Death and Taxes: A True Crime Podcast

63 - Matthew Leveson

• Benny, Carrie, Lizzie & Clare • Season 3 • Episode 63

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It’s the very early morning hours of September 23rd 2007, and 20-year-old Matthew Leveson is in Arq nightclub, on Sydney’s Oxford Street. At around 3am, one of Matty's friends realises that he hasn’t seen Matty for a while, and they exchange  a few short text messages. This will be the last communication anybody has with him, and he’ll never be seen alive again.

Theme music by MVM Productions.

Benny:

This podcast covers a variety of true crime, mystery, and stories. A warning that episodes will contain graphic details and may not be suitable for everyone. Welcome to another episode of Death and Taxes, a True Crime I'm Benny.

Clare:

I'm Carrie. I'm Lizzie, and I'm Claire.

Benny:

It's the very early morning hours of September 23rd, 2007, and Matthew or Matty Leveson has spent the night out at Arq Nightclub on Sydney's Oxford Street. He'd arrived at Arq a few hours earlier with his partner Atkins and had been bouncing around the club between different and his older brother Peter, who's also at the club tonight. Arq is split up into a few areas. There's a smaller bar with the DJ and dance floor downstairs. There's the main dance floor with two separate bars upstairs. And then there's another balcony level above that which sort looks down over the main dance floor. There's also a large cloakroom with couches and a back as Smoker's Alley where you can get away from the music, have a cigarette, have some air or conversation. So it's a large venue, it's easy to lose people. And friends have been seeing brief glimpses of Matty and Atkins around the club tonight.

Clare:

This sounds so much like um the old school moosehead days for all old school Canberrans. Don't you think? Like the three levels and like Probably equivalent, yeah, I'd

Benny:

Kind of like if you go out with friends or like work colleagues after drinks, it's kind of where you gravitate towards, towards afterwards. Sort of like if the night's getting bigger, you go to you go to Arq.

Clare:

Well, I sort of feel like it's like the different levels too, Like so maybe you go for after work drinks, you're on the And then when you want to have like a you transition into you go to second level, and then you're ready to dance your ass off on the podiums.

Benny:

Is Moosehead still around?

Clare:

I don't know. Yes, it is, yes it is. I bet you they still play Usher every week.

Carrie:

Um but I did spend many a weekend travelling up to Sydney with pals, and I have certainly been in that alleyway, let me tell

Benny:

Carrie, do you remember you and I were at Moosehead's after a party, and there was a gentleman there. We won't say his name, but you and I both remember.

Carrie:

Palo.

Benny:

And and I was hoping that he was gay, you were hoping that he was straight, and we spent the night competing for him, and we found out, did we?

Carrie:

Oh no one won that competition, Ben. Except a dirty street kebab, but So he's he's obviously asexual.

Benny:

It's not us, it's him. At around 3 a.m., one of Matty's friends realizes that he seen Matty for a while and sends him a text message, hey babe, where are you? At 3 19, a reply comes back from Matty's phone. Mike's having a fucking cry. He's taking me home and won't let me stay. Fucking cunt.

Clare:

Damn.

Benny:

And uh that was Benny doing a quote there, by the way. That's um I know it sounded a lot like Lizzie with the language and everything, but that was that was actually me. The friend replies, Oh shit, that's that's not too good. Another message comes back from Matty's phone. He needs to get over himself. And this friend, rather diplomatically and probably just to get back to his own night out, replies, Oh well, I'm sure be right. Matty won't be alright, though. This will be the last communication anybody receives from he'll never be seen alive again. Matty's dad will eventually get a tattoo commemorating his son. And I don't know if he came up with this quote himself or not. I Googled and there was kind of a few variations attributed to people, but either way, it just so perfectly encapsulates this and the Leveson family's search for answers that will span ten years of their lives. The tattoo reads, It's not a justice system, it's just a system. Matthew Leveson was born on the 12th of December 1986 to loving parents Mark and Faye Leveson. He will have two brothers, an older brother Peter, who was two his senior, and younger brother Jason, three years his Growing up, he gravitated more naturally to girls and games would play. He loved Celine Dionne, and look, it's a bit of a kindred spirit here because anyone who knows me knows that Celine Dion, she's my number one. His favourite movies were The Never Ending Story and My Girl. He was a gentle boy, he loved watching Better Homes and Gardens, and he wanted to grow up and become a veterinarian. It wasn't a big surprise when Maddy came out as gay at the age of seventeen. His mother Faye admits that yes, there were tears, but they were for the challenges that her son might face as a gay boy. At that time he was still attending a Christian college, and in Sydney in the early 2000s, the Levesons knew that people could be homophobic and make Matty's life difficult. But the entire family, including Matty's brothers, for who he was. To Mark and Fay, he was still their same boy, Matty, and he was seeing somebody. In his coming out letter, Matty also confessed that his Daniel was actually his boyfriend, and they were planning on to the Year 12 formal together.

Carrie:

Aw, that's so sweet.

Benny:

I believe Matty and Daniel dated for about three years. I don't know if this was continuous, I don't know much about but I do know that in mid-2006, Matty is 20, and he and have just recently broken up. And this is when Matty began meeting men online using gay

Clare:

It's pretty crazy to think about like that's very early in dating, right? Like 2006. Like it like even the use of like my uh Facebook wasn't like that pop popular really. So like it's in it's interesting.

Benny:

Online dating was quite a bit before social media though.

Clare:

Yeah, that's true.

Benny:

Like I know based on when I moved to Canberra, I know that I was you know looking at um gateart.com it was at the time, so sites are definitely around a long time before smartphones and and Facebook.

Clare:

Yeah, okay.

Benny:

Um but yes, we certainly didn't have yeah, we didn't have we didn't have grinder, we didn't have Tinder, it was all just

Carrie:

Grinder, this guy's 400 metres from you.

Clare:

So much less security into uh as well, like even like like camera phones and stuff, like even how you're uploading photos and into a profile in 2006.

Benny:

No moderation or safety or like what people were sending you. I'm sure it was completely unmonitored back in the days, yeah.

Clare:

Yeah.

Benny:

It was on that website that he came across the profile of or aka Mike Atkins. Atkins was somewhat older, um, very fit. He worked several jobs, including as an electrician, he a security guard, and he also operated a number of um arcade around the city.

Clare:

How well sorry, you said he was a bit older, like what are we Like five years, ten years?

Benny:

He he's gonna say that he's about 34.

Clare:

Oh, okay.

Benny:

And Matty's 20, but we're gonna find out. There might that might be uh some exaggeration. Yeah.

Carrie:

Ben, you love the age gap relationships. Don't even.

