Bega schoolgirl murders

In 2012, Camilleri appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court via videolink from HM Prison Barwon to be charged with murdering 13-year-old schoolgirl Prudence "Prue" Bird, who disappeared from her Glenroy home in February 1992. Camilleri had made admissions in a police interview, but there was a dispute over the alleged motive and how the murder was effected. On 5 December 2013, Camilleri was sentenced to an extra 28 years' imprisonment for the murder of Bird.

It was claimed Camilleri exerted a strong influence over Beckett. In sentencing Beckett to life imprisonment, Justice Vincent described him as having "quite a low IQ" and as someone "who had fallen under the influence of an older individual of much stronger personality". In 2010, Beckett was moved to another jail after love letters from a former security guard were discovered in his cell. Beckett was 23 at the time of the murders. He will be 59 when eligible for parole in 2033.

Camilleri was 28 at the time of his crimes and 29 when sentenced. He appeared before the Supreme Court in 2001 to appeal his sentence; the appeal was unsuccessful. He later appealed to the High Court in May 2002, and again his appeal was dismissed. Camilleri has received numerous death threats from other prisoners and remains in protective custody.

The trial of Camilleri began on 15 February 1999 and ran until 10 April. A total of 70 witnesses were called. Prosecution evidence included a shirt belonging to Barry containing semen matching Camilleri's DNA profile. The shirt was discovered at the rubbish dump in Old Wallagoot Road where the pair had first taken the girls. Police recovered evidence from almost every location the pair had taken the girls and assaulted them. Beckett was called to give evidence against his co-accused and spent five days in the witness box. Camilleri continued his claims that he was in a stupor when the girls were with them in the car, and that he barely remembered them, hoping to lay the entire blame for the murders on his associate Beckett.

Camilleri was found guilty by the Supreme Court jury and on 27 April 1999 was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders, never to be released. In sentencing Camilleri to life imprisonment, never to be released, the judge remarked

On 26 June 1998, Lindsay Hoani Beckett, who confessed to the murders, appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria where he was arraigned and pleaded guilty to the murders of Lauren Barry and Nichole Collins. On 20 August 1998, Beckett was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years. At the time of Beckett's sentencing, his non-parole period was the longest ever given to a Victorian prisoner. After sentencing, the mother of one of the schoolgirls yelled to Beckett, "I hope you rot in hell" as he was led from the courtroom to begin his sentence.

The Bega schoolgirl murders refer to the abduction, rape and murder of two schoolgirls; 14-year-old Lauren Margaret Barry and 16-year-old Nichole Emma Collins of Bega, New South Wales, Australia on 6 October 1997. They were abducted by Leslie Camilleri and Lindsay Beckett, both from the New South Wales town of Yass. The men subjected the girls to repeated rapes and sexual assaults on five or more separate occasions, while driving them to remote locations throughout rural New South Wales and Victoria. Over a twelve-hour period, the girls had been driven several hundred kilometres from Bega to Fiddler's Green Creek in Victoria, where they were stabbed to death by Beckett under the order of Camilleri.

On 3 October 1997, a campsite was set up by the father of Nichole Collins at White Rock, near Bega, for his teenage daughter to invite friends over for the coming Labour Day weekend. The camp site was located three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the Collins home. The girls would regularly call at the house while camping to change clothing, shower and eat. Collins's father regularly called at the camp site to check on the children and did so on the day the girls disappeared. About 9:00 p.m. on 5 October, Collins, wearing her high school jacket, and her younger friend Barry, left the camp site and walked off for a nearby party.

On 8 October 1997, Camilleri and Beckett drove to Sydney and stayed with Camilleri's brother for several days. While in Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west, they spent six hours cleaning their vehicle at a car wash, going as far as removing the vehicle's seats and carpets to clean them thoroughly. The pair then returned to Canberra to destroy further evidence before returning to Bega on an unsuccessful search for the discarded portable television which Camilleri believed would lead police to them. The television was earlier removed by a local council worker.

On 25 October 1997, police located a car earlier stolen by Beckett in Canberra. Inside the vehicle, police discovered maps of the Bega area and items belonging to Beckett. Members of the Australian Federal Police arrested Beckett on 27 October on car theft charges and remanded him in custody. Police interviewed Camilleri the following day. Both men denied any knowledge of the girls' abduction and murder, and denied discarding a television set by the roadside. However, Camilleri admitted travelling with one that he had dropped at a St. Vincent De Paul store.

As a result of this case, the Bail Act 1978 was amended in the Bail Amendment Act 1998 (NSW).

Lindsay Hoani Beckett (born 27 March 1974) was born in New Zealand and lived in the Bay of Plenty town of Opotiki before moving to Australia. At the time of the murders, Beckett lived in Yass and had come to associate with Camilleri, five years his senior, in criminal pursuits. It would be Beckett who would eventually break and confess to police about the Bega murders, leading them to the bodies of the victims.

Leslie Alfred Camilleri (born 31 May 1969) was born to a family of six children in Liverpool, New South Wales. He did not meet his natural father until he was 13 years of age. A psychiatric report prepared in 1993 spoke of Camilleri's deprived childhood, and "a pattern of theft and vandalism which have been his reaction to social ostracism, leading to frustration, which because of poor impulse control has ended in explosive outbursts of destructive behaviour".