Shot in the Dark - The Murder of John Newman

On a cold September evening in 1994, Cabramatta, NSW, local politician John Newman was gunned down in his driveway in front of his terrified fiancee. John, a Cabramatta local since he was a child, was a formidable figure in local and state politics and was very vocal about the rise in drug use and gang related crime the area. And for John, the cause of this problem sat squarely at the feet of Vietnamese migrants who moved to the area and in particular one called Phuong Ngo, a migrant who had migrated to Australia after the Vietnam war and was one of John's biggest political opponents. 

There was no love lost between the two, and when John was shot dead that September night, Phuong was quickly named as the prime suspect. But it would be many years and many trials before the public got any answers, and even then, many people thought the wrong man ended up being jailed. 

Join Belinda over a cuppa or two as she discusses Australia's first political assassination. Belinda will also be discussing a fantastic book she had the pleasure of reading - A Marked Man - The Questionable Conviction of Phuong Ngo By Carlotta McIntosh - which offers an intimate insight into the murder, the man accused of doing it and the environment at the time, by a well respected Australian journalist who was in the front row for all of it.