Richard Baker: This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to elders past and present and recognise their continuous connection to culture. We would also like to thank the people of Norfolk Island, Aotearoa, New Zealand and the Pacific for
allowing their storys to be told. Monday morning For a policeman on Norfolk island is almost always extremely quiet.
Dennis Murray: You might have had paperwork from the. Weekend,
Richard Baker: especially if the locals have had a dust up after a few too many.
Dennis Murray: Gun licencing. Drivers licences Meet every aircraft that came in and left.
Richard Baker: Dennis Muray was one of three Australian Federal Police officers posted to Norfolk Island in July 1985. On the morning of Monday, July 15, 1985, Dennis is futzing about the station when the phone rings at 11:15am. It's. Ted Forster, AFP Liaison Officer in Wellington, New Zealand. Ted tells Dennis
that there's a crew of Kiwi detectives and forensic officers on board a New Zealand Air Force plane heading for Norfolk Island. They're interested in a yacht called the Ouvea that's dropped anchor at Norfolk Island with four Frenchmen on board. It's got to do with the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior
five days earlier. Ted's parting instruction to Dennis
Dennis Murray: make sure they don't leave the island, make sure they don't get on the plane.
Richard Baker: In order to do that, Dennis has to find them first.
Maurice Witham: We had them linked with the Ouvea crew.
Chris Martin: We had to jump on an Air Force plane and fly and find them. And talk to them,
Dennis Murray: make sure they didn't go anywhere or if they did that they weren't going to go back out on that boat.
Maurice Witham: They're talking about checking in the doors of their two rooms.
Rhona: We had no idea what was about to unfold.
Richard Baker: This is Fallout Spies on Norfolk Island Episode 2 Kicking down doors in the wee hours of July 11, 1985, just after the Rainbow Warrior is sunk, 26 year old New Zealand detective Chris Martin goes to bed, desperately tired and hungover.
Chris Martin: I'd just spent five or six days in Brisbane extraditing a guy back to New Zealand I was absolutely shattered. I went to bed and about 2 o' clock in the morning the phone rang and it was a detective Senior Sergeant from Auckland Central who said, oh, Chris need you to come back to work. There's been
an explosion on a boat in the harbour.
Richard Baker: Driving to Marsden Wharf. Chris is thinking it's probably just a gas bottle gone off or something minor. But by daybreak...
Chris Martin: That's where it ranked. Up into it, you know, probably one of the biggest police inquiries New Zealand's ever had. Someone had come into an Auckland harbour and put a bomb on a boat. And then it was quite shocking at the time. It was, and then of course. Well, you think, who would want to stop
Greenpeace? The nuclear testing at Mururoa was quite topical at the time. Greenpeace were obviously causing quite a few problems and embarrassing the French.
Richard Baker: You'll remember Detective Inspector Morris Witham, the 2IC on the case, describing our supposed Swiss honeymooners, Alain and Sophie Turenge, who were really secret French agents. Alain Maffat and Dominique Prieur.
Maurice Witham: They admitted they were now a married couple, honeymooning and obviously that passports were false and that gave us quite a bit more to interview them about.
Richard Baker: Chris Martin conducted some of their interviews and got to observe the pair up close.
Chris Martin: Spent a lot of time with Alain Mafar. He was obviously a very hard man. He was very intelligent. When he was asked a question, he didn't blurt out an answer. He was very considered and only said the minimum. We had to strip search him at one stage initially and you know, took his shirt off, and he
had a huge scar down his chest, sort of like a zigzag thing that ran down to his groin and it was clearly not a surgical. It was, something had carved him up and I said to him, where did you get that? And he said, oh, I tripped and fell over, you know, he was. But it was. Whatever did that to him
nearly killed him, you know, it was that sort of wound. He was a major, I think, in the DGSE, so he had some quite high rank and he was quite sort of debonair. He obviously took pride in his appearance.
