Trudie Jeanette ADAMS

Thanks to Anthony Barnao's book "Violent Crimes that Shocked a Nation" for the photographs and information about Trudie. Photo above right is from the Daily Telegraph.

Trudie has been missing since the night of June 24th, 1978. She was 18 years old and a business college student from Avalon on Sydney's Northern Beaches. She had long Blonde hair, grey-green eyes, slim build, 162cm tall. She was last seen wearing a Bottle Green floral blouse and Black jumper.

Trudie left her home at 7pm to attend a party with friends and walked up Barrenjoey Road. She turned south to walk towards Newport. A motorist stopped to give her a lift to her friend Debbie's house and from here Trudie and Debbie walked to the Newport Hotel, arriving at 8:30pm. They stayed until closing time, 10pm. Trudie was excited about her upcoming trip to Bali in 6 weeks time. The girls travelled in a friend's car to the Newport Surf Lifesaving Club. At 10:30pm Trudie's boyfriend Steve Norris, pictured above, aged 22 arrived. Trudie left the Club for about an hour, her whereabouts unknown, but returned at 11:30pm. During this time Steve was upstairs at the club with friends. Shortly after midnight Trudie ran outside, upset, telling no one where she was going. Steve saw her leave from the window of the Club heading for Barrenjoey Road and he assumed she would try and catch a lift as he had no car. Trudie had a habit of accepting lifts from strangers at night and this worried Steve. It was common for many people to hitch rides on the Northern Beaches at that time as there was little or no public transport available.

Steve followed her out of the Club but as he was crossing the carpark Trudie had already reached the road and was getting into a fawny-beige 1974 - 76 Holden panel van with no side windows which had stopped to give her a lift and was already speeding up Barrenjoey Road towards Palm Beach. Steve flagged down another car to follow her but the panel van moved too quickly out of sight behind Bilgola Headland, northward.

Trudie lived just 6 minutes away but did not arrive home and she has never been seen again. Steve hitched a ride to Trudie's house and waited there for her but she never came home.

Five days after Trudie disappeared (June 29th) a male person telephoned both Trudie's parents and Mona Vale Police and said "Trudie is dead. You will find her about half way up Mona Vale Road. It was an accident." Police searched a huge area, almost 400 square kilometres including extensively along Mona Vale Road but no trace of Trudie was found.

In the months before Trudie disappeared a total of 8 girls reported they had been picked up hitchhiking on Barrenjoey Road between Newport and Mona Vale, and were raped at gunpoint. A ninth girl was abducted at gunpoint while waiting for a bus. The suspects were two men aged about 30 years, Australian.

The victims' eyes were taped, they were handcuffed then tortured and raped after being driven into bushland within a 20km radius of where they were picked up.

There is a $50,000 reward still current for any information about Trudie Adams' disappearance and probable murder.

**I think the panel van would have been a HJ model (as the HQ's had side windows.) This is what the HJ panel van would have looked like (but fawny-beige) -

***Note from me - for legal reasons I have removed some names that have been previously published by the newspapers quoted. I have not been asked to do this but in the interests of justice for Trudie and for all the other missing women from the late 70's and early 80's I will do whatever I can to make sure those responsible for all these many disappearances are dealt with by our legal system.

Detectives appeal for help to solve 30-year mystery - Unsolved Homicide Team

2008-07-29 12:22:10

NSW Homicide Squad detectives investigating the suspected murder of a teenager 30 years ago have today welcomed a $250,000 reward which has been put up by the NSW Government.

Strike Force Keldie has been established by the Unsolved Homicide Team to carry out further inquiries into the disappearance of Trudie Adams.

Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford, said the case is among more than 190 allocated for further investigation by the Team.

"The disappearance and suspected murder of Trudie Adams impacted deeply on the northern beaches community.

"Tragically, Trudie's mother has since passed away without knowing her daughter's fate or seeing anyone brought to justice," Detective Superintendent Beresford said.

Trudie was only 18 and had been at a dance with her boyfriend at the Newport surf lifesaving club on the evening of 24 June 1978.

She left the dance alone and it is believed her intention was to hitch-hike home. Trudie was last seen getting into a light-coloured 1977-model Holden panel van on Barrenjoey Road in the early hours of 25 June 1978.

