The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 4

4 THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1997 erial Miller confesses to No 4 Let's go shopping now, everybody's learning how voluntary beach patrol and surf rescue services at a level demanded by the community." The catalogue offers more than 90 items, ranging from bathers to a $298 pocket-sized electronic device to measure how much ultra-violet radiation is being absorbed by the skin, and therefore how long the user can stay in the sun. Also for sale is a set of patrol flags for $28, along with -a megaphone, similar to those used by surf clubs, for $165. Net profits from product sales will go directly to the surf clubs. Mr Brookes said the foundation hoped for about $1 million in product sales. However, he could not estimate how much money would eventually be raised for the clubs.

"The surf lifesaving image is basically pretty clean-cut," he said. "It's a volunteer-based organisation and it's all about saving lives. That makes the whole concept very marketable." However, one of the most sought-after products, the red and yellow quarter cap, will not be for sale. "The image, including the cap, is recognised worldwide," Mr Brookes said. "However, we won't be selling the cap.

We need to protect it as it's part of the official uniform." By ANDREW H0RNERY Marketing Writer One of Australia's greatest cultural symbols the surf life-saver is about to be packaged, promoted and marketed. The Life Saving Foundation, a fundraising group sanctioned by the sport's official body, Surf Life Saving Australia, has embarked on an ambitious project to sell the image of surf lifesaving to the public. The program will revolve around a 16-page mail-order catalogue being delivered to more than 600,000 homes across Australia in coming weeks. Inside the catalogue are numerous products, ranging from a $2.95 sun visor to a S298 Nipper board. The campaign has been timed to coincide with Christmas.

The Surf Life Saving Foundation's general manager, Mr Anthony Brookes, said the range was being launched to help raise funds for 400 surf lifesaving patrol locations. "Annual funding dividends to surf clubs, distributed by the foundation, are currently averaging nearly SI million," Mr Brookes said. "However, this falls well short of the S50 million per annum we will need in the next few years if we are to satisfactorily maintain and expand our 1 -Jf? -if 2 I NLi I By LES KENNEDY A triple murderer haunted by his past has confessed to a fourth murder on Sydney's North Shore 23 years ago Rodney Francis Cameron, serving life imprisonment in Lithgow Maximum Security Prison, confessed to the murder of elderly war widow Mrs Sarah McKenzie. It marks the first time that the man dubbed the "lonely hearts killer" has admitted to being a serial killer. Homicide investigators hope it may also be a turning point in drawing a line under a number of unsolved vicious crimes in NSW and interstate.

The Herald has learnt that Cameron made his lengthy confession, which was videotaped, to Northern Region Homicide and North Sydney detectives on October 3 at North Sydney police station. It followed a request from Cameron, a 42-year-old former trainee nurse, through prison officials at Lithgow to speak to police. Cameron's admission to the murder of the modestly wealthy Mrs McKenzie, 79, at her Milsons Point home in 1974 comes five years after an unsuccessful attempt by Northern Region Homicide Squad detectives to have him stand trial for her murder. Three days before Cameron was scheduled to stand trial the matter was no-billed by the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions. Cameron at the time had planned to defend the case.

Detectives came to re-examine the McKenzie murder after Cameron's conviction for the June 23, 1990, murder of Ms Maria Goellner, 44, whom he bashed and strangled at the Sky Rider Motel at Katoomba. Before fleeing the scene, Cameron showered carnations over the body of his victim. The pair had travelled to the Blue Mountains from Victoria after meeting through a night-time radio match-making program. Ms Goellner's murder followed Cameron's release from 15 years' imprisonment in NSW for two murders in 1974 when he was aged 19. In the first murder, Cameron, who grew up in Wollongong, raped and strangled nurse Ms Florence Edith Jackson, 49, in her home at Katoomba on January 31, 1974, after she had befriended him at a nursing home where he worked as a trainee nurse.

Cameron fled the Blue Murder of elderly woman 23 years ago cleared up Mountains, hitchhiking south to Victoria where a week later he committed his second murder. His victim was holidaying bank clerk Mr Francesco Cili-berto, 19, who gave Cameron a lift in his car as he was hitchhiking in southern NSW. Mr Ciliberto was bashed with a rock then strangled with a football sock before his body was thrown off a cliff onto a bridge at Mallacoota. 6ln 1974 Cameron was sentenced 'for the term of his natural life' but was released on appeal in November 1989.9 Cameron then fled north to Queensland where on February 21, 1974, he was arrested by police after abducting a mother and her young daughter. When arrested Cameron said: "I had to kill three." Diagnosed in 1974 by a psychiatrist as having an "extreme psychopathic Cameron was sentenced "for the term of his natural life" for the Jackson and Ciliberto murders.

