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Today's episode deals with a crime committed against a child that won't be suitable for

all listeners.

On June 1, 1960, 37-year-old Basil Thorn was 450 kilometres from Sydney's Bondi Beach

where he rented a flat with his family. He was in the small town of Gunnada in the northeast

of New South Wales. Basil worked on the road as a travelling

salesman in a partnership with his father and was often away. His wife Frida was at home

with their three-year-old daughter Belinda and their eight-year-old son Graham, who attended

school at Scotts College in Bellevue Hill, just north of Bondi. The Thorns also had an older

daughter Cheryl, who was born with a disability and permanently cared for in an institution.

There was an ordinary week for the Thorns, with Basil on the road and Frida at home looking

after the family. Basil was riding orders in the store in Gunnada when a newspaper reporter

called looking for him. He picked up the receiver and listened as the reporter told him, he had

just won the lottery. At first, Basil didn't believe it, though when the men on the other

...