Her parents and boyfriend reported her missing later that day after she failed to arrive home.

"It is our belief she was kidnapped by two males and murdered," Detective Superintendent Beresford said.

At the time of Trudie's disappearance, extensive searches were conducted unsuccessfully of the dense bushland of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

Following Trudie's disappearance a number of young women came forward to report being abducted and violently sexually assaulted in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The incidents occurred between 1971 and 1978 and involved females aged between 14 and 20.

Strong links have been established by detectives between the sexual assaults and Trudie's disappearance.

"As a result of our inquiries, we believe Trudie's abduction was sexually-motivated.

"Furthermore, we suspect there are more victims of these two sexual predators who have not previously come forward to police. Support is available to these women, who we are encouraging to contact strike Force Keldie detectives. Their information, despite the passage of time, might be crucial to helping us charge those responsible in this case," he said.

"Unsolved Homicide Team detectives have already carried out numerous inquiries since this case was reviewed and allocated for further investigation.

"In particular, Strike Force Keldie detectives are making inquiries in Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand, as well as in New South Wales. As a result of these investigations detectives are following strong lines of inquiry.

"Thirty years may have passed, but we are determined to provide this family with the answers which will give them some sense of closure," Detective Superintendent Beresford said.

The NSW Government has put up a $250,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person/s responsible for Trudie's suspected death.

Members of the public can provide information to Strike Force Keldie detectives by contacting their nearest police station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Callers can remain anonymous and information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Cold case murder trail leads police to NZ

New South Wales detectives will arrive in New Zealand today as part of a cold case investigation into the disappearance of a Sydney teenager 30 years ago.

Trudie Adams disappeared in June 1978 after she went dancing with her boyfriend at Sydney's Newport surf club.

Extensive searches were conducted in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park at the time of her disappearance.

NSW homicide squad commander Geoff Beresford says they are aiming to speak to a person of interest who now lives in New Zealand.

He says there is a $250,000 reward for information which results in an arrest.

"We're hoping that will provide an incentive certainly for someone to come forward," he said.

Gangs quizzed over Sydney cold case

A group of men who called themselves "The Roseland Lads" were once questioned over the suspected murder of a Sydney teenager more than 30 years ago, an inquest has heard.

Trudie Adams was seen on June 24, 1978, leaving a dance at the Newport Surf Life Saving Club in a fawn or beige-coloured van. She was never heard from again.

An inquest began yesterday into the case, which heard that two groups of unconnected men were once at the centre of the investigation.

The Roseland Lads owned two vehicles linked to the crime and were in the area at the time of Ms Adams' disappearance, the Daily Telegraph reports.

A source told police that two men were involved in the disappearance, and that she had been raped before being hit on the head with "a spanner".

Another witness told police the Roseland Lads said that if another woman "didn't come up to scratch she would get what Trudie Adams got".

The other group — linked to a series of violent sex attacks across NSW between 1971 and 1978 — was led by criminal Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson.

Tween is currently in prison over a $7 million cocaine importation racket. Among his other crimes was abducting and sexually assaulting a man at gunpoint in 1975.

The inquest heard the attack against the man was similar to those against 14 other women in the area and believed to have culminated in the abduction and suspected murder of Ms Adams.

"She has not been seen — by anyone who cares, anyway — since," said counsel assisting coroner Peter Hamill SC.

"The overwhelming likelihood is Trudie met with foul play early that morning, administered by the person or persons who picked her up on Barrenjoey Rd."

Policeman names suspect in Adams inquest

A police investigator has told an inquest he believes he knows who is responsible for the disappearance of a girl on Sydney's Northern Beaches in 1978.

Trudie Adams was 18 years old when she went missing after a dance at Newport Surf Club.

Detective Senior Constable Gavin McKean has told Glebe Coroners Court he thinks Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson, is responsible for what happened to Miss Adams.

Detective McKean says 14 women came forward after Miss Adams went missing, describing similar sexual assaults involving being blindfolded and held at gun point.

But he has admitted that a number of the women were unable to identify Tween as their attacker.