Richard Baker: Chris looks like he would have been a pretty tough guy in his day too. Now in his 60s, Chris has a solid build and a grey goatee. Dressed in board shorts and a black T shirt, he looks like an old school surfer. His house has an impressive view, overlooking some great waves at Waipu Cove, a two hour
drive up the coast from Auckland. After he makes me a coffee, I ask what he made of the French couple. Although Chris was impressed with Alain's tough guy scars and elegant appearance, there were a few aspects of his craft he thought fell short. One was his lack of affection for his supposed new
Chris Martin: The thing that was very obvious from the start was him and Dominique Prieur were pretending to be a married couple. And they clearly weren't. You know, if you and your wife were in an overseas country, returning your camper van and suddenly five big detectives jump on you and throw you the bag of
cars and take you back to a police station, you'd be guarding your wife or your partner, you know, going, what's happening? There was none of that. They were like, cool. And even when they'd been allowed back together after several hours apart, there was no hugging or anything. They were in
Richard Baker: The other thing Chris was disappointed with was the couple's habit of waiting to collect receipts, like the hundred dollar refund for returning the camper van to the hire company a day earlier. By taking her time to process that refund, Newman's rental staff member Becky was able to keep the French
couple in the office until police arrived.
Chris Martin: How uncool. You know, if you're a French agent and you're waiting around for a hundred dollar refund on deposit on your camper van. I was so disappointed in many aspects with the French because in my own experience, the secret agents have been James Bond films and these guys were just doing
everything wrong. I wonder if, you know, in the DGSE training school now, they put this up as an example to all the new boys and say, if you were going to blow up a ship in a foreign port, this is not what you did. Don't worry about the deposit. Get rid of your serial numbers. Had they gone
straight to the airport instead of stopping for their money, their hundred dollars or whatever, we would probably have never seen them again. At the Jumped on a plane.
Richard Baker: With Alain Mafar and Dominique Prieur now in custody, Chris is put on an Air Force plane to go to Norfolk island to catch up with Roland Verge, Jean Michel Bartelo, Gerald Andries and Dr. Xavier Maniguet. Before we get back to the action on Norfolk Island, I want to zoom out for a moment. There were
a range of responses to the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange publicly raised the prospect of politically motivated terrorism almost immediately. Australian PM Bob Hawke described it as an act of cold blooded terrorism. The US and UK, supposedly close allies of
New Zealand, were saying very little. Neither has any love for Greenpeace and the Kiwis are in the sin bin for banning nuclear armed and powered ships from their waters. A diplomat at the French embassy in New Zealand was quick to deny any French involvement, telling journalists that France doesn't
deal with her enemies in such a fashion. Soon, more senior French government leaders issued flat denials and elements in the French media began to publish storys speculating Britain's Foreign Intelligence Service, MI6 might be responsible, or that it was right wing mercenaries from New Caledonia or
Greenpeace in a deliberate act of self sabotage. Greenpeace is also publicly accused of having ties to the KGB, the Soviet Union's infamous spy agency. Whatever the truth, a big smokescreen has been put up. Behind the smoke, some of France's most powerful political figures are pointing fingers at
each other. For now, let's get back to Norfolk Island. Dennis Muray's on the hunt to find the four Frenchmen from the Ouvea He's got to make sure they don't leave until the plane carrying Chris Martin and the other Kiwi detectives arrives. Norfolk Island's small, but there's lots of remote coves and
heavily wooded areas to lay low in.
Dennis Muray: If they wanted to hide, they could have.
Richard Baker: You know, part of the story is where my hunch to go digging in the national archive pays dividends. There's a confidential seven page report that Dennis Boss on Norfolk Island, Sergeant Paul Macintosh wrote for his superiors. It gives a blow by blow account of what happened with the Frenchman.