However, in November 1989, after a successful appeal against the length of his sentence in Victoria for the Ciliberto murder, Cameron was released, having been deemed to have been rehabilitated. Seven months later, the then 35-year-old Cameron claimed the life of Ms Goellner after taking her for a holiday to the Blue Mountains where he had staged his first murder. In the trial that followed, the jury was allowed to hear "similar fact evidence" about the two 1974 homicides. Under truth in sentencing legislation, Cameron received life imprisonment and is destined to die in prison. In 1992, Northern Region Homicide Squad detectives 'Headbutting' leads to strike at factory -J i if -r-J "Lonely hearts killer" Rodney Francis Cameron, haunted by his past, has made a lengthy confession to the 1974 murder of Mrs Sarah McKenzie, 79, whom he stabbed 30 times at her Milsons Point home, pictured left.

Serving life imprisonment, Cameron had boasted in jail about his past crimes, but later asked for an interview with police. 1 Ik 3 the "Granny (Pie salesman John Glover was subsequently convicted of the murders.) When police re-examined the McKenzie case in 1990 they discovered that while on the run from Victoria to Queensland in 1974 after committing the Ciliberto murder, Cameron had been booked for speeding at A strike sparked by an alleged headbutting incident at a Sydney factory has threatened the supply of air-conditioners to the Ford Motor Company and export contracts, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission heard yesterday. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) warned of racial tensions within the mainly migrant workforce at Email's F. Muller factory in Kingsgrove, where 400 workers went on strike last Friday. The dispute began after the company sacked Farah Keyes, a process worker from Somalia, for allegedly headbutting his Vietnamese supervisor, Mr Ho, during an argument on October 15.

An AMWU organiser, Mr Harry Delaney, told the commission a meeting of employees before the strike was "one of the most volatile mass meetings I've ever attended, where people were divided on race and He accused the company of mismanaging a serious situation and frustrating attempts by a union delegate to discuss the problem with employees. The company told the commission the union had breached agreed disputes settlement procedures. It is seeking an immediate return to work. Justice Marsh told the union she could issue orders against it if the strike was not called off by this morning. based at Chatswood reopened the McKenzie murder file after learning that Cameron had teen boasting in jail of past crimes.

The same detectives in 1990 had also examined the McKenzie case while investigating the serial murders of elderly women on the North Shore for possible leads to the killer in a case which came to be dubbed Nowra, on the South Coast, in Ciliberto's vehicle. They also learnt that the same car had been the subject of a brief report by a highway patrol officer at North Sydney about the time Mrs McKenzie was believed to have been murdered, on or about February 6, 1974. The highway patrol officer had found Cameron asleep in the vehicle, which was parked on the expressway at North Sydney, and had questioned him about being in the area. On February 6, Mrs McKenzie had telephoned North Sydney police from her home in Bank Street and reported having been struck by a man. But when police went to her home they found it locked.

Two days later police, urged by a friend of Mrs McKenzie who was concerned that she had not been seen, discovered her body in the hallway of her home. She had been stabbed 30 times, a knife was embedded in her neck and a garden mattock was embedded in her head. Mrs McKenzie, who lived alone and had no immediate next of kin, often recruited passers-by with offers of pocket money to work on her garden due to her frail age. 6 She had been stabbed 30 times, a knife was embedded in her neck and a garden mattock was embedded in her head. Her habit led police to speculate at the time that she may have befriended a stranger.

When questioned five years ago about his movements while a fugitive in 1974, Cameron was steadfast about his innocence. After a covert surveillance operation inside prison and an inquest, detectives charged Cameron with the murder of Mrs McKenzie. He was subsequently committed to stand triaL However, three days before the trial was to begin, the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Reg Blanch, no-billed the case after an examination of the 1974 brief revealed Cameron may have been at a Queensland caravan park about the time Mrs McKenzie was estimated to have been murdered. Early this month, Cameron is believed to have requested an interview with police about the McKenzie murder. On October 3, he was taken to North Sydney police station where he began a detailed confession to the murder.

The videotapes and transcripts have been forwarded to the DPP for appraisal, together with an application by police for the earlier no-bill order in the McKenzie murder brief to be rescinded. lie Toyota Dealer. nnn ml nn nrzinr iii MM mm At Toyota Service we live and breathe quality. We look, we listen, we repair and we explain every detail of our work to you because we're not satisfied unless you are. Indeed, the same care we build into new Toyotas, your Toyota Dealer pours into every car serviced.

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