Shortcut: How did this Australian die in South African police custody?

Australian True Crime

Meshel Laurie

True Crime

4.6 • 979 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is a "Shortcut" episode. It’s a shortened version of this week’s more detailed full episode, which is also available on our feed.

In 1995, Adrian Pendergast accepted an exciting job opportunity in South Africa. Less than a week after he got there, he was found dead in a jail cell.

For almost 30 years, his family have been trying to understand what happened and how he died. But it seems that everything new that they learn, it only leads to more questions.

Our guest today is Adrian's younger sister, Courtney.

Courtney only got to know her older brother until she was 15. She has asked for our listener's to reach out if anyone knows anything about Adrian. If that's you, please contact us at [email protected]

For Support:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples)

1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram

Guest: Courtney Pendergast

Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We're bringing Australian True Crime live to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne this July,
0:04.3	and I have to tell you that Brisbane sold out already.
0:07.4	Good for you, Brisbane, so we've quickly added a second show.
0:10.3	Now we can't keep adding more shows, so please make sure you get your tickets. Our special guests,
0:15.2	our forensic criminologist Santee Mallet in Brisbane and Sydney and the one and only Charlie Bazzina in
0:19.9	Melbourne. There'll be a Q&A of course so you can ask your own burning questions on the night but you have to book quickly.
0:26.0	This is a true crime podcast as the title suggests.
0:29.0	So please consider this your warning that it's not suitable for children and it probably will
0:33.8	contain content that may be triggering to some people. Also it's an Australian
0:38.4	true crime podcast so Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
0:42.0	listeners should be aware it may contain the voices of deceased people.
0:47.0	The producers of this podcast recognize the traditional owners of the land on which it's recorded.
0:59.0	They pay respect to the Aboriginal elders past, present and those emerging. Courtney Pentagust's brother Adrian accepted an exciting job opportunity in South Africa in 1995.
1:20.0	Less than a week after he got there, he was found dead in a jail cell.
1:25.0	For almost 30 years now, his family has been trying to understand what happened and
1:29.6	how he died.
1:31.4	But as you're about to discover, the South African legal system has some peculiarities that
1:36.2	have made obtaining even the most basic details all but impossible. So he was at Melbourne uni, so he was at Melbourne uni so he was living in Colin Wood.
1:51.7	So I went to Melbourne un Union and did an engineering degree. He was always seemed
1:56.0	happy go lucky. He drank, just a social drinker, party, footy, played a lot of hockey, loved hockey.
2:03.3	So what was the job that he went for in South Africa?
2:06.0	He was a computer engineer and they were working on building bridges over there.
	...

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