The Murder of Janine Balding

The senseless thrill-killing of 20-year-old Janine Balding in September 1988 was a heartbreaking echo of the 1986 murder of Sydney nurse Anita Cobby. The case against those responsible for Janine Balding’s abduction, rape and murder – ‘street kids’ Matthew Elliott, Bronson Blessington and Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson – was strengthened by technological advances in detecting the offenders’ DNA. The Balding Case was the first to present DNA evidence in an Australian court of law. Those responsible, including the youngest person sentenced to life imprisonment since transportation of convicts from England ended in the 1850s, formed a select group of criminals, whose prison papers have been marked ‘never to be released’.