The podcast that we're featuring today is called Australian True Crime.

Posted by True Crime fanatic Michelle Laurie and True Crime author Emily Webb,

Australian True Crime is an interview-based podcast that goes beyond the news cycle

to probe the underbelly of their towns and suburbs and uncover the darkness at the heart of Australian life.

The episode we are playing is an abridged version of a full length episode

that of course can be found on their podcast feed.

What you'll need to know for this episode is that their anonymous guest grew up in a rural

town called Tuwomba in the States of Queensland. He thought he'd seen his fair share of violence

and mayhem by the time he'd sobered up in his mid-twenties, but this episode explores the terrible

turn of events that landed him back in the middle of incredibly senseless violence,

just as he was pulling his life together. On the evening of May 30th 2005,

three teenage boys brutally murdered 30-year-old Michael Thompson and teenagers David Lyons and Tyson

Wilson both just 17. The guest who was on his way to Thompson's flat was distracted that night

by an old friend. It was a distraction that may well have saved his life, but it's also left him

guilt-ridden ever since. Michelle and Emily begin with their guest from Tuwomba detailing his

early life. I had a bit of trouble at school, not a significant amount until towards the end of

primary school and then in the early high school I started getting a lot more trouble at school,

but was a thief. We always had everything we needed growing up, but we didn't necessarily have

everything we wanted. I don't know, I just worked out that I was, I could steal these things.

It is very definitely not the way I was raised, but it just, it happened and I could do it.

My first year at high school, 12-year-old kid and I'm doing breaking in, I'm canteen on the weekend.

That's why I ended up at Boystown. How long were you in Boystown for?

...