WITNESS SAW PAEDOPHILE PRIEST COVERED IN BLOOD NEAR COLD CASE MURDER VICTIM MARIA JAMES' HOUSE
A priest who sexually abused the son of cold case murder victim Maria James was seen covered in blood on the day of her murder, metres from the crime scene. The priest — identified as Father Anthony Bongiorno — had blood on his face and arm as he ran into St Mary's Parish Thornbury, roughly 50 metres from the bookshop and home where Maria was stabbed 68 times in 1980. The ABC's Trace podcast , which has been reinvestigating the case for the past year, tracked down an electrician who was conducting maintenance work in the grounds of St Mary's Parish on June 17, 1980 — the day of Maria's murder. Allan Hircoe was working on an electricity box on the porch at St Mary's presbytery when he saw the priest approaching. "A chap that I recognised as the person in the paper, Bongiorno, came on the left hand side and I looked at him from about eight metres away," Mr Hircoe said. "He had blood on one side of his face, and one of his sleeves was rolled up, and he h