PHOTO: A Telecom van similar to the one issued to Bradley Edwards in the 1990s. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
Peter Weygers' Claremont home was searched by police. (ABC News)
Ronald Leslie Carey, retired Superintendent of the Western Australian Police Service, receiving a Coomunity Service Award, with Mick Wainwright and the previous Mayor of Swan and Colin Barnett, the Former Premier of Western Australia
Previous logos for Telecom, later rebadged Telstra, tabled in court. (Supplied- Supreme Court of WA)
Perth woman Sarah McMahon has been missing for 15 years
PHIL HICKEY - PerthNow - November 9, 2015
TOPICS - Disaster and Emergency
FIFTEEN years ago Sarah McMahon, then 20, who was by all accounts happy and healthy, left her workplace to meet someone in Bassendean and was never seen again.
Sarah Anne McMahon 20 holds little sister Kate, then 13, in 1999 before Sarah went missing. Credit: News Limited
An inquest into her disappearance on November 8, 2000 found she had fallen victim to a homicide.
Despite two police investigations, a special crime squad review of the case file in 2011 and a 2012 inquest, her killer has not been held to account and her body has not been found.
As far as her younger sister Kate is concerned, time does not heal all wounds.
“It never gets any easier and time does not heal or lessen the heartache that we have,” Kate McMahon told The Sunday Times.
“This time of year, coming up to Christmas, is especially hard for us, as a precious member of our family won’t be joining us for the 15th year.”
Kate McMahon’s message to those who hold vital information about what happened to her big sister is simple.
“If anyone has any information regarding Sarah’s disappearance, please don’t let us go on for a 16th year without knowing what happened to our Sarah,” she said.
What exactly happened to Sarah McMahon on the day she disappeared remains a mystery.
The only thing found belonging to her in the days after she vanished was her phone and car. Twelve days after she went missing, her Ford meteor sedan was found at Swan District Hospital.
Her mobile phone was later found on the Great Northern Highway, near the hospital.
The State Coroner who oversaw the inquest into her suspected death was Alistair Hope.
“The circumstances in which Ms McMahon disappeared are sinister and I have confidently been able to exclude the possibility that she died by way of natural causes,” Mr Hope said in his findings.
“In my view, the evidence points overwhelmingly to the proposition that she died by way of unlawful homicide.”
Shortly before her disappearance, Sarah McMahon began working part time at an irrigation company in Claremont.
She was last seen leaving the business about 5.15pm on November 8.
Her colleagues at the time remember her saying she had to be somewhere about 5.30pm. They believed she was heading to the Bassendean area.
Mobile telephone data, revealed at the inquest, found Sarah McMahon received four calls on her mobile on the day she went missing.
One was from a friend, another was from her sister and two were from a man called Donald Victor Morey.
He has been interviewed by police on several occasions and was among those to give evidence at the inquest.
In 2005, he was convicted of the attempted murder of a sex worker and jailed for 13 years.
Morey, now aged 60, has always denied involvement in Sarah McMahon’s disappearance.
During the inquest, he claimed she was alive.
In interviews with police he has claimed she has two children.
But during the inquest, he also admitted most of the information he’d given police was “mumbo jumbo.”
“Quite a lot of things that I said to the police were obviously mumbo jumbo. But as far as Sarah being alive, she is alive,” Mr Morey said at the inquest.
Mr Hope did not make any adverse finding in relation to Morey’s involvement in the case.
“In this case, the evidence is complex and there are many credibility issues which would need to be resolved in making any such determination,” he said.
The special crime squad said this week it was still keen to hear from anyone who had new information about Sarah McMahon’s disappearance.
Detective Senior Sergeant Rohan Ingles said: “This matter remains under investigation at the special crime squad and anyone with any information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.”
The Crime Stoppers number is 1800 333 000.
Callers can remain anonymous.
