There was a shocking
epilogue to the
Stayput Portuguese story .
Seven years after being allowed to stay in Australia , one of the three who sought asylum , Jose
da Costa , murdered
his Greek employer,
Andreas Koklas ,
while they were making a
holiday trip around Australia. He drove off
in the man’s car ; from the
victim's bank book
he attempted to
draw a large amount of
money to flee
the country . At
Tennant Creek he had tried
to sell a camera belonging to Koklas to a policeman . He was
arrested and brought
back to Darwin
for a jury
trial .
Bowditch
went to Julio Borges , who had first enlisted his help to keep the three in the country,
and expressed his deep
dismay at what
da Costa had
done, saying he had let down the
people of Darwin
and Australia. The
other two Portuguese
stayputs were shattered
by the enormity
of what da
Costa had done.
In an expression
of regret, da Costa
was reportedly “ upset ” for
what he had
done to Jim
Bowditch .
The court
was filled with
angry members of the Greek
community who wanted
da Costa hanged. Judge
Blackburn passed the
death sentence . Personally
distressed by the
case , Bowditch nevertheless campaigned
to save da
Costa from hanging
and the abolition
of capital punishment
in the NT. Da
Costa did not hang
and capital punishment
was eventually abolished.
Recalling the
Stayput Portuguese saga , Julio
Borges , in l982 , still expressing
dismay at what da Costa
had done , letting down
so many people , said
the then Darwin Portuguese
population of about
500 regarded Bowditch as “ a great
man ”. Members of
this segment of
the Darwin community still
went to Bowditch
for help with
problems, even though he
was no longer editor
of the NT News .
In 2004 , stayput Norberto Andrade , in a telephone interview , still marvelled at the way
Bowditch , lawyer Dick Ward , unionists
and so many other
people in the community
had rallied to help
the trio. In particular, he singled out
Bowditch for high praise. “ I will never forget him until I die.”
When asked what happened to da Costa , who had been saved from hanging , in part
due to Bowditch’s campaigning , Andrade had this to
say : “ I heard that he was released from jail in Adelaide and
became ill. When told that he
was suffering from cancer, he went home and killed himself .” NEXT: Another international story
