Arthur Stanley Brown, the 87-year-old man charged with the murder of the Mackay sisters, will face a retrial next year after a hung jury failed to reach a verdict yesterday and was dismissed.
Mr Brown, who pleaded not guilty to one of the most notorious crimes in Queensland's history, was granted bail and caught a taxi back to his home after Justice Keiran Cullinane dismissed the jury in the Townsville Supreme Court.
Mr Brown is charged with the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Susan Mackay, 5, and her sister Judith, 7, on August 26, 1970.
Justice Cullinane told the court the jury had informed him they felt it would be impossible for them to reach a unanimous verdict.
He said relations among the jurors had deteriorated and their discussions had become heated. "I have no option but to discharge the jury," he said.
Justice Cullinane adjourned the trial to the next criminal sittings in Townsville in May.
He said it was unfortunate the jury had failed to reach a verdict, but he thanked them for their attempts to reach agreement.
The jury began deliberating at 11am on Wednesday, the eighth day of the trial.
Mr Brown, who showed no emotion when the jury was discharged, shuffled from the courthouse to catch a taxi, escorted by wife Charlotte and stepdaughter Pamela Miller.
Susan and Judith Mackay disappeared while waiting to catch a bus to school on August 20, 1970.
Their bodies were found two days later in the dry bed of Antill Creek, 25km south-west of Townsville.
Witnesses told police they saw a man in a car talking to two little girls at the bus stop.
Other witnesses said they saw a man driving two little girls in school uniforms across Townsville.
Mr Brown was not a suspect in the original police investigation in the 1970s. He was arrested in December last year after the Brisbane-based Homicide Squad reopened the investigation into the long-unsolved Mackay sisters' case.
Further articles from The Australian and The Weekend Australian: