- 5 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Family has its secrets.
00:02Locked away behind our front doors are the pasts,
00:06the buried scandals, and the life-changing decisions
00:09that have shaped our families and our nation.
00:14All my mother's family were murdered in concentration camps.
00:19I don't know how I survived.
00:21It's a human right to know who your parents are.
00:25When my mother disappeared,
00:27how long it took for the police to take it seriously.
00:30Well, I've heard my father was a spy.
00:33So who is this man?
00:34He died of a head injury.
00:36I have been told that my father was the cause of his death.
00:39Oh, wow.
00:41Every Family Has a Secret
00:43uncovers the extraordinary stories behind our everyday lives.
00:49This time, two Australians set out to discover the truth of their fathers.
00:54Your father lied on a number of matters.
00:56Paul Morris journeys into the murky world of espionage
01:01to uncover whether his father was a Soviet spy.
01:04This is high-level surveillance.
01:06Incredible.
01:08And Elizabeth Brierley investigates her family's links to an unsolved murder.
01:13We all have secrets now.
01:15We're talking about one of the schools politically sanctioned murders
01:20in the history of Australia.
01:22Searching for her true father.
01:25There is a book.
01:26Oh, look at that.
01:27In Western Australia, Elizabeth Brierley is chasing answers to a lifelong mystery.
01:44My biological mother was Louise McLaughlin, who was a prostitute.
01:54And because of Mum's profession, I was always told I'd never know who my dad is.
02:03It made me feel different from everybody else.
02:05Not having that sense of belonging.
02:08It's a human right to know who your parents are.
02:15As a young child, Elizabeth was told that she was adopted.
02:24But as a teenager, she was shocked to learn that her adoption wasn't legal.
02:29She also found out that her biological mum was a sex worker for Perth's most known brothel madam, Shirley Finn,
02:36in the same year that Shirley Finn was murdered.
02:45Elizabeth.
02:46Noni.
02:47Hi.
02:48Come in.
02:49Thanks.
02:50How old were you when you found out that you weren't the natural born child of your mum?
02:55I was pregnant.
02:56Up until that point, I believed that Anne was my mother.
03:01Maybe a year or two later, I got presented with a photo of my mum and her name, Louise.
03:09I can see the lightness.
03:11My adopted mum told me that my mum was a prostitute.
03:16It was presented to me in a way that my mum didn't want me.
03:20And I actually became quite depressed and felt very abandoned.
03:24But for some very strange reason, I've always felt very connected to the way.
03:30You know?
03:31Yeah, I understand.
03:33She's your mum.
03:34Yeah.
03:35Speaking about how the woman who raised you, how she came to have you?
03:42She was a secretary of a medical centre that dealt with taking care of the working girls.
03:50So there was some kind of agreement or arrangement made between the two women?
03:55Presumably, yeah.
03:56But there was no adoption.
03:58There was fostering.
03:59I wasn't ward of the state.
04:01Your mum was working for Shirley Finn in the same year that Shirley Finn was murdered.
04:06Yes.
04:07That's 1975.
04:09Yes.
04:10And I believe Shirley was threatening to expose the police.
04:13Yeah, a lot of corruption.
04:16Do you have a sense that your being conceived and carried as two things was going on is somehow linked?
04:26Yeah.
04:27Do you really feel that's your gut?
04:28Yeah.
04:29I've always felt that she was on the way.
04:32And here's what if I don't have any answers.
04:35No truth.
04:36Mm.
04:37Who am I?
04:41So, I think we'll spit into that one.
04:47With both of Elizabeth's mothers having died, she's hoping her DNA will lead her to her father.
04:54Are you worried about what this might reveal?
04:56That's why sex doesn't lie, does it?
04:59That's why I think this is the way that we get the answers.
05:03When Elizabeth was born in November 1975, her birth name was Shirley MacLachlan.
05:16But within a year, she was placed in the arms of divorced single mum, Anne Brierley, and given a new identity.
05:22Elizabeth Brierley.
05:24Elizabeth Brierley.
05:32Annie getting me wasn't legitimate.
05:34It wasn't legal.
05:35It hadn't gone through any department.
05:37Elizabeth Brierley.
05:38I felt like there was something that she wasn't telling me.
05:41And that feeling actually blew me away.
05:46Elizabeth's highly orthodox handover occurred in the shadow of the murder investigation into brothel madam Shirley Finn.
05:53And she has long suspected that understanding this crime might be the key to unlocking her father's identity.
06:02Two years ago, her suspicions saw connect to a woman become her best friend.
06:08Shirley Finn's daughter, Bridget.
06:09Hello, lovey. Haven't seen you for a while.
06:12How are ya?
06:13How are ya?
06:14Yeah, I'm good.
06:17Bridget was just 13 when her mum was murdered.
06:21And we're just approaching the South Perth Golf Course now on the right.
06:25That's where my mum was found.
