The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 10

10 THE AGE, Tuesday 17 July 1984 The boy who left home with a rifle iSfe Ketone PETS MAYOH wmmmmmmm In November 1981, Quentin Rowley, who had gone to the same school as Andrew Kearney for five years, boarded a train at Holmesglen. He immediately saw a youth he recognised as Andrew, although he attached little importance to it at the time. More than two years later he still remembers clearly the circumstances in which he saw the missing boy: "I was on my way to' my grandmother's at Burnley after finishing an exam. I saw Andrew Kearney in the same carriage but I didn't want to go up to him because I hadn't been a friend of his. "I had heard something about him going missing when it happened, but I had no suspicion that he was still away from home.

He was dressed neatly, had his hair cut and didn't look as if he had been sleeping in the streets or anything." It was not until nine days later, when he mentioned the sighting in casual conversation with someone who knew Andrew well, that he realised its significance. The mutual friend rang the Kearneys but when Mrs Kearney was told that Rowley had not spoken to Andrew she doubted the sighting, thinking that someone else had been mistaken for her son. Mrs Kearney did not tell police about the incident until mentioning it in passing during a routine interview several weeks later. By the time police interviewed Quentin Rowley the trail was cold. But Quentin convinced both Sergeants Harvey and Blevins that he had not been mistaken.

The policemen are confident that Andrew is alive. The Kearneys hope that if he is, one day he will come back to them. ANDREW RULE continues his series en missing children Dorothy Kearney mechanically spreads out snapshots of her miss-ing son, like a card player dealing a hand of patience. Her hands shake. Her voice quavers.

Words are slurred by emotion and the tranquilisers she must take to sleep. She is a woman racked with grief. The Kearney's house is painful ly tidy. Everything in it gleams with polish, as if order can be restored to shattered lives with brooms and brushes. Gesturing towards the spotless kitchen, Mrs Kearney says: "I have had the tea on the table for Andrew every night for three years and I'm not going to stop now I think he needs me so he can keep going." The Kearneys have kept going, but it has been an empty existence since 21 August 1981.

That day, which Mrs Kearney relives a dozen times in a three-hour interview, her youngest son walked out of his family's life. The pictures spread in front of her show a tall, thoughtful-looking teenager with wavy brown hair, blue eyes, a tiny birthmark on his upper lip and a chipped front tooth. Out of camera range is an eight-centimetre scar on his left hand and a silver Seiko watch-which has his name engraved on the back. The morning he disappeared, Andrew Vincent Kearney, 17, borrowed $20 from his mother to pay for train fares and lunch. He had a doctor's appointment in Dande-nong later in the day, which involved a long trip by public transport from his parents' Bur-wood home.

His mother recalls the events of Frank Purcell inspects the crumbling balustrade at Werribee Park. BELOW: A view from the grounds. The damaged section is circled. Green dream fades as the sums sink Andrew Kearney: took a .22 rifle but he never turned up. Checks of all stations in the Nunawading and Dandenong police districts showed that no rifle was handed in after 25 August 1981.

The Kearneys could not provide a detailed description of the rifle, other than that it was fitted with a mount for a telescopic sight and it was thought to be a Stirling. There are other details, of no great importance to the police but tormenting to the Kearneys. One was the discovery that their son secretly- shared a private post office box with two of his friends. Another was that he visited the Church of Scientology with a friend not long before he disappeared. Police checks of such information have produced nothing.

Mrs Kearney has hired a private detective to investigate whether Andrew was recruited by Scientologists or some other religious group. Ironically, Mrs Kearney obscured the best clue to the mystery until it was too late for police to follow up. WHAT FMCE steadily into the red By ROBIN USHER The dream of an unbroken green belt from Laverton to Little River is in The reason is money. At the heart of the green belt is Werribee Park and its 100-year-old mansion and game reserve. On either side are the open spaces of the Board of Works farm and the State Research Farm.

Werribee Park costs the State Government $300,060 a year in subsidies. What might have been considered necessary philanthropy 10 years ago must now pass the scrutiny of accountants. A spokesman for the Premier, Mr Cain, said yesterday that Werribee Park's future depended on economics. He would not comment on rumors that part of the park's 360 hectares of ground was to be sold. Sir Rupert Hamer was Premier when the State Government paid $1.6 million for Werribee Park in 1973, and is now vice-chairman of the Werribee Park Corporation.

He said yesterday that the park would always need a subsidy, as did the zoo, museum and art gallery. "Werribee and the western suburbs are upset about the uncertainty surrounding the park because its facilities are designed Mrs Kearney. "He seemed a strange" homework. He had been warned that he might fail his HSC exams, which he was due to sit about three months from the date he disappeared, police say. Sergeant Max Harvey, of Ash-burton police, has taken a personal interest in the case since taking it over from Sergeant Mai Blevins late last year, but he is still unsure of many details which could unravel the mystery.

