Triple murder examined by CIA
The next case to be examined by Crime Investigation Australia will air on Thursday, September 25 at 7.30pm.
In 1978 young Sydney mother Valda Connell and two of her children, arrived home to find a man on parole, John Ernest Cribb, breaking into their house. He abducted them at gunpoint and drove them into bushland, raping the woman in front of the children. He gagged them and left them abandoned but later returned to kill them, fearing they knew too much.
After he was arrested, he escaped from Morisset Mental Hospital with another man and they were involved in the abduction and rape of two Sydney school girls prior to their recapture. Although jailed for life for the crimes, Cribb applied to the Supreme Court to have his sentence redetermined and a definite term set.
The victim’s family, the Connells, were successful in having new laws passed in both houses of NSW Parliament in June this year which means killers will now only have one chance to ask the Court to give them a determinate sentence. They will no longer be able to drag the families of their victims back to court every three years.
Press Release:
FOXTEL’s popular crime series, Crime Investigation Australia, will revisit one of New South Wales’ most horrific crimes during the world premiere of CIA: THE DEVIL INSIDE – JOHN ERNEST CRIBB, airing on Thursday, September 25 at 7:30pm AEST on Crime & Investigation Network.
Hosted by Steve Liebmann, this chilling one-hour special investigates the abduction and brutal murders of young Sydney mother Valda Connell and two of her six children, and the subsequent police manhunt and hostage drama that followed.
CIA: THE DEVIL INSIDE – JOHN ERNEST CRIBB features detailed re-enactments and interviews with key figures from the case including the investigating police and witnesses, plus intimate interviews with three of Valda’s surviving children.
On a winter’s afternoon, Friday August 11, 1978, mother of six, Valda Connell and her four-year-old son Damien, arrived home after having collected 10-year-old Sally from school. What was an average day for the Connell’s turned to horror when Valda and the children were confronted by a man brandishing a rifle and ordering them back into the car.
The man, John Ernest Cribb, had just a few months earlier been released on parole after serving six years for armed robbery. That afternoon, Cribb had broken into the Connell’s house but was disturbed as he left when Valda and the children arrived home.
As Cribb drove north along the NSW Mid North Coast, Valda pleaded to let her and her children go. Later, under the dark of night, Cribb raped the 39-year-old mother, while her two children remained in the car terrified, cold and hungry.
In the early hours of the next morning near the small town of Wingham, Cribb left the family gagged and bound in bushland next to a deserted road and then drove back south towards Newcastle. But he began telling himself that Valda knew too much and decided he must instead go back and silence her. He returned and with his knife, viciously slayed the family one by one.
In a bizarre act, Cribb then transported the bodies in the boot of the car and looked for a place to bury them. En route he crashed the car down a steep embankment and left the scene unhurt. Early on Sunday August 13, a couple of tow truck drivers discovered the grisly cargo and so began one of NSW’s largest manhunts, culminating in a ten-hour hostage drama and finally his arrest.
However, the story doesn’t end there. Some months after his committal, Cribb escaped from custody with William Munday from the Morisset Mental Hospital. They were involved in the abduction and rape of two Sydney school girls prior to their recapture.
Although jailed for life for the crimes, Cribb applied to the Supreme Court in 1993 to have his sentence redetermined and a definite term set. He applied again early this year, but later withdrew his appeal at the last minute.
After working closely with the Homicide Victims Support Group of NSW, the Connell family were successful in having new laws passed in both houses of NSW Parliament in June this year. As a result, killers like Cribb will only have one chance to ask the Court to give them a determinate sentence, which means they will no longer be able to drag the families of their victims back to court every three years.
CRIME INVESTIGATION AUSTRALIA: THE DEVIL INSIDE – JOHN ERNEST CRIBB airs on Crime & Investigation Network on Thursday, September 25 at 7.30pm AEST.
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