Death of
Dr Duncan

March 1972

Dr Duncan arrives in Adelaide

Starting work at the University of Adelaide 

Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan, known as ‘Ian’, arrived in Adelaide on 25 March 1972. In two days, he would commence his new job (which he had initially turned down) as a lecturer in law at the University of Adelaide, teaching Roman law and English legal history. He would not live seven weeks. 

Dr Duncan’s passenger arrival card confirmed that, for the past 16 years, he had been resident in the United Kingdom. Sexual acts between men had been decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967. Dr Duncan had arrived in Australia at a time when no state or territory had adopted such legislative change, and when male homosexuality was still largely regarded with distaste or even disgust. He was 41 years old, a shy gay man who was not open about his sexuality.

Dr Duncan brought with him copies of the international gay travel guide, Spartacus, which listed meeting places in Adelaide, including ‘Outside Cruising’ spaces like Victoria Drive. This is where he would be killed. 

May - June 1972

The case deepens 

Were Vice Squad officers involved in the attack? 

Ten days after the drowning, it was revealed that three off-duty Vice Squad officers – who were in the vicinity that night but had not reported it - were being questioned. These men were later identified as Constables Francis Cawley and Michael Clayton, and Senior Constable Brian Hudson. All three were understood to have declined to appear in a police line-up, and at least one had refused to answer questions.

The Head of the Law Department at the University of Adelaide, and Duncan's boss, Professor Horst Lücke, responded in an explosive letter to the Police Commissioner, John McKinna. This was released to the press and followed by an Advertiser editorial. 

The Attorney-General, Len King, called for a report from SA Police, then almost immediately ordered an inquest.

June 1972

The inquest continues

Anonymous witnesses are encouraged to come forward

The Premier, Don Dunstan, promised government protection, including anonymity, to four witnesses who gave evidence. One claimed that earlier that night he had twice been thrown down concrete steps before also being tossed into the river. Like Roger James, he was unable to identify his assailants.

Another witness, Kevin Williamson, stated he had been sitting on a seat where he could have seen the killing, before being warned off by two men. He could not recognise them, he said, but changed his evidence to the later New Scotland Yard inquiry. The men in question, he said, were Hudson and Clayton. The inquest also revealed allegations that Cawley was seen that night by three uniformed constables who were on duty in the area. 

From 29 to 30 June, Cawley, Clayton and Hudson took the stand. They declined to answer questions on the grounds that they might tend to incriminate themselves. Informed by their superior that their refusal ‘reflected discredit on the police force’, they were suspended from official duties.

Within two weeks, all three had resigned. 

August 1972

New Scotland Yard is called in

The Premier acts over growing public unease

Don Dunstan called in his new (British) Police Commissioner, Harold Salisbury, and expressed his government’s disquiet over the Duncan affair. He accepted Salisbury’s recommendation to seek the services of London’s New Scotland Yard, which agreed to send two detectives. 

Detective Chief Superintendent Bob McGowan and Detective Sergeant Charles O’Hanlon arrived in Adelaide on 6 August 1972.

These were words that McGowan would later rue. He refuted suggestions that his job was to investigate SA Police and refused to describe Dr Duncan’s death as a murder. He would head a nine-man team at SA Police headquarters. 

Within three weeks, a call was made for public assistance. Dr Duncan had been seen dining with different men aged about 30, suggesting he had quickly become active on the dating scene. The local gay and lesbian group CAMP was consulted, but its members had never met him. There was no reference to this aspect of Dr Duncan’s life in the final New Scotland Yard report. 

Mick O’Shea, a constable who early on was mistakenly regarded as the mystery ‘fourth man’ in the Duncan case, said one of the Yard detectives had told him that there was nothing you could do ‘when policemen closed ranks’. But O’Shea added derisively: ‘The consensus among the blokes in the force was that they were just a couple of old warbs from London.’ 

October 1972

Fallout from the inquiry

The report had recommended manslaughter charges

The Premier, Don Dunstan, tried to make the best of bad news by saying:

But for a case that had attracted so much public attention and concern, Commissioner Salisbury’s refusal to answer press questions was self-defeating. He was later sacked by Dunstan for withholding information that police had maintained secret files on South Australian citizens. 

It was leaked to the press that the Yard detectives had recommended manslaughter charges be laid against three men. Calls immediately sprang up for the report to be made public, but this would take another 30 years. During this time, false rumours spread that people high up in Adelaide society had been named, including judges, senior policemen and politicians. 

McGowan and O’Hanlon returned to Britain. McGowan was later sentenced to three years jail for evading value-added tax. O’Hanlon was sentenced to seven years for his role in a pornography protection racket. It was hardly a ringing endorsement of them or New Scotland Yard. 

But there was now a wider issue at play. Dr Duncan's death became the catalyst for South Australia's first attempt at gay law reform.