Benny:

Oh, I've got no issue with that, but lying about his age. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna find that he's not being honest his age. Matty and Atkins spoke for a short while via the dating website and then by phone calls and SMS. And this is when Matty went missing for the first time. Matty was still living at home at this point. One Saturday morning in August of 2006, Faye Leveson phone call from Matty's manager at Big W where he worked. Matty had not turned up to work that morning as rostered, and was very out of character. He'd worked there for about three years and was normally very He'd actually already worked his way up to a supervisor position. So Fay was quite worried. She knew Matty and Daniel had only recently broken up, she that Matty didn't want to talk much about it, and he had been upset. Matty's phone was also off. So Fay started calling around Matty's friends to see if they'd heard from him, and she finally gets in touch with someone her the following. Matty had been out to Ark Nightclub the night before. He'd gone there to meet a man named Mike, but nobody knew who Mike was or how to contact him. By around lunchtime, Fay and Mark Leveson still hadn't heard from Matty, so they decided to phone the police. The police attended their home and started filling in the for a per missing person's report. They heard about Matty's recent breakup and the fact that been withdrawn, they heard about this Mike guy, and while were copying down these details, Fay received a phone call one of Matty's friends. They informed her that they'd spotted Matty's car. His green Toyota Corolla hatchback was locked and abandoned car park near Matty's work, but there was still no sign of anywhere and nobody had heard from him. The Levesons, along with police, attended the car park. They used a spare key to gain access to Matty's car, and police inspected it before giving the Levesons permission to take it By nightfall, Mark and Fay Levesons still had heard nothing and were understandably very worried. It wasn't till around 1 AM the following morning that the phone rang, and it was Matty. He wasn't apologetic though, he was angry. He told his parents that he needed some time to himself and some space, and was pretty furious that they had involved the police.

Carrie:

You can't be mad, dude. Of course they're gonna be worried.

Clare:

Mm-hmm. And to call at 1 AM too, like that's not This is it all sounds out of character for him. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Benny:

He told them that he'd been at his friend Emma's place, and her place was being renovated. It it didn't have power connected, so he was unable to phone. Fay demanded that her son attend the police station to check to tell them that he was alive and well. Matty initially refused, but eventually I think he agreed to, but the call didn't end well. I think Matty actually hung up on her. Matty wasn't with a friend named Emma though, of course. They'd later learn he stayed the night with Mike Atkins. Things cooled down, obviously, between Matty and his the following days and weeks, and Matty did own up to his mistake and the worry that he'd put them through. In fact, he promised his parents that he would never that on them again, and would always at least tell people where he was and that he was okay. Obviously, and regretfully, Matty's deliberate disappearance in August of 2006 is going to impact investigations and theories months later when he goes missing for real. So very quickly after they met, in fact almost straight away, moved in with Atkins into his two bedroom apartment in Crenulla. Mark and Fay Leveson did meet Atkins, and privately they were a bit apprehensive. So keep in mind Matty's now aged twenty. Atkins said he was around thirty-four years old, but when they finally meet him, they thought he looked older. He was in good shape, muscular, his hair was quite receded and Matty also confided that um Atkins underwent Botox The Levesons observed that his physical appearance as well as interests and tastes in things like music gave them the that he was a man closer in age to them than to a man in his So they think maybe his mid-40s or so. Now this isn't something that they talked about with Matty. Matty could be headstrong and could have a bit of a temper, they knew that bringing up the age gap concern probably change anything and might just create a divide with their son. So they bit their tongues, but they didn't like Atkins. They felt that he was a bit controlling. And Atkins never wanted to hang around for long when they did their son.

Carrie:

You can understand all of that because probably if they said you're just gonna push them away. And you also have to let young people make their own mistakes learn kind of on their own path.

Clare:

And I guess also there's an element to if he's only 20 and he's now dating this man who's much older that would be a lot more in terms of like living on his own and all that sort of stuff. So being kind of like or the perception of being like under the thumb of your parents would probably also be able to do that. And so like maybe Matty's kind of like distancing himself of like, you know, being a bit more independent. Yeah. And then like from the flip side, the like the natural power that Mike would have over him of like, you know, like I'm much so we'll do the things I like to do, we'll we'll go when I want to go, those types of things.

Benny:

He was always pulling Matty away after a brief catch-up. Like if they came over for dinner, they pretty much just, you announced that it was time to leave as soon as they'd finished He'd constantly be on his phone in front of them or taking calls at the dinner table. Atkins would uh avoid eye contact or any kind of attempts at affection, like hugs, hello, goodbye, things that kind of Matty enjoyed. They were also never invited over to Atkins and Matty's So let's go forward again to Saturday, September 22nd, 2007. This is the 24 hour period leading up to Matty's actual and the last few times he's seen alive. Matty's now working at an NRMA insurance call centre, and he work that morning at 10am. At around 1 pm, he has a lunch break and is joined by a and friend Carrie Ann. Carrie Ann is more than double Matty's age, but I believe they'd um been employed and kind of gone through induction at NRMA at the same time and immediately hit it off. They love each other's energy and sense of humour. Carrie Ann is also a bit of a like mother hen for Matty. She gives him advice and she looks out for him. It sounds like they like just have lots of fun together.

Clare:

Oh, classic work family, right? Work spouse.

Benny:

Today though, Carrie Ann notices something different about He seems quiet, his mind seems occupied, and Carrie Ann, her finger on the pulse because she pretty much asks him away, you know, how's things with you and Mike? Matty replies, not good. He's sick of Atkins bullshit, he's too controlling and jealous. And Carrie Ann and others already know this about Atkins. Matty's been saying for some time that Atkins is always is always pushing him to have threesomes with other young men, handsy with their friends or with, you know, other young boys at the club. But at the same time, he can't handle Matty having a night alone or Matty getting attention from other men.

Carrie:

My favourite saying red flag, red flag, red flag.

Benny:

In fact, there'd been at least one time where Matty was be having a night out alone with his friends and Atkins followed them to keep an eye on them.

Carrie:

Oh, that's not true. Don't say that. Like that's a normal sentence, man. He just followed them to keep an eye on them.

Clare:

That's insane. It also sort of sounds like if Matty's like only 20, he's still probably hanging out with all of his school friends and stuff. So the odds are they're all going to be kind of like that age And then you've just got this kind of like lurky, much older man just like watching them and stuff is super creepy.

Benny:

And I will point out, I didn't put this in the script, but worth mentioning. So he had been married, he'd been in a straight relationship for quite some time. I don't know how long he's been out at this point, but he is who's come out later in life.

Clare:

Ah, interesting.

Benny:

Possibly in the last five years or so. So we kind of have some of those behaviours that we might see someone who's going through that later in life or kind of missed out on that youth experience.

Carrie:

So do you think that there could be some jealousy there too? Like, look at this amazing, you know, yeah life that you're that I I didn't get to live, and I want to live that.

Benny:

Possibly, yeah, yeah. So Matty vents a bit to Kerry Ann and he makes a few comments. He says words to the effect of I'm not going to be a pushover, going to stand up to him, and also mentions a few work bonuses I think he's either owed or he's working his way towards, and he says that he might use that money to go alone to London. At the end of their shift at 6 PM, Matty walks Carrie Ann to her car, because he's a gentleman, and they always walk They watch each other get into their cars, and Carrie Ann that as Matty starts his ignition, the entire car park is with thumping bass from his subwoofer. Which isn't something Celine Dionne is known for. Maybe I drove all night, the remix. Anyway, I um I did see Umbrella was in the charts at this so I can imagine that kind of thumping through the empty car park.

Carrie:

Umbrella, umbrella.

Benny:

So this bass, or rather the subwoofer, is going to be very Maddy is known for blasting loud music using a subwoofer that older brother Peter had assembled and used for a while. But when Peter upgraded his car a few months ago, this subwoofer didn't fit anymore, so he'd given it to Matty and they it into the boot of his Toyota. And this subwoofer is enormous. It takes up three quarters of the boot, basically. Um but music is but loud music is very important to Matty. They wind down their windows to say the last few words and and Carrie Ann playfully makes a point of mentioning to he's gonna damage his hearing if he plays music that loud.