Macintosh's report mentions one of the first things Dennis did was to go to see Kissard, Head of Customs on the island. He asks if there's anything under Norfolk Island's Customs act that will legally allow him to keep the Frenchman on the island. Kissard says there's nothing. Early in the
afternoon, Dennis and fellow Federal Police Senior Constable Ian Standish take a drive to a cliff top that overlooks Cascade Bay. They take cover and watch the Ouvea rolling about in the ocean. Suddenly, two men appear on deck and jump into a dinghy. The policemen watch them row ashore and get into
a car. Dennis goes to brief his boss, Sergeant Macintosh who in turn alerts the most senior person on Norfolk island, the Administrator, John Matthew, to what's going on. Matthew is a decorated Royal Australian Navy officer who went to work in one of our intelligence agencies before being posted to
Norfolk Island. Seems like the French aren't the only spies on the island. Another document in the national archive file I uncovered is a cable from Matthew to Canberra on July 15, 1985, to advise of the presence of the Frenchman and their yacht. It confirms that Matthew is worried. I have strong
doubts on the advisability of a party of AFP and NI police approaching by night or day if the crew are considered to be capable of armed retaliation. An alternative course would be investigation on high seas if a naval unit is available. I do not intend to allow any action by a boarding party until
approval is given by a Commonwealth Minister. Later that day, Administrator Matthew receives a confidential cable from Canberra authorised by Prime Minister Hawke's office. It states that New Zealand authorities should be helped within legal and safety limits and that anyone who crosses path with
the Frenchman should, I quote, emphasise, need for care on the physical safety question should it arise. Dennis Muray has no power to arrest or even question the Frenchman until the plane carrying Chris Martin and the other Kiwi detectives arrives. The New Zealanders need to give Norfolk Island
authorities probable cause for some criminal offence. And all Dennis can do for now is shadow the Frenchmen without alarming them and causing them to flee. Dennis looks and acts like a cop. If he gets too close, the Frenchman will spot him and know they're under surveillance. So he calls on the
handful of Norfolk island locals who look nothing like federal police officers who've been sworn in as special constables. the specials, as they're known, were needed to help cover major events, weekends and to generally give the three full time rostered AFP officers known as the Imports, an
occasional breather. the specials have the full powers of arrest when on duty. Dennis tells me the specials could be extra helpful to understand local rivalries and find dope crops.
Dennis Muray: They were mates with everyone on the island and they were respected.
Richard Baker: The specials were also handy when it came to busting up fights at drinking establishments, except for when they were in them. Dennis remembers getting a call from a publican late one night.
Dennis Muray: I got called Dennis. You get yourself up here. I got an all in bra. Oh, right, okay. I said, well, I'm going to have to give me bloody officers to come up and help me out. He said, help me out. They're up here f****** in the middle of it.
Richard Baker: One of the specials Dennis worked closely with is Norman Buffett, better known as Slick. They still keep in touch even though Dennis has been back in Australia 30 plus years. Slick invited me to come round to his house after his early afternoon snooze. How'd you get your nickname?
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: From the days of Brill Cream? When you plaster your head with Brill Cream and slick it all back,
Richard Baker: You must have been quite the stylish, the chap Slicks in his late seventies, still got good hair and a decent whiskey collection. He tells me he became a special constable in 1974 to help with a VIP visitor to Norfolk Island.
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: It was when the Queen came to visit and they were looking for extra police for that day. And I can remember down at Kingston there was a big gathering and they had walkways where the Queen and the. The Royal party came through and was greeting everybody and we were on point duty and old Phil came
Richard Baker: That's Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: and. To me, good afternoon. And he started chatting with me and he said, how long have you been with US Constabulary? I said, just a day And from there on. And I said, oh, what do you normally do? And I said, I'm normally a butcher
Richard Baker: The Slick and Sons butcher shop is famous for its small goods on Norfolk island and beyond.
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: We chatted there for a while and from then on I always used to call him old mate Phil.
Richard Baker: Slick decided he liked the job of being part time butcher, part time cop. Being a local meant Slick and the other specials could get information that Dennis and his AFP colleagues couldn't. When it came to searching for the Frenchman, Dennis called in one of Slick's mates, Ricky Quintal.
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: Well, Ricky was a special like me.
Richard Baker: Ricky's passed away so I can't get his story What sort of guy was he? Was he a good fellow?
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: Nice guy? Nice guy? He was. He was in the, I think the army and he was, he was a paratrooper.
