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A key witness in the notorious Adelaide Oval abduction has broken his silence ahead of the 50-year anniversary of the crime.
In his first-ever interview, Tony Kilmartin says he was selling lollies and ice cream with his brother at an Australian rules game, when he saw victims Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, and Kirste Gordon, 4, being taken in 1973.
Kilmartin, who was only 13 years old at the time, had previously served the girls and recognised them when the commotion began under a grandstand at the end of the final quarter.
“When the siren had gone, people were buying and grabbing stuff and at that moment is when the screams started,” he said.
The now 63-year-old said he saw a man picking up Kirste, as Joanne tried to fight him off.
“(I saw) one go under the arm … and the other one just pulling on him, screaming the words ‘no’ and ‘let her go’,” he said.
Kilmartin didn’t intervene because he thought the man was the girls’ father.
“I just watched them go towards the gate … and that was the last I’d seen,” Kilmartin said.
Kilmartin would learn that Joanne and Kirste hadn’t been seen by their family since leaving their seats to go to the bathroom.
Archival vision from the time shows him giving a description to police, however, the identity of the abductor remains one of Australia’s biggest mysteries.
Since that day, Kilmartin has been shown photos of a multitude of suspects and he says the deceased Stanley Hart most resembles the man he saw.
Hart was a known paedophile and a devoted supporter of the North Adelaide Football Club, which was one of the two teams that played at Adelaide Oval on the day of the abduction.
Friday marks 50 years since the girls disappeared, but police haven’t given up hope of solving the case and continue to investigate.
Until his emotional interview with 9News, Kilmartin had not returned to Adelaide Oval since the crime.
“(I) didn’t even come back here as a young bloke, for concerts even. I couldn’t come back here,” he said.
“Being here might bring some sort of closure I think.
“(But the pain) will never go away, even after all these years.”
A candlelight vigil will mark the anniversary at Adelaide Oval.