Carrie:

Bless her, that's what I would say too. That's how I know I'm old.

Benny:

Um Carrie, I remember driving home from work with you and and you you had the pop blasting.

Carrie:

Not the subulture, but back in the day, back in the day.

Benny:

I remember leaving that Canberra Center car park and Britney

Carrie:

The decibels have dropped in this part of life.

Benny:

Yeah, so it's now around 10 30 pm that night when Matty and arrive together at Arq Nightclub. They pay their cover charge, they get a stamp, and almost leave again. And I think it's because it's ten dollars cheaper per person if you arrive before like 11 pm or 12 I can't remember, but either way, you so they arrive, they get their stamp, they get the rate, and then they go to a nearby friend's house. His name is Jack, um, to hang out for a few hours just to wait the club gets busier. Matty's older brother Peter joins them here. They take a few photos having pre-drinks, and around and at around 1 a.m. they all go back to work. As I mentioned, there's a few different friendship groups at the club tonight, and they occasionally lose one another they'll reconnect. At 1 30 AM, Pete messages his younger brother, Hey, where are you at? And Matty responds, just sitting down, what you doing? Peter assumes Matty probably means the balcony level, which kind of has lounges. This is the one that kind of overlooks the dance floor below. So he goes up there and he's looking around when Atkins him alone, looking a bit grumpy. Pete asks him what's going on and if Matty's in one of his moods. Atkins says yes, but doesn't elaborate. Pete can also tell that Atkins is under the influence of Fifteen minutes pass and then Matty comes bounding past them but doesn't seem to see them or he's you know on his way somewhere, he doesn't stop to talk. Maybe he's ignoring Atkins. Whatever the case, Pete can also tell that Matty is also under the influence of something.

Clare:

Sorry to interrupt you, Ben, but uh do we have an idea? Because like if they got to the club at 1, and this is now 1.30, like uh do we have any idea from anyone that was at Jack's house of what Matty's demeanour was there before they got club?

Benny:

I don't remember recall anything being mentioned about Matty the pre-drinks, but I do remember a comment from Atkins he would take his pill now because in 30 minutes, uh do you what I mean? Like he was time timing it so that when he arrived at Ark um it was it would be kicking in. So they may have started taking things at the pre-drinks, that it would sort of be hitting them as they arrive at Arq. I don't remember anything standing out about Matty's though. Um Peter, who was at the pre-drinks, he didn't mention about Matty's demeanour, but obviously at the club he does.

Clare:

Yeah, okay. Interesting.

Benny:

At 2 a.m., Atkins messages Matty, where are you? Soon after that he messages again. I said sorry three times. I need more lollies. I sold out and I owe Pat two. I'm near the cloakroom.

Carrie:

Kiss. It's great.

Benny:

So if it's not immediately obvious, Atkins is selling party within the club, lollies being codename for probably pills. We'll later confirm that he sells um MDMA and GHB. So he and Matty appear to have had some kind of fight. Atkins needs to go back to their car, which is parked close by, to get more Lollies. And after that SMS, both Matty and Atkins are captured on CCTV leaving the club, with Matty walking off ahead and Mike

Carrie:

So they're still not in a good space together by the sounds of it. Like they're not walking hand in hand, they're not well together.

Benny:

And this is where those messages between a friend who's at Arq and Matty occur starting at 3 a.m. Hey babe, where are you? Mike's having a fucking cry, he's taking me home and he won't let me stay. Fucking cunt. Oh shit, that's not too good. He needs to fucking get over himself. Oh well, I'm sure you'll be right. And this last message is at 3 31 a.m.

Clare:

I was just gonna say, if we know that Mike has got like an issue with jealousy and stuff like that too, immediately if he's also saying that, or if Matty's telling the friend that he's not him leave, you assume that he's also reading his messages. Like if he doesn't like him going out with Friends and he like him, like you know, he would absolutely be reading those.

Benny:

So, like, if they were already in a TIFF, like if he's furiously texting, there is no way that Mike is not gonna want know what that message says. Yeah, yeah.

Carrie:

Yeah, absolutely. And he probably won't even like him sharing that information other people or not.

Clare:

Agreed, yeah. Especially if he's to your point, like he doesn't have any that are outside of this age group as well. So if Matty's his connection in with these crews as well, like he also needs Matty around for from that perspective too, Like he's not gonna get to stay friends with these young hot either.

Benny:

Yeah, true.

Clare:

Like little little hoddies, like he's Matty's his only to them, so he wouldn't want them knowing that he's being a cunt.

Benny:

Possibly, yeah. There is something interesting about the text messages get to, we'll come back to that. The rest of Sunday passes. It's now Monday, the twenty-fourth of September. Atkins is an electrician and he's at a work and he's on a work when at around eight a.m. he messages Matty saying, Good morning, baby, how are you? I woke up and you're not in bed. Did you go to Arq with Luke and Paul? Just let me know where you are, please. Miss you.

Clare:

No. Flags.

Carrie:

Carrie, the red flags everywhere. Red flags everywhere. This sounds like creating an alibi to me.

Benny:

Who messages like that, right? You said you were gonna do this.

Carrie:

Are you at Arq with Blah blah?

Clare:

Like it's so But even like so. If you have no record of you with your partner for a good at 72 hours or no, well, like at least 24 hours, nobody's seen you guys together. You're not starting your message with, hey babe, you'd be Where the fuck are you? I've been looking everywhere for you. Like, what the fuck? Like, answer me so I know you're okay.

Benny:

And you don't say, I woke up, you weren't in bed. You'd say, like, what time did you leave this morning?

Clare:

100%. Yeah, yeah.

Benny:

You need to explain, like, they they were there, they know.

Clare:

Yeah.

Carrie:

Why did you not come home? Like, oh my god. Nice of you to leave without even waking up to say goodbye. Yeah, etc.

Benny:

Matty doesn't work Mondays, so it's not crazy to think that he might have had a big night on Sunday night, too. Atkins had left home very early that morning. He's posted to a job site at um a new Coca-Cola factory. It's about an hour's drive from Crenullah. So allegedly he wakes up that Monday morning at 5 a.m. Matty isn't home, so he drives to work and spends the day up with messages checking in on Matty. At eleven forty one AM he messages again. Hey baby, how are you going? What are you up to? If you're asleep, give me a call as soon as you wake up. Kiss, kiss, kiss.

Clare:

No.

Benny:

At around 1.15 PM, a mutual friend receives a message from asking if Matty had gone out with him the night before. The friend lives very close to Arknight Club and is often there, so if Matty had been out on Sunday night, he probably would have gone with this person or at least checked to see if this person planned to be there as well. Now this friend doesn't reply to Atkins. Instead, he writes to Matty saying, Hey, Mikey just messaged me and asked if you went out with me last night. Did you say you did, or question mark? Matty does not respond.

Carrie:

Oh, I love this. What do you want me to say? What time are we together?

Benny:

It says a lot about kind of what you were just saying, Claire. It says a lot about who the friends are within this group and being on the outside, right? Like he's looking after Matty here, he doesn't care about

Clare:

And immediately there's no kind of rapport, immediate suspicion that it's a trap.

Benny:

Absolutely, yeah. Yes.

Carrie:

It it shows a lot about the perception of their relationship to agreed. Like they don't trust this guy, they know it's probably going cause an argument. Yeah.