Carefree beach lifestyle hid sinister crimes

THE night she went dancing at the Newport surf club, Trudie Adams asked her mother to wait up for her. The 18-year-old never came home.

An inquest into her disappearance in 1978 heard there was a dark side to the carefree lifestyle enjoyed in those days on the northern beaches, with 14 young women reporting they were abducted and raped before Ms Adams's suspected murder.

The attacks began in 1971 and ended when Ms Adams, a business student, went missing on June 25, 1978.

Two groups of men emerged as possible suspects in her disappearance, the State Coroners Court in Glebe heard yesterday. One is believed responsible for the string of sex attacks. Members of the other group, the Roselands Lads, allegedly talked of their involvement in her abduction.

Ms Adams's father, Charles, and brother, John, were joined at the inquest by her boyfriend at the time, Steven Norris. After Ms Adams left the club about midnight, Mr Norris saw her get into a light-coloured panel van, though police initially identified the vehicle as a green Kombi van.

"The overwhelming likelihood is that Trudie met with foul play that morning,'' Peter Hamill, SC, assisting the coroner, said.

Among the ''persons of interest'' is Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson, who is in prison over a $7 million cocaine importation. His ''diverse and lengthy criminal history'' included offences against a young man who was abducted, handcuffed and sexually assaulted at gunpoint in bushland off Mona Vale Road in 1975.

The attack was strikingly similar to those reported by young women hitch-hiking in the area. Many were blindfolded, handcuffed and threatened with firearms by assailants wearing false beards and wigs.

One Tween associate was found in 1978 with wigs, false beards and firearms. Another, Len Evans, was in Long Bay jail when Ms Adams disappeared; he allegedly boasted to a fellow inmate about committing rapes with Mr Tween in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, giving details ''chillingly reminiscent'' of what happened to the 14 victims, Mr Hamill said.

Newspaper reports suggested the NSW Crime Commission had been approached with information about Ms Adams in an effort to seal a deal on drug charges for a Tween associate. But a deputy state coroner, Scott Mitchell, was told that secrecy provisions prevent officers disclosing information except where necessary for a prosecution.

While Mr Hamill said it was ''somewhat unsatisfactory'', it was unknown whether the commission had information that could help the inquest.

Mr Mitchell may consider recommending the provisions be relaxed to allow a coroner access to information on a suspected homicide.

The inquest heard that members of the Roselands Lads owned a panel van and green Kombi. Some were in the Newport area the night Ms Adams disappeared and allegedly bragged about picking her up, saying she was run over or killed trying to escape a sexual assault.

Mr Hamill said the inquest would consider if there was substance to the ''admissions''.

"Career criminal" Neville Tween, also known as John David Anderson, was a significant drug dealer during the 1990s and had a close relationship with a senior crime investigator, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Former NSW police detective Gavin McKean told the inquest he interviewed the more senior officer in 2009 to gain information about Tween.

Tween is serving an 18-year sentence for a conspiracy to import $7 million worth of cocaine, for which his son, 32, was also convicted.

In 1975, Tween and co-accused Garry Batt were convicted over the abduction and rape of a man on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Mr McKean told Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell yesterday he believed Tween was responsible for the disappearance of Ms Adams, who was last seen hitching a lift in a fawn-coloured panel van after a dance at Newport Surf Club, as well as 14 abductions and rapes with striking similarities during the 1970s.

In almost all instances the women were abducted by two men from Barrenjoey Rd, near the Newport Hotel, handcuffed, their eyes taped or blindfolded, and were driven to bushland where they were threatened with a firearm and raped. Tween was never charged over any of the rapes.

Ms Adams' father Charles yesterday recalled the last time he saw Ms Adams: "She kissed me on the forehead and she said, 'I won't be late'."

Coroner told of Bali drug mule rumours

A BOYFRIEND of the missing teenager Trudie Adams said yesterday that when he followed her out of the Newport surf club on the night she disappeared in 1978, it was because he was concerned for her safety and not because he was upset over their break-up.

Steven Anthony Norris, who had a steady relationship with Ms Adams for 18 months, said they had had a blazing row a few days earlier, when her father had told him to leave. Mr Norris said the row was probably associated with their break-up.

