AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Rachael Brown and the Trace podcast team
A priest who sexually abused the son of cold case murder victim Maria James was seen covered in blood on the day of her murder, metres from the crime scene.
The priest — identified as Father Anthony Bongiorno — had blood on his face and arm as he ran into St Mary’s Parish Thornbury, roughly 50 metres from the bookshop and home where Maria was stabbed 68 times in 1980.
The ABC’s Trace podcast, which has been reinvestigating the case for the past year, tracked down an electrician who was conducting maintenance work in the grounds of St Mary’s Parish on June 17, 1980 — the day of Maria’s murder.
Allan Hircoe was working on an electricity box on the porch at St Mary’s presbytery when he saw the priest approaching.
“A chap that I recognised as the person in the paper, Bongiorno, came on the left hand side and I looked at him from about eight metres away,” Mr Hircoe said.
“He had blood on one side of his face, and one of his sleeves was rolled up, and he had blood on that arm.”
The electrician approached the priest, who appeared distressed, to see if he was OK.
“I said, ‘What have you done?’ And he said, ‘I cut my face on the wire fence near the roses,’ or, ‘I cut my face on the roses near the wire fence’. Long time ago — I’m not sure which way he had that,” Mr Hircoe said.
Mr Hircoe had a first aid kit in his car, and told Bongiorno to wait while he got it.
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