Real Crime with Adam Shand

Introducing - Creating Mr Cruel 15.06.2026 2m

A new show from Adam Shand. Welcome to The Adam Shand Collection Subscribe now for the first 3 episodes ad free and early on Apple Podcast Series 1 - Creating Mr Cruel. For more than 30 years, the name Mr Cruel has haunted Melbourne.  He was meticulous, terrifying and seemingly vanished without a trace  leaving behind one of Australia’s most disturbing unsolved crime mysteries. But in this gripping six-part investigation, Adam Shand uncovers secret forensic evidence that challenges everything police thought they knew about the case.  Across the series, we revisit the abductions, the fear that gripped suburban Melbourne, the assumptions that shaped the investigation, and the hidden evidence that may overturn them all. Was Mr Cruel really the offender police believed they were hunting or has the truth been buried in the evidence all along?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3.9 Seconds: The Prosecution of Sergeant Ben Bryant | Paul Fownes 14.06.2026 44m

When Sergeant Benedict Bryant pulled into Henderson Road on the morning of February 19, 2022, he had travelled 800 metres from Redfern Police Station to respond to a serious crime in progress. What followed took 3.9 seconds, and cost him his career, his finances and his freedom. Adam Shand is joined by Retired Chief Inspector Paul Fownes, who has been supporting Bryant's legal fight and fundraising appeal. Together they examine the detail of what actually happened that morning, the coroner's conduct, the decision to bring in a barrister who had previously prosecuted police over an Aboriginal death in custody, and what this conviction means as a precedent for every officer who responds to a dynamic situation in seconds, with a legal system watching in slow motion. Paul Fownes Support Page: https://www.sergeantbryantfight.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Woman Who Invented Cold Case DNA | Dr Colleen Fitzpatrick 09.06.2026 54m

She didn't stumble into cold case forensics: she invented it. Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick is a nuclear physicist, former rocket scientist, and the founder of California-based Identifinders International, and she's the woman who pioneered the technique now known as forensic investigative genetic genealogy. Adam sits down with Colleen to trace her remarkable journey from laser science and space shuttle research to building family trees that catch killers, and hears how she cracked cases that had defeated generations of detectives, including the 20-year-old murder of teenager Sarah Yarborough and Australia's most enduring mystery, the Somerton Man. Colleen pulls back the curtain on how FIG actually works, the limits of commercial DNA databases, and why the technology is only getting more powerful. And she and Adam share a fascinating conversation about a potential future project - using genetic genealogy to identify and repatriate human remains taken from colonial Zimbabwe, currently sitting nameless in British museums. If you've got a skeleton in your closet, Dr Colleen Fitzpatrick will find it. Identifinders International Website: https://identifinders.com/ GEDmatch Website: https://www.gedmatch.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Such Is Life: Luke Bona's Untold Australian Story | Luke Bona 07.06.2026 37m

What began as a conversation about Ned Kelly, Dezi Freeman and the myth-making around Australia's most notorious outlaws, suddenly took an unexpected turn, and became something far more powerful. Adam Shand was a guest on his mate Luke Bona's Bonafide podcast to explore the parallels between Kelly's rebellion and Freeman's modern-day sympathisers, and the romanticised legacy of Australian bushranging. But when Luke's Indigenous identity came up, Adam did what he does best - he asked the question no one else had thought to ask. For the first time on any public platform, Luke Bona reveals the story of how he came to be raised in a white family on Sydney's northern beaches, unaware of his Wiradjuri heritage. Born at Crown Street Women's Hospital to a 16-year-old Aboriginal woman from Bourke, Luke was left in a Bondi orphanage — and the circumstances under which his biological mother lost him are deeply troubling.  It's a story of identity, loss, and the long shadow of adoption — one that Luke has carried for years, including the devastating decision by his adoptive mother to write him out of her will after he went searching for his roots. Listen to Luke Bona's Bonafide Podcast HERE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Fingerprint of the 21st Century - And Its Flaws | Jae Gerhard 02.06.2026 34m