06:30In June 1975, brothel madam Shirley Finn was executed in the front seat of her Dodge Phoenix sedan.
06:39Finn was the flamboyant queen of Western Australia's sex industry, tolerated under a flawed containment policy, which allowed a brutal protection racket to flourish.
06:55The list of murder suspects read like a who's who of underworld figures and corrupt police.
07:02Amongst them, senior detective Don Hancock.
07:05Nobody saw or heard anything.
07:09Elizabeth's mum Louise was one of the first to be questioned by police.
07:15To identify the cast of players in this dark story and whether Elizabeth's biological father could be among them,
07:22the pair have turned to journalist and author Juliet Wills, who has spent two decades investigating the murder.
07:28The system that Shirley was in involved a level of protection by police and payment up for life.
07:40Oversighting the whole containment business was politician Connor, minister of police.
07:45and he go on to become premier and was later jailed for corruption.
07:50So we're talking about potentially one of the highest levels of politically sanctioned murders in the history of Australia.
07:56If this could reach that high, you can very much imagine the stakes and the vulnerability of women like mum.
08:08It always felt like her life was in danger.
08:12Can you imagine being five months pregnant and going through suicide?
08:17It's very terrifying.
08:19We know many of the girls fled and left the state.
08:21And many of them believed that they were going to be next.
08:26And a detective who was named as a suspect in all of this was Don Hancock.
08:32Bizarrely, Don Hancock is someone Elizabeth knows from her childhood.
08:38The lady that brought me up was Anne Briley.
08:42Anne would have parties.
08:43And I remember distinctly Mr. Hancock.
08:47I remember him because he, of all Anne's friends, all very nice.
08:52Mr. Hancock never spoke to me.
08:55It's odd, isn't it?
08:57You handed it to Anne.
08:59And Anne is fliss.
09:02Mr. Hancock.
09:06There's a link there, isn't there?
09:08I think there's a link there.
09:09We know that she was murdered over something that she knew about powerful people.
09:16What if one of the working girls was carrying the baby of one of those powerful people?
09:23Well, that's some suspicion.
09:28Speculation still surrounds the motives for the murder.
09:31But what has become clear is working girls were under police pressure to sign witness statements.
09:37And Louise's document seems particularly suspect.
09:42So there's Louise's signature.
09:45It's not A, isn't it?
09:47L-A-U-G-H.
09:48That's L-O.
09:50But why would you misspell your own name?
09:53I don't believe she signed the statement.
09:56The key for me is none of these statements are correct.
10:01They're not worth the paper they're written on.
10:03Because you certainly don't misspell your own name.
10:04Amongst the mourners at She Finn's funeral was Louise, five months pregnant with Elizabeth.
10:15But who was the father of her child?
10:18And was he tied to the murder?
10:19In Sydney, Paul Morris is also looking for the truth about his father.
10:32Well, as they say in Australia, everyone is supposed to get a fair go.
10:37My father never got a fair go.
10:42He was accused of being a spy.
10:47It's brought a lot of misery to me and to our family.
10:52I loved him so much, even though I didn't know him enough.
10:55Paul has flown from his home in Paris to confront the country he feels betrayed by.
11:04His idyllic Australian childhood ended after his father was suspected of giving military secrets to Soviets.
11:10We were blacklisted, kicked out of Australia.
11:15I think it destroyed our lives.
11:19Paul Morris's father, David Morris, was a classist.
11:24He was publicly named in the Royal Commission on Espionage in 1954, instigated in the aftermath of one of Australia's greatest political scandals, the Petrov affair.
11:38So what's the truth of the matter?
11:39Was Paul's father really a spy?
11:43Or was he simply a Cold War scapegoat?
11:46Hello?
11:47Ah, bonjour!
11:48Ah, bonjour!
11:49Paul!
11:50You all right?
11:51Come on, please.
11:52Come on, come on.
11:54Paul, tell me a little bit about your dad.
11:56What sort of a father's he?
11:58I was very fond of him.
12:00He aloof.
12:01But I was very connected to him.
12:03Always, always.
12:04He was born in Australia?
12:06Born in Brisbane.
12:07Yeah.
12:08In the name of bourgeois family.
12:09Mm-hmm.
12:10Engineer.
12:11Mm-hmm.
12:12The age of 20 became a communist.
12:14Was he so a communist?
12:15Yes, she became a communist after meeting my father.
12:18Okay.
12:19She was a nurse during the war.
12:20So he was a soldier?
12:21He was a soldier.
12:22And they knew he was a communist.
12:24Yes.
12:25But in 1954, there was a Royal Commission into Espionage.
12:29Yes.
12:30They basically saying he was a good spy.
12:32Thanks.
12:33Political blitz.
12:34He was blacklisted.
12:36Uh-huh.
12:37What ramifications being blacklisted could?
12:40He would get a job within two or three months.
12:43Basically, what I know, they would say, get rid of the sky.
12:46They're no good.
12:47Right.
