Lindsay James FORSYTHE
Lindsay James FORSYTHE
Victoria Police Force
Regd. # 15981
Rank: Senior Constable
Stations: ?, Essendon, Ascot Vale Crime Car Squad, OIC – Maldon Police Station
Service: From ? ? ? to 22 June 1983 = ? years Service
Awards: No find on It’s An Honour – however –
Awarded the Victoria Police Star ( posthumously )
Born: 17 April 1950
Died on: Wednesday 22 June 1983
Cause: Murdered – shot ( shotgun )
Age: 33
Funeral date: Monday 27 June 1983
Funeral location: ?
Buried at: Fawkner Memorial Park, Fawkner, Moreland City, Victoria
Grave location: C of E Section C, Grave 1605
buried with Jean Sutherland FORSYTHE – aged 91, born: 27 Aug 1923 Died: 7 Oct 2014
Memorial at: ?
LINDSAY IS mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance
Funeral location: ?
FURTHER INFORMATION IS NEEDED ABOUT THIS PERSON, THEIR LIFE, THEIR CAREER AND THEIR DEATH.
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Senior Constable Lindsay Forsythe was lured to a late night ambush at a secluded location in country Victoria in response to a false burglary report. When he arrived at the unoccupied residence he was fatally shot, but returned fire striking his assailant four times before he died.
The investigation resulted in the arrest of Constable Forsythe’s wife and a fellow police officer, Senior Constable Leigh Michael Lawson ( 27 ), who were having an affair.
Both were convicted and Lawson was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Gayle Forsythe received five years imprisonment on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
LEST WE FORGET
Senior Constable Lindsay Forsythe 15981
Officer in Charge, Maldon Police Station
The truth of the murdering of Senior Constable Lindsay James Forsythe, 33, lies buried somewhere between two versions.
On the night of 12 June 1983 Senior Constable Leigh Michael Lawson travelled to Maldon planning to kill Senior Constable Forsythe, but on the “precipice of murder he drew back from the brink“.
Graeme David Oldfield, of Laverton, said he had been with Senior Constable Forsythe on June 11 when a man had confronted him with a shotgun. The man had walked out of the bush wearing a balaclava, but had later thrown his gun down and taken the balaclava off revealing himself to be Senior Constable Leigh Michael Lawson, 25, of Guildford in central Victoria – a frequent visitor of the Forsythe family; relieving.
In January 1982 at the Maldon police station whilst Lindsay took leave – Lawson not only relieving Lindsay of his police duties but also those of a matrimonial nature.
Surprisingly Lawson accompanied Forsythe and Oldfield back to the Maldon police residence; whilst the visiting Oldfield family waited in the residence, the love triangle trio adjourned to the police office.
In this light even though he accepted it was accepted Gayle Forsythe had nothing to do with this incident of confrontation, she must have known about it on the night before her husband’s death.
Recognising the voice of a caller reporting lights at a deserted farmhouse as that of Senior Constable Lawson, Gayle Forsythe sent her husband to a deserted Sandy Creek Road farm house at Maldon, about 150 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, on 22 June 1983.
Gayle Forsythe knew there would be trouble if the two met due to the brief sexual relationship with Senior Constable Lawson. She conceded that Lawson said, ‘I am going to get him‘.
It is clear she sent her husband on this expedition knowing that his rival lay in wait for him, however maintained she did not expect anything beyond a verbal and possibly physical confrontation would take place.
Attending the abandoned farmhouse during a search instigated by Gayle Forsythe, Sergeant David Rennie, of Castlemaine, found Lindsay Forsythe‘s body at the back door of the house with a service revolver in his hand as well the sergeant discovered blood on the driver’s seat of the police car outside the farmhouse.
Homicide Squad Senior Detective William Fraser obtained the initial confession of Gayle Forsythe sufficient to establish the involvement of Leigh Lawson in the murder of Lindsay Forsythe; sufficient for Detective Sergeant Whitehead, of Castlemaine CIB, to Lawson at his Guildford home. However Lawson alleged he acted in self-defence after Lindsay Forsythe shot him. His claim partly corroborated by five gunshot wounds to his left leg, buttocks and groin maintaining, “I wanted to talk to him and straighten him out.”
Following the shooting confrontation Lawson climbing into Lindsay Forsythe‘s police car after the shooting radioing to Gayle Forsythe, who drove her car to the scene assisting him into his own car, in which he drove away.
Admitted to the Bendigo Base Hospital, medical authorities prevented police interviewing Lawson while he recovered from five bullet wounds. However when police interviewed him at the hospital Lawson allegedly made a short statement to police from a hospital bed, later refusing to answer questions after legal advice.
He alleged he had not lured Senior Constable Forsythe to the farmhouse to hurt him.
At a bedside hearing, Mr F. X. Clancy, SM, remanded Lawson in custody to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on August 23, refusing bail.
The Castlemaine Coroner, Mr Adams, SM, sent Senior Constable Leigh Michael Lawson, 27, for trial on a charge of murdering Senior Constable Lindsay James Forsythe at Maldon, near Castlemaine, on 22 June 1983.
Senior Constable Forsythe‘s wife was also committed for trial on a similar charge. Mr Adams said the evidence suggested Mrs Gayle Barbara Forsythe, 33, was an accessory before the fact.
