Bradley Hugh HODDY (SCHULTZ) was last seen alive by friends on Friday August 4, 2006. HODDY led a transient lifestyle which included lengthy periods during which he would not have immediate contact with his family/ friends. HODDY was not reported missing until 3 January 2008. HODDY has had no contact with family or friends since August 4, 2006 and it has been identified that he has not accessed any financial accounts since 26 July, 2006.

Missing WA man abducted, tied up, set alight over $3,000 gun debt, court hears

By Joanna Menagh - ABC

A man is on trial in WA's Supreme Court accused of being the ringleader in a plan to abduct and kill a 30-year-old man whose body was allegedly set alight over a $3,000 debt for a gun.

Aaron Raymond Craig, 45, is alleged to have murdered Bradley Hoddy who was last seen alive in 2006 and whose body has never been found.

The court heard Mr Hoddy owed Craig $3,000 for a gun but Mr Hoddy started making threats and claiming he had links to a bikie gang.

Its alleged in August 2006 Craig and two other men abducted Mr Hoddy, tied him up with roller-shutter straps and drove him 80kms into a pine plantation near Armadale.

Prosecutor Justin Whalley told the court the victim was driven down a bush track, struck over the head with a piece of wood and set alight.

He said the year after Mr Hoddy's disappearance, Craig 'confessed' to his then wife, but she did not go to police until 2014.

The court heard the woman then agreed to help police by secretly recording conversations with Craig, which will be played at the trial.

Mr Whalley said it was the state's case that Craig was "the ringleader and the person who decided Mr Hoddy had to die".

"There was a $3,000 debt owed to him and the other two men had no motivation for wanting Mr Hoddy dead," Mr Whalley said.

Intended only to humiliate, scare

Craig denied the murder charge.

His lawyer Jonathan Davies said while his client admitted to abducting Mr Hoddy, he maintains he did not attack the victim or set his body on fire.

Mr Davies said his client "to his profound regret and stupidity" had "acquiesced" in the kidnapping, but his intention was only to humiliate and scare Mr Hoddy by dropping him in the bush and making him walk home.

He said after the group stopped the car, Craig walked away to urinate, when he heard a loud crack and saw Mr Hoddy "sprawled on the ground severely injured".

He said one of the other men hit Mr Hoddy again, and Craig then saw the body being set alight.

Mr Davies said the burden of what had happened weighed heavily on his client's mind and in 2007 he told his then wife.

Mr Davies said she went to police seven years later after their relationship had deteriorated and they were involved in a very acrimonious dispute over custody of their two children.

"Our position is that, having kept quiet, her intention was to put him away permanently and get him out of her life and the lives of their children," he said.

The trial is set down for seven days.

 

A man behind bars over the murder of Bradley Hugh Hoddy in 2006 is the prisoner who wrote to Attorney-General John Quigley with an offer to disclose the victim’s location under WA’s new “no body, no parole” laws.

Aaron Raymond Craig was jailed for life two years ago for bashing and burning Mr Hoddy and burying his body in a pine plantation 30km south of Armadale.

He has been unable to reveal the exact location.

As the laws were being passed by Parliament this week, Mr Quigley revealed he had been sent “a pleading letter from a prisoner” wanting to go with police on another search for his victim.

Mr Quigley refused to disclose the prisoner’s name, but The Weekend West understands from police sources that the murderer was 47-year-old Craig.

“I have already received one letter from a prisoner imploring me to contact the police to have them come and collect him and take him out to try to locate a body of a person he was convicted of murdering,” Mr Quigley said.

“We hope that he is not just having a lend of us.”

Craig denied murdering Mr Hoddy but admitted to abducting him with two other men to scare the father of two over a deal for a $3000 black market firearm.

But Craig said a decision was made to kill Mr Hoddy when the 30-year-old convinced them he was the son of a bikie gang boss and that there would be retribution.

Mr Hoddy was no relation to the bikie.

The State Government’s new laws pressure prisoners into revealing where the victims are if they want to be considered for parole.

The longer the prisoner refuses to reveal the location, the less chance they have of being granted parole at the end of their sentence.

The laws apply to 10 cases in WA.

“A prisoner will know that he runs an awful risk if he does not disclose in a timely fashion,” Mr Quigley told Parliament.

“I am able to disclose to the chamber that this is already having an effect on the prison population.”

After his 2015 arrest for the murder, Craig took detectives to where Mr Hoddy’s murder had occurred.

“He was dragged in between two pine trees into a pretty shallow grave on fire,” Craig told police on video.

“He moved. From lying down he lifted himself up.”

Mr Quigley also revealed in Parliament that he had received a letter from Cameron Mansell, who refuses to reveal where he left the remains of his victim, Craig Puddy, in 2010.

“He was also mildly abusive of my proposition, which I have previously stated in this Parliament, that Mr Mansell should spend the rest of his life, until the day he dies, in custody,” Mr Quigley said. “So this legislation is having an effect.”