Kidnapped: The crime that shocked the nation

by Mark Tedeschi, Stephen Briggs (Narrator)

The true story of Australia’s only known kidnapping of a child for ransom, from Barrister and Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi.

When eight-year-old Graeme Thorne was kidnapped on his way to school in July 1960, Australia was gripped with fear and loathing. What monster would dare take financial advantage of the most treasured bond of love – between parent and child? Just weeks earlier, Graeme’s parents had won a fortune in the Opera House Lottery, and this had attracted the attention of the perpetrator, Stephen Bradley.

Bradley was a most unlikely kidnapper, however his greed for the Thorne’s windfall saw him cast aside any sympathy for his victim or his victim’s family, and drove him to take brazen risks with the life of his young captive.

Kidnapped tells the astounding true story of how this crime was planned and committed, and describes the extraordinary police investigation that was launched to track the criminal down. Mark Tedeschi explores the mind of the intriguing and seriously flawed Stephen Bradley, and also the points of view of the victim, his family – and the police, whose work pioneered the use of many techniques that are now considered commonplace, marking the beginning of modern-day forensic science in Australia.

Using his powerful research and storytelling skills, Mark Tedeschi reveals one of Australia’s greatest true crime dramas, and what can only be described as the trial of the 20th century.

‘Remarkably researched so as to explain one of Australia’s most extraordinary criminal cases.’ Chester Porter KC

Audible Audio

Published November 3, 2021

About the author

Mark Alfred Guido Tedeschi, AM, QC (born 1952) is an Australian barrister, law professor, photographer and author. He has won numerous awards for his photography and has been featured in galleries throughout the world including in the State Library of New South Wales, the New South Wales Art Gallery, the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado, and the National Library in Canberra. He is the Senior Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales and the Head of Chambers of the 84 Crown Prosecutors. He is the founder and president of the Australian Association of Crown Prosecutors and a visiting professor at the University of Wollongong. As a prosecutor, Tedeschi is best known for the prosecution of numerous high-profile cases in Australia including the 2006 conviction of Dr. Suman Sood for illegal abortion and the Backpacker Murders committed by Ivan Milat in the 1990s.

Tedeschi is the author of two books, one on law and the other on photography. In 1980, he co-authored Law of International Business in Australia with Dr. P.J. O'Keefe. He released a book of photograph in 2012 entitled Shooting Around Corners which featured over twenty five years of his photography.

Tedeschi is the author of a true crime book called Eugenia, published in 2012 by Simon & Schuster, which tells the story of Eugenia Falleni, a woman of Italian and New Zealand background who lived in Australia as a man from 1898 until she was charged with the murder of her first "wife" in 1920. In this book, Tedeschi describes the tortuous life that Eugenia Falleni led as a woman trying to lead life as a man in a society that did not understand such things. He describes her murder trial in Sydney in 1920 in which she was prosecuted by the first Senior Crown Prosecutor, William Coyle KC. Part of the book describes this very complex and interesting trial, and Eugenia Falleni's life after her trial.

Kidnapped will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2015.