12:48So your family basically caused this harassment?
12:51Yes.
12:52We went to China.
12:54And then, of course, the Cultural Revolution started in China.
12:57Yep.
12:58So we ended up in the Soviet Union.
13:01Could your father speak Russian?
13:02No.
13:03Or your mother?
13:04No.
13:05No.
13:06Wow.
13:07This is Russia.
13:08There I am.
13:09This is the thing we lived in.
13:10So he looked after in Russia, in a sense.
13:12Yes.
13:13Oh, absolutely.
13:14I don't know how it came about, but my friends were Donald McLean.
13:17And Donald McLean, who was considered an English spy.
13:22And you know these people.
13:24It would have looked a bit dodgy that he was liaising with people who were considered
13:28spies.
13:30What if you find that he was, in fact, a spy?
13:36How will that make you feel?
13:40Uh...
13:41You must have contemplated that possibility.
13:44Well, I've heard that he was a spy of all sorts.
13:47Could be a double Asian.
13:48Could be a sleeping Asian.
13:49Could be this, that.
13:50I don't know what he is.
13:51And you never got to really have these conversations with your dad?
13:54No.
13:55My father died when I was 17.
13:58For me, it's on my shoulders.
14:00I've always had it.
14:01It's a load.
14:02I'm getting on, and I wouldn't know what would have happened.
14:05Mm.
14:06Who is this man?
14:07Yeah.
14:08Because I don't know the truth.
14:12As an engineering student in the 1930s, Paul's father David Morris was devastated to see
14:18the effects of the Great Depression.
14:25In response, he joined the fledgling Australian Communist Party, which believed the Soviet Union
14:30provided a worker's paradise, and a model for a fairer society.
14:39But did Paul's father's commitment to communism, see him later betray his country?
14:44Paul has traveled to Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
14:54In 1936, David Morris took up a postgraduate electrical engineering apprenticeship at GEC Wittenworks.
15:02Paul is meeting with British communism expert Kevin Morgan.
15:06Hi Paul.
15:07Who has found it was here that David Morris first drew the attention of international security agencies.
15:14This is a letter coming from the county of MI5 in Australia.
15:19Dear Colonel Cal, who was he?
15:21Cal was the head of MI5.
15:23David John Morris is saying from Brisbane to Europe.
15:27Morris is a key propagandist for the Communist Party.
15:31President of Brisbane Radical Club, and one of the founders of the recently formed Australian Student League,
15:37in which we look upon with suspicion.
15:41How about your reputation going before you?
15:45These cables reveal remarkable level of scrutiny,
15:48given Morris' exploits had been confined to student activism.
15:54Within less than four of his arriving here,
15:57Cal, top of MI5, he's writing back to Australia with an update.
16:02During the voyage, he made no friends.
16:04He spent most of his time typing in his cabin.
16:08Evidently somebody is keeping an eye on the ship.
16:11Nothing of interest came to light in the customs search of his luggage.
16:15Well, well.
16:16So they're keeping tabs on him.
16:18So this is high level surveillance.
16:20Incredible.
16:22I don't believe it.
16:26MI5 surveillance was focused on domestic counter-espionage,
16:30observing and identifying political extremists,
16:33whose activists could threaten the Western world.
16:37And in 1930s Birmingham,
16:39the agency didn't need to look far.
16:42It was like a little hotbed of communism.
16:44And I think communists, almost by definition,
16:46came within the net of this surveillance.
16:49People knew that it was going on.
16:51How much did he know, though?
16:53Did he talk about these things at all?
16:54No, I never talked about it with my family.
16:57My father was one of these men that kept on being and thinking.
17:02And I don't know who he was.
17:04OK, so here's one final letter from Vernon Kell
17:08to his Australian counterpart.
17:10Another C-
17:11Dear Colonel Jones, you may perhaps be interested to know,
17:14David John Morris is the leader of the urgent group of the Communist Party.
17:20I knew he was outspoken, but being a foreigner,
17:23becoming a British communist, for me, it's unheard of.
17:28So he was right in the thick of it,
17:29in the politics of that time.
17:31He wasn't keeping his head down.
17:32Being a leader is really so...
17:37But was David Morris just the head of a local Communist Party branch?
17:42Or was he recruited in Birmingham
17:44as a clandestine operative for the Soviets?
17:54In Western Australia,
17:55adoptee Elizabeth Riley is searching for the truth about her father.
17:58who she suspects may have been part of Perth's underworld in the 1970s.
18:04She's meeting Lee Varis-Beswick,
18:07who's a sex worker in the red light district,
18:09at the same time as Elizabeth's biological mum, Louise.
18:15Hello, sweetie.
18:17Good to meet you.
18:18Good to meet you too.
18:19With a cuddle.
18:20Have you been down?
18:21Yeah, good.
18:28I remember Louise.
18:29Really?
18:30She was working at Shirley Finn's brothel,
18:32but I never clicked that Louise was your mum.