Benny:

I won't read all of them, but Atkins sends Matty six or so SMSs over the next few days with increasing worry.

Clare:

Over the next few days.

Benny:

Asking him if he's okay and asking him to make contact. Interestingly, he does not once try to call Matty's phone.

Carrie:

So he sent him six messages over several days. And is he contacting the friends, the family, being like him missing?

Benny:

He's about to. We're about to get to that, but certainly Well, too little too JoJo. For Sunday, Monday, no, except for this one friend. Hey, did you go out with him last night? Except for that friend, no one else has he contacted. It's now 6.20 pm Monday night. Atkins is at Carring Bar Woolworth's um shopping for dinner, his Crenola apartment, when he bumps into Matty's older brother Pete, and Pete's girlfriend, who he's introduced to, and Pete asks where Matty is. Atkins admits that he and Matty had a fight the day before, and that Matty was gone when he'd woken up for work that Monday morning, and he hasn't seen Matty since. Pete isn't too worried. He's sympathetic to Atkins and basically says that he'll turn um, and they say goodbye and continue their shopping. This interaction will prove to be very important, though, for what Atkins is seen wearing at the time. Camouflage cargo pants and a mauve purplish polo top, which is a hideous combination.

Carrie:

It is hideous.

Benny:

But which gay can claim that they didn't wear that outfit in the mid-2000s.

Carrie:

It's c cargo pants are back. I'm seeing them around town.

Benny:

Remember they used to like layer polo shirts, sort of like one over the other.

Carrie:

Remember you could strip off the calve section and show you at any time.

Benny:

Yeah. But then if you didn't wash them all together, the shorts would fade and the bottom bits wouldn't, the cargo pants wouldn't, it wouldn't match anymore. Yeah. Gotta be careful.

Clare:

Millennial problems.

Benny:

Nobody else will notice or be made aware of Matt's disappearance until the following morning, Tuesday the twenty fifth. Sometime prior to ten thirty AM, Atkins calls Matty's manager at the NRMA call centre asking if Matty had turned up today. He tells the manager that Matty hadn't come home the night Monday night, and he wanted to see if Matty had gone straight work from somewhere. Matty hadn't shown up, of course, and Carrie Ann, remember Ann?

Carrie:

She knows she's gonna clock it immediately. She's gonna be like, This is sus.

Benny:

She hears about this call, and as time passes, she grows really concerned for Matty. She can't get hold of him either. His phone rings out, so she phones the Leveson residence.

Clare:

Oh, go Carrie Ann. Finally.

Benny:

Faye and Mark are at work, but 17-year-old Jason is home from sick, and he groggily listens and takes a message for his parents. He says that he doesn't know where Matty is and can't help. Next, Carrie Ann talks to her manager and asks if Atkins, who had phoned earlier, had left a phone number to reach him on. And Atkins had, so Carrie Ann now calls him. When he picks up, she introduces herself and says, Look, about Matty. Have you heard anything yet? Atkins says no, and Carrie Ann, who's she's a no-nonsense she's straight away asking, you know, tell me just tell me what happened. Did you guys have a fight? Do you think that he's with friends? Do you think he drank too much? Do you think his drink was spiked? Has he taken any clothes? Is there a bag missing?

Carrie:

Oh, I love her. Look at her go. Work, mum's getting it done. Mm-hmm. Never off the clock.

Benny:

Atkins is short with his answers, completely unhelpful, and says, Look, I'm really worried about him. Please keep me informed. I'll keep trying his mobile. Mark and Faye Leveson received the message that their son show up for work at about twelve thirty PM that Tuesday. They don't initially have Atkins' phone number, but they get from Pete, who does, and they try calling him, but it it just goes straight to voicemail. It takes about forty-five minutes for Atkins to phone them and when he does, he provides very little information. He says that he woke up on Sunday morning, Matty was gone, and he hasn't seen him since or been able to reach him. The Levesons are frustrated that their son has been missing Sunday morning, and it's now Tuesday midday, and they're only finding out about it. But there's also this niggling feeling in the back of that Matty's done this before to them. Maybe he and Atkins have had a fight, Matty wants to be alone Maybe Matty will be angry at them if they lodge a missing report. They do lodge a report though that Tuesday night just before and they insist that Atkins meet them there at the police to fill it in with them.

Clare:

Wow, so it's the parents that actually put like so he's not gone to the police or anything. Wow.

Benny:

You can imagine their position, can't you? Like he's gone missing once before, he's been angry at you for the police. You really would you'd hesitate to to call them again to them?

Clare:

Especially because you know that their partner has such an issue with you, whether it's personal or not, but that he doesn't hanging out at your family's house or like doing this or even him involved in the street. Exactly, yeah.

Lizzie:

But it blurs the lines of when to know to use your like

Benny:

Faye hears Atkins retell his story to police twice, and each time it's changing subtly. First, he tells them that he woke up on Sunday afternoon, not morning, to find Matty gone. Then later, to another officer, he says that he and Matty up as per normal on Sunday, and that Matty had mentioned going out to Arq on Sunday night with some friends. So it wasn't until Monday morning that he woke to find Matty never come home.

Clare:

Oh my god.

Benny:

They also find out that Atkins is 44 years old. He's not 34, as he'd been claiming.

Lizzie:

Yeah.

Benny:

And they also hear that Matty had been taking party drugs on Saturday night, and Atkins alleges that he had taken Matty to look after him because he'd taken too much. By the following evening, Wednesday, there have been no on Matty's whereabouts. Atkins, who, as you'd guess, is just prostrate with grief and he invites a 21-year-old named Brendan over to his apartment casual sex.

Carrie:

That's the first thing I do when I'm distraught. Yeah. I don't know about you guys.

Benny:

After that, he drives two hours north to Newcastle, arriving 9 30 p.m. for casual sex with a 23-year-old that he'd been chatting

Clare:

No.

Benny:

And then he goes out to Newcastle's legendary gay nightclub,

Carrie:

Wow. Wasting no time. Yeah, he seems really worried and upset. I can't believe it's called Fannies. It's great.

Benny:

But in the meantime, back in Sydney, there is about to be a major development. It's Thursday, 2 30 a.m. in the morning when a police patrol car pulls into a car park at Waratah Oval. The oval is about 20 minutes' drive west of Crenalla, and it's a spot where gay men have been known to meet for anonymous sex. In the car park tonight, the officer comes across a lone green Corolla hatchback, and when he runs the license plate, he finds that it's registered to a Fay Leveson. Now immediately this name rings bells. He's well aware of the missing twenty-year-old Leveson boy, radios it in. Later that morning, the site is buzzing with police inspecting area and performing forensic analysis on the car. They check for prints, they bag an empty salad container for l later DNA analysis, and of course pop the boot, which is empty.

Clare:

No saborfa.

Benny:

Completely empty, just a few loose speaker cords. And there's also a small piece of paper. Turning it over, police find that it's a receipt from a local warehouse. And it's dated from that Sunday, so 12 10pm, Sunday, 23rd of for two items paid for in cash. Can you guess what they are? The two items?

Lizzie:

A shovel and a rope.

Benny:

Yeah, pretty much. So a roll of Norton brand cloth duct tape and a Garden Master mattock.

Clare:

Yeah.

Benny:

Which is like a pickaxe, a digging implement.

