Russell Manser: Meet the Byron Bay 'wild child' turned barrister who stole bank robber turned TikTok star's heart after he walked out of prison 'and had no idea how to treat a woman'

EXCLUSIVE 

Bank robber turned TikTok star Russell Manser, who died in his Sydney harbourfront apartment last Saturday, once planned to marry a barrister he met while in prison.

Manser embarked on a relationship with Mary Keaney after he left jail for the last time seven years ago and later bought a farm with her in the Tweed Valley in NSW's north-east.

Property records list Ms Keaney and Manser as joint owners of that four-bedroom home on six hectares at Stokers Siding, which cost $1,240,000 in December 2020.

Daily Mail Australia understands Ms Keaney was still living on the farm at the time of Manser's death.

Manser, who had a long history of abusing drugs including heroin, died in his apartment at King Street Wharf near Barangaroo on Saturday night aged 56.

The cause of his death has not been made public but there were no suspicious circumstances. 

Manser spent 23 years in prisons around Australia until he turned his life around and became an advocate for victims of institutional child abuse.

He was repeatedly raped in juvenile detention, and then again in an adult prison as a teenager, and launched 'The Voice of a Survivor' in 2017 to help abused inmates get compensation.

Ms Keaney, who describes herself on Instagram as 'not your average barrister' and is a self-declared social justice warrior, was admitted to the bar in 2017. 

Manser first encountered Ms Keaney while he was in prison after giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Ms Keaney had been working on a justice project and heard about Manser's efforts to help other inmates seek redress for the abuse they had suffered as children.

'The people I'd helped in jail had told her all about me,' Manser said in a video interview posted on YouTube. 

'So she contacted me and asked me to be involved in this justice project where survivors get to tell their stories... about what had happened to them.'

Two weeks before Manser was due to be released in 2017 he learnt he was about to be charged over a series of bank robberies committed before his last stint in prison. 

He was granted bail, went into rehab and was not required to serve any more jail time when he was sentenced for the old offences in 2018.

Ms Keaney, who had previously been married in her early 20s, was one of the lawyers to whom Manser felt he owed his liberty.

A source said Manser struggled to adjust to life on the outside after spending so long in custody. 

'He was basically behaving like a 20-year-old because he had no idea how to have a relationship with a woman,' the source said.

Manser and Ms Keaney's relationship began slowly but they eventually set up home at the Stokers Siding property, with Manser spending part of the compensation he received for being abused as a teenager.

His social media posts from that time show the pair enjoying country life - Ms Keaney is a keen horse rider - and seemingly making plans to get married.

'I am feeling blessed,' Manser captioned a picture of the couple in September 2020. 

'We have been through a lot together, we are stronger than ever. The bank robber (ex bank robber) and the Barrister we are a great team.'

That caption was followed with the hashtags 'marriagematerial', 'lovers', 'soulmates', 'twinflames', 'livinglife' and 'strength'.

In another 2020 post Manser wished Ms Keaney a happy International Women's Day, addressing her as 'Punchy' and stating, 'I love the strong, smart, supportive, gorgeous and independent woman that you are'.

The same year Manser posted a newspaper picture of Ms Keaney in her wig and gown with a caption stating 'she is a good human being always fighting for the rights of others'.

In her profile for Frederick Jordan Chambers, Ms Keaney lists her previous employment with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Aid Services in Alice Springs and Brisbane.

'In addition to her criminal law practice, she also appears in common law matters, predominantly for plaintiffs in personal injury cases arising from historic child sexual abuse,' the profile says. 

Ms Keaney did not appear on camera when the ABC television program Australian Story ran an episode about Manser in May 2022. 

By then, the father-of-two had published a book called The Voice of a Survivor – The Russell Manser Story, with the help of bank robber and author John Killick. 

Manser later amassed 134,000 followers on TikTok where his posts included videos about life behind bars, and hosted a podcast called The Stick Up.

Ms Keaney spoke to former detective Gary Jubelin for an episode of his I Catch Killers podcast titled 'A wild child that went from protester to barrister' which aired in March last year. 

During the interview Ms Keaney agreed with Jubelin she was a 'social justice warrior' who had found the law after spending her early adulthood partying too much and lacking direction.

A turning point for Ms Keaney had been reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long Walk To Freedom, written after the South African anti-apartheid activist had spent 27 years in prison.

'I have approached the practice of criminal justice from a perspective that overall people aren't bad,' she told Jubelin.

'People are products of the society in which they live and how they have grown and their life experiences and people make mistakes.' 

Jubelin was a good friend of Manser's but there was no mention of the longtime criminal's past relationship with Ms Keaney during the podcast interview. 

A source who knew Manser well said he and Ms Keaney had discussed getting married on the grounds of the Stokers Siding property but it was not meant to be. 

After the couple split, Manser had a brief relationship with a Serbian woman called Liliana Gagic and the pair lived together on the Gold Coast.

When that finished Manser returned to Stokers Siding, where Ms Keaney was living.

'Then he finally decided to go back to Sydney to his old stomping ground but he needed to go back regularly to the farm,' the source close to Manser said.

'He went there for his sanity and it was really important. Mary was still there. 

'He said they weren't back on again but they'd found a way to live with each other when he was up there.'

Manser removed social media posts of Ms Gagic after they parted but Ms Keaney still features prominently on his Facebook page.  

The day after Manser died, Ms Gagic posted a series of pictures of the them together on Instagram.

In a caption, she wrote: 'Goodbye my lover, until we meet again.'

Ms Gagic subsequently told Daily Mail Australia: 'Russell and I were in an open relationship'.

'I am currently in Europe, so I wasn't next to him [when he died],' she said.

'Russell was a warrior. Man on a mission. Soul everyone who ever met will remember forever. Man of freedom, frequency and vibration not many humans embody.'

Ms Gagic said Manser showed 'love and compassion towards victims of sexual abuse' and called him 'one in a million man'.

Ms Keaney declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.