A man stabbed 53 times in a frenzied and overly violent attack was likely the victim of a gay hate murder, an inquiry has found.
Barry Jones died sometime after 10pm at the grandstand in Five Dock Park in inner-city Sydney on September 26, 1976.
The 41-year-old labourer had been drinking at a local pub earlier in the evening before engaging in a sexual act while at a park believed to be a local gay beat.
His body was found the following morning with 53 stab wounds and a 10cm laceration to his throat, a court was told on Tuesday.
Semen stains found on Mr Jones' underwear and trousers suggested the Sydney man had engaged in sexual activity shortly before his death.
Counsel Assisting William de Mars said that while evidence in relation to Mr Jones' sexuality is "ambiguous," it strongly suggested he was not sexually attracted to women.
A witness who saw two men at the pub in the days or weeks before Mr Jones was murdered gave a statement to police saying: "They knew Barry because they kept saying, 'that bastard he's a queer, he's a poof'."
"It seems more likely than not that the perpetrator of the crime was motivated by a belief or understanding that Mr Jones was gay," Mr de Mars told the court.
Another local man who was a member of a gay rights lobby group was also interviewed at the time.
Grant Taylor told police the park had been "a regular meeting place for homosexuals" and may have been used as a beat at the time of Mr Jones' death.
Mr Jones was not known to have any enemies and there was no obvious motive for the killing, Mr de Mars said.
The "gratuitous infliction of wounds well in excess of those necessary to bring about death" was indicative of a frenzied attack and potentially consistent with a hate-based motivation.
Persons of interest assessed at the time included a young mentally ill man who lived nearby, as well as two men seen at the pub referring to Mr Jones using homophobic slurs.
The special inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes also examined the murder of Peter Baumann, a 25-year-old gay or bisexual German national who went missing from his Waverley home in suspicious circumstances around October 1983.
Mr Baumann arrived in Australia as a musician and composer two years earlier.
His remains have never been found.
Counsel Assisting Meg O'Brien told the court a police investigation didn't occur until nearly 10 years after his disappearance.
"No crime scene was established ... no attempt was made to locate relevant witnesses who could have been located with simple inquiries," she said.
A statement obtained from a former partner later alleged they found Mr Baumann's room in disarray and the word "AIDS" written on a mirror.
All personal effects had been left behind.
Ms O'Brien said there was a reasonable basis to suspect a hate-motivated homicide if the statement was reliable.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Lifeline 13 11 14
Fullstop Australia 1800 385 578