Claremont killer trial LIVE: Bradley Edwards trial moves onto night Sarah Spiers vanished
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/claremont-killer-trial-live-bradley-edwards-trial-moves-onto-night-sarah-spiers-vanished-20191205-p53h2w.html
WA Today By Heather McNeill and Hannah Barry December 5, 2019
10.04am
'Sarah was happy, chatty' the day she disappeared: Family friend
The first witness called today is Christine Hams.
She is an elderly woman appearing via video-link.
Prosecutor Tara Payne is for the first time asking questions this morning.
Ms Hams is being asked about who lived with her in his Mosman Park house in January 1996, she has responded her husband and two of her three children.
"I knew Sarah Spiers well," she said.
"Sarah and Annabelle our daughter began boarding at Iona together [at 12 years old] in 1988 or 1989."
She said Sarah would stay over fairly regularly, mostly on weekends.
She is now being asked about the Australia Day weekend Sarah vanished.
"Yes Sarah came to our house she and I had lunch together," she said.
"[She stayed for] two to three hours.
"We chatted she ended up staying for lunch and we chatted over that time. She was going out with some friends and then they were going to meet at the OBH.
"[She left my house] about 3pm.
"She was happy, chatty, normal Sarah.
"I said she was welcome to come back to stay [the night] if she wished .. and she smiled and said yes she knew she was welcome."
She said she "probably" would have left the outdoor light on.
9.32am
'This might be the day that we have news': Sarah Spiers' mother hopeful for answers in 1990s TV interview
Sarah Spiers' mother, Carol, being interviewed in the years following her daughter's disappearance.
She said she was hopeful everyday that the family would receive news about where Sarah was.
More than 23 years on, they still don't know where Sarah's body is.
Sarah Spiers' mother, Carol, speaking of her hope her daughter will be found.
9.03am
9 News Perth wrap of day 8
The Claremont Killings trial has heard chilling revelations from more women, recalling encounters with a man prosecutors say was Bradley Robert Edwards.
9.03am
Day 9 of trial to commence at 10am
Welcome to day nine of the Claremont serial killer trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
Yesterday afternoon the court began to hear evidence about the night Sarah Spiers vanished on January 27, 1996.
We heard evidence from the taxi driver who was supposed to pick Sarah up but said when he arrived at 2.09am, three minutes after Sarah had requested the cab from a public telephone box on Stirling Highway, she was gone.
We also heard from a man who remembers seeing a woman matching Sarah's description near the pay phone, leaning against a Telstra bollard with her arms crossed, looking around and waiting for someone.
Julie-Anne Johnstone also took the stand to retell an encounter she had with a man in a Telstra vehicle leering at her late at night as she waited for a taxi on Stirling Highway the night after Sarah disappeared.
Today we are expected to hear from more witnesses in relation to Sarah's murder.
For a full catalogue of WAtoday's coverage of the trial,
https://www.watoday.com.au/topic/claremont-serial-killer-trial-1mh2
Claremont trial: Telstra links ran cold after telco didn't send accused’s vehicle in police request
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/claremont-trial-telstra-links-ran-cold-after-telco-didn-t-send-accused-s-vehicle-in-police-request-20191203-p53giy.html
By Heather McNeill December 3, 201
WA Police's Macro Taskforce was investigating a possible link between a Telstra-issued vehicle and the disappearances of Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer as early as July 1996 – just weeks after Jane vanished.
The lead was being chased within days of the special taskforce being formed on June 10, 1996. Macro went on to become the longest and most expensive murder investigation in Australian history.
During day seven of the Claremont serial killer trial, a fax sent from Telstra to WA Police revealed police were following up on a "Telstra tip-off" relating to a February 1995 incident by July 2, 1996, however the nature of the tip was not mentioned in court.
Mr Edwards raped a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in February 1995.
The girl, whose name is suppressed, reported hiding from a white van while trying to seek help in the moments after the assault.
A security guard at Hollywood Hospital, where the teen sought help, said he saw a Telecom van drive past the hospital entrance, which the state alleges was being driven by Mr Edwards.
