Wiretaps planted in the home of a New South Wales couple accused of murder reveal the pair discussing allegations that the husband tied up and raped teenager Amber Haigh while his wife filmed them. They won’t comment on the secret recordings, but say “there’s not enough evidence to support it”.
Haigh, who had an intellectual disability, was 19 when she disappeared from the NSW Riverina in June 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.
Now the father of Haigh’s child, 64-year-old Robert Geeves, and his wife, Anne Geeves, also 64, are on trial for her alleged murder. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The Geeveses told police they last saw Haigh on the evening of June 5, 2002, when they drove her from their home in Kingsvale to Campbelltown train station, where Haigh was supposed to catch a train to visit her dying father in hospital. Haigh never arrived. No trace of her has been found since.
The last time Haigh was seen independently was three days earlier, on June 2, 2002, in the town of Young, in the company of Robert Geeves.
While the Geeveses were being questioned by police in July 2002, detectives installed listening devices in their home and car. The job was botched—including placing the main device next to a microwave, which distorted the sound—so much of the recording is unintelligible or inaudible.
The edited and transcribed contents of the tapes were read to the court. They are disputed in important respects, but much of the recorded evidence is not in dispute.
Police told the Geeveses they were suspects in Haigh’s disappearance from the first weeks of their investigation. On the tapes, the couple can be heard complaining about harassment by police who “can’t find anything.”
At one point in the tape, Anne and Robert Geeves discuss their separate interrogations by detectives at the Young police station.
Related: Police allege Anne Geeves was ‘mastermind’ behind alleged murder of Amber Haigh, court hears
The couple complain that police kept them up late and did not give them food while repeatedly questioning them about Haigh’s disappearance: an attempt “to oppress us”, according to Robert Geeves.
While discussing the police’s questions, Anne Geeves says: “They didn’t bring up the videotapes.”
Robert Geeves answers unclearly, before Anne Geeves continues: “They didn’t say that you raped her while I was taking pictures.”
At another point in the tape played during the trial, the couple can be heard discussing the allegations against them with a third person, whose identity is unknown.
Anne Geeves says: “They didn’t have enough evidence. What they said happened, they didn’t have enough evidence to back it up.”
The third person responds: “What did they actually say? What are the grounds for?”
Robert Geeves says: “That I tied up Amber and raped her. The sky is the limit. The sky is the absolute limit.”
Later in the tape, Robert and Anne Geeves discuss the accusation again with a third party, who is not a lawyer.
Anne Geeves says the accusation has been made that “every man she [Haigh] has been with has raped her. Robert has raped her multiple times and I have watched with a video camera.”
The unknown person says, “Did the officers look for video cameras? Did they have a search warrant?”
Related: Who Cared? The Disappearance of Amber Haigh, Part 6 – Podcast
“No,” Anne Geeves answers, “they only came here the other day and wanted to… look in Amber’s room.”
The third party tells the Geeveses that if they were “the prime suspects,” the police would search their entire house. “You’re not the prime suspects.”
“Well, we are,” Anne Geeves replies, “because we were the last ones seen with her. They have no proof and they can’t get it because there’s nothing to get.”
At another point in the recording, Anne Geeves says that the police “can’t find anything.”
“Well, we haven’t done anything to find it,” she says to her husband. “How long are they going to keep bothering us?”
When the couple were arrested in 2022, police told Anne Geeves that detectives believed the Geeveses were jointly responsible for Haigh’s murder and that they used pigs together to dispose of her body.
Anne Geeves denies killing Haigh and says she last saw her alive in Campbelltown: “I just hope she’s still out there somewhere and she comes back.”
A number of witnesses in the trial have previously testified that Haigh told them that Robert Geeves would tie her up and have sex with her.
Related: Police allege couple murdered Amber Haigh and used pigs to dump body, court hears
The Public Prosecution Service closed the case on Friday. The lawyers of Robert Geeves and Anne Geeves called no witnesses and told the court that they would rely on the evidence already presented in the trial.
Robert and Anne Geeves have chosen not to testify in their defense, which is their legal right.
The closing date begins on Monday, August 12. More than 130 pieces of evidence have been submitted in the trial, including witness statements, police reports, Christmas and birthday cards the Geeveses gave to Haigh, and handwritten letters Haigh wrote in the weeks and months before her disappearance.
Also being introduced into evidence are videos of search warrants executed at Haigh’s flat in Young and the Geeveses’ home in Kingsvale. There are also recorded police interviews with Robert and Anne Geeves, who were questioned separately.
Court hears Amber was ‘removed from equation’
Haigh’s unsolved disappearance is an enduring mystery in the Riverina, a farming region in southwestern New South Wales.
Her body was never found, but a coroner ruled her death “either by murder or accident.”
The prosecution has alleged in court that Haigh – described by the court as “very easy to deceive” – was used as a “surrogate mother” by Robert and Anne Geeves because they wanted another child.
The prosecution alleged that once Haigh’s baby was born they wanted to “take her out of the equation” by killing her. The court heard that Haigh “adored” her five-month-old son and “would never let him go” [him] “out of her sight”.
The Geeveses told police they last saw Haigh on June 5, 2002, after dropping her off at Campbelltown train station. They maintain they have not heard from her since.
They told police that Haigh had voluntarily entrusted her son into their care.
Two weeks later, on June 19, 2002, the Geeveses reported Haigh missing.
The court previously heard the Geeveses had one child together – a son the same age as Haigh, who had previously been in a relationship with her – but the couple wanted more children after subsequently suffering three miscarriages and a stillbirth.
“The theory of the Crown case is that it was always the Geeveses’ intention to take custody and care of them. [the child] of Amber, but they knew that to do that, Amber had to be removed from the equation… so, the Crown alleges, they killed her.”
Lawyers for Robert and Anne Geeves have argued that the case against the couple was seriously flawed. They claim that “societal aversion” to Robert Geeves’ relationship with “a much younger woman with an intellectual disability” fuelled “gossip and innuendo”.
“Everything they did was viewed with a cloud of distrust and suspicion,” the court said.
The trial, presided over by Judge Julia Lonergan, continues in Wagga Wagga.