He found that Senior Constable Forsythe died of a haemorrhage from a gunshot wound inflicted by Senior Constable Lawson.
“I further find that Leigh Lawson and Gayle Forsythe did murder Lindsay James Forsythe,” Mr Adams said.
A ballistics expert, Senior Sergeant Jim Pattison, said the fatal shotgun blast had been fired from between 1.5 and 2 metres away from Lindsay Forsythe. The .38 police service revolver in Lindsay‘s hand had contained five spent cartridges and one empty chamber.
Pathologist, Dr Stanley Pilbeam deposed Senior Constable Forsythe would have remained conscious for a few minutes after being shot. “It is possible that he may have fired some shots at an assailant,” Dr Pilbeam said. He agreed with the suggestion by counsel for Lawson, Mr Frank Vincent, QC, that wounds were consistent with the shot from a right handed man.
Mr Justice Gray upheld a bail application by Gayle Forsythe in the Melbourne Supreme Court on June 29, due to “exceptional circumstances“. She was released on condition that she live with her brother, report twice weekly to police, surrender her passport and refrain from contacting any witnesses or potential witnesses in the impending trial. She was released on her own recognisance with a $4,000 surety. Justice Gray saying, “The evidence apparently indicates that after having been mortally wounded by a shotgun blast, the deceased managed to use his service revolver, firing a number of shots at Senior Constable Lawson,” he said. “As Lawson has not yet been interviewed, there is no direct evidence as to what happened in the course of the confrontation.”
Mr Justice Gray said that as a result of that “there must be some doubt concerning the strength of the Crown case against the applicant on a charge of murder“.
Mr Justice Gray said Mrs Forsythe had two children, aged 10 and 12, who had been living with the dead man’s brother since last week. A Supreme Court judge later granted interim custody of the children, aged 10 and 12, to their uncle, as Gayle Forsythe‘s future was considered uncertain.
A Criminal Court jury found Lawson guilty of the murder of Lindsay Forsythe.
Gayle Forsythe was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
As Lawson sat slumped, weeping in the dock, Mr Justice Phillips sentenced him to the mandatory life imprisonment. His lover, Mrs Gayle Barbara Forsythe, was remanded in custody for plea and sentence.
Both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Senior Constable Lindsay James Forsythe at a farmhouse on June 22, 1983.
Sentenced on 3 May 1985 to five years’ jail, Mr Justice Phillips said, Gayle Barbara Forsythe, 34, had been an accessory to the killing of her husband, Senior Constable Lindsay Forsythe, by sending him to meet his death. Mrs Forsythe must have known that her lover, Senior Constable Leigh Michael Lawson, was waiting to kill her husband when she sent him to a deserted farm house at Maldon, near Bendigo, on June 22, 1983.
Mr Justice Phillips said that at their joint trial, Senior Constable Lawson appeared to put most, if not all, the blame of the Maldon policeman’s death on Mrs Forsythe. For her part, Mrs Forsythe had denied planning to kill her husband.
“I have no doubt the jury took this into account when deciding to convict you,” he said. “It is true your finger did not pull the trigger but your actions were a significant part in the actions that led to your husband’s death.”
In deciding on the length of the sentence, Mr Justice Phillips said he had taken into account Mrs Forsythe‘s age, her previous good behaviour, her two children, and other favourable evidence that had been put before him, including a pre-sentence psychiatric report.
He ordered that she serve a minimum of three years’ jail before becoming eligible for parole.
The Victoria Police Association criticised the release of prisoners before their minimum sentences had expired. The criticism came after news of the release of 35-year-old Gayle Forsythe. Association’s secretary, Chief Inspector Tom Rippon, said early releases were “not justice” and that police had been campaigning for some time to have the system changed.
Mrs Forsythe was sentenced to five years’ jail with a three-year minimum before becoming eligible for parole, but had served only 17 months.
A Victorian Government spokesman confirmed that Mrs Forsythe had been released by the Parole Board under an early-release scheme. Inspector Rippon said yesterday that police had made repeated requests for legislation to prevent the Parole Board releasing convicted persons before expiry of the minimum term set by judges.
He added that after repeated requests by police and criticism of the system by the State Full Court, the Government had indicated legislation would be passed to restrict releases to expiry of minimum terms.
“But that does not fix the injustices occurring before the legislation is fixed,” Inspector Rippon said. A government spokesman said Mrs Forsythe was on a one-year permit until 23 June 1987, after which she was to be on parole until her five year term expired.
The five-man High Court of Australia in August 1986 unanimously rejected a Leigh Lawson application for special leave to appeal from a former senior constable. Counsel for Lawson, Mr Mark Weinberg, told the court that the case raised the question of whether it was necessary for a person raising the defence of self-defence to have had a reasonable belief that the person he killed was about to launch an unlawful attack on him. He said Mr Lawson had been acting in self-defence although he had originally intended to murder Senior Constable Forsythe.
The Chief Justice, Sir Harry Gibbs, said the case raised an important point of law but was not an appropriate one on which to grant leave to appeal. It was unlikely however the court decided, that Mr Lawson would be acquitted.
The Victoria Police Star was awarded posthumously to the Melbourne born son of Robert James Forsythe and Jean Sutherland Hyam; Lindsay James Forsythe, at 33 years of age, tragically murdered during the course of his duties at Maldon on 22 June 1983.