EXCLUSIVE
Bank robber turned TikTok star Russell Manser, who died in his Sydney harborfront apartment last Saturday, once planned to marry a lawyer he met while in prison.
Manser embarked on a relationship with Mary Keaney after he was last released from prison seven years ago and later bought a farm with her in the Tweed Valley in northeastern New South Wales.
Property records list Keaney and Manser as co-owners of that four-bedroom home on six acres in Stokers Siding, which cost $1.24 million in December 2020.
Daily Mail Australia understands Keaney was still living at the farm at the time of Manser’s death.
Bank robber turned TikTok star Russell Manser, who died in his Sydney harborfront apartment last Saturday, once planned to marry lawyer Mary Keaney, whom he met while in prison. The former couple appears in the photo.
Manser, who had a long history of drug abuse including heroin, died at his flat in King Street Wharf, near Barangaroo, on Saturday night aged 56.
The cause of his death has not been made public but there were no suspicious circumstances.
Manser spent 23 years in Australian prisons until he turned his life around and became an advocate for victims of institutional child abuse.
He was repeatedly raped in a juvenile detention center and then again in an adult prison as a teenager, and launched ‘A Survivor’s Voice’ in 2017 to help abused inmates obtain compensation.
Keaney, who describes herself on Instagram as “not your average lawyer” and declares herself a social justice warrior, was admitted to the bar in 2017.
Manser first met Ms Keaney while she was in prison after giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Manser embarked on a relationship with Mary Keaney after he was last released from prison seven years ago and later bought a farm with her in the Tweed Valley in northeastern New South Wales.
Property records list Keaney and Manser as co-owners of a four-bedroom house (above) on six hectares in Stokers Siding, which cost $1,240,000 in December 2020.
Keaney had been working on a justice project and heard about Manser’s efforts to help other inmates seek redress for the abuse they had suffered as children.
“The people I helped in prison had told him everything about me,” Manser said in a video interview posted on YouTube.
“So she contacted me and asked me to participate in this justice project where survivors can tell their stories… about what had happened to them.”
Two weeks before Manser was released in 2017, he learned that he was about to be charged with a series of bank robberies committed before his last stint in prison.
He was granted bail, entered rehab and was not required to serve any further jail time when he was sentenced for the old crimes in 2018.
Ms Keaney, who had previously been married in her early 20s, was one of the lawyers to whom Manser felt he owed his freedom.
A source said Manser struggled to adapt to life on the outside after spending so much time in custody.
“He was basically acting like a 20-year-old because he had no idea how to have a relationship with a woman,” the source said.
Manser first met Ms Keaney while she was in prison after giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“I feel blessed,” Manser captioned a photo of the couple in September 2020.
Manser and Keaney’s relationship started slowly, but they eventually settled on the Stokers Siding estate, with Manser spending some of the compensation he received for being abused as a teenager.
Their social media posts from that time show the couple enjoying country life (Ms Keaney is a keen equestrian) and apparently making plans to get married.
“I feel blessed,” Manser captioned a photo of the couple in September 2020.
‘We’ve been through a lot together, we’re stronger than ever. The bank robber (former bank robber) and the lawyer make a great team.’
That title was followed by the hashtags “marriage material,” “lovers,” “soulmates,” “twin flames,” “living life” and “strength.”
In another post from 2020, Manser wished Ms Keaney a happy International Women’s Day, addressing her as “Gunchy” and saying: “I love the strong, smart, caring, beautiful, independent woman you are.”
The same year, Manser published a newspaper photo of Ms. Keaney in a wig and dress with a caption that read “she is a good human being who always fights for the rights of others.”
In her profile for Frederick Jordan Chambers, Ms Keaney lists her previous employment with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Aid Services in Alice Springs and Brisbane.
Manser’s social media posts from that time show the couple enjoying country life (Ms Keaney is a keen equestrian) and apparently making plans to get married.
“In addition to her criminal law practice, she also practices common law matters, primarily for plaintiffs in personal injury cases arising from historical child sexual abuse,” the profile says.
Ms Keaney did not appear on camera when the ABC television program Australian Story aired an episode about Manser in May 2022.
By then, the father of two had published a book called A Survivor’s Voice: The Russell Manser Story, with the help of bank robber and author John Killick.
Manser later amassed 134,000 followers on TikTok, where his posts included videos about life behind bars, and he hosted a podcast called The Stick Up.
Keaney spoke with former Detective Gary Jubelin for an episode of his I Catch Killers podcast titled “A Wild Child Who Went From Protester to Lawyer,” which aired in March of last year.
During the interview, Keaney agreed with Jubelin that she was a “social justice warrior” who had found the law after spending her youth partying too much and without direction.
A turning point for Keaney had been reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, written after the South African anti-apartheid activist spent 27 years in prison.
After Manser split from Keaney, he had a brief relationship with a Serbian woman called Liliana Gagic (both pictured) and the couple lived together on the Gold Coast.
“I have approached the practice of criminal justice from the perspective that, in general, people are not bad,” he told Jubelin.
“People are a product of the society they live in and how they have grown up and their life experiences and people make mistakes.”
Jubelin was a good friend of Manser, but the criminal’s past relationship with Ms Keaney was not mentioned during the podcast interview.
A source who knew Manser well said he and Keaney had discussed getting married on the grounds of the Stokers Siding estate, but it wasn’t meant to be.
After the couple separated, Manser had a brief relationship with a Serbian woman called Liliana Gagic and the couple lived together on the Gold Coast.
When that was over, Manser returned to Stokers Siding, where Mrs Keaney lived.
“He then finally decided to return to Sydney, to his old territory, but he needed to return regularly to the farm,” said a source close to Manser.
‘He went there for his sanity and it was really important. Maria was still there.
“He said they hadn’t gotten back together, but they had found a way to live together when he was there.”
Manser deleted Gagic’s social media posts after they split, but Keaney still features prominently on his Facebook page.
The day after Manser’s death, Gagic posted a series of photos of them together on Instagram.
In a caption, she wrote: “Goodbye my lover, until we meet again.”
Ms Gagic later told Daily Mail Australia: “Russell and I had an open relationship.”
“I’m currently in Europe, so I wasn’t with him (when he died),” she said.
‘Russell was a warrior. Man on a mission. Soul that everyone who ever knew will remember forever. Man of freedom, frequency and vibration that not many humans embody.’
Gagic said Manser showed “love and compassion toward victims of sexual abuse” and called him “a man in a million.”
Keaney declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.