John Edwards investigation: Sydney’s father’s creepy habit before murdering his sons

Sydney’s father who shot and killed his own children was told to stay away from his estranged wife’s yoga class the previous year after the studio owner noted that he cared about women, according to research .

His wife reported the incident to the police, but came across an officer who felt it was an “tit for tat” complaint.

John Edwards murdered his sons Jack, 15, and Jennifer, 13, and then took his own life on July 5, 2018, in northwest Sydney. His mother, Olga, also took her own life in December of that year.

An investigation investigating the tragedy is before State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan.

The owner of the yoga studio, Oliver James Campbell, said in the investigation Friday morning that John had started attending classes in January 2017.

At the time he knew Olga well (she had attended hundreds of classes for five or six years) but did not know who John was.

Campbell noticed John because he was “distracted, looking around the room” during class, which made him uncomfortable.

“It seemed that he was not there to practice yoga,” he said in the investigation.

“There are a couple of poses that are spread legs, forward bending type poses that we do.

“Those postures tend to have the head down, toward the ground. It’s a pretty private moment.”

John and Olga did not cross paths in the studio until a morning class on February 8, 2017.

“I’m very clear about exactly what happened that morning because it’s the strangest class I’ve ever taken at 6am,” Campbell said.

After class started and Olga didn’t join, Campbell said she went to see how she was doing.

Olga was saying she had to go because of “my ex,” but Campbell thought she was saying “my neck” and told her to feel free to leave if she was hurt, she said.

She left and then Campbell noticed John.

“He did the weird thing again when he looked around the room when everyone had their legs spread,” he said.

“I asked him after that class not to come back. He shrugged. I didn’t say much. I never saw him again.”

She only found out after class when Olga called her that John was her husband and that they were in the middle of a messy divorce.

After Olga left, she went to the Hornsby police station to report the incident, where Officer Rowan Kingdon was on duty.

Kingdon, who was discharged for medical reasons earlier this year, said in the investigation that it was a “delicate” situation and that he did not believe any crime had been committed.

“She had no fears, from memory,” he said. “It was more like, how dare her ex-husband show up in class?”

“It was more like an eye for an eye, it was his class and she didn’t want him to go, that’s from what I can remember.”

The sheriff called John, who lied to him, saying that he and Olga had attended the same yoga studio before divorcing.

The lawyer who attended the coroner Christopher Mitchell asked him: Was it not relevant that John was looking at Olga?

“Yeah, but I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a yoga class. They all look in one direction,” Kingdon said.

“I don’t know if she was looking directly at him. I don’t know how to interpret that. In yoga classes everyone is looking forward.”

Kingdon told the investigation that it was unable to run a John Edwards database check and that it had erroneously recorded the complaint so that it would not appear in any future searches for “John Edwards.”

He agreed if he had known that John had previously been accused of stalking, that he had just started attending classes, and that John had lied to him that “my investigation would have taken a completely different tack.”

He said repeatedly while giving evidence that he had sought help from his supervisor, Sergeant Sean Ronning.

The investigation continues.

NEED HELP?

If you are in danger now:

• Call the police at 111 or ask your friends’ neighbors to call you.
• Run outside and go where there are other people.
• Yell for help so your neighbors can hear you.
• Take the children with you.
• Don’t stop to buy anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember that it is not your fault. Violence is never okay.

Where to go for help or more information:

• Shine, toll-free national helpline from 9 am to 11 pm every day – 0508 744 633 www.2shine.org.nz
• Women’s Shelter: The free national crisis line operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – 0800 Shelter or 0800 733 843 www.womensrefuge.org.nz
• Shakti: Provides specialized cultural services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and their children. Crisis line 24/7 0800742584
• Not good: information line 0800 456 450 www.areyouok.org.nz

– NCA NewsWire