The fax Telstra sent to WA Police suggested detectives had made a connection between the 1995 rape and the disappearance of the first two women a number of years prior to common fibre evidence being found which allegedly linked the crimes.
Detectives in 1996 requested Telstra provide a list of particular vehicles and their associated drivers.
Mr Edwards' name was not on that list as his vehicle allocation records showed he drove a van for the majority of the time between 1990 to 1993 and was then issued a Toyota Camry in 1994.
“Attached is the result of Telstra vehicle checks you requested last week,” the fax read.
“Sorry for the delay I seem to recall that you mentioned the vehicle you were looking for had a Telstra logo on the side, distinct from the Telecom logo and the witness was fairly definite about this.
"If this is the case then you should be aware that we only started putting Telstra logos on our vehicles from about July 1995.
"Also please note that the driver’s name we have recorded may not be correct as sometimes vehicles change hands or are borrowed etc."
Macro Taskforce sent a second request to Telstra in 1998 – after Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon had been killed – following up an apparent line of inquiry involving "Telstra Camry sedans".
By this stage, detectives had also received at least two tip-offs in relation to the Claremont murders about women reporting a man in a Telstra vehicle offering them a lift home when they mistook his white station wagon for a taxi.
The police request asked for a list of all active Telstra vehicles from January 25 to 28, 1996, however Telstra in its response did not include the Toyota Camry Mr Edwards was assigned in early 1996 as it had by 1998 been leased to an external subsidiary of Telstra.
It's alleged Mr Edwards was assigned a Toyota Camry on January 27, 1996 - when he is accused of murdering Sarah Spiers.
During the time police were probing a Telstra employee as the potential killer, Mr Edwards had already been convicted of attacking a woman he didn’t know at Hollywood Hospital in 1990.
The attack occurred while Mr Edwards was at the hospital working in his role as a Telecom technician - he kept his job despite the conviction.
Mr Edwards has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
The trial continues
Ms Julie Cutler's car is taken out of the water on Cottesloe Beach, Western Australia by two police divers. CREDIT-WA POLICE
NO ONE is above the law - not lawyers, nor the media, nor the Government. It offends our sense of justice if people can flout the law and get away with it, especially the rich and the powerful.
https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/ce605e56bbd51dd4c82575700016c88a/$FILE/A36%20S2%2020040512%20p2786b-2802a.pdf
Extract from Hansard [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 12 May 2004] p2786b-2802a
Ms Sue Walker; Deputy Speaker;
Mrs Michelle Roberts; Mr Colin Barnett; The Acting Speaker (mr A.P. O’gorman);
Mr Clive Brown; Acting Speaker;
Acting Speaker (mr A.P. O’gorman); Mrs Cheryl Edwardes; Mr Phillip Pendal; Ms Margaret Quirk; Mr Paul Omodei
VICTIMS OF CRIME
Motion MS S.E. WALKER (Nedlands) [4.08 pm]:
I move - That this House condemns the Gallop Government’s failure to properly protect and respect victims of crime in this State.
S.E. WALKER: The point is that on the other side of the House, the law of the jungle prevails when it comes to respecting and dealing with victims of crime. We have a situation in which those leopards will not be changing their spots. It is their values of the law in this State and of victims of crime that separates members opposite from members on this side. We on this side of the House do not believe in the law of the jungle. We believe in values and in the rights of victims. That was enshrined in the Victims of Crimes Act 1994 by the former Attorney General, the member for Kingsley. We do not believe in being governed by the law of the jungle, because, under the law of the jungle, people cannot get justice. High-profile victims of crime in this State - people with whom ministers should be dealing, and to whom they should be listening - are not getting justice in this State. We believe that we get justice only when we govern by the rule of law. A classic example of the divide between members on the government side of the House and members on this side of the House can be found in an article in The West Australian that was distributed by the Law Society on Monday, 10 May, at the beginning of Law Week. I will hold up the article, because obviously no-one on that side of the House has a clue about what is going on in Perth this week. The theme of Law Week this year is that no-one is above the law. The article commences with the statement
NO ONE is above the law - not lawyers, nor the media, nor the Government. It offends our sense of justice if people can flout the law and get away with it, especially the rich and the powerful.
