WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT
Every day for the past 36 years, David Balding’s life has been consumed by the death of his 20-year-old sister.
He was barely 10 years old when his father told him ‘Your sister has been murdered…’
Janine Balding was abducted from the car park of Southerland railway station in Sydney’s south by a group of homeless youths while walking home from work in 1988.
For the rest of his life, Balding found solace in knowing his killers. They are behind bars, bBut now all that could change.
Earlier this month, lawyer and former politician Peter Breen pushed for an investigation into Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson, convicted in 1990 of raping and killing Mrs Balding.
Balding has found comfort in knowing his killers are behind bars, but now all that could change.
The judge declared that he, along with others directly involved, “should never be released”, but Jamieson sought a series of orders in the proceedings against the state’s Attorney-General at a recent hearing in Sydney’s Supreme Court.
His former supporter Mr Breen told the court that another man nicknamed ‘Shorty’ was known in the area at the time and was wearing a scarf similar to that found at the crime scene.
Mr Breen is understood to argue that DNA evidence from this scarf could cast doubt on his client’s convictions.
The Attorney General’s written submissions are due on May 8 in response to Jamieson’s request for an inquiry.
The matter will return to court on May 13.
Mr Balding is angry and upset that these claims are resurfacing again after all these years.
“It’s hard to deal with this over and over again, but someone has to be Janine’s voice and that person is me,” she said. news.com.au.
“The sentencing judge said a life sentence was recommended, he would never be released, and that’s exactly how it should be.”
Balding believes the handkerchief claim is irrelevant and says several witnesses agreed that Jamieson was the right person.
Wayne Wilmot, 51, who was present that night but did not physically participate in the crime, received a lighter sentence.
The ‘serial sex offender’ is housed at Long Bay Correctional Complex in maximum security, serving sentences for sexual assault and kidnapping, unrelated to Ms Balding’s case.
He has spent three decades behind bars, with the exception of 20 months in the late 1990s, where he committed multiple violent assaults and sexual crimes against women.
Wilmot remained in custody under continuing detention orders, but will be released within weeks under an interim supervision order made by NSW Supreme Court Justice Helen Wilson.
The judge found that he had “psychopathic personality traits, lacking concern or empathy for others and continued to deny or minimize his disturbing history of sexual offending,” in an assessment report by a high-risk offender team psychologist in November 2023.
The exact date of his release and the place of his accommodation cannot be revealed by court order.
‘Why don’t we get a Sheila and rape her?’ are the chilling nine words spoken on the night Ms Balding (pictured) was murdered
Balding went on to explain how difficult it has been to watch these “so-called children” try to get out of jail, saying that’s where they should die.
‘Why don’t we get a Sheila and rape her?’ are the chilling nine words spoken the night Mrs Balding was murdered.
On the morning of September 8, 1988, he parked his car at Sydney’s Sutherland train station before heading into the city for work.
That afternoon she was returning to her car when a pack – Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson, 22, Matthew Elliot, 16, Wayne Wilmot, 15, Bronson Blessington, 14 and Carol Arrow, 15 – approached her with the worst intentions.
They distracted Mrs Balding by asking her the time and if she had any money or cigarettes, one of the young men pulled out a knife and threatened to “cut her face off” if she did not do exactly what they asked.
After snatching her car keys from her hands, they forced her into the back of her own car, where she was beaten and raped at knifepoint in the back of her hijacked vehicle.
Any hope the young woman had of being freed was dashed after one of the young men said: ‘I think it’s a nice night for a murder…’
The group stopped on the M4.
They dragged the terrified woman out of the car, the pack gagged Janine with a scarf and tied her up, before throwing her on the ground and throwing her over a fence.
Elliot, Blessington and Jamieson took her to a nearby dam, where they drowned her and stole her jewelery and bank cards.
The pack left Mrs Balding’s body there and got back into their car, which broke down shortly afterwards.
After walking to Mount Druitt, they sold the jewelery and withdrew some cash using their bank cards, before taking a train back to the city.
The next day, Blessington and Elliot took a train to East Gosford, where they threw their bank cards into bushes before stealing another car and driving to a youth centre.
they then He confessed to the police about stealing the car and suggested he knew where Mrs Balding’s body was.
Balding’s parents, Beverley and Kerry, reported him missing.
All five members of the group were charged and appeared in court for the murder of Janine Balding.
Elliott, Blessington and Jamieson were each sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years.
Blessington, who was just 14 at the time, became the youngest person to receive a life sentence in Australia.
The judge in the case called their crimes “barbaric” and said they “should never be released.”
Lighter sentences were given to Wilmot and Arrow, after it was discovered that they did not physically participate in the murder.
Looking back, Balding said his sister was kind, loving, fun and always had time for him even though she lived in Sydney.
Looking back, Balding said his sister was kind, loving, fun and always had time for him even though she lived in Sydney.
He said he knew “something wasn’t right” the day she was killed, although he didn’t fully understand what was happening at the time.
He recalled seeing his mother “crying and crying” and just knowing that “Janine was gone.”
Balding recalled seeing her killers in the courtroom after her sister’s murder.
He said he still remembers how they “really didn’t care at all” about what they had done and how he helped his mother with seemingly endless appeals as she grew up.
“It was important that Janine was and is always represented and still has a voice in this so that people know that she is not forgotten and that her killers will never be forgiven,” he said.
In October 2013, Beverly passed away after a brief stay in the hospital.
In March 2022, Kerry also died in hospital.
The couple is buried alongside their daughter at Wagga Wagga Lawn Cemetery.
Request help by contacting Lifeline at 13 11 14.
