The disappearances of three Aboriginal children at Bowraville are so similar they point to one man having murdered them all, a NSW court has heard.
"The victims all disappeared during the night and ... in circumstances where the bodies could be disposed of before the disappearances became apparent," Wendy Abraham QC told a hearing into whether the man should be retried for murdering two of the children.
The man, who can't be named for legal reasons, was previously acquitted of murdering four-year-old Evelyn Greenup and 16-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux in late 1990 and early 1991.
Under NSW double-jeopardy laws revised in 2006, a person can be tried for the same crime for which they have already been acquitted, provided there is fresh and compelling evidence to proceed with a retrial.
In the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday, Ms Abraham, representing the NSW Attorney-General, submitted the fresh evidence is the case of Colleen Walker, a third Aboriginal child who went missing from Bowraville in the same five-month period as the others.
The 16-year-old's clothing was pulled from the Nambucca River in a bag weighed down with rocks although her body has never been found.
The local man at the centre of the hearing faced separate trials for the murders of Evelyn and Clinton. He's never been charged in relation to Colleen.
Ms Abraham said the three cases should not be looked at individually as the similarities "give rise to an inference that all three were murdered, that it was the one person who murdered them and that it was the respondent."
Colleen's clothes and the bodies of Evelyn and Clinton were found along the same road, and each child disappeared during or shortly after parties the man had also attended, she said.
There was also a pattern of sexual motive, with each case involving a "heavily intoxicated" and "vulnerable" woman who woke to find her pants removed , Ms Abraham said.
In the case of Clinton, it was his girlfriend, who had been sleeping beside him in the man's caravan.
In Evelyn's case it was her mother, who was asleep in the same room.
On the night she disappeared, witnesses saw Colleen talking to the man who was "putting pressure on her, in effect, to have sex with him", Ms Abraham said.
At about midnight the teenager was last seen walking down the side of a neighbouring house just as the man was seen walking down the other side of the house.
The court heard that weeks earlier Colleen had slept in the man's bed and he allegedly pulled her pants down.
There is also fresh evidence of alleged admissions the man made to four informants, Ms Abraham said.
She said if the acquittals are quashed the man could be tried for all three murders.
Outside court, Michelle Jarrett, the aunt of Evelyn, said the families won't give up their fight for justice.
"This is what we've been waiting for, this is what we've been fighting for, a chance to have all three cases heard together and we just hope that we get the best outcome," she said.
The hearing is expected to run for four days.