Mr Norris said that in the 1970s he had been a ''fairly light'' smoker of marijuana and had smoked it with Ms Adams.

But he denied he had been a drug ''mule'', that he had brought drugs back, that he had been set up and threatened over drugs, or that he had told someone he came back with a stash of ''Thai sticks'', being marijuana.

Mr Norris said that on June 27, 1978, he had seen Ms Adams at the Newport Arms Hotel and again at the surf club. He had asked her ''a couple of times'' for a dance but she refused.

In answer to Peter Hamill, SC, counsel assisting the coroner's inquest into the disappearance, Mr Norris said he had been drinking but he did not think his emotions were inflamed by alcohol.

He had not been watching her or who she danced with. He had no knowledge that she might have had an interest in another boy, Steve Bryant.

He had gone after her because he was concerned for her safety. He did not think she was trying to get away from him.

But within seconds a beige or fawn-coloured Holden panel van, probably a 1977 model, picked her up.

Mr Norris said he caught a lift to Avalon and went to her home but she did not arrive and has never been seen again.

He said he could not remember telling police about an argument he and Ms Adams had about six months earlier, when they had ''come to blows''.

Paradise lost: northern beaches' dirty secret

A coroner's inquest into the 1978 disappearance of Trudie Adams has reopened old wounds and drawn attention to a darker side of the carefree beach culture, writes Damien Murphy.

Golden-haired girls standing out on Barrenjoey Road hitching, blond young men paddling into sparkling waves at Whale Beach Wedge, barefoot Avalon primary kids bringing dogs to school, and everywhere, cloaking ocean headlands and Pittwater's shores, the dark, silent bush.

Thirty-three years ago people on Sydney's northern beaches joked they lived on the ''insular peninsula'' but thought it heaven on earth. At Newport, they even had a name for it, Paradise Beach.

Suddenly an invisible worm was exposed at the heart of northern beaches style.

A coroner's inquest into her disappearance began this week. Sad wounds were reopened and police named an elderly prisoner as prime suspect.

The historian Margo Beasley believes Trudie Adams is emblematic of a dark secret beneath surface glitter. The City of Sydney historian spent her teenage years on the northern beaches and has made a study of sexual and social relationships in surf culture.

''We forget just how brutally masculine much of Australian life was back then,'' Dr Beasley said. ''Life might have seemed free and easy, but it was very different for many girls and young women on the northern beaches. No one spoke of rape. The sexual violence was not visible. But there were abortions, many disappeared for months to have unwanted babies adopted out. There were extraordinary high levels of unreported gang rapes and group sex. Sad little girls, unloved … lots were foster kids.''

Nat Young grew up at Collaroy and provided an insight into the northern beaches zeitgeist in his 1998 autobiography Nat's Nat and That's That: A Surfing Legend:

''The Grunter was really into group sex and we all greeted her with open flies every time we saw her getting off the school bus. This began happening a few times a week on a regular basis, then every weekend when all the crew at Collaroy would join the queue … Other girls from our beach started to get a bit jealous of all the attention the Grunter was getting and some decided it was better to join her if they couldn't beat her. The competition was terrific. 'Brenda the Bender', 'Sally Apple Bowels', the list got longer and longer and we had plenty of activity down at the beach in between riding waves.''

The Queensland criminologist Paul Wilson thought Trudie Adams integral to an era when the beach was evolving into the national persona.

The 18-year-old Avalon business student disappeared just as the northern beaches' easy embrace of sex, dope and rock and roll unravelled. Drugs were claiming leading surfers, NSW royal commissions were putting the squeeze on marijuana, AIDS was not far ahead and Ivan Milat was yet to turn hitch-hiking into a life-threatening form of transport.

''In a broad sense you could draw a line between Wanda beach, the disappearance of the Beaumont children, the Truro murders and Leigh Leigh and see them as all part of Australia's emerging engagement with the beach and a less stringent lifestyle,'' Professor Wilson said.

''Certainly these things had happened in towns, cities and the bush. But the rise of the beach gave people a new world: a chance to lose inhibitions, it's a place of display yet paradoxically amid all that freedom and beauty, it can be violent. It makes people think they can get away with murder.''