18:36Certainly was.
18:37God, look at Northbridge.
18:47I would have made a fortune if I was 50 years younger now.
18:51Shirley Finn's brothel used to be around here.
18:57You know, when I first met Shirley, I was a 16, 17 year old boy.
19:03Oh really?
19:04So when I started transitioning, I went to work for Shirley.
19:07We became mates.
19:08Wow.
19:09And the cops back in those days,
19:11they used to ring up and say, Shirley,
19:13have some girls ready.
19:15And Shirley would come up to you and say,
19:17Lee, you need $101.
19:18You're going to get this tonight.
19:19Yep.
19:20The cops would rock up the house.
19:21You cost them.
19:22Yeah.
19:23But you never went to the police station.
19:24You just went in the car and then they split the money.
19:26And this happened every week.
19:28That was just one possible they were doing.
19:29They were doing them all.
19:30It was very lucrative for them.
19:32Yeah, okay.
19:33And Lee says a former police officer once told her who killed Shirley Finn.
19:40Well, the story goes, Don Hancock shot Shirley.
19:44And I'll bet a million dollars Don Hancock shot her.
19:50They were bad bastards.
19:52Yeah.
19:56Decades later, Don Hancock's own life ended violently
19:59with a car bombing orchestrated by a motorcycle gang.
20:03His sudden death left many questions unresolved,
20:06including the nature of his relationship with Elizabeth's mum.
20:13But for Elizabeth, who's battled a lifetime of doubts
20:16about her informal adoption, there is reassurance.
20:20I honestly think your mum wanted your love.
20:22It's just that circumstances just made it impossible for her.
20:26She would have been under a lot of stress given that Shirley got killed.
20:30Yeah.
20:31It was a hard life for her, you know.
20:33So it wouldn't make your life harder by having a kid if you didn't want it.
20:36Yeah.
20:37So, 99.9 of these girls had the baby.
20:40They wanted them.
20:41Yeah.
20:42You know.
20:43Earth is a beautiful city, but back in the early 70s,
20:54it was the most corrupt city you've ever seen.
20:57The police, they were mongrels.
20:59And if you ask any of the old working girls,
21:01they'll tell you they were treated like dirt.
21:04You know.
21:11When I think of Louise, I become very emotional
21:14because I feel like I'm crying her tears.
21:17We all have secrets, love.
21:19Lee was an absolute privilege and has lifted me.
21:31My gut feeling was kind of confirmed by Lee.
21:36I think it would be the hardest thing as a mother to have to give your baby away.
21:45So, I understand.
21:48I love her.
21:49And I forgive her.
21:51Because I do believe in my heart she didn't have a choice.
21:57The distinct possibility is maybe I was given up because...
22:10In the United Kingdom, Paul Morris is trying to determine if his communist father was a spy.
22:18David Morris was under high level surveillance by intelligence agencies in the 1930s.
22:23But the outbreak of World War II changed everything.
22:29At the Armageddon Military Museum,
22:31curator David Carr has studied the war record of Paul's father
22:35and discovered his extraordinary contribution.
22:39Most Austrians at that time were heading out to the Pacific.
22:42And for some reason, your father was sent over to Britain.
22:45Interesting.
22:46When he came over to Britain,
22:47it was a very, very crucial part of World War II.
22:50He was sent over here specifically to the military science college.
22:53He was working on something very important.
22:56That was to develop amphibious tanks.
22:58The vehicle behind you...
22:59Yeah.
23:00That is one of the Shermans.
23:02Okay, yeah.
23:03He was involved with the development of technology to make the tanks float
23:08and basically...
23:09That mine bubbles.
23:11We have a photograph sourced of your father and his unit.
23:16Yeah.
23:17You see your father there?
23:18I see my father very well.
23:20I'm surprised.
23:21Years ago, when he was in Birmingham,
23:23he'd been followed.
23:24How come they let touch such sensitive military equipment?
23:30By this stage in the war,
23:32Communist Russia was an ally against the Nazis,
23:35and David Morris' commanders were prepared to overlook his political beliefs
23:39to exploit his engineering expertise.
23:45Months later, Morris was sent to the German frontline
23:47to supervise amphibious tank operations in a vital battle.
23:51Amphibious tanks of the British Second Army are crossing a never-ending street.
23:56The onslaught reached heights of Burien have equaled even in Normandy.
24:03So he would have been there in the thick of it to cross the Rhine.
24:08It was the last push of the Allied forces in the Second World War.
24:13Being on the front line and all that, risking his life and being a hero, I'm surprised.
24:21He was very courageous.
24:23At war's end, David Morris' engineering skills were in great demand.
24:30However, he chose to remain as an officer in the Australian Army.
24:34In 1946, he was promoted and sent back to the UK to take up a prestigious posting.
24:41But on arrival with his wife Bernice, he suddenly no longer wanted.
24:47Officially, his time in the UK came to an end.
