September 1999 Volume 80 Number 9
"serving the protectors"
| September 1999 Volume 80 Number 9 "serving the protectors" |
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| By
Brett Williams |
Senior Constable David Barr was murdered on duty nine years ago, but the agony of losing a partner remains for Constable Jamie Lewcock.
With his wife, Tracey, Lewcock will lay flowers in honour of his dead colleague on National Police Remembrance Day at Fort Largs later this month.
He knows that, as he stands silently with head bowed at the September 29 memorial service, his mind will fill with graphic images of Barr’s brutal slaying.
Barr, 31, was stabbed in the chest as he struggled with a knife-wielding attacker at the Salisbury Interchange on July 26, 1990.
He was rushed to the Lyell McEwin Hospital suffering massive blood loss from a puncture to his heart but died two hours later. He left behind his wife and two daughters.
Lewcock, then 26, broke down and wept when, at Elizabeth police station, he was told that his friend and partner was dead.
“To get that news was a big shock,” he says. “It knocked me right over. It was one of those things that you’re just not ready for. The wound was so small and seemed almost insignificant (at the scene).”
Only hours after the killing, Lewcock met Barr’s widow, Gwenda, and explained how her husband of nine years had been murdered. It was an overwhelmingly painful exercise, for which he had to summon great inner-strength.
“Gwenda wanted to know exactly what happened,” he says. “It was pretty hard to tell her because I was still coming to terms with it myself. But she really needed to know and get it through her mind how David died - and the circumstances behind it.”
Today, emotion still simmers beneath Lewcock’s huge frame and tough exterior when he speaks of Barr’s death. And since losing his partner, he’s not lived a single day of his life without thinking of that fateful July morning.
His bravery medal - which he was awarded for his part in the interchange incident - is an obvious reminder. But many other subtle reminders pervade his daily life. Simply picking up a common household kitchen knife can prompt painful memories of the weapon used to kill Barr.
In his mind, he sees clear images of Barr lying on the ground groaning after the attack. He remembers feeling helpless as he watched ambulance officers cut Barr’s uniform from his body. To Lewcock, these were “sickening visions”.
“The whole thing’s pretty vividly imprinted in my mind, all the way through,” he says, “every little step and movement that was made.”
Lewcock and his wife concede that Barr’s death changed their lives. Tracey, 34, describes the days before the murder as “life pre-26 July, 1990”. She says that, for a time, Lewcock lost his “happy-go-lucky” personality.
“We were a happy, easy-going couple,” she says, “then suddenly it just hit us and we felt like we were in a storm. We had no control.”
But the tragedy brought them closer together. Both say their intense love, and “a friendship with each other”, enabled them to survive the trauma of Barr’s funeral, the trial of his killer, and the heavy emotional strain of the following years.
To honour all Australian police officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, memorial services will be held around the nation at 11am on Wednesday, September 29. Senior police chaplain, Reverend David Marr, will conduct SA’s service at Fort Largs. The ceremony will honour the State’s 58 officers killed in the line of duty since 1847.
“It’s a time to reflect on the reality that police service involves levels of risk and danger,” Marr says. “It would be good for our politicians, the judiciary and the general public also to reflect on that - and just what they expect of police.
“The police community does put itself at risk to serve the wider community. It’s sad that the wider community doesn’t really understand the implications of that.”
Lewcock and his wife have missed few services in the last nine years and say nothing could keep them from attending this year. Although the ceremony always evokes strong emotions in Lewcock, he says he also finds it uplifting.
As a staunch advocate of National Police Remembrance Day, he hopes to see a stronger-than-usual presence of both police officers and the public at this year’s tribute.
“It’s a case of showing support for those (dead) officers’ families and loved ones,” he says. “It’s showing that their husbands, brothers or sons didn’t die in vain.”
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