Richard Baker: Maybe that's why he got that job, because he's a man of action.
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: Yeah, and he was quite a big guy. I think he was very capable.
Richard Baker: On the afternoon of Monday, July 15, 1985, Dennis, Constable Standish and Ricky Quintal are driving around Norfolk island looking for the Frenchman. They're not having any luck and at 5:30pm they find out they're now looking for three men, not four. Dr. Xavier Maniguet, the blond deep sea diving
medical specialist, pilot and shark expert, somehow slipped out on the 3:30pm flight to Sydney. By rights, he shouldn't have been allowed to leave. Someone stuffed up. The confidential police report I've got makes it clear that Norfolk Island police, customs and the administrator knew well before
that 3:30pm flight that the yacht Ouvea and its crew were of intense interest to Kiwi police. Maniguet had been issued with a three day visitor permit to Norfolk Island. Unlike the others, he was travelling under his real name and passport. As far as I can tell, no one's been held to account for
this mistake. Anyway, with Maniguet gone. The local police are wondering if the other three French agents have also slipped away. Australian policeman Dennis Muray
Dennis Muray: We knew nothing when he got on a plane and the other three probably could have done the same friggin thing and just left the yacht there. But if that was the case, I probably would have tried to hire a local fisherman to come and pick me up. 10 kilometres or 10 mile out. But you wouldn't have got a
local fisherman that would have kept his mouth shut because none of them knew how to keep their mouth shut. No one on the island could have kept that quiet.
Richard Baker: Authorities on Norfolk island are relieved when his compatriots Verge, Andries and Bartello are spotted at the South Pacific Resort. Despite their efforts to keep news of these exciting and potentially dangerous visitors to the island quiet, Kissard remembers
Alan 'Kissard' Buffett: The bush telegraph went wild and spread the word about the possible connection with the Ouvea
Richard Baker: As I make my way around the island, I find many people with memories of these Frenchmen from 40 years ago. There's Pete, who was working in the post office at the time.
Pete: We only heard about it because they're special and that, they said a few things to me up there but wasn't very much information.
Richard Baker: It seems the French mission was so premeditated and planned that one of the men on the Ouvea felt able to use Norfolk island as a forwarding address for his mail.
Norman 'Slick' Buffett: He had a moustache and a short beard. It's not long or anything and he had a moustache. I can't remember his name. It was on the envelope.
Richard Baker: Maybe it's just the way life was in 1985, when letters were the main way for people far apart to keep in touch. Still strikes me as a strange thing to do when you're in the middle of a top secret operation. Then there's Wes Cooper, one of Kisard's colleagues at Customs, who had an uneasy flight
feeling about the crew of four who'd returned to Norfolk island just days after the Rainbow Warrior bombing.
Wes Cooper: I certainly remember them standing outside of our office, which is in the middle of the Burnt Pine shopping centre. At the time. The main thing was that the supposed members of the yacht on South Pacific cruise, they just didn't seem to appear to be those sort of people. You know, they were sort of
relatively clean cut and quite smartly dressed and everything else compared to other yachties we've seen pass through the island over the years. Yeah,
Edward Hooker: Yeah. My name's Edward Hooker and I've lived here most of my life on Norfolk island when the yachties came through. Well, we'll call them yachties. They looked out of place. Ricky made a remark about they'll be good in the military or something like that, you know. Cause he's ex SAS too, so he would
have a good idea how they would fit in.
Richard Baker: The Ricky Ed's talking about is his old mate, Special Constable Ricky Quintal. Ed had noticed the Frenchman when they stopped at Norfolk island for a few days on their way to New Zealand.
Speaker G: I don't know how many nights they stayed here, but they didn't act as yachties. You don't go and anchor a yacht down at Cascade and everyone comes ashore and goes and has a party. Yachts are being washed ashore there. That's the most unwise thing to do, Anchor your boat unattended. You know, when
you think about it, those fellows didn't give a bugger whether the thing got wrecked or not.