The northern beaches lifestyle also attracted men from outside hunting easy prey. The inquest heard the ''Roseland Lads'' gang was prowling the peninsula the night Trudie Adams vanished.

''Hitch-hiking was a way of life,'' Dr Beasley said. ''Public transport was abysmal, you had to wait hours sometimes. If somebody pulled up at a bus stop and offered a ride, you took it.''

Trudie Adams left home about 7 pm, hitched to a friend's house, walked to the Newport Hotel, and got a lift to a dance at the Newport Surf Life Saving Club.

Her recently dumped boyfriend Steve Norris saw her leave. He followed her to Barrenjoey Road and watched her thumb a lift in a brown 1977 Holden panel van. A fellow student at Barrenjoey High School, Carolyn Drake, told the inquest yesterday she had picked up Trudie and dropped her at her home after ''telling her off'' for hitch-hiking.

Police named Neville Tween, 70, as prime suspect. A police informer serving an 18-year sentence at Long Bay for conspiracy to import $7 million worth of cocaine in 2006, Tween was convicted of abducting a man and forcing fellatio and other acts at gunpoint in local bushland in 1975.

Police consider Tween's modus operandi evident in 14 abductions and rapes around the northern beaches between 1971 and 1979. Women were picked up along Barrenjoey Road, handcuffed, blindfolded and driven to bushland where they were threatened with a firearm and raped. The attacks stopped when Tween left the area.

Tween cannot give closure to those who grieve for Trudie Adams. He has dementia.

Detective doubts inquest claim

Amanda Murphy, who now has the surname Smith, has given evidence today at an inquest into the disappearance and suspected murder of 18-year-old Ms Adams in June 1978.

Ms Murphy, then aged 16, said she finished a shift at Newport's Kentucky Fried Chicken shop at 9pm on the night of June 24.

She told Glebe Coroner's Court she left work and decided to hitch a lift to the Newport Arms Hotel - otherwise a 20 minute walk - because she was rushing to meet up with her boyfriend, who she jokingly said she wanted to "protect" from other girls.

Adams inquest suspect claims being set up

A man police suspect was involved in the disappearance of Sydney woman Trudie Adams has told an inquest he has been set up over a string of crimes.

Glebe Coroner's Court has heard that 70-year-old Neville Tween, also known as John Anderson, is a suspect in the disappearance of Trudie Adams.

The 18-year-old was last seen leaving Newport Surf Club in Sydney's north in 1978.

Tween's evidence to the inquest today lead to an angry exchange with the Coroner.

Currently serving a jail sentence for drug offences, Tween told the inquest that police have set him up on a string of criminal offences that he has been convicted of since the age of nine.

Tween said that, although police also suspect he was involved in a number of abductions and rapes on the Northern Beaches, "their red hot case is just speculation".

When pressed about some of his vague answers to questions Tween said the speculation has damaged his reputation.

Coroner Scott Mitchell then snapped back, "you haven't seen anything yet" and told the witness the real damage will be if the inquest finds he is linked to Trudie Adams' disappearance.

Earlier Tween told the court he was not an angel but that police had framed him for a number of crimes.

His response was to a question from the council assisting, "do you agree you've led a life of crime?"

The inquest heard Tween has a number of convictions that include theft, and drug offences.

He is now serving an 11-year jail sentence for drug offences and is being held in the Long Bay Prison Hospital.

He told the Counsel Assisting he has not obtained legal advice because he cannot afford it

Adams inquest told suspect is a sexual deviant

An inquest has heard that a man police suspect was involved in the disappearance of Sydney woman Trudie Adams, is a sexual deviant.

The 18-year-old student disappeared after leaving a dance at the Newport Surf Club in Sydney's north in the early hours of June 25, 1978.

Glebe Coroner's Court has heard that, although her body has never been found, police suspect 70-year-old Neville Tween (also known as John Anderson), who is in jail for drug offences, may have been involved in her disappearance.

Garry James Batt, who served a six month jail sentence for abducting and sexually assaulting a male victim with Neville Tween in 1975, told the court that Tween asked him to bring the victim to bushland in Kuringai National Park, north of Sydney.