DNA evidence has been called the gold standard of forensic science — but is the justice system placing too much faith in it? Adam Shand speaks with Jae Gerhard, one of Australia's leading independent forensic scientists, about the hidden limitations of DNA evidence and what they mean for criminal prosecutions. A former scientist with the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police Force, Jae now works as an expert witness advising defence lawyers on what the DNA in their cases actually tells us — and what it doesn't. From trace DNA that can travel on a handshake to gloves that become vectors for contamination, Jae reveals how easily evidence can be misread, mishandled, or misrepresented in court. She takes Adam through landmark cases including Farah Jama, who spent sixteen months in prison for a crime he didn't commit — convicted largely on DNA evidence that was never what it appeared to be.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lawyer Who Robbed a Bank | Graeme Alford 31.05.2026 52m

Graeme Alford had it all mapped out: a criminal law practice in Melbourne, the trust of the underworld, and a fast-track to the top. Then the drinking and gambling caught up with him. He raided his client trust fund, did time in Pentridge and on release somehow managed to pull off one of the most inept armed robberies in Australian history - earning himself a second lagging. Inside, something shifted. Graeme bulldozed the wreckage of his old life and rebuilt from scratch. Brain training, biographies of successful people and a cast-iron decision to become the master of his own destiny. What followed was extraordinary. A clerkship led to a career bringing Norman Schwarzkopf, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev to Australian audiences. Then came a second reinvention: as an addiction counsellor, opening a rehab centre built on the belief that recovery happens in real life, not away from it. He's 77, 43 years sober, and still not done.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Equal Before the Law: The ISIS Brides Dilemma | Tanguy Mwilambwe 26.05.2026 36m

Four Australian women, known as the ISIS Brides, returned home from Syria in May this year. Two were charged with crimes against humanity and slavery offences allegedly committed overseas. A third faced terrorism-related charges. And yet another 20 or more remain stranded in Syrian refugee camps, unable to get home. The question isn't whether we like them. The question is whether the law applies equally to everyone. Adam Shand is joined by Brisbane-based immigration lawyer Tanguy Mwilambwe of Sambi Legal to unpack the legal reality behind the headlines. Why can't the government simply keep these women out? What's the difference between joining ISIS and fighting with the IDF? And what does it mean for all of us when politics starts overriding the rule of law? From temporary exclusion orders to mandatory visa cancellations, child brides to slavery charges, this is a story about what Australian citizenship actually means — and what we lose when we decide some citizens don't deserve its protections.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Dark Bandits: Doug's Last Word | Doug Morgan 24.05.2026 1h 3m

When Doug Morgan first sat down with Adam Shand, the plan was simple: get both twins on the record, tell the full story of Victoria's After Dark Bandits, and move on. Nearly a year later, Adam is back with Doug for one final conversation — and this time, it's personal. More than fifty years on from the bank and betting shop robberies that defined their notoriety, Doug Morgan is done looking back. He's running youth workshops, mentoring young people away from the path he took, and quietly tending to the memory of the father who shaped him. In this candid closing chapter, Doug reflects on the loyalty that drew him into a life of crime, the intimidation he witnessed and despised inside Pentridge, and the strange, volatile brotherhood that has defined his life far longer than any prison sentence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fog of War: Breaker Morant's Shadow | Tony Taouk 19.05.2026 22m

More than a century separates them, but the cases of Harry "Breaker" Morant and Ben Roberts-Smith share a troubling echo — Australian soldiers prosecuted for killings carried out in the fog of war, on foreign soil, in conflicts already morally compromised by the powers that sent them there. Adam Shand sits down with Sydney lawyer Tony Taouk of Magna Carta Lawyers, whose essay in Lawyers Weekly drew a compelling parallel between the two prosecutions. From the chaos of the Boer War to the mountains of Afghanistan, Tony unpacks why applying civilian criminal law to battlefield conduct is one of the most difficult — and consequential — legal challenges Australia now faces. How do you prove intent when decisions are made in seconds under fire? How do you reconstruct events from 14 years ago with no crime scene, no forensics, and immunity witnesses who were allegedly there when it happened? And when a prosecution feels politically expedient, does it risk creating the very martyr it seeks to hold accountable? Real Tony's Essay in Lawyers Weekly Here: https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/sme-law/44239-when-the-battlefield-enters-the-courtroom-the-roberts-smith-prosecutionSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frontline to Front Bench: The Officer Who Ran for Office | Stuart Grimley 17.05.2026 49m

