Brian Bourke interview 10 October 2005

A fellow named Bertie Kidd - any of the old criminal barristers around here would remember Bert Kidd - he is one of the most complete criminals I ever knew and he was involved in the forged $10.00 notes matter which came on in the late sixties. There were a lot of fellows involved in that and they eventually went for trial without Kidd. When those notes were produced, there were millions and millions of dollars worth of these $10.00 notes and we're talking about '68 or something like when this thing hit the deck and these fellows were all tried and they were all convicted and got significant gaol sentences. Kidd wasn't charged because he had arranged things with senior policemen so that whenever the enquiry got back to Kidd, everyone went cold on that.

Eventually, some clear-minded Christian must have decided that he was going to prosecute Bertie Kidd. He was tried in the Supreme Court - the others were tried in the Court of General Sessions, I suppose, in those days - but he was tried in the Supreme Court and we won. We shouldn't have won because the evidence was overwhelming, but for some reason the Commonwealth did it. I've got a theory about the Commonwealth. When you have no defence but the Commonwealth are prosecuting it, it's worth running the trial. They decided to call two witnesses who were hand-writing experts. It's a pretty fragile area of expertise, I think, but in all events they called those two blokes.

Well, the second fellow's evidence was completely contrary to the first and it had nothing to do with Bertie getting at him. I don't think the Commonwealth'd had a conference with him or anything. I'd got the other fellow to contradict some of the matters the first expert had given evidence about, and they were very significant contradictions. I can remember Alistair Adam, a judge of the Supreme Court and a real decoration to the law, saying to the second witness, "I think you'd better be a bit careful about how you answer some of these questions".

It was enough for the jury to acquit Kidd and after the trial was concluded, I think it was a man named Atchison who was in charge of the prosecution, and he came and congratulated me. I didn't deserve much congratulation because it was just a Roman holiday for me to cross-examine when you had this sort of conflict, but he said, would you like a forged $10.00 note? I've got this thing framed at home now. "Counterfeit" it's got written on it, and I've got some letter somewhere to say that I can possess this forged $10.00 note.

Bertie Kidd was one of the most intriguing crims I ever appeared for and he was involved in plenty of stuff, he had policemen who he was very friendly with, he was able to manipulate things. I heard recently that he's currently in gaol in Queensland doing some lengthy stints. One of the escapades must have gone wrong, but he was really able to do things without getting into much trouble. He was a great safe blower, a great safe cutter and I remember him telling me once about another crim named Ferdie Thomas who was involved in the same sort of enterprise. I can remember him saying to me that Ferdie Thomas didn't know how to cut a safe. Bert was the king.

Conducted for the Bar Oral History project by Juliette Brodsky in Owen Dixon Chambers East and filmed by Stewart Carter (People Pictures)