Golf Travel

Art usually imitates life but it can also chronicle violent death and a newly-published digital book by an investigative journalist paints a lurid picture of the sinister side of Sydney and a murder plot which will strike a chord with many Australian readers.
Entitled The Girl Who Knew Too Much, the book is described as a work of fiction but for many in Sydney it will echo the true story of the murder of newspaper publisher Juanita Nielsen, one of the crimes of the last century in the city. "It wasn't long before we realised we were onto the story of a lifetime."
Over almost four years of digging, the pair established the truth behind Juanita's murder and identified the key players in the cover-up they now describe as a major conspiracy involving police and political corruption at the highest levels.
In the course of their enquiries they discovered that they were under constant police surveillance and that their phones were tapped. When they traced a man police said was a key witness they were beaten up, abducted and handed over to the Darlinghurst police who threw them into jail on spurious charges. These were later dismissed after an eight day trial that involved four barristers, set a legal precedent and was also notable for the absence of media coverage.
"Even though we introduced Juanita's name in the first hour the case was totally ignored by Sydney's media, their crime and court reporters seemingly orchestrated by the PR department of the NSW Police," Ward claimed. "The transcripts ran to 520 pages and 175,000 words but not one of those words appeared in Sydney's newspapers."
Ignoring threats of death and assorted violence (one promised that "you'll get yer kneecaps nailed to a tree in Centennial Park"; another said "anyone poking his head into the Nielsen thing will get it blown off"), the pair traced witnesses who endorsed their beliefs that Juanita had been murdered for what she was about to publish on organised crime and corruption.
They established that the official and much-publicised police version of events was a fabrication, a cover-up devised by the notorious (now dead) former detective sergeant who had accepted the murder contract and who had prevailed upon his erstwhile colleagues to endorse the story.
"After four years there was little we didn't know about the killing," Ward says. "We knew where, when, why and how it took place, what happened to the body, which will never be found, and the identities of the three killers."
They made their findings known to senior members of the newly-elected NSW Labor Government requesting a judicial hearing to expose the truth and bring the plotters to justice. But although the State Attorney General was a friend and supporter even he couldn't persuade the Premier to agree.
When the death threats became persistent, both men left Sydney for the safety of their loved ones. Ward returned to England, where he still works as a journalist, to follow his obsession with the case.
"We'd written a true crime version at the time but it was perceived as too dangerous, legally and physically, and mainline Sydney publishers wouldn't look at it," Ward reveals. ?