Clare:

And you t you strip everything out of the car, but you m leave the receipt. Good God. Was the car locked?

Benny:

It was locked. They yeah, they did have to get an RMA to come and unlock it. So it's not like it was unlocked and everything's been it's been stolen, like it it was secured. It doesn't look burgled.

Clare:

Yeah, I was gonna say, like, you could yeah, did did they did he make it look like somebody had like stolen the car and stripped the car? But if they've locked it, then no.

Benny:

Just parked there, yeah.

Carrie:

He couldn't be more suspicious in his behaviour either. Right. Yeah.

Benny:

Within an hour or so, a sergeant is scrolling through CCTV at Bunning's Carran Bar, looking to see who bought these on the receipt. To nobody's surprise, a man who police immediately recognise as Mike Atkins appears in the footage, clearly carrying a matic the front of the store, wearing camouflage cargo pants and a polo shirt.

Carrie:

Oh didn't even get changed.

Benny:

So this is 12 10pm, he's been at Bunnings. He probably hasn't Sorry, I'm spoiling things, but he probably gone out with the car yet. He probably waits till night time. So he's seen his brother at Woolworths. Matty's probably either still in the house or in the boot. Isn't isn't that horrible to think about?

Clare:

That's awful.

Benny:

It's now 5 pm and Atkins is already under police surveillance at his job site. He receives a phone call from a police sergeant, letting him know that they have questions for him about the disappearance of his partner, Matthew Leveson, and asking how soon he could come in to provide a statement. On this call, Atkins lies about his location. He says it'll take him about an hour to reach the police station, because he's way out west in Penrith. But they know that this isn't true. He's near Parramatta, so he's about 36K, he's about twenty miles closer to home than he's pretending he is.

Clare:

Wow.

Benny:

He ends the call, and instead of driving to the police station, he drives home. But thankfully, he's under surveillance, and police are kind of expecting him to do this, so he arrives at home to be greeted by police in his driveway. They ask him to get out of his car, he's sweating profusely, he goes completely white in the face, and police have to catch him as he faints.

Clare:

Wow. Even just even um, like obviously the the video footage, all sort of stuff is so suspicious. But like just the random white lies that he's telling, like lies about his age and like his location and stuff, like he's just somebody who it it's not even it's just second nature, like the way that he spoke to the brother, with as we said, like poor Matty's body was probably in the car as he's picking out Linguini for dinner.

Lizzie:

Like it's so like ruthless yet careless at the same time. Yeah, exactly. It's really odd.

Carrie:

Do you think it's arrogance? Like he thinks he's smarter than everyone, and thought because it's just so obvious what he's doing.

Benny:

I think he's just really stupid.

Carrie:

Yeah.

Lizzie:

Yeah. Well, they can come off as the same thing sometimes.

Benny:

Like the receipt left in the car, just everything about these everything is suspicious.

Lizzie:

Yeah.

Benny:

No criminal investigation awareness.

Lizzie:

He definitely didn't watch water outs growing up.

Benny:

No.

Lizzie:

Yeah, no blue healers for him.

Benny:

No blue healers. No. Police get an initial statement from Atkins. He's not under arrest, but they get him to explain the days up to Matty's disappearance and a timeline of his activities he last saw Matty. They're locking him into a story, and once that's done, they reveal more of their cards to him. They let him know that they've found Maddy's car, they let that they've found a receipt for duct tape and a matic, and they let him know that they have CCTV footage of a man that they will assert is him buying it. Surprisingly, Atkins denies buying the Maddox and denies being man in the CCTV footage.

Clare:

I so wish we had like a copy of that video of him like just white lighting through that, be like, what? That was not me?

Benny:

What there is some footage of this interview. I don't know if it's all been released. If if I can find it, I'll I'll stick it up online.

Clare:

Like, I just think it's so interesting. It's like, here's you, here's your face. It's like, no, that's not me.

Benny:

Like, what it was definitely filmed and I've seen bits of it, so I I'll I'll try to find that bit. I do know that um he refuses to watch the CCTV. He denies it at him, but he's he refuses to watch it.

Clare:

Interesting.

Benny:

So you won't yeah, you won't see that. While this is happening, though, police are preparing a to search Atkins' apartment for a number of items, and this will take place on early Friday morning. They will seize the camouflage cargo pants and polo top was seen wearing in the CCTV.

Clare:

He still had those at his house.

Carrie:

Yeah.

Clare:

Oh my.

Carrie:

Well look, it's it's best for the public at large if those are taken out of circulation, let's be it.

Benny:

Yeah. They didn't actually take them for evidentiary reasons. They just they just they just thought they needed disposing of. They're ugly. Just from crime fashion. They seize Matty's laptop, a toothbrush belonging to Matty for potential DNA matching, a quantity of liquid GHB, and about in cash. They search the apartment and garage area for the mattock and duct tape, but these are never found. They also search Atkin's own vehicle, which is parked in the In it they find a recently used condom with Atkins' DNA and the DNA of an unknown male that's not Matty. And underneath the floor mat, still vibrating away, they find mobile phone.

Clare:

No.

Benny:

And it shows police that incoming messages and voicemails checked in the days since Matty went missing.

Clare:

Yeah, so he's he's seen everything that's going on. It's crazy, it's crazy that this is where he's chosen to hide phone. Like it's it feels like such an obvious especially like if he's dumped the Toyota elsewhere, he's gonna know if they're gonna me, they're gonna immediately look at my car. Why would you put the phone? Why would you hide it there? That's like yeah, again, like what's the thought process?

Benny:

So just to be clear, Mike Atkins had been reading all the sent to Matty by his parents, his brothers, Carrie Ann, who cares about him and he's worried, sick about Matty.

Carrie:

Yeah, it it's sick that he's reading all these messages. It's afraid.

Lizzie:

What's the purpose of him keeping the phone? Like, sure, okay, you read the messages, that's sick. That's weird. Because you know what's going on. However, why have he got the phone? Like, are you that dumb?

Clare:

It is very strange.

Benny:

I'm thinking he's just been so busy fucking. Like he literally has just been going to work and then having sex at night non-stop and partying. I just don't think he's made time to clean up any evidence.

Lizzie:

It's just so dumb.

Benny:

Atkins has been reading these messages, hearing the voicemails, as well as messaging Matty himself, saying things like, Hey I'm really worried for you, knowing full well that Matty would not and could not have received these messages because the been in his possession possession the whole time.

Carrie:

Oh my god, and probably reading his own messages.

Clare:

It is also wild that he had the phone that he could have been to his own messages as Matty to like deflect it. Because he could have, like, when the friend called him, he could have been like, Yeah, I haven't seen him, we had this huge But he sent me these he sent me a message saying that he's you he's decided to go to that's why I think he's dumb.

Benny:

Yeah. I think if he's smarter, he would have done something like that. He would have prioritised that over partying. I think it's stupid.

Lizzie:

I think he's dumb and just high and doesn't know. He's just fucking chaotic. There's nothing logical.

Benny:

Atkins also denies being familiar with the spot where was found, Warutar Oval, and says that he can't think of a reason why Matty's car would be there. And he's caught in another lie here. I mentioned earlier that Atkins operated a few arcade the city, and he has two installed at the basketball court at War Waratar Oval.

Carrie:

Like, dude, that's so easy to check.

Lizzie:

I can't with this guy.