He said Tween thought the male victim had cheated him in a $200 drug deal involving marijuana 'cut with parsley'.

The witness said he assumed Tween would "give him a backhander and tell him the error of his ways", but instead he terrorised the victim with a sub machine gun, forcing him to strip and dig his own grave.

Garry Batt said he fled to Melbourne after serving his sentence because in jail Tween told him "If you don't disappear, I'll make you disappear".

Former detective Gavin McKean has previously told the inquest he thought Tween was responsible for Trudie Adams' murder and the abduction and rape of several other female hitchhikers.

One-time criminal Gary Batt has told how his former associate Neville Tween - named as a person of interest in Ms Adams' disappearance - "went well over the top" in the pair's sex attack on a young man and Batt had later feared for his own safety.

"If something would have happened, he [Tween] would not have left any witnesses," Batt told Glebe Coroners Court. Tween, also known as John Anderson, is currently in jail for importing cocaine. He is due to give evidence at the inquest today.

Tween's ex-wife Dulcie Anderson testified he had been violent towards her in their marriage but said she knew nothing about his sexual offending.

Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell has been told 18-year-old Ms Adams was last seen leaving the Newport Surf Club, on Sydney's Northern Beaches, after midnight on June 25, 1978.

Tween also has been named as a suspect in relation to a number of sexual assaults in the Northern Beaches area in the years before Ms Adams went missing.

Batt told the inquest he and Tween each served six months in jail after pleading guilty to procuring a male for an indecent purpose in July 1975.

The young man - who had ripped off Tween in a drug deal - was abducted, handcuffed and sexually assaulted at gunpoint in bushland in Sydney's north.

Batt said he had been friends with Tween since they met in a boy's home in 1955 until Tween went "a bit crazy".

After the attack on the young man, Batt formed the view Tween was a sexual deviant. Batt said he fled to Melbourne after serving his sentence as Tween had threatened him in jail.

FORCING a man at gunpoint to dig his own grave, dress in women's underwear and perform fellatio was no big deal for Neville Tween, the chief suspect in the murder of Sydney woman Trudie Adams.

"There was no violence or harm done to him," Tween told a coronial inquest in Sydney yesterday.

"It was no big deal and this guy obviously wasn't terrorised."

Tween, who was armed with a submachine gun during the 1975 attack, even joked that he had to force the man to take his clothes off, because "how else would I put the woman's dress on him?"

The 70-year-old, who is serving an 18-year sentence for a $7 million cocaine importation plot, was giving evidence at an inquest at Glebe Coroners Court into the death of Adams in 1978.

Tween is the chief suspect in Adams's disappearance and police also believe he is responsible for the rape and abduction of 14 other women on the northern peninsula of Sydney in the 1970s.

Former NSW Police detective Gavin McKean last week told the court that the modus operandi in the 14 other incidents was strikingly similar to the attack with the submachine gun and all the incidents occurred during the rare periods when Tween was out of jail.

Tween smirked when the submachine gun attack was related to the court. And he laughed when counsel assisting the coroner Peter Hamill SC said that by "the ripe old age of 10" Tween had already racked up numerous offences.

"For a couple of lollies from Woolworths," Tween scoffed.

THE prime suspect in the abduction and murder of Trudie Adams appeared in court today admitting he was "no angel" but claiming to have no memory of the 1970s when the Sydney teenager disappeared.

Neville Tween, 70, was called to give evidence at an inquest into Adams's disappearance on June 25, 1978.

Tween, who is presently serving an 18-year-sentence for a $7 million cocaine importation plot, was described as a "loose cannon" in the witness box by counsel assisting the coroner Peter Hamill SC.

At times Tween refused to answer questions and spoke over the top of Mr Hamill, raising the ire of deputy state coroner Scott Mitchell.

"The way it works is (Mr Hamill) asks the questions, not you. I have been pretty tolerant," Mr Mitchell said.

Tween smirked as Mr Hamill described an assault in 1975 in which Tween and accomplice Garry Batt forced a young man at gunpoint to perform fellatio while he took photos of the act.

"There was no violence or harm done to him," Tween said.

Tween then asked if he could view the Polaroids he had taken of the incident so he could see the reaction on the young man's face, claiming, "Oh, no it's not a turn-on."

