It is a case more than a quarter of a century in the making: a court bid to try an alleged serial killer for the abduction and murder of three Aboriginal children in a small country town.
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On Thursday, a Sydney courtroom was packed with family and friends of the victims as the first steps were taken in the Court of Criminal Appeal to bring the alleged killer to justice.
The children – Colleen Walker-Craig, 16, Evelyn Greenup, 4, and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, 16 – disappeared from the same road in Bowraville in the NSW mid-north coast hinterland in late 1990 and early 1991.
A white man, now 51, was tried for two of the murders but acquitted. He was also a suspect in Colleen's death. Her body has never been found.
A sustained campaign by family and supporters for the man to stand trial for all three murders together culminated last year in fresh charges being laid against him over the deaths of Evelyn and Clinton.
But a major legal obstacle to the retrial is the double jeopardy principle – a rule preventing a person facing criminal trial more than once for the same crime.
The law was changed in NSW in 2006 to allow a person accused of a very serious crime to be retried where there is "fresh and compelling evidence".
The Court of Criminal Appeal is now being asked to decide if the evidence linking the alleged murders is fresh and compelling and a retrial is "in the interests of justice".
If the court orders a retrial it is understood the accused killer will also be charged with the murder of Colleen.
At a preliminary hearing on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Clifton Hoeben said "we're dealing with gateway provisions about whether you even get to the stage of running further trials".
"Obviously we want this matter on well and truly this year," he said.
He asked lawyers for NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman, who is bringing the application for a retrial, to provide a summary of the "fresh and compelling" evidence.
Upper house Greens MP David Shoebridge, who has led the political campaign for a retrial, said: "I don't [usually] get goosebumps going to court mentions but ... as I went into the court and I saw the pain and the hope and the expectations of the families around it was a pretty moving moment."
He welcomed the "very clear commitment" from Justice Hoeben to expedite the case because "this matter needs finality".
"This was an historic moment with the state's double jeopardy laws being tested for the first time," Mr Shoebridge said.
But he noted "there are still plenty of challenges ahead because our legal system, quite rightly, must provide both the Crown and the defendant with a fair trial".