24:50September 11th, 1946, he embarked back for Australia.
24:56Appointment terminated.
24:59What was he doing?
25:00We don't know fully what happened.
25:04Whatever it was, was classified.
25:10That's when all the trouble started.
25:12He was sent back to Australia and said,
25:14Sorry, we don't need your services anymore.
25:16What is going on?
25:17What did David Morris do to warrant his extraordinary recall to Australia?
25:36Paul Morris has returned to Australia to understand why his father's 1946 job in the United Kingdom came to an abrupt end.
25:43De-commentator Dr. Meredith Bergman has accessed over 600 pages of declassified documents on David Morris.
25:53What is going on? Because my father was sent over to England and he's immediately sent back again.
25:59Well, here we are in August 1946.
26:02In August 1946, Russia is no longer the great ally and anti-communism is really beginning.
26:08Cold War.
26:10Exactly.
26:13After World War II ended, the old rivalry between the capitalist West and the communist East intensified.
26:19In Australia, communists were now seen as the main threat to national security.
26:26And you see military intelligence starting to check up where the communists are.
26:32Captain Edward called Thursday, 22nd of August, and reported that David John Morris was at the present in England in connection with special experts in to rockets.
26:45Rockets.
26:46Captain Edward believes that Morris would be in on the ground floor of most secret information.
26:54So this was what raised all the red alerts.
26:57Security organizers were always obsessive about communists with a scientific attachment.
27:03And particularly your father who worked on tanks and on rockets.
27:09They were very, very worried about the fact that he was an overt communist.
27:18I mean, I didn't know anything about these documents.
27:21All this was going on behind the scenes, really at the height of the Cold War.
27:26And your poor family knew nothing about it.
27:28And you see what happens.
27:31The next document I want you to look at, once again from the security branches.
27:35Please include the name of David John Morris in the blacklists.
27:39Within a month of discovering that he was in Britain on rockets, they have him put on a blacklist.
27:46A blacklist really wasn't an actual list.
27:50It's more that this person is now to be watched, not trusted.
27:53And, you know, their lives are defeated forever more, really, which is what happened to your father.
27:59Basically, if I may say so, it fucked up their lives and the rest of their lives.
28:09In the months following David Morris' blacklisting, credible information revealed a Soviet spy ring was operating in Australia.
28:16Placing pressure on the government, which established the Australian security intelligence organisation, ASIO.
28:26If you look over there, you can actually see the ASIO headquarters takes up two city blocks.
28:34And that's now where all the files on your father are.
28:38When I saw the ASIO building, it's a reminder that, uh, in the seventies I worked in South Melbourne.
28:56Not far away there was the ASIO building.
28:58I felt like one day just walking in there with a bag full of snakes, nice and poisonous.
29:05Drop them and say, good day dear sir, and, uh, piss off.
29:10Why would-
29:12Pack of bastards.
29:14Pack of bastards.
29:21And ASIO's focus on the Morris family was to intensify.
29:29In 1954, as anti-communist fervor swirled in Australia,
29:35senior Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov defected, causing a national sensation.
29:40Among secret documents Petrov smuggled out of the Soviet embassy was a list,
29:46thought to contain the names of possible Soviet spies.
29:50And on that list was David Morris.
29:54Dr. Frank Kane is the author of the unofficial history of ASIO.
30:00The list of names, which mentions your father and other Australians as well,
30:05was in the KGB safe among what they call G documents.
30:10It's in Russian.
30:12Yeah, Russian is not too good.
30:14Translation.
30:16Dave Morris, born 1910, major and Bachelor of Science.
30:19During the Second World War he stanked matters in England.
30:22In 1956 was sent to England to work in the sphere of military research.
30:27So?
30:29Uh-huh. Yeah, that's right.
30:31Yeah, quite enough.
30:32It says here, undercover member of the Communist Party.
30:36Undercover member.
30:39While seemingly benign, the Soviet description of David Morris as an undercover member of the Communist Party was pivotal.
30:48ASIO believed it defined Morris as a part of the secret arm of the Communist Party responsible for covert activities.
30:55Undercover member of the Communist Party.
30:57Undercover member of the Communist Party.
31:00And he's denied.
31:02Of course.
31:03And also, but that's gold to Asia, you see.
31:05That's very valuable, you see, because it comes from the horse's mouth.
31:09It's in Russian.
31:10The Soviet Menzies used the documents and defection as grounds to call the Royal Commission on Espionage.
31:19With David Morris ordered to appear to us.
31:23He's angry.
31:28So what did they say about him?
31:29There's about, uh, two or fifteen pages here that revolve.
31:33What they're trying to do is to argue that he's a suspect, uh, and that get him in affairs.
31:41Lacking hard evidence, the Royal Commission's QC cast doubts on Morris' distinguished war record.
31:48Your father is fighting, pushing back against this attempt to railroad him.
31:53He denied that in 1940 he was ever interested in obtaining information concerning troop movements.