Mr Mitchell denied that request.

Mr Hamill told the inquest that Tween began his criminal career at the age of nine and by the "ripe old age" of 10 he had racked up about seven break and enter offences.

Tween chuckled to himself and said, "a couple of lollies from Woolworths".

Last week former NSW police detective Gavin McKean told the court he believed career criminal Tween was guilty of Adams's murder as well as the abduction and rape of 14 other women.

Tween criticised the police investigation, which named him as a "red hot suspect".

"Where's all the evidence of 30 years . . . 30 years is a very long time and not to even interview me . . . and yet you are putting me up in the papers and all that as the first suspect . . . come on, give me a fair go."

Tween was only lost for words when questioned about where he was in March 1971, when two young hitchhikers were abducted at gunpoint and raped, and the rest of his time in the 1970s.

"My memory is not the best," Tween said.

"I would not remember one day, let alone one week or a very special event. I lived a very sedate life".

After two hours of questioning, Tween then demanded "legal representation".

"I want to get some legal assistance here," he said.

"We have gone through all this crap . . . and yet not one word has been said about (Adams)."

Tween declined to answer any more questions at which point Mr Mitchell adjourned the inquest until 2pm today.

Police believe a Sydney northern beaches rape culture led to the teenager's disappearance

WALLABIES leap through the long grass, native blossoms sway in the breeze and the throb of cicadas fills the air in a clearing beside a winding bush trail in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park north of Sydney.

But for former NSW police detective Gavin McKean, this is no bush idyll. Beneath the buzz of overhead powerlines, McKean sees a devil's playground where he believes Neville Tween and three accomplices raped and threatened young female hitchhikers during a reign of terror in the 1970s.

McKean's suspicions were made public last week at an inquest at Glebe Coroner's Court into the suspected rape and murder of Sydney teenager Trudie Adams in June 1978.

McKean and Detective Senior Constable Nicole Jones of the Unsolved Homicide Squad were assigned the cold case of Adams's disappearance in 2007. The pair spent over two years devoted to the task before the case was referred to the coroner late last year.

"I strongly believe that Trudie Adams was kidnapped off the street by Tween and [Raymond] Johnson for the purpose of sexual assault," McKean wrote in a statement tendered to the court.

"I believe that something went wrong as the two men went about the business of sexually assaulting Adams and she has been killed."

Johnson took whatever secrets he had to the grave in October last year. Tween, now known as John David Anderson, is serving an 18-year sentence for a 2006 conspiracy to import $7 million worth of cocaine, for which his son, Michael, 32, was also convicted.

The 70-year-old appeared at the inquest on Wednesday. He was a difficult witness, at times denying proven evidence, laughing at descriptions of his life in crime and making "convenient omissions" from his testimony.

"My memory is not the best," Tween said. "I would not remember one day, let alone one week or a very special event. I lived a very sedate life."

The court has heard Tween was born in 1940. At 14 he was sent to a boys home and upon his release followed his family to the Riverina region of NSW.

Police investigating the disappearance of Adams were able to trace Tween's whereabouts through his lengthy custodial history. Tween married his first wife, Dulcie, in 1973 while in custody in South Australia for hotel breaks and larceny.

The couple moved to the northern beaches region of Sydney on his release in 1974 and settled with their two small children in Booralie Street, Terrey Hills, not far from the devil's playground.

The trail that leads to Tween begins in July 1975, when he and accomplice Garry Batt were sold a dodgy marijuana deal by Sydney man Paul Whittaker.

Batt told the inquest Tween ordered him to collect Whittaker and bring him to a clearing in the national park, just off Mona Vale Road near the St Ives Showground. Batt thought they would just give Whittaker a "backhander"to show him the error of his ways. Tween had other ideas.

When Batt and Whittaker arrived in the bush they were met by Tween, who was wearing a motorcycle helmet and was armed with a sub-machinegun with a bayonet attached. At gunpoint Whittaker was forced to dig his own grave, take his clothes off, dress in women's underwear and fellate Batt, while Tween took photographs with a Polaroid camera.

Tween joked about the incident in court this week and claimed it was "no big deal".

