Port Arthur gunman Martin Bryant's motive revealed in unearthed psychiatrist report
Australian mass murderer Martin Bryant's motivation for the horrific Port Arthur attack has been revealed in unearthed psychiatrist reports.
Bryant was just 28 years old when he brutally murdered 35 people and injured 23 others during a two-day rampage around the Tasmanian tourist town in April 1996.
He started his killing spree at the Seascape Cottage, owned by his first two victims David and Noelene 'Sally' Martin.
The violent rampage ended there too when the psychopath set the house alight in a bid to escape waiting police who were camped outside.
Now 58, Bryant is serving 35 consecutive life sentences in Risdon Prison Complex. He will never be released.
News Corp Australia investigation has obtained four reports from interviews Bryant had with mental health experts after the shootings.
One of those reports includes the details of an almost four-hour interview with forensic psychiatrist Paul Mullen about six days after the massacre, in which Bryant said his murder plot started with his hatred for Seascape Cottage owners David Martin, 72, and Noelene Martin, 69.
The initial plan to kill the 'very mean' couple started about 12 months earlier and escalated to mass murder because he was furious people generally didn't like him, News Corp Australia revealed.
The feeling of hatred toward the Martins stemmed from Bryant's father Maurice Bryant's unsuccessful attempts to buy Seascape Cottage, also called Seascape Guesthouse. Maurice died by suicide in 1993. Bryant blamed the Martins for the downfall of his family.
After Bryant killed the Martins at Seascape Cottage, he ate at the Broad Arrow Cafe and then pulled a semiautomatic rifle out and began shooting. He killed 20 people in two minutes.
He shot more people on the way out and escaped in his car.
He then stole a BMW, killing its occupants. Bryant stopped at a petrol station, where he killed a woman and took a man hostage.
He returned to Seascape Cottage with the hostage. The following morning Bryant was caught after the guesthouse went up in flames.
Bryant used a range of semiautomatic weapons and the Port Arthur massacre led to significant changes in Australia's gun laws.
There was a near ban on all fully automatic or semiautomatic firearms, and a gun buyback scheme was initiated.
More than 640,000 firearms were handed in.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
31 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Police share new CCTV after gruesome attack on bikie trying to leave gang
New CCTV footage of a group allegedly planning a gruesome attack on a man intending to leave a bikie gang has emerged after he was found with his tattoos burned and shot off outside an emergency room. Police shared the new footage on Friday as they work to find those responsible for the gruesome alleged attack more than a month on. Leslie 'Lethal Les' Grantham, a 51-year-old senior member of the Comanchero bikie gang, was found outside the Rockingham Hospital, in Perth's south, about 10pm on May 14 with multiple gun shot wounds to his upper body and leg, as well as burns, police said. In the new footage, which police allege shows bikies planning the alleged attack, three cars, a white SUV, a black ute and a white ute are seen arriving in a car park at Auburn Grove Train Station. A group emerges from the white ute, which is first to leave the car park, and those people are seen getting into the white SUV shortly after. One person exits the black ute and appears to pass something to the group in the SUV as it also leaves the car park before driving off as well. The white ute, with number plates 1BFC417, was later captured pulling into Rockingham Hospital, allegedly with Mr Grantham inside. It has not been seen since. Police allege Mr Grantham had been trying to leave the outlaw motorcycle gang when the group turned on him. It is alleged his tattoos were burned off, he was repeatedly shot and set alight before finally being dumped and left for dead outside the hospital. Detective Senior Sergeant Anthony Thompson told media at the time of the attack anyone who was considering joining an outlaw motorcycle group should heed the 'callous' attack as a warning. The senior sergeant said Mr Grantham was well known to police and had been left with life-changing injuries. 'He's got burns to his legs, and we suspect that's a product of other people trying to remove his tattoos,' he alleged. 'He was a patch member, and he was a senior member, and he held a position of authority within that club. 'If you're thinking about joining an outlaw motorcycle gang, think again, this person has now been left with life-changing injuries … solely because he was a member.' Mr Grantham has since been released from hospital, but is refusing to co-operate with authorities.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Teenager stabbed in vicious attack outside Wynyard train station in Sydney CBD
A teenager has been stabbed in the abdomen at a bus stop in Sydney's bustling centre business district. At around 5am on Friday morning, a 19-year-old man was stabbed outside the busy Wynyard Railway Station. NSW Police said officers responded about 5.30am after 'a man was found suffering a stab wound to his abdomen' at the corner of George and Angel streets. 'Police rendered first aid until NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived and the man was taken to St Vincents Hospital for further treatment,' a spokesman said. 'A crime scene was established and police immediately commenced an investigation into the incident. 'Following inquiries, police believe the stabbing happened at a bus stop outside Wynyard Railway Station on Carrington Street.' Police want to speak with a man who was seen in the area at the time of the incident. He is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, with facial hair and was wearing a beige coloured hooded jumper and light coloured pants.