32:01Morris says, the idea is fantastic and the answer is no.
32:05He's ready to put up a fight, huh?
32:07That's right.
32:08They're trying to undermine him wherever they possibly can.
32:11And get anything on him, that's the point, you see.
32:13When they summarise the whole of the Royal Commission, your good old dad is given a serve again.
32:19They say, your father was unsatisfactory and evasive witness and lied on a number of matters.
32:30It was a damning final assessment of David Morris, who remained on ASIA's watchlist.
32:37And declassified files now reveal Paul's father wasn't the only family member being tracked.
32:44You are part of this investigation because they go down to your parents' stand and check out the scene.
32:51May 1954, in the company of Officer Elliott, a small fair-haired boy, aged four years,
33:00was seen playing at this side of the house.
33:03This is how you're being watched, even as a boy.
33:06What have I got to do with it?
33:07That's right.
33:08I've got a memory that I remember a black car was outside of this fence.
33:21I can visualise the Dandenong fence.
33:23Yes, that's right.
33:24I remember just sitting in the ground.
33:27What's this car doing there?
33:28It shows on this paper.
33:29It's not an imagination.
33:30That's right.
33:31The Royal Commission didn't recommend a single prosecution.
33:41But it wasn't without consequences, with Paul's father struggling to retain employment.
33:46A memoir by Paul's mother, Bernice Morris, details the family's destitution.
33:56This is my mum's book.
33:59Scarcely a day passed without demands for money.
34:05My most frequent visitors seemed to be policemen bearing summons.
34:10I felt we had really reached rock bottom when one of them had a warrant against our furniture.
34:15With Dave's precarious position in Tasmania, and police, process servers, and creditors banging on my door at Outlook was f***ing.
34:30Do I feel sorry for my mother?
34:31Yes.
34:32I mean, this is ridiculous.
34:34So, yeah, they're harassing, harassing, harassing.
34:40I really haven't found out who was my father.
34:42I would like to tell him.
34:45I would like to talk to him.
34:49Just...
34:51I don't know.
35:05But was the execution of David Morris unwarranted?
35:08Yes.
35:10A former senior intelligence officer has agreed to meet Paul, to present for the first time the evidence implicating his father.
35:19What is the truth behind my father?
35:22I'm waiting for the punchline.
35:23In Western Australia, adoptee Elizabeth Briarley suspects her biological father may have been connected to the murder of brothel madam Shirley Finn.
35:40Now Brad Argent from Ancestry finally has the answer.
35:43And we got your DNA, and we put it in the database.
35:49One of the people you connected with was her first cousin.
35:53She had an extensive faith history.
35:55So she gave us that.
35:57And we've got to the point now where I can give you a family name.
36:01Okay.
36:02It's Mack.
36:03So there's Irish in there.
36:07Yeah?
36:08Yeah.
36:09Hence the love of potatoes.
36:11So the Mack were, still are, a very prominent family in Australia with lots of, you know, pastoral holdings.
36:19And in fact, there is a...
36:21Oh, look at that.
36:23I'm delighted.
36:24We've been able to narrow it down a little bit more.
36:29We're pretty confident we have a name for your father.
36:34Okay.
36:36And that is?
36:37Harold.
36:39H, H, Harold.
36:41Harold McNamara.
36:43Okay.
36:45So do you know the story of how he knew Louise, or?
36:49We don't.
36:51Okay.
36:52When I look at your story, and I look at the life that your biological mum led, and the circles in which she operated,
37:02I find it interesting that the person who's ended up as your father doesn't seem to be associated with those circles at all.
37:13So he's a good guy.
37:22That's good. That's good news.
37:25Now, he was born in 1926.
37:29He mostly worked on the land, managing stations, and sometimes multiple stations at once.
37:34Mm-hmm.
37:36And this is a biography of your dad.
37:38Around the time that you were...
37:41That might have been when he had the opportunity to meet your mum.
37:46Right, yeah.
37:48And I've got a picture of him.
37:50Okay.
37:52Can I see it?
37:58Oh, look. Look at that.
38:03Ah, that's where the bump on the nose comes from.
38:06Look at that picture of...
38:07Grinning head. He looks like a guy, doesn't he?
38:10Wow.
38:12He's a handsome man.
38:13Yeah.
38:15Wow, look at that.
38:17Looks like a very happy character, doesn't he?
38:21He's...
38:23He did a little larrikin about him in that photo.
38:25Ah, right. And you were coming from a mum of your boys.
38:27elbows. There's other photos of him as well. That'd be great. Here's this lanky,
38:36scangly man. Harold died in 1995. The same year that Louise died. Okay.
38:49But the key person who unlocked this is Harold's son. A man called Ray. He helped
39:00us out by taking a DNA test and based on his results it was pretty obvious to us
39:06that he was your half-brother. Wow. That's pretty good. Would you like to meet him?