"There was no violence or harm done to him," Tween said. "The guy obviously wasn't terrorised."

Whittaker told police Batt said: "That c . . . [Tween] is mad, he picked up two sheilas hitching, took them up there and we got a lot of good pictures of them."

When Whittaker took detectives to the bushland crime scene, officers discovered a pink bra, a pair of women's underpants, a carry-bag containing two pairs of replica handcuffs, one spent 9mm cartridge shell as well as bottles of spirits and wine secreted in holes.

Tween and Batt were imprisoned over the assault of Whittaker and released in 1977.

On the evening of June 24, 1978, Trudie Adams kissed her father, John, on the forehead, told her mother, Constance, to wait up for her and left her Avalon home on Sydney's northern beaches for a night out with friends.

Adams, 18, had graduated from school a year earlier and was taking a secretarial course and saving for a trip to Bali in August.

There wasn't a regular bus service on the northern peninsula, so teenagers would hitchhike. . That night was no different.

The court heard Adams drank with friends at the Newport Arms Hotel, and when that closed the group moved on to the Newport Surf Club. At about 12.30pm Adams, who was feeling unwell after receiving vaccination shots for her Bali trip, left to hitch a ride home on Barrenjoey Road.

Steven Norris, who until that week was Adams's boyfriend, watched her cross the road and almost immediately saw a light-coloured 1977 Holden panel van pull up alongside her. The car drove off and Adams was gone.

Her disappearance made headlines and sparked the biggest police search in the state's history. Between June 27 and August 10, 1978, police and volunteers conducted 15 searches. But Adams's body was never found.

Her disappearance prompted 14 women to report rapes and attempted abductions in the northern beaches during the 70s. In almost all instances, the modus operandi was strikingly similar to the abduction and assault of Whittaker, the Coroner's Court was told. The women were hitchhiking and picked up in a car by two men, threatened with firearms, handcuffed and driven down a bush track where, aftertheir eyes had been taped shut, they were raped.

In some cases Polaroid photographs were taken of the assaults. Their attackers offered the girls marijuana or alcohol before taking their identification details and dropping them close to home, with the threat that their families would be killed if they told the to police.

Some of the women identified Tween as their attacker, but said they didn't want to press charges and only came forward in a bid to help the investigation into Adams's disappearance.

Even with a positive identification, counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Hamill SC, said the mugshot techniques used by the police at the time would not pass muster in a court today.

The sexual assaults began in March 1971, while Tween was in Sydney, and stopped when he was incarcerated in South Australia between September 1971 and September 1974, and in NSW between 1975 and 77. Shortly after Adams's disappearance, Tween moved to the NSW central coast.

McKean believes he was trying to lie low and said no rapes with the same signature method were reported after he left. He believes Tween's co-offenders in the rapes were Johnson, Batt and Len Evans. Batt appeared at the inquest on Tuesday. Outside court he said he didn't know if Tween was responsible for Adams's murder, but believed he was capable of it. Evans, who now lives in New Zealand, denies taking part in the rapes.

Tween told the court this week that allegations he was a "red-hot suspect" were all part of a "police set-up". "Where's all the evidence of 30 years?" he said. "Thirty years is a very long time . . . and yet you are putting me up in the papers as the first suspect . . . come on, give me a fair go."

With each passing year, the likelihood of a conviction diminishes. Thirty years after Adams's disappearance, McKean looked for swabs taken from some of the 70s rape victims, but that evidence, which may have held crucial DNA, had been disposed of.

Even if deputy state coroner Scott Mitchell refers the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions for charges against a known person, investigators are likely to hit the same obstacles.

McKean and Jones interviewed Tween at Long Bay prison in 2009 in the hope that, facing the rest of his life in prison, he would confess to killing Adams and allow her family some peace.

As at the inquest, Tween denied any knowledge of Adams's death. "After the interview it was mentioned to Tween . . . that it could be the case that whoever killed Trudie did so by accident and never meant it to happen [and] this would put a different slant on things," McKean told the court.

"Tween's face changed and he took a long pause, saying words similar to, 'Yes, I guess that would.' "

The inquest has been adjourned until March 21.

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