A heinous double-murder haunts the annals of Australian justice.
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In the quiet early hours of October 12, 1988, an ambush in the upscale Melbourne suburb of South Yarra shattered Australia’s sense of calm. Two young police constables, Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre, responded to what seemed like a routine call about an abandoned vehicle on Walsh Street. Within minutes, both officers lay dead in the gutter – executed at close range in a meticulously planned attack. What followed was a high-profile investigation, an explosive trial, and decades of lingering suspicion that justice may never have truly been served.
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Criminals Set a Trap for Constables
The Walsh Street Massacre, as it came to be known, was not just a brazen killing of law enforcement officers – it was a declaration of war on the police by elements of Melbourne’s violent underworld. The slain officers had been lured into a trap, their deaths widely believed to be a calculated act of retribution for the earlier killing of a notorious armed robber, Graeme Jensen, by Victoria Police. Jensen was a member of a feared criminal syndicate led by Victor Peirce and his brother-in-law, Jason Ryan – part of the infamous Pettingill crime family.
The Pettingills were already a name that conjured fear and notoriety in Melbourne’s criminal landscape. Matriarch Kath Pettingill, a one-eyed former brothel owner, presided over a sprawling clan involved in drugs, theft, and gangland violence. Her sons and their associates were known to be ruthless, and some had openly vowed revenge for Jensen’s death.
The methodical nature of the Walsh Street ambush stunned investigators. The perpetrators had staged a stolen car near the intersection of Walsh and Powlett Streets, waited for a police response, and then opened fire with a shotgun and high-powered rifles. Tynan was killed instantly. Eyre was wounded but allegedly finished off with a shot to the head at point-blank range.
Investigation, Arrests, and Trial
The investigation quickly honed in on members of the Pettingill circle. In 1991, four men – Victor Peirce, Anthony Farrell, Peter McEvoy, and Trevor Pettingill – were charged with the murders. (Two other suspects, Jedd Houghton and Gary Abdallah, were killed by police in unrelated incidents before the trial began.)
The prosecution’s case in the Walsh Street Massacre rested almost entirely on the testimony of one man: Jason Ryan, who had turned state’s witness against his own family. He claimed to have witnessed the planning of the ambush and the disgusting celebrations afterwards. But his reliability was a matter of contention at trial.
Despite Ryan’s testimony and corroborating evidence, all four men were acquitted after a sensational trial. Defense lawyers attacked Ryan’s credibility, painting him as a self-interested informant with a history of drug use and criminality. Without conclusive forensic evidence tying the accused to the scene, reasonable doubt prevailed.
Aftermath
The acquittals sparked outrage and grief within the Victoria Police and broader community. Many saw the verdict as a miscarriage of justice – a failure to protect those who served. For the families of Tynan and Eyre, the pain of loss was compounded by the knowledge that no one had been held accountable.
Slain police constables Steven Tynan (l.) and Damian Eyre (r.) (Source: Wikipedia)
In later years, a quiet admission would only deepen the controversy. In 2005, during interviews for a true-crime book, one of the acquitted men, Victor Peirce, reportedly confessed to his role in the killings. He would himself be gunned down in 2002 in a gangland hit, part of a bloody cycle of vengeance chronicled in Melbourne’s underworld history.
The Walsh Street Massacre remains one of the darkest chapters in Australia’s law enforcement annals. It was a chilling reminder that beneath the surface of Melbourne’s civility lay a world where power was brokered in blood, and loyalty was often a fatal gamble. For the fallen officers, justice remains elusive – but their names endure as a symbol of duty met with the ultimate sacrifice.
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Title Image: A peaceful street in South Yarra (Credit: Andrew Owens, via Wikimedia Commons)
