Saturday, April 30, 1977 was a tragic day for this region.

Toronto's Senior Constable Douglas Ronald Eaton - devoted husband, loving father of two small children, highly regarded local policeman - was callously shot dead while responding to a burglar alarm at the Kilaben Bay Country Club, on the outskirts of Toronto.

His colleague, Senior Constable Eddie Gill, was shot and seriously wounded when he went to Doug's aid.

That evening (45 years ago last week), I was rostered on the "wireless car" - two detectives available to respond to reports of crime in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, working from Newcastle Police Station.

About 9.30pm we received a radio call that there had been a shooting at the country club - two policemen shot.

We were there in quick time, to be greeted by the news that Doug was in the back of an ambulance, critically wounded, and Eddie was in a second ambulance. I climbed into the back of the first ambulance and was holding the hand of my old friend when the ambulance officer told me that Doug had died.

Eddie, who was conscious, was able to give an account of what had happened. An immediate wide search of the area failed to find the offenders.

Within a short time, large numbers of police converged on the golf club, including homicide investigators from the Sydney CIB [Criminal Investigation Branch] led by Detective Inspector Angus McDonald.

We had set up a field headquarters in the club premises and police teams were sent out, as information started to pour in. I was to remain at headquarters until after the arrests of the offenders two days later to help guide investigations because of my local knowledge of the area.

I had only been transferred out of Toronto, after five years there, a few weeks before.

On the Monday, we received a tip-off that a passing motorist saw a Valiant sedan with a vinyl top parked on the corner opposite the golf club about the time of the shooting. A similar vehicle was known to be owned by Nikola Glesic, who lived on an acreage at Cooranbong and had previously come to police attention.

It was believed that Glesic had several firearms and that he and his adult sons sometimes indulged in target practice on the property. To avoid the risk of a shootout, Angus McDonald casually walked up the driveway to the Glesic's front door and, on his signal, the rest of the team swooped in and secured the property.

Nikola Glesic and two of his sons, 20-year-old Wally and 19-year-old Danny, were arrested and taken to Toronto Police Station where they admitted shooting Doug and Eddie when they were disturbed after breaking into the club.

Nikola told how he had shot Doug in the stomach with a shotgun at close range. Wally admitted shooting Eddie in both legs and arm and causing a graze to Eddie's head. Danny admitted emptying his pistol in the direction of Doug.

A forensic search of the property the following morning, in which I participated, revealed two sheds containing about a dozen firearms and 50 kilograms of ammunition, military-style uniforms, knapsacks with survival gear and rations, hollowed-out logs and benches containing the weapons, and locked and barred cupboards.

All three Glesics pleaded guilty to murder in Newcastle Supreme Court and were sentenced to life imprisonment. They have all now been released - Wally and Danny in 1989, after just 12 years. This was before truth in sentencing was legislated.

Doug Eaton was a big man, about six-foot-three, always wearing a smile. He had been at Toronto for nine years and was universally popular. Everybody seemed to know Doug. He would often do a foot patrol down Victory Parade, greeting the shopkeepers, or pull up in the police truck to get out and talk to the youngsters.

Doug exemplified community-based policing before that term had been coined. The police and the entire community rallied around Doug's wife Judy and children Sharon, then 5, and Michael, 3, and supported them through this life-changing tragedy.

Doug and I joined the NSW Police Force together in 1964 and had worked together at Toronto for the past five years. Toronto had 11 police at the time - a tight-knit group with detectives, uniform and highway patrol working in unison.

Our kids had played together. We had water-skied, fished and prawned together. We were mates.

There was a tragic sequel. On the day of Doug's funeral, senior constables Alan Thompson (a highway patrol officer at Toronto) and Ray Scorer (attached to Cessnock) were killed in a motor vehicle accident on their way home from the funeral.

Doug was posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal and the Queen's Police Medal and Eddie was similarly honoured for his courage under fire.

A memorial plaque was unveiled at the Kilaben Bay Country Club on the 40th anniversary of Doug's murder.

It was a far-reaching and mindless tragedy.

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