True Crime Collection

Bega Schoolgirl Murders

The Bega schoolgirl murders refer to the abduction, rape and murder of 2 schoolgirls; 14 year old Lauren Margaret Barry and 16 year old Nichole Emma Collins of Bega, New South Wales, Australia on 6th October 1997. 

On 3rd October 1997, a campsite was set up by the father of Nichole Collins at White Rock, near Bega, for his teenage daughter to invite friends over for the coming Labour Day weekend. The camp site was located 3 kilometres from the Collins home. The girls would regularly call at the house while camping to change clothing, shower and eat. Nichole's father regularly called at the camp site to check on the children and did so on the day the girls disappeared. Around 9pm on 5th October, Nichole, wearing her high school jacket, and her younger friend Lauren, left the camp site and walked off for a nearby party. 

Nearby, Leslie Camilleri and Lindsay Beckett were riding in a Ford Telstar belonging to Leslie's de facto partner. Leslie had an argument hours earlier with his partner and talked to Lindsay about his feelings of depression. The 2 men were consuming beer and injecting each other with amphetamines while driving aimlessly. According to Lindsay, Leslie spotted the girls walking single file along the Bega-Tathra Road in Evan's Hill and stopped to offer them a lift. At approximately 10pm, after a brief discussion, the girls entered the car willingly. A pink portable television, which had earlier been taken by Leslie and Lindsay from a friend in lieu of a drug related debt, was removed from the back seat of the vehicle and discarded at the side of the road to provide room for the girls to sit. The television would later become important evidence and implicate the 2 men in their crimes to follow. 

Lindsay told police the group travelled to Tathra Beach and spent some time there before returning to the campsite at White Rock. On the road leading to the campsite, Leslie became disturbed at the cat bottoming out on the uneven gravel road and became angry at the girls. The rear doors of the vehicle had been previously locked using the vehicle's child locks and there were no window winders, preventing the rear doors from being opening by passengers inside. Leslie produced a knife and told the girls they would be stabbed if they tried to escape. Lindsay also produced a knife and went along with Leslie in threatening the girls. 

"Whilst Les was going off, he pulled his knife out of a pocket in the driver's door. This was a black handled pocketknife with a serrated edge. Les turned around to the girls and showed them the knife. He told them to shut up and not to say anything. Les said if they did not do what he said, he would stab them. During this Les told me to get my knife. I got my knife out of the glove box. I have a black handled knife with a jagged edge. I showed the girls I had a knife, too. I said to the girls to do as Les says."

Leslie reversed away from the campsite and drove onto Old Wallagoot Road. 

Rather than being returned to the campsite as earlier promised, the girls were driven to a rubbish dump off Old Wallagoot Road, not far from their homes in Kalaru, where they were both sexually assaulted. The girls were then driven further south, passing through the town of Merimbula, until the car stopped at Ben Boyd National Park and the girls were further assaulted. A black rubber flashlight belonging to Lauren and a tampon were later located at the scene by police. 

The group continued through the town of Eden, where the men again assaulted the girls in an area south of the town. Leslie then ordered Lindsay to drive, and he drove towards Orbost before turning off and eventually stopping at Wingan Point in Victoria, at which point the girls were again assaulted. Leslie slept, but later woke up and realised where he was. Lindsay recalled in his statement to police, 

"I drove down the highway and just before Cann River Les woke up. He wanted to know where we were. I told him we were in Victoria heading to Orbost. Les cracked the s***s and was abusing me. He was saying he wanted to go to Sydney. He left saying 'the bridge'. I took his to mean he wanted to throw the girls off the bridge because he had spoken about this before. There was some bridges on the way to Sydney on the Hume Highway which have great drops."