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| Magda Bradley |
The defense called Mrs. Magda Bradley, forty-one, to the stand. She wore a black outfit and a turban-type hat. She was asked to show the Auschwitz concentration camp number, A-11-663, tattooed on her arm. She said the car rug displayed in the court was very similar to the rug she had possessed but was more worn. They had lost the rug some time ago. She also denied having seen the scarf that was found around Graeme Thorne's neck.
Mr. Knight lost no time in endeavoring to implicate Magda Bradley. "I put it to you that you knew your husband could not drive you to the airport terminal because you knew your husband was somewhere in the Bondi area at the time."
Mrs. Bradley replied, "No sir, I am sorry sir, you are very wrong." She said she had not been aware detectives had called on her husband at his work on August 24th.
"You say it is just a coincidence that the very next day you went and booked yourself a passage to London," asked Mr. Knight.
"I am very sorry. It must be a coincidence," replied Mrs. Bradley.
In his summing up for Bradley, Mr. Vizzard, the defense attorney, emphasized that most of the evidence was circumstantial. Even the police line-up in which Bradley was pointed out had little validity because photographs of Bradley had already appeared in the press.
The jury filed out and then returned to the courtroom to have the medical report on Graeme's death read out again. The jury appeared to want confirmation whether it was manslaughter or murder. The expression that a "good force" would have been needed to fracture Graeme's skull helped them decide. It ruled out an earlier claim that, while still in the trunk of the Ford, Graeme struck his head on the rim of the spare tire. Again the jury withdrew.
It was evening. Office workers on their way home swelled the crowds already gathered outside the court. In the corridors, television cameras and reporters waited for any news. The tension mounted as the hours ticked away.
The jury returned at ten to eight. "Guilty," said the foreman. The gallery in the courthouse and the thousands waiting outside the court erupted. "Hang the bastard," they yelled. "Feed him to the sharks."
Bradley remained emotionless, his hands on the dock rail. The Thornes, who were in court throughout the entire proceedings, remained stoically calm, their faces pale and drawn.
Bradley was asked if he had anything to say. "Yes I have a few things to say. I have never had the opportunity before this trial to say anything." He said he had never been given a chance because of prejudice. He admitted that the jury had done its best under the circumstances but they had been influenced by powerful emotions.
Mr. Justice Clancy delivered his sentence almost immediately: "Stephen Leslie Bradley, the sentence of this court is that you are sentenced to penal servitude for life." The crowd roared its approval.
Bradley's subsequent appeal to the full bench of Supreme Court judges was unanimously rejected. Magda Bradley divorced her husband in 1965 and went to live in Europe.
Bazil, Freda and Belinda Thorne moved out of Bondi into a house in nearby Rose Bay. Unable to get over the death of his boy, Bazil Thorne died suddenly in 1978.
Life in prison for Bradley, Australia's most hated man, was far from pleasant. Despised by the other prisoners and subjected to repeated brutal bashings, he was put in protective custody for his own good. While many reporters and investigators believed that Magda Bradley had been party to the kidnapping of Graeme Thorne, Stephen Bradley never implicated her in any way. On October 6, 1968, while playing tennis with other protected prisoners, he dropped dead of a heart attack. He was forty-three years of age.
No case of a similar nature has ever been perpetrated in Australia since. As a direct result of the Thorne kidnapping, lottery ticket purchasers are now given the option to remain anonymous.
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