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The complex case of Matthew Leveson and his lover Michael Atkins.

The last time Matthew Leveson’s distraught family saw him was September 2007.

The call centre worker’s mysterious disappearance baffled police, the Leveson family and the public for a decade. This week, the case has made headlines once again after police uncovered what could be the 20-year-old’s remains in Sydney’s Royal National Park.

“I can’t say that with 100 per cent confidence until we get the forensic examinations carried out, but the circumstances in which we’ve found these remains lead us to believe they are Matthew Leveson’s,” Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin told the media.

In 2009, the missing person case drew to a standstill when Leveson’s significantly older lover, Michael Atkins, was acquitted of his murder — a decision Leveson’s father condemned this week.

“If any of the jurors on Matthew’s trial see this, what the hell were you thinking?” he told reporters.

“Look what you’ve done to us. This, you could have solved many years ago yourselves. And lastly, Michael Atkins, to you, you are no longer of any use to our family alive.”

At a coronial inquest, Atkins suggested his former partner had escaped to Thailand and started afresh. Late last year, he led police to where he said the man’s body had been buried – information he exchanged for legal immunity from the courts.

The agreement, which hinged on Leveson’s body being found, was signed off with consent from Leveson’s parents. However, nothing was found at the time.

In recent months, details of Atkins’ sordid private life have been brought to light — and they paint a clearer picture of the world Matthew Leveson was privy to before he vanished without a trace.

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Drugs and sex

Faye Leveson, the mother of Matthew, says she was accepting of her son’s homosexuality but never of his senior partner.

In the months leading up to her son’s disappearance, News.com.au reports the fraught mother witnessed her “beautiful boy” retreat into his shell as Atkins would “not let [him] out of his sight”.

An insight into the couple’s fractured sex life was thrown into the spotlight when Leveson’s former coworker at an NRMA call centre recounted troubling conversations at Atkins’ murder trial in 2009.

“He wants me to pick up young boys when we are out and have a threesome,” Leveson allegedly told his colleague.

“I’ve had enough of Mike and his bulls**t … he thinks he’s God’s gift to men and he can do anything but if any man talks to me he gets the s**ts. He wants threesomes but I don’t want it.”

An inquest hearing in 2015 also heard the pair, who resided in Cronulla, were small-scale dealers of ecstasy and “date rape drug” GHB.

One month prior to Leveson’s appearance, an unnamed 21-year-old male told the court he had joined the duo at their apartment and, after taking provided GHB from a cup, watched Atkins have sex with another man before having sex with Mr Atkins himself.

Disappearance

On Matthew Leveson’s last known night, he attended Sydney nightclub ARQ with lover Atkins.

Atkins would later tell the inquest his partner was drug-addled on GHB that night, adding he was “making manky faces”. The 45-year-old left the club at 2:15am, allegedly to retrieve more drugs from his car to sell.

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At the time he sent a text to Leveson that read: “I said sorry three times! I need more jollies. I sold out.”

Mr Atkins returned to the club at 3:06am, leaving a 55-minute window on the night of Leveson’s disappearance. He returned home at approximately 5:00am.

The days after Leveson’s disappearance

After his partner’s disappearance, Mr Atkins told police the pair had slept in until “about two o’clock, two or three and we just sort of had a lazy Sunday afternoon”.

Yet on the day Matthew Leveson disappeared, Mr Atkins was recorded on Bunnings Warehouse’s CCTV purchasing a mattock (a hand tool most commonly used for digging) and duct tape around midday.

The receipt for the items, found to have Atkins’ thumbprint on it, was discovered days later in the back of Mr Leveson’s abandoned green Toyota Corolla at Waratah Oval.

Despite this, Atkins denied being at Bunnings that day.

“It is our belief that about 12.20 on Sunday afternoon that you went to Bunnings Warehouse and you were the person who purchased that pick and the gaffer tape,” a detective asked him during an interview in 2007, to which he replied: “I don’t think it was me.”

Just two days after Leveson vanished, on September 25 2007, a young man under the pseudonym Bradley Johns gave evidence that Atkins – a stranger he met off the internet – drove 170km to his home in Newcastle to have sex.

When Atkins arrived at the door, Johns says he was curiously covered head-to-toe in dirt. Shortly upon entering the house, Atkins also demanded he immediately go to the bathroom, where he showered for approximately 30 minutes, before leaving his soiled clothes on the floor. They later had sex.

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The pair went out drinking and dancing that night at nearby Fanny’s nightclub before Johns “dodged” Atkins. Opting to put the filthy clothes in a plastic bag, Johns was intimidated by Atkins and refused to respond to his persistent phone calls and texts. He told the court: “I was scared Michael Atkins might be angry with me and come and hurt me.”

When police arrived on Johns’ doorstep in March 2009, the plastic bag was inexplicably gone.

Another man, under the name Patrick Anderson, 18, told the inquest that Atkins pursued him to “play around” just three days after Leveson’s disappearance.

“[He] asked me to be discreet, to keep the conversation we had between us,” Anderson told the court.

Four days later, Atkins invited another young man “Anthony Rogers” to a gay dance party, where he gave him GHB.

When pressed in court how he could go clubbing within a week of his lover going missing, Atkins responded: “I was looking for him.”

Why Atkins was immune from prosecution in 2016

The important difference between a coronial inquest and a criminal trial comes into play here. While the latter is defined by the presentation of opposing arguments, a coronial inquest is concerned with getting the truth and finding answers, not seeking punishment.

The decision by deputy state coroner Elaine Truscott that Mr Atkins would be compelled to testify at the coronial inquest was made in May 2016.

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While her ruling forced Atkins to give evidence, it also came with the caveat that any incriminating information disclosed could not be used against him in future criminal proceedings.

In light of this, Atkins was issued a certificate under section 61 of the NSW Coroner’s Act, effectively granting him immunity from prosecution. It took five days of intense questioning at the inquest for him to agree he would lead police to Leveson’s body.

Double jeopardy laws prohibit trialing a person found innocent (as Atkins was in 2009) for the same crime, unless fresh and compelling evidence comes to light. It’s been reported the discovery of a body may warrant Atkins to be re-trialled; however, this is where the section 61 certificate then comes into play.

The section 61 certificate issued by the coroner means Atkins is free from prosecution from anything admitted during the coronial inquest, unless he lies or withholds evidence.

Lastly, a deal that was struck up last year with Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton and Leveson’s family ensured his freedom further. To clear up the legal jargon, in simplest terms, the Levesons decided finding their son’s body was more important than seeking punishment for whoever might have been responsible for his death.

Now that it’s believed his remains have been found, this case could become even more interesting.