In this episode, Adam Shand speaks with retired detective Ray Lambie, who joined the NSW Armed Robbery Squad at the height of the so-called “golden era.” Lambie shares stories from the front line — high-stakes takedowns, corrupt cops, close calls and the adrenaline rush of chasing Australia’s most dangerous men. Together, they explore how policing changed, why the banks resisted reform and how the myth of the Aussie outlaw continues to shape our view of crime.

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In 1969, 20-year-old Lucille Butterworth vanished from a bus stop near Hobart, Tasmania. For decades, her disappearance remained one of Australia’s most haunting cold cases. In this episode, Adam Shand speaks with former detective constable Cary Mark Millhouse, who helped reopen the investigation and uncover the truth buried in old police files and forgotten confessions.

Through meticulous detective work, Millhouse and his colleagues linked Lucille’s disappearance to convicted killer Jeffrey Charles Hunt — a man who confessed to the crime multiple times, yet never faced trial. Together, Adam and Cary revisit the evidence, the failures of early police work and the heartbreak of a family still waiting for justice.

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In this episode of Real Crime with Adam Shand, we explore the case of Gary Lewer — a former Mr. Australia, world bodybuilding champion and long-time Melbourne identity who now finds himself detained in an immigration facility and facing deportation to a country he hasn’t lived in since childhood.

Lewer insists he’s no criminal mastermind but the victim of a vendetta — a web of untested allegations and police dossiers that have never seen the inside of a courtroom. Adam unpacks the evidence, the politics, and the human cost of a system that allows punishment without trial.

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For decades, families across New South Wales have waited for answers — hundreds of unsolved murders and disappearances, too many to dismiss as coincidence. In this episode, Adam speaks with Jeremy Buckingham, NSW Member of Parliament, who has pushed through a parliamentary inquiry into the state’s cold cases — and the possible serial killers who may have operated undetected for decades.

Buckingham reveals why he believes the system failed victims and their families, the chilling evidence linking Ivan Milat to dozens more murders and why justice has been delayed for so long. From the mystery of Cheryl Grimmer’s abduction to the chilling connections across the Southern Highlands, Newcastle, and the North Coast, this episode exposes the scale of indifference, incompetence and silence that may have hidden the truth for half a century.

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In this confronting episode of Real Crime, Adam Shand sits down with one of Australia’s most reviled offenders — Peter Vaitos, the man once known as The Silver Gun Rap*st. For the first time in more than 40 years, Vaitos speaks publicly, joined by his daughter Stacey, who has chosen to stand by him in the hope of revealing new information about one of Victoria’s most enduring mysteries — the Frankston–Tynong murders.

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In this episode, Adam Shand speaks with Adelaide lawyer Andrew Carpenter, a man described as “the most hated by Australian child sex offenders.” Carpenter has dedicated his career to pursuing justice for survivors of child sexual abuse—specifically, by closing a shocking legal loophole that allows convicted pedophiles to hide their wealth in superannuation, beyond the reach of their victims.

Together, Adam and Andrew unpack how this injustice has persisted despite bipartisan promises to fix it, and why successive governments continue to protect offenders’ financial interests over those of their victims. Carpenter shares chilling examples—from corrupt magistrates to corporate predators—illustrating how the system fails survivors while taxpayers foot the bill.

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More than fifty years after three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer vanished from Fairy Meadow Beach, her brother Ricki is still fighting for justice. In this episode, Adam Shand speaks with Ricki Nash about the heartbreaking failures that have kept Cheryl’s case unsolved — from a detailed 1971 confession ruled inadmissible, to decades of police inaction and bureaucratic stonewalling. Together, they examine the shocking gaps in the original investigation, new witnesses ignored by authorities and the renewed push for a fresh inquest.

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In this episode of Real Crime with Adam Shand, we sit down with Steve Van Aperen — Australia’s leading polygraph examiner, widely known as the “Human Lie Detector.” After 15 years in the police force, Steve built a career uncovering deception in homicide investigations, cold cases and even everyday disputes. Adam and Steve explore the power and limits of polygraphs, the rise of new lie-detection technologies and the psychology of interrogation. Along the way, they revisit infamous cases like the Beaumont children disappearance and the chilling murder of Bonnie Clarke, while asking: how much should we really trust lie detection in the pursuit of justice?

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