Victorian police officer Stuart Grimley has seen it all — three years as a Kalgoorlie copper rubbing shoulders with the Gypsy Jokers, stints in Major Drugs and Crime Command and two years working sexual offences cases that left images he'll never unsee. Then, in 2018, he did something most cops never do: he got elected to State Parliament under Derryn Hinch's Justice Party banner. He lost his seat in 2022 and went back to Victoria Police, where he's now an operational safety and tactics instructor. But Stuart's not done with politics. He's launching the Frontline Workers Party — a new movement representing police, paramedics, nurses, firies, teachers and corrections officers ahead of the Victorian state election. Adam sits down with Stuart to talk about the psychological toll of child exploitation investigations, the frustration of watching offenders walk free after months of painstaking police work, the $30 million machete amnesty debacle, and why Stuart believes the only way to fix a broken system is to get back inside it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Ghost: Melbourne's Hospitality Crime War | Seb Costello 12.05.2026 40m

Melbourne is burning. A mystery cartel is laying siege to the city's hospitality industry — firebombings, drive-by shootings, bashings at family homes — and nobody knows exactly who's behind it, or why. Herald Sun crime reporter Seb Costello has been on the frontline of the story, breaking exclusive after exclusive using old-fashioned shoe leather. Adam and Seb unpack what's known, what's rumoured, and what keeps not adding up.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Tobacco War: Australia's Billion-Dollar Black Market | Chris Vedelago 10.05.2026 36m

Australia's illicit tobacco war has a new front — and it's more dangerous than ever. When tobacco kingpin Kaz Hamad was captured in Iraq earlier this year, many hoped it would signal the beginning of the end for the country's booming black market cigarette trade. Instead, his disappearance has thrown the market into chaos, and the firebombings, shootings and targeted attacks are back. Adam Shand sits down with Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist Chris Vedelago of The Age, who has been at the forefront of covering this story since the violence first erupted in March 2023. Together they trace how a government excise policy — designed to discourage smoking — inadvertently handed organised crime a multi-billion dollar opportunity,and how one man, operating from a prison cell, built a cartel that came to control 40% of the illicit drug trade in Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prince of the Painters and Dockers Union | Ron Isherwood 05.05.2026 52m

Ron Isherwood was born into Melbourne's underworld — son of Big Ron, a feared enforcer in the notorious Painters and Dockers Union. By 16, he'd fired his first shot. By 17, he was facing attempted murder charges. By 19, his mother was dead and heroin had taken over everything. In this episode, Adam speaks with Little Ron — now 71 — about growing up in the shadow of a violent, domineering father, his front-row seat to Melbourne's painters and dockers wars and his close brush with Roger Rogerson, the corrupt detective who silenced anyone who got too close to the truth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Unbreakable Road Back | Sam Jones 03.05.2026 44m

Sam Jones did hard time, faced drug and weapons charges, and by his own admission had a very twisted idea of what it meant to be a man. At 37, he's something else entirely — a trauma counsellor using breathwork and lived experience to help others find their way out. In this episode, Adam speaks with Sam about the childhood wounds that set him on a path of crime and addiction, the fake brotherhood he found and the six months in a Sunshine Coast rehab that changed the course of his life.  Find more about Sam Jones and Unbreakable here: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.unbreakablespirit.co_&d=DwMFAw&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=QRM3oaA988YHZWJl3EPR_CLNVsMUzP7PSqo8KYpcnWo&m=zMMZS6xvI0806EzWLZwxCuRWKQysMF4mCmcB0lSS6dhXaiFclSDNUyXGUI0tAE8G&s=HiI2Bf5muUqcWcYfPy9yiqQqMBK-_Ok_b2af1EVqfGA&e=See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Ben Roberts-Smith Case | Philip Dunn KC 28.04.2026 39m

He is Australia's most decorated living soldier — a Victoria Cross recipient charged with the alleged murder of five unarmed Afghan detainees. But does losing a civil defamation case make Ben Roberts-Smith a convicted war criminal? Adam Shand thinks not, and he's found one of the country's most experienced criminal defence barristers to explain why. Philip Dunn KC has spent a career in the criminal courts defending the highest-profile cases in Australian legal history. In this episode, he unpacks the critical difference between a finding on the balance of probabilities and the far higher bar of proof beyond reasonable doubt — and why confusing the two is dangerous. He also examines the dramatic and arguably prejudicial arrest of Roberts-Smith, the extraordinary use of four indemnified witnesses, the absence of forensic evidence and the very real threat that relentless media coverage poses to a fair trial.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The After Dark Bandits: The Morgan Twins [Part Two] | Peter Morgan 26.04.2026 1h 7m

