Kevin Crump
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Allan Baker and Kevin Crump are notorious Australian murderers. On November the 3rd 1973 Kevin Crump and Allan Baker murdered Ian James Lamb, 43 who was sleeping in his car while he was looking for seasonal work (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/baker/2.html).
Three days later they camped near the home of Brian and Virginia Morse in Collarenebri. After watching the house over a two days they abducted Virginia Morse and then drove to Queensland. They stopped at hotels and garages along the way and bought beer and gas with the $30 they had stolen from the Morse homestead. They drove mainly at night to avoid detection. During the approximate 120-mile journey Morse sobbed and pleaded for her life while Crump and Baker took turns raping her.
When they stopped by the Weir River they tied Virginia Morse to a tree and shot her dead. After their capture Crump tried to evade responsibility for Morse's murder in his police statement. "I was forced to kill Mrs. Morse by Baker, because he wanted me to be in as deep as him. He said he was going to kill me if I didn't. I admit that I was prepared to kidnap Mrs. Morse and even to sleep with her, but once again, as with Mr. Lamb, I did not want to be a part of her death...It was a choice of either me or Mrs. Morse." Suppressed from the court were details of the torture Virginia Morse endured at the hands of Baker and Crump including "tree branches inserted into her vagina and a beer bottle inserted into her anus."
On Nov. 13, ten days after Lamb's murder, Crump and Baker's stolen car was recognized in Maitland near Newcastle. After a gun battle with the police during which a police officer was wounded the pair were arrested. At their trial, Crump and Baker pleaded not guilty to the four charges of murdering Ian James Lamb, conspiracy to murder Virginia Morse, maliciously wounding a police officer with intent to prevent lawful apprehension and shooting at police with intent to prevent lawful apprehension.It took the jury one hour and forty-five minutes to convict Baker and Crump on all charges. Baker showed no emotion at the verdict, while Crump appeared to stare at the floor and shudder. Mr. Justice Taylor then sentenced both men to life imprisonment.
He said: "You have outraged all accepted standards of the behavior of men. The description of 'men' ill becomes you. You would be more aptly described as animals, and obscene animals at that. I believe that you should spend the rest of your lives in jail and there you should die. If ever there was a case where life imprisonment should mean what it says — imprisonment for the whole of your lives — this is it." In the early years of their incarceration, Crump and Baker lived quite happily as man and wife at Long Bay Jail's notorious Katingal section. After a public outcry following exposure by the media Crump and Baker were separated.
In 1997 the NSW government passed legislation that was set to ensure that both Baker and Crump would remain incarcerated for the rest of their lives. Allan Baker challenged this legislation in the High Court of Australia http://www.federationpress.com.au/pdf/Fardon.pdf. Kevin Crump, had his sentence set at a minimum of 30 years back in 1997 (http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1037442.htm)
[edit] See also
http://heroxx.chocoboard.com/p/3482
http://www.hinch.net/says_archive04/Feb04/4-2-04.htm