39:16Yeah. Yeah, that would be good. I feel like I'm in a bit of a dream at the moment.
39:24Suck. Wow. Yeah, that would be really good.
39:31I have sunshine, eh? Oh dear.
39:39Elizabeth's newly discovered half-brother has flown to Perth to meet her.
39:45I'm very happy because, you know, you've got a connection that you're still two strangers
39:51that don't know each other.
39:57Paul Morris has lived most of his life weighed down by the accusation that his father was a Soviet spy.
40:04Now, for the first time, an intelligence expert has agreed to speak to Paul about the evidence implicating his father.
40:14Dr. John Fay is an honorary fellow of the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University.
40:21He was once a senior intelligence officer tasked with running spy networks.
40:27And he has spent weeks looking at David Morris' ASIO file.
40:31If you said to me as someone associated with the business, should we keep a very close eye on this man?
40:40The answer is absolutely.
40:41The specific reasons for that, the most powerful reason, is this gentleman here, Wally Clayton.
40:48This man is a bit of the clandestine arm of the Communist Party of Australia.
40:54Wally Clayton is the only person in Australia to give permission to work for the KGB or anybody else.
40:59And he was very closely associated with this gentleman here, Jack Scrick.
41:04Lived in Melbourne.
41:05He was a very wealthy man.
41:07He worked very close together in clandestine activity.
41:10At the time, in the lead-up to his mission into Petro, Wally Clayton was on the run of the authorities here in Australia.
41:17He turned up working on Jack Scolnik's house.
41:20Your father designed and built a steel door on a room for Jack Scolnik with Wally Clayton.
41:29And that is very damning.
41:34Jack Scolnik would never have exposed Wally Clayton to your father if your father wasn't trusted.
41:40I'm just holding a steel door to this gentleman.
41:44That's a good question.
41:46The fact that you find an electrical and mechanical engineer, he would have understood what a Faraday cage was.
41:52Faraday cage is?
41:53Faraday cage is a built of metal.
41:54Yes.
41:55And you can use a steel door and chicken wire, which you charge.
41:58No signals can get in, no signals can get out.
42:01My guess that what they were doing was building a secure room for whole clandestine meetings,
42:06could not be eavesdropped on by listening devices or telephone taps.
42:12I can't prove that.
42:13Yeah.
42:14Exactly.
42:15No one can prove it.
42:16But when you go through his history, I think your father started off as a member of the Communist Party with the best of intention.
42:22I think he was selected by Wally Clayton and moved into the clandestine world.
42:29I'm interested in a couple of things.
42:31The first is, when you went to Moscow, how long did it take you to get a three bedroom apartment?
42:37We had it within weeks.
42:39Within weeks.
42:41That only happens to very special people.
42:43Somebody has to be looking up at the seams of the politics.
42:49Even as a foreigner?
42:50Especially as a foreigner.
42:55I would have been interested in how often the KGB checked your apartment.
42:59Did they visit weekly or did they visit monthly?
43:04Check? What do you mean by check?
43:05I mean, check your papers, count people in the apartment, ask what you've been doing.
43:11Did they ever do that?
43:12Just a family, I don't know.
43:15Your family had a direct contact to some committee through a man called Constantine.
43:20That I sort of vaguely do remember.
43:23He was the personal secretary to a big knob on the central committee.
43:27Who looked after your family.
43:31To get a three bedroom flat, to have a direct line contact to the central committee,
43:36and not to be getting subjected to constant KGB checks,
43:39says to me that you're not well connected.
43:44How long after you got to the Soviet Union did you meet Donald McClain?
43:47That I do not remember.
43:49McClain is the known KGB of the Cambridge Five.
43:54In terms of KGB floor, he's crown jewels.
43:57Know that Donald McClain was made for your family.
44:04He's the legal authority for managing the apartment,
44:08managing presence in the schools, looking after you and keep safe.
44:12I didn't know much, but I knew that he had the KGB on me.
44:17Nobody gets to talk to Donald McClain unless Trump.
44:20I think your father was part of a clenestine cell of the Communist Party of Australia.
44:27Probably the most efficient and effective cell that operated in Australia in the 1950s and the 1950s.
44:34We know there was a cell in Melbourne.
44:36We know there's some good stuff.
44:39From everything I've looked at, I have no doubt that he was a clenestine asset.
44:43They were athletes.
44:45Athletes.
44:47I think your father was probably a highly successful agent.
44:52And although I work on the other side.
44:55Yes.
44:56When you work the other side, you develop respect for your opponents.
44:59It doesn't hide the fact that what he was doing was stealing Australian secrets.
45:08Do you think my mother was aware of all this?
45:10I think she was aware of part of it, but I don't think she's aware of just how ruthless it was.
45:19In all of the decisions he made, I don't think the family was taken into account.
45:26No.
45:33I would never be able to sacrifice the family if I believe.
45:37No, not at all.
45:40The secrets come out.
45:42I have learnt quite a lot.
