Beyond the Darklands (Australian TV series)

Beyond the Darklands
Genre	True crime
Based on	Beyond the Darklands
Presented by	Dr Leah Giarratano
Narrated by	Samuel Johnson
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	9
Production
Running time	approx. 45 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	Seven Network
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original run	18 March 2009 – 14 September 2009

Beyond the Darklands is an Australian true crime television series that airs on the Seven Network. It is narrated by Samuel Johnson, with each episode focusing on a certain criminal (usually a murderer or team of murderers), with commentary from clinical psychologist Dr Leah Giarratano providing insight into the minds of the criminal(s).
After screening the first four episodes in early 2009, the show was taken off the air, only to return later that year for a further four episodes. Via a phone call on 11 November 2009 a Channel Seven spokesperson confirmed that the show will be returning in the New Year with new episodes.
Due to a court injunction Channel Seven was prevented from screening the episode featuring Peter Dupas in Victoria.^[1]

Beyond the Darklands Australia is based on the original New Zealand series and book created by the New Zealand clinical psychologist Nigel Latta. The TVNZ series has been shown in Australia on the ci channel on Foxtel.

Tagline

What turns a person into a monster? In this new, insightful documentary series, one of Australia's leading clinical psychologists, Leah Giarratano, explores the dark side of human behaviour as she delves into the minds of some of Australia's most notorious criminals. Interviews with those who knew them - family members, schoolmates and colleagues among them - reveal the lives and psychology of those who have committed shocking crimes.^[2]

Episode guide

	Air date	Plot synopsis
Episode 1	18 March 2009	In 1986 David and Catherine Birnie went on a five week rampage of sexual violence - abducting, raping and murdering four Perth women. As teenage lovers the Birnies formed an intense bond of sex, devotion and crime. Reuniting in their 30's, their relationship spiraled into depravity. Cruising the streets together, they abducted young women to satisfy David Birnie's sexual desires. The Birnies are Australia's serial killing couple.^[2]
Episode 2	25 March 2009	Andrew "Benji" Veniamin: Between 1999 and 2004, Benji was Melbourne's most feared underworld executioner. Too small to make it as a boxer he was determined to make the big time in crime. He was sometimes charming, often violent, always fearless, and convinced he would not live past thirty. He was right. By the time he was shot dead by Mick Gatto, police believe he had killed seven men, some of them senior underworld figures, some of them his close friends, but the Victorian police never managed to bring a single murder charge against him.^[2] Gain unprecedented insight into his world through an exclusive interview with former gangland wife Roberta Williams, who held vigil over Veniamin's body after he was gunned down in Melbourne in 2004.
Episode 3	1 April 2009	In late 2003, William Matheson brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend, Lyndsay Van Blanken. He strangled the pretty 18-year-old with cable ties before dumping her body in an abandoned storeroom. That same night he calmly played the cello in front of an audience of thousands. He showed no emotion. Known for his bizarre behaviour, Matheson would spend nights wandering city streets scavenging for dead animals or sifting through rubbish.^[3]
Episode 4	19 April 2009	Leslie Camilleri and Lindsay Beckett: The master and his apprentice. Together, and fuelled by injecting each other with amphetamines, Leslie Camilleri and Lindsay Beckett abducted teenagers Nichole Collins and Lauren Barry from their camp site in Bega, NSW and took them on a hell of a road trip. Along the way the girls were subjected to degrading and repeated sexual abuse. After 10 hours of torture, at their final stop, Camilleri ordered Beckett to kill the girls after they washed themselves in a creek to get rid of evidence. Lauren was drowned and stabbed. Nichole's throat was slashed while she was tied to a tree. At the time, the men were well known to police and the judicial system as a double act responsible for other violent crimes and sexual abuse. When months later a jury found Camilleri guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison never to be released, all he did was yawn.^[2] The case came to be known as the Bega Schoolgirl Murders.
Episode 5	17 August 2009	As a career criminal, Neddy Smith enjoyed the protection of corrupt NSW police during the 1970s and 80s, most notably from disgraced former detective Roger Rogerson. He was given the "greenlight" to commit any crimes he wanted in return for giving favourable evidence about a police shooting. He rode a wave of criminal success organising armed robberies and dealing heroin that earned him millions of dollars and a lifestyle that matched. When the police protection deal fell apart, Neddy blew the whistle on a decade of police corruption, sparking a Royal Commission.^[4]
Episode 6	24 August 2009	Bilal Skaf orchestrated attacks that would shake public confidence in the justice system, ignite racial tension and leave behind scores of women whose lives are damaged forever. In 2000, a series of brutal gang rapes took place in Sydney. The gang leader was 18-year-old Bilal Skaf, who with his brother Mohammed, organised the abduction and rape of four girls in three separate attacks, one of them lasting more than six hours. Up to 14 men were involved, with the youngest just 13. Even after they were caught, the rapists continued to harass the victims, knowing that without key testimony from a victim, police wouldn't have a case. According to police these were the worst rapes they had ever investigated. The judge agreed, giving Bilal Skaf the longest jail term for an offence that wasn't murder. At no stage did Skaf show any remorse or compassion for the girls whose lives he had ruined.^[5] Today Bilal Skaf is locked away in the NSW Supermax prison, a fate reserved for the worst of the worst.^[2]
Episode 7	31 August 2009	When Peter Dupas attacked his next door neighbour with a knife at the young age of 15, no-one suspected he might go on to be one of Australia's worst serial killers. He had always been described as a tubby, shy boy, one who simply looked too weak to even stick up for himself at school. But it was under that unassuming, baby-faced guise that Peter Dupas got away with brutal sexual crimes against women throughout Melbourne for more than 30 years until he was finally apprehended in 1999. He proved anyone can be a Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde.^[6]
Episode 8	7 September 2009	Katherine Knight committed a murder that's almost incomprehensible. In February 2000, the former abattoir worker stabbed her de facto husband to death, skinned him and then cooked his body parts in a pot on the stove. She then proceeded to set the table for his children's arrival, complete with vindictive letters. This appalling murder shows the darkest reaches of the human mind. Katherine Knight is Australia's first and only woman to be jailed for the remainder of her life without parole.^[7]
Episode 9	14 September 2009	Take a look into the sinister mind of drug king and killer Terry Clark, head of the Mr. Asia drug syndicate in the late '70's. Full name Terrance John Clark. His story is one of a bad boy gone worse - as a boy he was cruel and manipulative and as a man he extended his repertoire to include torture and murder.^[8]

References

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