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘You die': New York mafia boss unleashes on gangs in Sydney, Melbourne
Crime gangs playing out their drug wars on Sydney and Melbourne streets are lacking the moral compass of old school New York criminals who made sure 'their own' were protected, according to Michael Franzese, one of the world's most powerful former mob bosses. 'I spent over 20 years in that life, I grew up in it with my father, a major figure, and the truth is we didn't go around killing innocent people, we took care of people in our neighbourhood,' Franzese told 'You couldn't get involved in the drug business, you deal with drugs you die.' Franzese said allowing innocent people to get caught in the crossfire of organised crime was an example of 'morality being at an all time low'. Since the gang war in Sydney began in October 2020, 28 people have been shot and killed – eight of them innocent people, while a further six have been injured – many of them children. On Monday a f50-year-old emale kebab shop worker was caught in the crossfire, critically injured when two men stormed the store and opened fire. Melbourne is facing the same crisis, and was shocked in January this year when 27-year-old 'completely innocent' Katie Tangey died after arsonists linked to the city's tobacco wars hit the wrong house. Franzese said the rise in attacks on innocent people was a reflection on the deterioration of society in general. 'I think it's a reflection on the decline generally of the world we live in. When the mafia originally started in the US there were lots of street gang wars, innocent people caught in the crossfire but it was all straightened out, divided into families and we were very careful,' the 73-year-old said on the eve of his Australian visit. 'We had a code of conduct. Today I would say it's the attitude in general. The conduct has been deteriorating.' Franzese, who was played by Joseph Bono in Martin Scorsese's classic movie Goodfellas, was the caporegime of the New York Colombo crime family but left in 1995 after serving eight years for a $520m tax dodge. He became a major target of law enforcement and was arrested 18 times, indicted seven times and had two federal racketeering cases brought against him, one by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. These days Franzese travels the world telling stories of his mob days, being as 'honest' as he can about his violent way of life, hoping he can wipe some of the shine, courtesy of Hollywood, of a career in crime. 'I like to be as honest as I can, it gives me a lot of credibility,' he says, though shying away from directly answering a question about whether he has committed murder. 'When people ask me that I tell them I lived a violent life at a violent time and if you're part of the life then you are part of the violence. People are usually satisfied with that answer.' Forced to postpone his planned trip to Australia because of immigration hold-ups, Franzese has now provided all the paperwork about his criminal history to satisfy officials and will hold talks in Sydney and Melbourne in July. 'There's a lot of interest in my former life especially in the last four or five years because of social media raising the level of interest about mafia and mob life in general,' Franzese said. 'No doubt Hollywood has played the major part. There has never been any kind of organised crime life that has been romanticised and publicised by the media and entertainment industry as much as the New York mob life,' he said. 'No other group has been covered in such a romantic way.' But the reality is a world away. 'People were very upset when I walked away. The bottom line is I had a lot of years where I struggled because my boss was very upset and took it very personally,' he said. 'You are not allowed to walk away. I need to lie very low, I moved to California. The bottom line is I did not join witness protection or cause hurt to anybody so it turned out okay for me.' The catalyst was a woman. 'I wanted to marry her. The mob life, the mafia life, it's a bad lifestyle. I don't call the guys bad, I had many friends. Good people do bad things. Some very good people did bad things and at the time we believed it was justified. 'The life is bad though because I don't know any family member of that life that wasn't devastated. My dad was in prison for 42 years. My mum blamed him for everything, and rightly so. 'I knew I had to change to preserve my family. I chose my wife over the life. We've been married for 40 years so I made the right decision.'
