Kidnapped

Kidnapped is about Stephen Bradley, who perpetrated the 1960 kidnapping for ransom and murder of eight-year-old Sydney schoolboy, Graeme Thorne. This was not only a vivid example of murder for greed, but also marked the beginning in Australia of modern forensic science as a tool in the investigation of serious crime.Many of the techniques of scientific detection used to implicate Bradley had never before been used in a police investigation, but have since become commonplace. Certainly, there had never before been a case in which so many methods of forensic investigation had been used in combination to detect and implicate the perpetrator of this terrible crime. This case therefore marks a watershed in the annals of modern criminal investigation.Mark Tedeschi has prosecuted many people who were prepared to kill to acquire the object of their desires. As such he is uniquely placed to present an insight into the mind of Stephen Bradley. A man so motivated by greed and self-entitlement that when he read about the winner of the Opera House Lottery, his first thought was how much more he deserved the money. From there he located the Thorne family in Sydney's Eastern suburbs and proceeded to plan the kidnap and ransom of their young son, Graeme. The taking of Graeme off a Sydney street in daylight hours caused shock and horror across the nation and when his body was found the police used all means available, both old and new, to track down Stephen Bradley and convict him.Mark's new book is a gripping account of a terrible crime that many people today still remember.