbed more than 50 times and then bashed with a blunt instrument.

According to police the blunt instrument blow caused the haemorrhage that killed her.

At the time, police believed the murder was ``sexually motivated'' as the bottom half of her bikini was missing but her wallet was found intact at the crime scene.

Miss Cafasso had only arrived in Australia six days before and had hoped to travel around Tasmania and Australia with her cousin for six months.

Disillusioned with her law study in Italy, Miss Cafasso had intended to indulge in her passion for golf while in Australia.