More at ... https://www.9news.com.au/national/vinze ... d6f0dcdd52The family of Sydney schoolgirl Quanne Diec say they're "shattered", as a former nightclub bouncer was today cleared of her murder.
Speaking on behalf of Quanne's family after Vinzent Tarantino, 52, was found not guilty, cousin Christine Woo said the family just wanted justice for the 12-year-old, who they have never been able to bury as her body has never been found.
Tarantino fought the allegations despite the court being told he had confessed on five separate occasions to kidnapping and killing the teenager in 1998 as she walked to school.
"We are still trying to process the words 'not guilty'," Mrs Woo, said.
"It's difficult for us to understand how the jury has come to this decision.
"We wanted justice for Quanne and we haven't got that.
"The past 21 years have deeply affected us. No one should have to go through the pain that we have endured,"
"The worst part is that Quanne's body has never been found.
"We haven't been able to lay her to rest and give her the dignity that she deserves.
"Someone out there knows where she is, and to that person, you have shattered our family.
"Quanne was a beautiful 12-year-old girl.
"We miss her and think about her every day."
One of the prosecution's witnesses was Laila Faily, a woman who claimed to have been in a relationship with Tarantino at the time.
She said she sat in his van frozen in fear as he unloaded a wheelie bin and took it into the bush south of Sydney to bury the girl.
She claimed he confessed to her a short time later.
"He said that stupid girl, she should have stayed quiet, she was making too much noise."
The Crown alleged he also made admissions to another ex-girlfriend Vicki Ross, friend Geoffrey Maurer and to his brother Alan in the years before he went to police.
"I killed a kid Alan, I'm f----d," he was recorded saying.
In 2016 he walked into Surry Hills Police Centre to hand himself in and tell all.
"I was getting a lot of debt at the time, addiction, and I had this stupid idea just, you know, I could try and ring up and get some money for the person."
He said he took her back to his father's home and had planned to release her but panicked.
"I did something to her like, I killed her. I took her life... I think I strangled her... just with my hands."
He even led police to the location where he said he took the body.
Then during the seven-week trial Tarantino argued many of those people were lying and his admissions to police were made under duress.
He said he was being threatened by members of the Rebels bikie club after he witnessed the murder of three Bandidos in the Black Market Cafe murders a year before Quanne Diec disappeared.
"I had to make a false confession so I could get to a safe place, I was in total physical and mental anguish," he said.
His barrister Belinda Rigg SC said he had led an "extraordinary and terrible" existence since 1997.
"He believed with his whole being there was a real and imminent risk of abduction, severe violence, torture and death of himself, his partner, his father and his brother."
Hmmm sorry I don't believe his new stance of innocence. I am also surprised he was let off by a jury.
