THE parents of Matthew Leveson have pointed out how long the investigation into their son’s death has dragged on as his inquest was postponed again today.
Mark Leveson told the inquest it had already been more than 3000 days since his son vanished.
“Matty was last seen leaving ARQ nightclub 3453 days ago,” he said.
He added that the inquest began 407 days ago.
Outside the court, Mr Leveson and Matthew’s mother Faye said they would continue in their quest to find their son’s remains.
Wearing purple ribbons, the couple said they had attended the Mardi Gras at the weekend in honor of Matthew.
“Matty would be proud of us,” Faye Leveson said.
“We’re not giving up. We’ll find Matt.”
Mr Leveson said the couple had walked past ARQ nightclub during Saturday’s parade.
He said he couldn’t say publicly what he had thought as they passed the last spot their son was captured alive on CCTV.
Meanwhile, Matthew’s former boyfriend Michael Atkins may not be compelled to give evidence in the inquest because he is under threat of being accused of lying under oath, the court heard today.
Legal counsel representing the NSW Police Commissioner said Mr Atkins may no longer be able to be compelled to give evidence “with the threat of perjury over his head”.
Mr Atkins might instead have to “fall back on ” not giving evidence on the grounds of “self-incrimination”.
Submissions made to delay the resumption of the hearings included a statement from Mr Atkins’ lawyer, who said her client did not have the funds to brief new legal counsel in a postponed hearing.
The applications included a suggestion that any delay would allow NSW Police to continue searching the Royal National Park for Matthew Leveson’s remains.
The inquest into the disappearance and probable death of 20-year-old Matthew Leveson resumed at Glebe Coroner’s Court today.
Now aged 53, Michael Atkins was a sexually active gay man in 2007 when his much younger boyfriend, Matthew Leveson, disappeared.
In 2009, Mr Atkins was tried and acquitted of murdering the Leveson’s handsome, blond son.
According to evidence given at the trial and at Matthew’s inquest, Mr Atkins was known as the older guy who liked threesomes and lured young men with the promise of drugs.
Evidence was given at an inquest hearing in 2015 that Matthew and Mr Atkins were small-time suppliers of GHB and ecstasy.
Matthew’s father Mark Leveson told news.com.au his family were hoping to learn all the circumstances of “Matty’s death”.
“I want to find out how he died, and where his body is,” Mr Leveson told news.com.au.
“We want [Michael Atkins to say], ‘This is where I put Matty’s body’.
Now aged 53, Michael Atkins was a sexually active gay man in 2007 when his much younger boyfriend, Matthew Leveson, disappeared.
A man who was 21 when he met the couple three months before Matthew’s disappearance told the inquest that Mr Atkins sometimes used his lover to procure younger guys for group sex.
In August 2007, after taking GHB from a cup, he watched Mr Atkins have sex in the Cronulla unit and then had sex with Mr Atkins himself.
The man remembers Matthew, on the last night of his life, initially happy and upbeat in the popular ARQ nightclub in Darlinghurst, near Sydney’s Oxford St gay strip.
But then Mr Atkins and Matthew appeared to have a fight and when Matthew’s brother Peter saw him, Matthew said “I don’t want to talk”.
Mr Leveson, 20, was last seen leaving ARQ in Sydney’s Taylor Square with Mr Atkins, then 44, in the early hours of September 23, 2007.
Online Source: The News