Peter Morgan was one half of Australia's most audacious crime duo — identical twins who pulled off a string of armed robberies and became the country's most wanted. In Part Two of Adam's conversation with Peter, the story picks up in the aftermath of the 1979 Heathcote bank robbery, in which Senior Constable Ray Koch was shot. Peter recounts the desperate hours after the shooting — hiding from roadblocks, hitching into Bendigo, and coming within seconds of a second violent confrontation with an off-duty officer. He reflects on the psychological weight of Pentridge Prison, how he broke out of not one but two so-called escape-proof jails and what it really took to walk away from crime for good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The After Dark Bandits: The Morgan Twins [Part One] | Peter Morgan 21.04.2026 1h 12m

He spent two years terrorising country banks and TABs across Victoria. He shot a police officer. He robbed the same bank three times. And he did it all as one half of Australia's most audacious criminal duo — the After Dark Bandits. Peter Morgan is the lesser-heard voice of the infamous Morgan twins. While his brother Doug has told his side of the story, Peter has stayed largely silent — until now. In this first of a two-part conversation, Adam Shand sits down with Peter for an afternoon-long interview months in the making. They go back to the beginning: a hard-working, hard-living builder father who moonlighted as a bank robber; a childhood steeped in tough love and frontier masculinity; and the twin upbringing that would eventually see two identical brothers take turns behind the balaclava across 27 armed hold-ups — without police realising there were two of them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Front Row Seat: The Job That Never Leaves You | Jason Doyle 19.04.2026 41m

When two Victoria Police officers were murdered by sex offender Dezi Freeman, it shone a harsh light on what frontline policing really costs. Adam Shand sits down with recently retired Victorian officer Jason Doyle — whose raw column in The Age sparked national conversation, to talk about a career lived entirely on the road. From welfare checks that turned deadly, to serving in the aftermath of Black Saturday and losing a close friend in the fires, Jason opens up about the split-second decisions that never leave you, the PTSD diagnosis he pushed through for years and the moment the nightmares finally broke him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where Is Rigby Fielding? | Stephenie Fielding 14.04.2026 31m

In 2016, Adam Shand covered the disappearance of Rigby Fielding in a single radio segment — and then moved on. Ten years later, Rigby's family is still waiting. Rigby Fielding was 53 years old when he vanished on August 15, 2015, after calling his mother to say he was on his way home from Perth to Rockingham. He never arrived. Now his sister Stephenie joins Adam to walk through a decade of unanswered questions, police indifference, and a trail of leads that were never properly followed. His bag was recovered in bushland near the Spectacles Wetlands — a known meeting place for gay men. A person of interest was quickly cleared without explanation. CCTV footage from Perth train station, the last confirmed sighting, went missing. Dating app chat logs were never investigated. And all the while, the family knocked on doors, called hospitals, and were told he was 53 — he was allowed to go missing. Stephenie believes foul play was involved. Adam agrees — and draws a direct line to the Bondi hate crimes of the eighties and nineties, where a pattern of dismissal allowed killers to go free. With only six officers in Western Australia's entire missing persons unit across 2.5 million square kilometres, the system was failing Rigby before the search had even begun.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Beat: Transit Safety | Acting Superintendent Sean Halley 12.04.2026 31m

Adam Shand had a front-row seat to exactly the kind of incident his latest guest spends every day managing. After stepping in when a drunk man harassed women on a Melbourne train — only to watch Victoria Police's Protective Services Officers handle it with quiet, professional authority — Adam sat down with Acting Superintendent Sean Halley from the Transit Safety Division to unpack what's really happening on the network. From knife operations in Frankston to gang activity at high-risk stations, Sean pulls back the curtain on the work of PSOs — sworn officers with the same powers as police who are the frontline of safety across Melbourne's rail system. He also tackles the big question: should bystanders intervene, or hit the button and let the professionals do their job?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.