Richard Baker: This is my favourite part of my job, being on the road in new places and getting to talk to new people who are in some way connected to the story I'm chasing. You just gotta be prepared to go with the flow. And when you're a strange reporter in a small place, it helps to have a few locals to vouch
for you. Along with Kissard Norfolk Islander Russell Francis is a big help to me. While I'm talking to Ed Hooker, Russell texts me and tells me to be at a bar called salty at 3pm There'll be a man called Roland Sprague waiting for me.
Roland Sprague: I was working up the South Pacific, building a waterfall at the end of the pool, which no longer exists now, but that's where I met these very sus looking people.
Richard Baker: The South Pacific is still one of the main resorts on Norfolk Island.
Roland Sprague: I can't remember whether there were three or four of them and they definitely looked nervous. And I just said to Bede, the mate I was working with, there's something suss about these guys.
Richard Baker: Like if you walked into a room.
Roland Sprague: You'd immediately think these guys are suspect. When they weren't there the next morning, I said to bede, I'm right. These guys are up to no good.
Paul Macintosh: At 6.35pm, inquiries revealed that the remaining three from the Ouvea were residing at the South Pacific Hotel. Further inquiries established they were drinking in the lounge bar. Special Constable Ricky Quintal of the NI Police was sent to the hotel to discreetly observe the movements of the three
Richard Baker: That's an excerpt from Norfolk Island Sergeant Paul Macintosh's confidential report. I reached out to Paul while making this podcast, but he wasn't up for a chat. So that's a voice actor reading his report. As Ricky Quintal watches the French trio relax over a few drinks, the New Zealand Air Force
plane carrying Chris Martin and his fellow detectives touches down. All the bigwigs on the island gather for a briefing from the most senior Kiwi detective, Lex Denby. Here's more from Macintosh's report of events from that night.
Paul Macintosh: As the briefing progressed, it became evident that we may well be dealing with a highly trained and dangerous group of terrorists. It became apparent that the task would be considerably easier if the Frenchman could be detained on land.
Richard Baker: Word is passed to the special Ricky Quintal to leave the bar at the South Pacific. He and Constable Standish are ordered to get to Cascade Pier as quickly as possible to cut the rope tying the Frenchman the to dinghy to the jetty. Just as they finish hiding the dinghy in scrubland, the beam of
headlights glow from around the corner. It's the Frenchman returning to their yacht. But they spot the policeman's car parked at the jetty and pump the brakes. They turn around and drive away. Ricky and Ian race back to their car and try to catch up when the Frenchman make a sudden U turn and head
back straight past them. The Frenchman are trying to flush out a tail. With narrow roads, wandering cows and minimal traffic, Norfolk island is one of the most difficult places in the world. To discreetly shadow another car, Ricky and Ian decide to abandon the chase and instead head to a cliff top
to observe the Ouvea While I'm having a beer with Roland, my phone with its Norfolk island sim buzzes. It's a text from a bloke I had a coffee with that morning. His sister Rhona remembers something about the French guys and is happy to chat. Rhona's place is up a steep hill and has a beautiful
outlook. It's paradise. Time for another drink. Herbal tea this time. That's. Oh, that's delicious. Thank you. That's. That's better than my green tea. That's lovely, thank you. Rhona was working at her mum's restaurant when the Frenchmen first called into Norfolk island on their way to New Zealand
in June to deliver the explosives
Rhona: They Left in New Zealand. They told us their route and everything and because my dad was a marine engineer, so Mum really got talking to them.
Richard Baker: One thing that stands out to Rhona is her memory of there being four Frenchmen when they first dined at her mom's restaurant. And that would be right Verge, Andries, Bartello and Maniguet. But when they dined there again on their return leg from. New Zealand,
Rhona: when they came back the next time, we had five of them for dinner.
Richard Baker: Really? That's pretty interesting.
Rhona: I'm pretty sure there was five.
Richard Baker: Wow. That means there might have been one more on here that they never got.