The girl has told both Sergeant Harvey and Sergeant Blevins that plainclothes police interviewed her soon after Andrew disappeared. She said she gave the officers a note, allegedly posted to her by Andrew the night before he left but neither sergeant has been able to find out who the plainclothes police were, or what happened to the note. Four days after the disappearance, a man rang the Missing Persons Bureau and said he had found a .22 rifle in the bush near Belgrave. He was told to take the weapon to Fern Tree Gully police bit He has written to every Member of Parliament expressing his concern about keeping the park intact He said it would cost the Government the same to maintain the park if it were closed as it would for today's subsidies. The facade and interior of the freestone and bluestone mansion badly needed repairing.

"The reconstruction inside is amazing," Mr Purcell said. "But unless the roof on top is secure you are going to get water damage." Government representatives had told the corporation that Werribee Park must be self-sufficient But Mr Purcell said this was impossible and it would need subsidising no matter who administered it to balance those in the eastern suburbs," he said. About 100,000 people visit Werribee Park each year and pay about the gate, figures similar to those for Como House and Rippon Lea, run in Melbourne by the National Trust The trust's administrator, Mr Steven Martin, said yesterday the National Trust has been approached by the Government for advice on how to run Werribee Park; But there had been no offer for the trust to manage the park. Werribee shire council's representative on the park corporation, Mr Frank Purcell, is concerned that the expertise of those running the park will be lost in any Government changes. THE that day disjointedly.

She says she saw her son leave about 9 am, carrying nothing but a wooden box which she assumed held radio Andrew was a ham radio enthusiast and sometimes took pieces of equipment to show friends. "I called out Bye, love, see you like I did every morning," says Mrs Kearney "We're not the sort "of family that kisses and makes a fuss all the time. He just turned around and looked at me before walking up the side way to the street "He seemed a bit strange. When he got up that morning I thought there was something wrong." There was; Andrew did not see the doctor and did not come home that night Although he did not take any spare clothes or other belongings, he did take a .22 rifle which was usually kept in his parents' bedroom. Police are certain he hid the weapon in the wooden fishing tackle box his mother saw him carrying.

Andrew had been friends with a girl who lived not far from his home at Burwood. She often used to sit with him in class, swap notes and ring him after school. It seemed harmless enough, but police say the friendship went awry when Andrew developed a crush on the girl. She tried to laugh it off. but it appears that Andrew took the rebuff hard.

Andrew's schoolfriends describe him as a but he had been failing to hand in set recomm Better-off will benefit of foreign banks 1 1 yreslutin graphics I FX-80 printer Printer Cable Plus No matter how you look at it, the EPSON QX-10 is a lot of computer get" the to have banks here that will lend to anybody without security. I don't think there are going to be any of the dramatic benefits that people think." As for interest rates, the US deregulation was estimated to add about 1.5 percentage points to interest rates. It was likely also that changes in the rules (about things like savings interest rates, housing loan rates and charges) would push rates up. "But that's not to do -with foreign banks," he said. "If anything, it's to do with deregulation.

"If interest rates do go up, it's not necessarily a bad thing because it's the saver who benefits from that" Dr Valentine expects that the trend to plastic cash cards will strengthen. People with accounts in. Sydney will be able to draw cash in Melbourne, and the connection of bank computers with shopping centre cash registers will link with the accounts of people in building societies, credit unions and the network of financial services. Those technological changes were likely to make a lot of the bank branches redundant New banks would probably seek some, tie into the branch networks established already by building finance companies and 'credit unions. Add that all up, and ask who-really wants the change.

"Our Dr Valentine said, "are probably the strongest proponents of letting the foreign banks in because they want to get in overseas." By MICHAEL GILL The" man in the street will see little of value from the introduction of foreign banks to Australia, according to Dr Tom Valentine, the senior adviser to the Campbell inquiry. "Worse than very little, I think the man in the street might find it's become a bit harder," he said. "And this, of course, makes it very difficult to sell to the public or the Left-wing Labor man." The Campbell inquiry, set up by the Fraser Government, recommended deregulation of the banking system and the entry of foreign banks. The Hawke Government's Martin committee has supported this and the ALP national conference last week cleared the way for some foreign banks to operate, in Australia. Dr Valentine expects that interest rates generally will increase, that cheques will disappear, plastic cards will replace currency, housing finance will be more expensive and that some people will get more income from their savings.

