April 1999 Volume 80 Number 4 "serving the protectors"
Bombing Murder of Detective Remembered in Adelaide
By Brett Williams

The widow of murdered WA police officer, Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen, wants “someone to pay” for her late husband’s death. Jane Bowen has no forgiveness for whoever is responsible.

Sergeant Bowen was killed after he opened a parcel bomb in the Adelaide office of the National Crime Authority on March 2 1994. The Adelaide-born father of two had been working for the NCA on secondment for two years.

His co-worker, lawyer Peter Wallis, was blinded in one eye and suffered extensive burns when the bomb exploded.

Both Mrs Bowen and Mr Wallis attended a memorial service at Centennial Park on March 2 this year to mark the fifth anniversary of the bombing. They were joined by a gathering of about 50, which included SA and WA police union officials, and former WA colleagues of Sergeant Bowen.

Mrs Bowen said the anniversary of the bombing was always difficult for her because it was also her wedding anniversary. “We would have been married 14 years today,” she said after the service.

“There isn’t a day goes past that we don’t talk about Geoff in terms of the boys’ dad. I’m very protective of my children, and I guess that’s one of my big things: we deal with it in our own way.”

SA police chaplain, Reverend David Marr, began last month’s service at the exact time of the explosion - 9:15am.

Mrs Bowen said she found the service “very healing” and hoped that it would bring her late husband’s murder back to the public mind.

WA Police Union president, Michael Dean, vowed after the service that his organization would never rest until Sergeant’s Bowen’s killer - or killers - were brought to justice. He described the bombing as “particularly cowardly”.

“Jane every year turns up with the children at the Police Memorial Day in Perth,” he said. “You look at those kids and realize the impact on her and the family. I can say that just about every police officer in Western Australia has a tear in his eye when he looks at her. That’s one of the major reasons we will never let it go.”

Mrs Bowen said that, although Sergeant Bowen was dedicated to police work, he would “never have given his life”. “He loved me and he loved his children,” she said.

“I just think if the community wants organized crime fought, they’ve really got to support their crimefighters. Doing that means support for their families after they die - and easy compensation.”

A coronial inquest into the bombing begins this month.

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