Benny:

As the interview's wrapping up, a detective has one last try, Atkins, Michael, please tell me what happened to Matt. He doesn't deserve to be left where he is. Atkins responds, quote, I want to tell you, but I'm scared of will happen to me if I do. Now, Mike Atkins, despite being caught in so many liars, is placed under arrest, at least not yet. And I suppose at this stage they feel they have a lot of evidence, maybe not enough to convict him for murder. Um, maybe they need time to process evidence, to interview I'm not really sure. Um, potentially there's the theory that Matty is off somewhere needing time alone again, you know, like maybe there is no crime, so I guess maybe that's why. Later that night, Atkins goes to Ark Night Club. He chats with the bouncer in line who isn't aware of Matty's yet, and the bouncer asks him, Where's her other half tonight? Atkins tells him that he and Matty have broken up and then goes into the club. But Atkins doesn't stay long, he's there for less than an hour the bouncer notes him leaving again. And then later that night the bouncer goes into the club himself. And he walks around a bit and he sees missing posters plastered on the wall for Matthew Leveson.

Clare:

That's so wild.

Benny:

Time passes and the investigation cools down. It's torture for the Leveson family who wanted to keep Atkins on side despite their suspicions. In December, they deliver to his doorstep some homemade fudge and a Christmas card, begging for him to contact them. They don't hear back. It takes it takes almost a year and a new detective being to the case before police decide that they have enough to arrest Mike Atkins.

Clare:

Wow. Even with all of that.

Benny:

And I'm gonna be completely honest, I'm not sure why this piece of evidence tipped the scale, so I don't know, let me know what you think. So this new detective looking through the police crime scene video during the search of Atkins' apartment, she notices something in the garage that had been missed during the search. In the background, nearby Atkins' car, but in a neighbouring spot, is Matty's subwoofer.

Clare:

How do you miss a subwoofer? It's especially because you said it took up what, like three of the boot. And like speakers back in early 2000s were m huge in cards, as like a whole piece that they didn't see that there when just found the car and it's missing. At a very minimum at the end.

Benny:

You could see these cables in the boot, and you would think, like you'd ask the family what was in there just to figure out if had been stolen.

Lizzie:

You would know if it's like it's to do with the line. And you're right, I remember my car, my first car in the 2000s when I got my licence. The sub I had a subwoofer in it, I bought it off my cousin for sheet, and it took up the entire boot. You couldn't put anything else in there. Nothing.

Benny:

Yeah, three-quarters of this boot, they say, 'cause this is the little hatchback thing. It's you know Yeah. Yeah. She pieces this together with the loose audio cables from the back of Matty's car, the placement of the Bunnings receipt where the subwoofer had been, and the testimony from Carrie Ann that on the evening Matty went missing, the subwoofer was most definitely installed in the boot. So this tells the detectives that the subwoofer was removed from the boot at some point after 6 pm on Saturday, and before the receipt was discarded in the boot at around 12 pm Sunday. So it's compelling evidence that the boot could have been used move Matty's body, requiring the subwoofer to be removed. Why this tipped the scale, I'm not sure. Matty did go home to their apartment in Crenulla after work and before they left for art, so he'd he had the opportunity to take the speaker out himself, um, however unlikely that seems.

Lizzie:

Yeah, like it'd be different if like there was there was blood on it and they had, you know, someone saw someone taking out of a boot, like there was something to connect it, but not really a solid, I don't think.

Benny:

I guess it's just it's one more piece of circumstantial and they have so much of it now, so maybe they think look, this strengthens the case. So at 4 a.m. on August 6, 2008, Atkins is arrested at his apartment in without incident. It takes another year for the case against Mike Atkins to go to trial, and right from the start, the prosecution are dealt a blow.

Clare:

That's crazy when it feels like it's it feels so like a yet cut yeah, from what was that, five days in that they basically had him under suspicion? Two years is insane.

Benny:

When Atkins was first brought in for questioning the afternoon he fainted, police had advised him that they had questions about the disappearance of Matty and could he provide a You'll remember that once he provided the statement, police began to show their cards, you know, the car, the receipt, and the of him buying the mattock. Can anyone see a problem here?

Carrie:

Oh, did they not read his rights? Tell him his rights. Oh, yeah.

Benny:

They didn't caution him.

Carrie:

To being a suspect.

Benny:

Yeah. So police are required to caution you at the point where you of transition from just assisting with their investigation, know, such as like being a witness, to being a suspect. And it makes sense, like police could be talking to you and thinking that you're being helpful, not realizing that you be asking for legal advice. So this hurts the prosecution's case significantly. Everything in the statement from the point of the car being by police becomes inadmissible. This includes Atkins denying that he went to Bunnings, denying he bought the Matic, denying that it was him in the CCTV footage, and also him saying the words, I want to tell you, but I'm of what will happen to me if I do.

Clare:

Jeez. It's so frustrating because it's easy to sit here and say, just policing 101. This is so shit. But like we've all sat in and talked about so many different cases where you know you're doing you're you're doing your job day in, day out, you don't know where this is going, and you just it just happens. Like it's not malicious, it's not necessarily incompetence, it's just a like a blip of time that you forget to do the the basics that can just destroy everything. Yeah.

Benny:

And it's not like someone immediately becomes a suspect, like such a careful dance of getting information and learning. It's it's hard to say when should that point of giving the be? You want to get as much out of them as you can, but you also want to compromise the case. So it's trying to balance like the court needs later versus needs investigating, and it's hard because like we've been saying this whole time, uh, it's so obvious it's him. So it's obvious to the police. It's really but how do you talk to him and get any information? He's been a suspect the whole time, right?

Lizzie:

I think it's hard too because they don't have anything they have a lot pointing at him being involved.

Benny:

So it's also consistent.

Carrie:

It's hard without that physical evidence, isn't it? Like they don't have without a body, yeah. Yeah.

Lizzie:

You know, pulls out the lawyer, starts saying nothing, all kind of shit.

Clare:

But what a lucky break for him, right? Oh yeah, it's like he's made so many stuff ups, and what a lucky break for him.

Carrie:

Totally.

Clare:

That's heartbreaking for the family. 100%. It's awful.

Benny:

The case for the prosecution is as follows. At some point in the early morning hours of September 23, 2007, Mike Atkins and Matthew Leveson had an argument. This is supported by Atkins' SMS to Matty, you know, I said three times. As well as Matty seemingly ignoring Atkins in Ark in front of The prosecution believed that they left Ark together, went home to their apartment in Quinullah, and then things in Atkins killing Matty. Later that day, he went to Bunnings for the tape and mattock. He removed the subwoofer and likely waited for darkness on Sunday night before moving Matty's body into the boot and then burying Matty somewhere in bushland. The case for the defence is as follows. They went home from Arq, Matty slept in the bedroom, and slept on the couch. The next morning everything was relatively fine. Atkins went to Bunnings to buy a mattock for the purpose of a vegetable garden on the grounds of their apartment complex. And Matty must have gone out on that Sunday night because when Atkins woke up on Monday for work, Matty was already gone.

Clare:

Yeah, far out. What you just laid out there could totally be plausible without that interview. Oh, that's so frustrating.