Rhona: I'm pretty sure it was five. The only reason why I'm trying to remember because I. It was such a long time. I knew it was four, but usually I'd go at the end of the table, but I don't think I could. I don't think I could. And I was doing the drinks order from this side of the table. Pretty sure
Richard Baker: If Rhona's memory is correct, this is a significant clue for me. Why would there be five of them dining when there were only four of them on board the Uvea? One thing I've also been wondering about is how that rental car was already parked for them at Cascade Pier when they dropped anchor. It's a
fair trek from town. Was there a fifth man on the island who was part of the French Secret Service operation that nobody knew about? As far as I know, this is something that's never come up before. The possibility of someone else on Norfolk island colluding with the French spies. There's a guy
called Dr. Xavier Maniguet.
Richard Baker: What was he
Richard Baker: Okay. Yeah.
Rhona: Really fit. They all were. But he was the noticeable one. He was really tall. Because we were trying to piece it, too, after they left as well, because when we heard it on the news, we knew.
Richard Baker: You knew it was those guys?
Rhona: Oh, yeah. It had to have been we all, the whole three of us, because my sister's not alive anymore, but the whole three of us were in the kitchen and we went, three of us.
Richard Baker: True to form, the Frenchman seem to have made a strong impression on Rhona, her sister and her mum. I've seen a photo from the mid-1980s of one of them, Roland Verge, with his shirt off. He's ripped.
Rhona: Yeah. Athletic. That's the exact word for them.
Richard Baker: What were they like? Were they charming?
Rhona: Charming. Pants off. The whole three of us, Mum. Me and Lee. They did ask us to party.
Rhona: Yeah. When they were on their way back that. That time. Afterwards. Of course, it wouldn't, you know.
Richard Baker: What did they say? Come to our hotel or come drinking?
Rhona: I thought it was on the boat. See, I thought they were asking us back on the boat, would you like to come and party? Because, you know, we used to close really early.
Rhona: And, you know nine, ten o' clock.
Richard Baker: So how old would you have been then?
Richard Baker: Okay, yeah, yeah. Was it tempting to take up their offer or was it.
Richard Baker: you could have had a really good story
Rhona: Well, I might not be alive.
Richard Baker: Or you might not have survived.
Richard Baker: One or the other.
Rhona: Because after they left I thought, my God, we were so lucky we didn't go.
Richard Baker: Before I leave Rona, she mentions that her brother Bruce has his own Rainbow Warrior story Do I want to speak with him? Sure. He jumps on the blower from work to chat to me.
Bruce: Well mate, I work on the wharves in Auckland. I'm a marine engineer by trade.
Richard Baker: Bruce Robinson was working for a company that cut rock and sand on the edge of Auckland's harbour back in July 1985. Like everyone else in New Zealand, he was shocked by the bombing of the Greenpeace ship. During Bruce's lunch break he saw an object partially covered by sand.
Bruce: I found this little, what it looked to be like a, a copper hip flask, just a little bit bigger than a hip flask. And I picked it up and it was in real good condition but the top was sealed. It had like a rubber bung in it that was sealed and luckily I couldn't get it out. But anyway I gave it a
shake and you know, and everything you're not supposed to do and there's definitely fluid inside. So a couple of boys and I, we were throwing it around and I took the little clip off the bottom and had a look and I was aware enough to realise that it was a detonator. And I thought, oh shit! what's
Richard Baker: The place where Bruce was working was exactly where the French zodiac motorboat was spotted the night before, a few kilometres from where the Rainbow Warrior was birthed. It's no hip flask that Bruce has been tossing around to his mates. It's a limpet mine. The explosive charge used by the French
agents to blow holes in the Rainbow Warrior's hull.
Bruce: I think they must have dropped it because it was pitch black at night when they were doing it. So maybe they dropped it and couldn't find it and the tide comes in enough to cover the sand.
Richard Baker: Bruce contacted wharf security
Bruce: and the guy on duty came around, had a look at it and jumped back 10ft.
Richard Baker: Then the naval bomb disposal squad turned up.
Bruce: They said, oh, what makes you think it's a bomb? And then I took the cover off and showed them the detonator and they all jumped back 10ft. And yeah, they said definitely it was a bomb.
