A former police officer has pleaded with drivers to never flash their lights to alert people to the presence of patrol cars after learning that some murderers used the signal to elude capture before killing a young woman.
On the podcast for The Richlife Project, former NSW police sergeant Glenn Gorick discussed how some drivers use the common flashing technique to avoid receiving a speeding ticket.
According to Mr. Gorick, a seemingly harmless action could actually be alerting criminals.
The ex-cop gave an illustration of how that warning probably contributed to the 1988 murder of 20-year-old Janine Balding by a group of homeless youth.
He said, “People flashing headlights, that’s to slow people down or whatever it is to avoid getting a speeding ticket, you know, so be it, but you’re also telling people who are wanted, people who are in a stolen car, “The police are up the road.”
Janine Balding was kidnapped on Tuesday night (in 1988) from Sutherland Railway Station and taken to Blacktown, where she was killed.
According to Mr. Gorick, the killers were questioned about how they managed to travel all the way to Blacktown in the late 1980s, “when RBT was huge,” without encountering any police.
He claimed that the assassins told police, “Oh no, people flashed their headlights, we just got around the backstreets,” when asked about the headlights.
So, Mr. Gorick continued, Janine died as a result of perhaps someone else flashing their headlights.
A group of young people kidnapped Janine and took her to Blacktown in western Sydney.
The offenders are Bronson and Matthew James Elliott. With the exception of Jamieson, who was 22 years old, Matthew Blessington, Stephen Wayne “Shorty” Jamieson, Wayne Lindsay Wilmot, and Carol Ann Arrow were all teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16.
She was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by Elliott, Blessington, and Jamieson when the group pulled over to the side of the M4 freeway.
They then dragged her to a nearby property while hog-tied, where they drowned her in a dam.
All five youngsters were eventually caught and charged over the horrific crime.
Elliott, Blessington, and Jamieson received a life sentence plus 25 years in jail.
Wilmot served seven and a half years in prison before being freed in 1996. He is presently incarcerated for several robberies and sexual assaults.
Arrow received a three-year good behavior term in addition to the 19 months he spent in prison.