Benny:

Justice Hidden, who is presiding over the trial, and no name is Justice Hidden, so there's a bit of foreshadowing for Instructs the jury as follows. That is really the vital area of contention here. Whether Matthew Leveson is dead is a question you must decide. The jury deliberates for three days but can't reach a They ask questions about the difference between murder and Um, then deliberate for another two days but still can't consensus. Justice Hidden then issues a black direction, which is a term I hadn't heard before. And what it means is that they don't need to reach a unanimous between all twelve jurors. They can reach agreement with eleven.

Clare:

Oh.

Benny:

Which is kind of funny. Like I think if there's one juror who disagrees, is he like the black sheep? I don't know. I wonder I wonder if that's kind of the entomology of like Black Direction.

Lizzie:

That's where my mind went. Interesting.

Benny:

After five days of deliberation on and this Black is found not guilty of murder.

Clare:

STOP!

Benny:

He is found not guilty of manslaughter.

Carrie:

No.

Benny:

He walks out of court a free man.

Carrie:

You can see what happened though. Like if I'm if I'm the defense, I'm gonna say he's before. Yep. And he didn't want to be found. You don't even know that he's passed away. Oh, that's so frustrating. Yeah.

Benny:

It's now July 2015, almost eight years since the disappearance Matthew Leveson, and a coronial inquest is commencing. Now the purpose of a coronial inquest, for those who don't know, is to lay down all the facts. It's not about laying blame or finding guilt, but it's to learn lessons about how things were handled and to prevent further A coronial inquest might find that there is, you know, sufficient evidence to find someone guilty of manslaughter, but the itself isn't a trial. So if there was that finding, for example, they would just, you know, they would refer that to the um DPP, the director of prosecutions, and that and then they would take that forward if they wanted to, or they and they don't always choose to. For the media, this inquest is a revelation. Evidence that was suppressed from the jury and media previously is now all out on the table, and this includes Atkins denying the mattock and going to Bunnings long before he came up with his vegetable garden defence. They hear his admission. I want to tell you, but I'm afraid of what will happen to me if I do. It isn't until Thursday, the eighteenth of february, twenty that Atkins is subpoenaed by the inquest, and as part of this, offered what is known as a section sixty-one. But in this case it's going to be famously remembered as the with the devil. The coroner knows that they are not likely to get any additional evidence from Atkins if there's any chance he'll incriminate In New South Wales, double jeopardy laws had already changed a year prior to Matty's disappearance. So where previously someone couldn't be charged twice for the crime, there's now certain provisions meaning a person can be if there's fresh and compelling evidence.

Lizzie:

I just want to call out Barrowville.

Benny:

So they strike this deal with the devil. Nothing that Atkins says and any evidence collected as a and any evidence collected as a result of what he says, none of it be used against him in criminal proceedings.

Clare:

What's the incentive here? Is it is it just to have answers and to have the inquest make call? Yeah.

Benny:

For the first few days of his statement, Atkins walked through the events leading up to and following Matty's disappearance, by the coroner. Still there's no admission of guilt.

Clare:

Yeah.

Benny:

But it's just like his first interview with police. They let him talk, they let him lock himself into a story, and they pick it apart. So after a few days of testimony, the inquest begins to his story. They point out the many times throughout the investigation and in even during the inquest itself, where Atkins has lied. There's the lie to police that he never went to Bunnings, the that he bought the Matic. He'd also lied to the inquest. He provided um contradicting statements that he had tried for Matty himself, and then also admitted later that he didn't actually ever search for Matty, and that he left that to the The section sixty-one, so that the deal with the devil, gave immunity from prosecution, but only for charges relating to death. It didn't give him immunity for perjury, for lying to the or for admitting that he'd later, or for admitting that he'd l earlier to police. And perjury carries a maximum penalty of fourteen years in prison. So this actually provides the coroner and the police with some needed leverage. Atkins is now facing charges for perjury and potentially a jail time. So they finally have something to offer him for useful But it's going to take one more deal with the devil. A heart-wrenching choice for the Leveson family to consider. In exchange for a statement that includes the events. The Levesons agree, and Atkins draws them a map.

Clare:

No. Wow. Oh, that poor family. That's such an awful decision.

Carrie:

And I mean Sophie's choice in the worst.

Clare:

Yeah, totally. And I guess like it's one of those things. The family already knew he did it. Like they knew that. They didn't need him. Yeah. I guess like the justice component is like making this of going, well, we want our son. We know he did it. So if the minimum he can do for us is that, if that's the we get.

Benny:

In May 2017, following extensive excavation attempts, are located. He's found face up and less than a meter under the earth, a small cabbage palm that's grown in the time since Matty was there. The spot is only about 30 metres from a point specified on map. Matty's cause of death cannot be determined, of course. It's been ten years by this point, and sadly any clues about Matty might have been strangled or beaten, they've been There is actually minor damage to his remains, which could been easily caused by the excavator or foot traffic, um, or just the roots of this cabbage palm over time. Here is Atkins' final statement, or confession, if you per the coronial inquest. Quote, Mr. Atkins states that after falling asleep on the couch after home from the nightclub, he woke at about 9 a.m. on Saturday morning and discovered Matthew deceased on the of the bedroom. Within about an hour, he had determined to dispose of Matthew's body secret secretly to safeguard his own reputation, he assumed Matthew had died from a drug overdose of GHB.

Clare:

It's hard because both stories could be plausible, right? Like that makes sense that he'd want to protect all of those It makes sense that he could have died of a drug overdose. The hard part is the all the things that led up to them leaving the club, the messages, they were not in a good space at that they got home, they were not in a good space when they went to It's it's really difficult to make a call on either way.

Carrie:

Honestly, it could go either way for me. Regardless of how he passed away, this this man's actions after the fact are despicable. He's just as guilty either way, no matter Ben was no matter was there duct tape with the body?

Benny:

Oh, sorry, we're gonna get back to that. Um no, there wasn't. So it was never explained what the duct tape was potentially be used for. Um there was when they searched his apartment, there was a and I think it was a bag that Matty took to work or something, but it had a um a white like hospital blanket like stuffed into it, and they did some tests and they thought there might be a bit of blood in there, and there was, but it was negligible, what you might just find on a dirty old blanket. But there are theories that potentially Atkins intended to wrap Matty in this blanket and then tie it up with the cloth duct but for some reason, whatever reason, he didn't do that, he didn't use it, he wasn't wrapped in anything. So I think that might explain the tape, but no, he never ended up using it and they never found the mattock or the tape.

Clare:

They lived in an apartment block, right?

Benny:

Yeah, yep.

Clare:

When the police did their initial investigation, I assume they have spoken with the neighbours and stuff. Did anybody report hearing anything? Like an like an argument, any kind of yelling or anything?

Benny:

Nothing, nothing came from the neighbours at all, no. Um nothing that I read anyway, nothing that made it into or anything. Nothing notable. Even the person whose car space that the subwoofer was sitting like I didn't even hear them talk about whether they'd seen it, no one around them seemed to notice anything. I do know he waited until night time, very late at night, to Matty's body down to the garage. So obviously he was conscious of neighbours, but I don't know what people heard that night or what noises people were used to from them. Inspector Gary Jubilan, who is a name that many Australian true crime enthusiasts will know, he led the investigation into Leveson's disappearance for quite a while, for some time, and controversially, he believes this statement from Atkins that death was a tragic accident related to GHB and not homicide, Atkins was scared of being outed as gay to his elderly mother, of being of being exposed as a drug dealer, and the consequences that this might have on his life and career.