Richard Baker: The bomb squad took it away
Bruce: But Strangely enough, nothing ever came out about it. was just like it never even happened.
Richard Baker: Why do you think that was?
Bruce: I think it was embarrassing enough for the the government as it was, mate.
Richard Baker: As I'm packing to leave Norfolk Island, I get a text message from Slick asking me to pop into his place. He says there's someone else who was working at the South Pacific resort back then with a story for me. When I get to Slick's, there's a vivacious woman in her 60s at the table having a cigarette
and a beer. I'm going to call her Amanda because she asked me not to use her real name. Amanda was working in the South Pacific resorts garden when one of the Frenchmen came over.
Amanda: So I got into conversation. Where's a good place to jog? Say, get out the map and show them where's a good place. Can we borrow a tennis racket? Yes, you can borrow a tennis racket. Where are you from? And of course by this time I'm dribbling with a French accent and everything like that. And I was
young and in my prime then they would ask me if I would go with them. So of course I'll get on a boat and go, you know, hundreds of miles with you guys. No worries. I can manage that.
Richard Baker: After her shift, Amanda went straight home to ask her family if it was okay for her to join the Frenchman for the next leg of their journey to New Caledonia. A makeshift command centre has been set up at Norfolk Island administrator John Matthew's Office. New Zealand Detective Chris Martin and his
colleagues are preparing for a late night raid on the South Pacific resort. Chris is nervous
Chris Martin: And I know a Few guys in the New Zealand S.A.S and there are different breed. Those guys and the crew of the Ouvea were in that same mould. They're hard, military, they'll do what they're ordered, you know, they're not people you want to mess with.
Richard Baker: There's been hours of back and forth communications between Norfolk Island authorities and senior officials in Canberra discussing what criminal law the Frenchman should be held under. Finally, a decision is reached. It's not suspected murder, even though a man on board the Rainbow Warrior has been
killed. It's not arson or criminal damage. No. The Frenchmen are to be held under an obscure 1933 Norfolk island law about a visiting boat suspected to have been involved in crime or carrying stolen goods. I've been investigating this story for more than two years, but can't find out who actually
made this decision and why. It's now around 11pm on the night of Monday, July 15, five days after the bomb went off. Chris Martin and his fellow detectives are creeping towards rooms 11 and 12 at the south Pacific resort. Aussie cop Dennis Muray's also there. His mind's racing about how the
Dennis Muray: when you hit those doors. You don't know what's going to happen on the other side. And we'd all had our previous training and all sorts of stuff that. All sorts of things can happen when you get those doors. Could be firearms, could be anything. It could be someone who just wants to fight.
Richard Baker: The police plan is to kick the doors down. But as they're about to launch into action, Chris Martin sees the motel owner walking casually towards them.
Chris Martin: The motel owner said, oh, do you want a key? Which is. Yeah, that'll be cool, thank you. We just unlocked the doors quite gently and then burst and.
Richard Baker: Wait, hold on. Remember Amanda, who was asked by the Frenchman to join them on the Ouvea the previous night? The next morning, she clocks on at the South Pacific resort. Her family, somewhat incredibly, said, yeah, no worries. In response to her invitation to sail off with these mysterious men, I
Speaker J: Up at work ready to go. All I had to do was throw clothes in a bag, had the passport all ready and the place was swarming with New Zealand police with their tall bobby hats, you know, the old fashioned New Zealand police helmets and things like that. I didn't go anywhere. I think I went straight to
the smoko room and cried.
Richard Baker: That's such a great story Next time on Fallout Spies on Norfolk Island.
Chris Martin: I said you will be going to prison for 25 years. I had no idea. And I could just see a little tear start to form up in his eye.
Dennis Muray: It's got to be done in 24 hours or stiff s*** sort of thing.
Lopeti Senituli: How dare. I mean, the French were so arrogant bastards as they have been all this time.
Maurice Witham: The mood in New Zealand at the time was absolutely frustration and disappointment. In Australia.