Common banking services are subsidised and Dr Valentine says that will change. "I don't know how you run your cheque account but the way I run mine is I keep a virtual zero balance and write about 30 cheques a month," he said. "The bank is subsidising me to the tune of $40 or $50 a month for those cheques that I write and they're getting nothing out of me at all. Now I think they're going to stop doing that" The result he thinks, is that 4 major software packages (Wordstar Mailmergei Spellstar and dBase IT) And as you would expect, hard disk is also available The above prices mean considerable savings on what you would normally expect to pay (particularly in the software) with a computer as powerful as the EPSON QX-10 Check for your money But one look at the following computer packages will convince you that at today's recommended retail prices, you'll be getting a lot more for your money For $2922 recommended retail: 192KRAM Dual320Kdisk drives. 12" 640x400 pixel monitor.

High resolution graphics Or if you prefer one of the best colour monitors available on the market, then it will cost $3540 which includes 192K RAM, dual disk drives and high resolution graphics Or save even more money by banks will want to charge the full cost of every cheque or require a minimum balance say. $1000 all the time. Similarly, many Australians use savings accounts for all their transactions at no charge. Dr Valentine thinks that that will finish, too. Who gains? People with much more savings than debt big businesses and the employees who will be in high demand to fill the desks in new dealing rooms, loan offices and economics departments of the new entrants.

Australian banks have been improving, sharpening up their services and methods. Dr Valentine thinks this, is the, best reason for bringing more banks in. "I think, to some extent theaiguiiient for foreign banks rests keeping them (Australian banks) honest "The. question is, wel'didh't have more entrants, would they continue Tike this or would they fall back into their virtually carte-lised behavior?" Cartels generally involve collusion to limit competition and protect profits that might otherwise be. passed, on to consumers through competition.

Yet Dr Valentine expects' no great benefits to business generally. And he is not sure that all the new entrants will last long as the full-scale Australian bankers. "I'd have to say that business has an exaggerated view of the gains that are going to be made," he said. "There will be gains, and I certainly think they'll be worth taking, but we're not magically going On the first occasion, she had been asleep in the lounge when he and. another police officer woke hen When she gave a false name.

Senior Constable Murray told the other policeman she was lying, Mrs Vandenakker told the court After a number of visits 'while on duty. Senior Constable Murray had come with a friend one night when off duty, she said. ''Later he asked me what my price was. I told him not to be so stupid, and he said 'I have slept with your before, I ani willing pay how'." On 23 June 1982, just before midnight, Mrs Vandenakker was asleep at her Bayswater house, when Senior Constable-Murray knocked at the front door, Mr Brown told Judge He was refused entry but persisted, and abused Mrs Vandenakker for not letting him in. He had kicked out the front panels of a front window and smashed a bedroom window, Mr Brown On 5 December 1983, Senior Constable Murray was found guilty at the Ringwood Magis it out now at an EPSON dealer! Policeman damaged house of prostitute, court told how could part and see easily it become of your success aesa" "A buying the Epson "bundled" system For $4750 By JANE MUNDAY A Delta Task Force policeman, who discovered a former friend working as a prostitute, later smashed windows at her Bays-water house after she refused to let him in, the County Court was told yesterday.

The prosecutor, Mr David Brown, said Senior Constable Dale Phillip Murray, of Monash Drive, Mulgrave, a former carpenter, had met Mrs Ann Denise Vandenakker in 1977 when she married a close friend of his. There had been an affair between the couple during Mrs Vanden-akker's marriage, Mr Brown said. After the Vandenakkers separated, Mrs Vandenakker started work as a prostitute in a St Kilda Road massage parlor, she told the court She had used false names at work, and for several court appearances on prostitution charges, in the hope that friends would not find out Senior Constable Murray had often visited the parlor on duty. trates Court on one charge of wilful damage. He was placed on a good behavior bond by Mr Donald Walker SM, and ordered to pay.

$60 Costs and $89 compensation to Mrs He is appeal ing before Judge Murdoch against being found guilty. Mr Joe Gullaci, for Senior Con-' stable Murray, told Judge Murdoch there was no question that Senior Constable Murray had known Mrs Vandenakker. "The way in which they knew each other is in dispute, and the nature of the relationship is in he said. As a Delta Task Force policeman it was part of Senior Constable Murray's job to regularly visit massage parlors in search of under-age prostitutes, Mr Gullaci said. Cross-examined by Mr Mrs Vandenakker agreed she was upset when Senior constable MurC ray discovered her working as a prostitute.

The appeal will continue today:" ended retail: 192K RAM Dual 320K drives. 12" EPSON AUSTRALIA pty ltd. The secret of success 640x400 pixel monitor High Epson Australia, Unit 3, 17 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 452 5222 Smte 30, 101 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, QLD 832 5400. Level 3, 541 Blackburn Road, Waverley Square, Mount Waverley, VIC 543 6455 (from July 10) L.s pnee not mdusive of sales tax. 'Wordstar, Mailmerge and Spellstar are trademarks of Micro Pro.

2dBase His a trademark of AshtonTae. o.R.g.s.ered trademark of Epson Corporanon. EPSOOMR.