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happened to Bryant shortly after he stopped for coffee and a massacre, the story itself could well be bogus and have been toasted sandwich at Nubeena, since that is when his invented to provide an alibi for their doings in the crucial hours pseudomemories began. beforehand. At the time the two policemen were allegedly The baffling gap which appears in Bryant's recollections after | decoyed on a wild goose chase, they could well have been Nubeena can probably best be explained by a scenario in which actually engaged in abducting Martin Bryant and commandeering Bryant was intercepted, abducted and drugged into his Volvo. unconsciousness after he left Nubeena. If Bryant had any genuine A third policeman, Constable Chris Iles from Sorell Police memories of that period, he would probably have been far less Station, was also present in the area at the time of the massacre. suggestible than he turned out to be. Around lunchtime on 28 According to eyewitness Kyle Spruce, Iles appeared in front of April, therefore, Bryant must have been administered a drug that Port Arthur General Store within a minute or two of the gunman's iterally knocked him out until he woke up, with his back on fire, departure. He then sped off towards Seascape. No explanation in Seascape the following morning. (The lingering effects of the has ever been given for Iles being out of his own district that drug may explain why Bryant retained no memory of the bedside —_ afternoon, just as there has been no explanation for what he did earing on 30 April at which he was formally charged with the after he reached Seascape, which he would have done within five murder of Kate Scott.) Thus Bryant has no memory of where he or 10 minutes. was at the time of the massacre, because by then he was already The scenario described above would account for several unconscious; accordingly, no one can interesting circumstances: rovide him with an alibi for his (1) Bryant told his interrogators that whereabouts in the crucial time period . Vege while surfing at Roaring Beach he because by that stage he was already in Did Bryant Ss girlfriend noticed two people bodysurfing in The ‘ntenevption and abduction of Petra Wilmott, after she left peach It it interesting that Bryant Martin Bryant can be deduced from a his house that morning, should recall such a trivial detail. That number of intriguing facts. First of all, alert them to the fact that he chose to mention it may indicate in his 4 July police interrogation, 7 that he assigned the men some Bryant lamented that one of the only Bryant planned to go surfing significance—significance which has two things he had done wrong was at Roarin Beach? been expunged from the interrogation "being caught with not having a g ' transcript. Could the men have been driver's licence". However, there is Hyland and Whittle? If so, how did nothing on the public record about they know they could begin tailing Bryant's apprehension for driving Bryant there? Did Bryant's girlfriend without a licence. This otherwise overlooked incident probably Petra Wilmott, after she left his house that morning, alert them to suggests that, after he left Nubeena, Bryant was intercepted by the _ the fact that Bryant planned to go surfing at Roaring Beach? police, the pretext for taking him into custody being his lack of a (2) According to Michael Beekman and Rebecca McKenna— driver's licence. His Volvo would have been taken into custody at__—_ two persons who had been sitting near the gunman on the front the same time. One of the policemen would have drugged deck area of the Broad Arrow Café—the Port Arthur gunman was Bryant—probably at Nubeena Police Station—and delivered the watching the carpark anxiously in the period between about 1.10 unconscious man to Seascape in the boot of his vehicle, while the and 1.15 pm. According to PAHS employee Aileen Kingston, a other would have dropped Bryant's car off at the PAHS shortly yellow Volvo arrived at the Port Arthur toll gate at around the before the massacre began. same time. The vehicle would therefore have entered the Port This scenario presupposes that there were police in the area tailing him. Strikingly, three policemen were present in the area that day, any or all of whom could have been involved in the abduction effort. According to the official story, sometime around midday the only two policemen on the Tasman Peninsula, Constable Paul Hyland of Nubeena Police Station and Garry Whittle of Dunalley Police Station, were summoned away to a remote location at Saltwater River—the farthest point on the peninsula—by an anonymous caller reporting a large stash of heroin. About an hour later, the policemen allegedly rang in to report that the call had been a hoax and that nothing had been found at Saltwater River other than a sample of ordinary soap powder. Although it is generally assumed that the perpetrators of the massacre decoyed the two policemen to this remote location in a i. = order to retard the police response to the — Petra Wilmott, girlfriend of Martin Bryant in the two months before the massacre. Did Bryant's girlfriend Petra Wilmott, after she left his house that morning, alert them to the fact that Bryant planned to go surfing at Roaring Beach? NEXUS © 15 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com