Lizzie:

I just don't know if I have a gut feel on whether he killed him or it was like you like you said to Gary Jubilin an accidental overdose.

Carrie:

I don't think he planned to kill him because there was nothing like that seems premeditated to me. But it for me it's one of two scenarios, and that is they fighting, they do go home and go their separate ways. We know this man was a drug dealer, so there would have been to drugs. So maybe he's upset he takes more a lot of drugs and accidentally ODs, or they go home, they're fighting, they both take a drugs, and the fight gets out of hand and he kills him in some kind of physical altercation.

Benny:

I hate to say this because I, you know, having listened to Matty the Case Fall Presents podcast, it's told mostly by Faye Leveson. So you hear the parents, you hear their pain, and I hate to say this, but I I think I agree with Jubilin. I think it was probably a mistake. I think Atkins panicked and wanted to cover it up. For me, there isn't enough evidence of physical violence or violence from Atkins. Like, yes, he's a shit person, he's a horrible person, he's human being, but there's nothing that points towards him that would murder someone. I think he was scared of his life falling apart. I think he'd probably come out later in life. He was into this party scene, that was everything to him. He was scared of losing that and being known as, you know, I maybe being fired from his job because of he had a criminal or something. I think so much of his life and his image depended on this. I do believe that Matty just just overdosed, and I hate saying that because you know, I know the Levesons don't believe that but personally, like I've known a couple of people die in from GHB. Not people I know closely, but associations.

Lizzie:

Can I ask a really dumb question? How do you take GHB?

Benny:

So it's a liquid. People usually um so it's it's got to be taken very carefully, So it's very it's a very fine line between this is great and now I'm unconscious. So it's a liquid, you usually put it in soft drinks, you put it in by like by mills, put it in your soft drink, make me drink A lot of people see those little soy sauce fish. I don't know if you see like those empty outside bars ever, but people often empty that soy out, they fill them with G because like two meals or so, and they're easy to carry in your

Carrie:

Has he had any incidents of violence with other partners?

Benny:

Not that we know about prior to this, after this, yeah. Nothing from his ex-wife, nothing. Um a lot of people say he was uncomfortable, that he was awkward, he was controlling, like those types of things, but nothing that he was physically violent.

Carrie:

Even if if it was accidental, this an overdose, what done after the fact is just despicable. The fact that you would sit there, listen to his family calling him and crying and begging for him and not do something to tell them where he is to manipulate his body after he's everything he's done is absolutely despicable.

Clare:

Great. Um Ben, do we have anything about because obviously the parents and the family are gonna have a particular position and the way that they speak about it? But did any of Matty's friends speak about so if the if is kind of implying that he they they went home, they had a whatever happened, that he took more drugs. Did any of the friends talk about like 'cause it's one thing to say, oh. I take a, you know, like I go to the club and I take a hit of MDMA at the club with when I'm out and about. But it's another thing to say, I go home and down GHB. Like though those are very different, very different approaches to drugs. Like, was would that have been completely out of the realm of for him?

Benny:

GHB is something that's very common in the gay community. So it's something that you take out at bars to have the of alcohol, but it's also something that you take for extended sessions and at home with partners or sex parties at home. It can be used for both. So it wouldn't be unusual to have g at your pre-drinks, to have g when you're out of the club, to go home and have sex, more g, which is something that Matty him might might have I I don't know.

Clare:

Because maybe that's another element, too, right?

Benny:

And it's very easy to overdose. So, like I said, you kind of have to you're taking a couple of and you want to make sure you're taking it once per hour. Yeah. So you've got to time how long's it been since you've had your couple of meals, you've got to make sure you don't go over or depending on the strength of the G. Some people take more than that, which is very dangerous. And it's very easy to forget how recently you took the last one, and that's all it takes to, you know, because your body hasn't digesting that last or processing that last bit, and the next dose. And people do often take it, and it's like it's a depressant, so it basically blacks you out, and people vomit, and their body wake them up, and they can drown that way.

Lizzie:

Like it's it's a horrible you're joking. I can't even keep track of my neurofin and panodol alternative doses when I have the flu. Like I'm terrible. That's crazy. I don't know. It sounds like um, given how easy it is to overdose, it's an option. I don't know if I'm can like if I have a gut feel either way.

Carrie:

And of course, he's gonna pedal this story because it makes look better, right?

Clare:

Because we can't also look at anything around Matty's body or like that, if that's what generally it's used for, what's to that when they got back to the apartment, they've been fighting all night, they make up, they decide that they're gonna have that that they're gonna get into it, they start getting into it, he overdoses. So that story could still be true that he accidentally overdosed, or maybe they liked rough sex, like so maybe he was like him or something like that.

Lizzie:

Or maybe they both did and Atkins came too sooner.

Carrie:

Yeah.

Benny:

Or maybe Atkins wanted to go out and fuck someone else and gave Matty a couple of meals to black him out for a few hours.

Lizzie:

That actually is a good theory, given his sexual movements soon after the fact.

Carrie:

Yeah, like say say we believe him. That's what you did after your boyfriend accidentally That's what you did.

Clare:

Did we ever find out why he removed the subwoofer from the car?

Benny:

To take his body. So he had a work vehicle, but even though he was an electrician, he didn't have a Ute or anything. He didn't have a vehicle with a big boot space. So he needed Matty's car to take Matty's body.

Clare:

Interesting.

Benny:

Or maybe his boot. I can't remember what sort of car he had. Maybe his boot had glas like it was visible or something. Maybe he needed one that was more closed in. I'd like to end with one last quote from the coronal inquest and um end this case with talking about the right people. Quote Mr. Atkins's induced statement and assistance in locating Matthew's remains was not altruistic, and it was entirely self-serving. Mark Leveson described the main the family's main goal from the inquest as being to find Matthew Leveson and bring him home. The achievement of that goal is a true credit to the and extraordinary perseverance of the Leveson family. End quote. And there's so much more to this case and what the Leveson went through. Um if you don't already know, Case Foul pr Case Foul presents to their ten-part podcast called Matty. Um in it you'll hear Mark and Faye in their own words. You'll learn that they wore a wire and visited Atkins in his flat um just moments after learning that he'd bought a matic at You'll hear how they spent weekends digging in bushland for son for almost a decade. You'll learn that police wasted about a year investigating a online. So CaseFile presents has a lot more information as well. It has been the primary source for my case this week, as the book Deal with the Devil, The Death of Matthew Leveson, and the 10 year search for the truth by journalist Grace Tobin.

Clare:

What was the tattoo quote that you said at the start, Ben?

Benny:

It's not a justice system, it's just a system.

Clare:

It's so heartbreaking, that poor family. Oh my god, I'm so glad you said that.

Carrie:

Let me describe it.

Lizzie:

Let me describe it. Yeah. The little picks they use.

Carrie:

Oh yeah. Like with the stick with it one ends flat.

Clare:

That is not like a tampon. So did I. Oh, that's that's I was picturing like a gym mat, like a that had like little wings on it. Like that it was gonna like come.

Carrie:

It was a tarpulin. I'm like, that must be some kind of tarpolin.

Benny:

All right. Maybe I'll maybe I'll edit it to say like a digging implement. Maybe I'll mention that a matic is a digging implement.

Clare:

Snay the say there's dwarves. I think this is the blue pump, actually. Yeah.

Contributor

Benny

Host
Contributor

Carrie

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Contributor

Clare

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Lizzie

Host