45:45I have John who tells me that within five pages you can prove that he's a...
45:50He's a spy.
45:52Top spy.
45:53The top of the top.
45:55Never found out.
45:58If that is the truth, let it be.
46:00I forget.
46:01He just takes the monkey off my back.
46:02And, uh...
46:03Yeah.
46:04I'll get on with life.
46:05For Elizabeth Brierley, the revelation of her family secret has given her a new identity.
46:09And a chance to connect for the first time with her brother Ray.
46:10Hello.
46:11Hi.
46:12How are ya?
46:28Hi.
46:30How are ya?
46:31Very good, thank you.
46:32Good.
46:33Right?
46:34That's...
46:35Elizabeth?
46:36Elizabeth.
46:38Pleased to make you look lovely.
46:40Are you ready?
46:41And these are for you.
46:43Oh, thank you. They're very nice.
46:46Would you like to take a seat?
46:48I will.
46:55Well, we've got a lot to talk about.
46:57We certainly do.
46:58As a child and growing up, I always wanted a sister.
47:03Did you?
47:04Yes, I did.
47:06Well, you've got one now, don't you?
47:08Yeah, absolutely over the moon.
47:11Our father, that's yours and mine.
47:15I brought a picture here.
47:18Now, the lady here, that's Sarah.
47:21Okay, so you were auntie.
47:23Yeah.
47:24From the 70s through to the 80s, he'd spent a lot of time in Perth.
47:29Okay.
47:30And he loved the women.
47:33Yeah, ladies men.
47:34He was a ladies men, yes.
47:36He put away.
47:38He had cancer.
47:40And the things that he did was sick, he put his hands in some leather work.
47:45Now, he made that.
47:47I'd like to present that to you.
47:49Oh, thank you, Lovie.
47:51Wow.
47:52My ex-husband did leather work too.
47:54He was a bootmaker.
47:55Oh, okay.
47:56So this is a profession that I understand pretty well.
48:00Right.
48:01That's beautiful.
48:04And you know what, Ray?
48:05I never thought this day would come.
48:07Hmm.
48:08Having a sister?
48:10You've really made this all happy.
48:13That's good, Lovie.
48:15Good, Lovie.
48:16Good to see you.
48:17Good to see you.
48:18Good to see you.
48:19Good to see you.
48:20You look like a different person.
48:21The last time I saw you, you looked 10 years younger.
48:36You don't seem lost.
48:37Yeah.
48:38I tended to, before I started this, like life, like the glass is always half empty.
48:43Hmm.
48:44Where now I see that really the glass is half full.
48:48So you were quite fearful, as I recall, about who your father might have been.
48:53It was a pleasant surprise, Noni, to find that my assumptions were wrong.
48:59Hmm.
49:00I got to meet my half-brother, Ray.
49:03He didn't know existed.
49:04I didn't know he existed, no.
49:06From what Ray told me, that Harold had an inkling that he had a daughter.
49:13Harold wasn't just a client.
49:16There was a fondness and a friendship that Harold and Louise had formed, I assume, over,
49:23you know, a few years.
49:25Hmm.
49:26From a loving relationship.
49:28Yeah, yeah.
49:29And the acceptance that they got from Ray was just tear-jerking.
49:33Yes.
49:34But really strange to have met someone that you have almost an instant connection.
49:39You felt that strongly.
49:41Yeah, yeah.
49:42And he did too.
49:43Yeah.
49:44Yeah.
49:45He looks at me.
49:46He just sees his dad.
49:47Oh, how does that make you feel?
49:48That does make you feel you belong.
49:49Yeah.
49:50Yeah, it does.
49:51That's so special.
49:52Yeah.
49:53Have you talked since you met him?
49:54Yes.
49:55Yes, yes.
49:56Every day, actually.
49:57Oh, wow.
49:58Hanging up's the best part.
49:59Because I think we both worry about each other.
50:01And I'm just so looking forward to catching up with him and his beautiful wife to start a new chapter.
50:10What would you say to people who might want to embark on a journey like this but who are afraid to?
50:17I would say do it because on the other side of fear is something absolutely wonderful.
50:24It was like going home.
50:54missing something like this.
50:55repository is superassociated.
50:56What would you do for the last episode?
50:57Find the security to add something like this.
50:58I was Justine Doesn't Apostle quote in the link.
51:00Haven't passado up still.
51:01So maybe I mean fille is rich toì „ï¿½ значitylette.
51:02And he will guess that when she będziemy не Wasserbrown by one another time, and then using the opposite of fear or the other side of fear is to move around to it.
51:03But it will go back to years to those in the next episode.
51:06And I might think for now.
51:08Have fun.
51:09Have fun.
51:10Do have fun.
51:11How are people.
51:12What is it?
51:13Have fun left and bitter music.
51:14Very bad thing, we didn't think.
51:17Do not want to learn anything but it was completely fig.
51:19That's Zed.
Be the first to comment