The article then states - Rule of law or law of the jungle No justice system is perfect, but a system based on the Rule of Law is better than a system based on the rule of a jungle. What we mean by the rule of the jungle is that some people, especially the powerful, can do as they like and our rights can be taken without any “due process”. I put on record that the Minister for Community Development, Women’s Interests, Seniors and Youth has come into the Chamber. I am pleased about that, because she is one of the ministers I want to target in relation to victims of crime. I also want to target the Minister for Police and Emergency Services for how she has dealt with victims of crime, and the Premier and the Attorney General. Mrs M.H. Roberts: We are a victim of your voice!
Ms S.E. WALKER: Just listen. I want to talk about victims of crime. Colleen Egan wrote in the Sunday Times that one of the greatest responsibilities of the State is to protect its citizens from harm and another is to protect the rights of the community’s most vulnerable members. She was talking about Narkle’s latest victim. She made some very apposite comments in her article. She said that in his unique position as Attorney General and Minister for Health, Mr McGinty met Kylie on Friday and explained his efforts afterwards to the Sunday Times.
The suggestion was that Mr Narkle be taken off the streets because he was declared mentally unfit and that Mr McGinty would fight in the courts any challenges by Mr Narkle to that decision. Colleen Egan said that to his credit Mr McGinty was not afraid of that challenge. Who can forget the photograph in the paper of the Attorney General’s arm on Kylie’s back? At about 10.30 last night I had finished writing what I would say to Mrs Hunter and left a message for her to ring me. I had not spoken to her for a week.
I told her that this motion would be debated today and that I would speak about her case. She said, “Sue, I have to tell you that I was so angry when I saw that Sunday Times article because it made the Attorney General look compassionate.”
I said that was funny because it made me angry too and I thought of her case. Mrs Margaret Hunter rang my office a couple of weeks ago. She said in a telephone message to me that her daughter had been murdered and that she would like to discuss the issue with me, and so she came to see me. I did not know who she was; I had absolutely no idea. I sat and listened to her. It emerged that she was the mother of a young 22-year-old lady who had been brutally and violently killed by her former partner, Mr Marks. I was partly familiar with the story because I had seen it dealt with prominently in The West Australian.
The newspaper had run a series of articles in which concerns were raised that, notwithstanding that Mr Marks had been ordered to be detained at an authorised hospital at the Governor’s pleasure - that is, an indefinite sentence - he was out on the streets within 10 months following a recommendation to the Mentally Impaired Defendants Review Board.
I assume that the recommendation was from a psychiatrist at Graylands Hospital. It was accepted by the Attorney General and Marks was allowed into the community. Mrs Hunter is very distressed and despairing about that. I will tell the House why. I will explain the human side of what happened to Mrs Hunter. She rang the office of the Attorney General to speak to him because she wanted to see him about this. What did the Attorney General do? He declined to see her.
I will not go into morbid or graphic descriptions, like some members of this House do, but I think it is important to tell Mrs Hunter’s story and what has happened to her since her daughter died. Mrs Hunter and her mother, Michelle’s grandmother, found her daughter in her home.
Before being strangled, her daughter had her front teeth knocked loose, her nose broken, her liver split from stomping on her body, as well as various other injuries. She says that she knows and lives everyday that her daughter died in pain. Her daughter was a slightly built young woman. She was popular and managed a cafe in the northern suburbs. She was a responsible woman.
Mrs Hunter says she is in unending agony everyday. Whenever I am visited by a victim, I always ask whether I can read everything in his or her possession including victim impact statements, their statements and any trial transcripts. As such, I have read some of her thoughts. I will mention some of those thoughts later. I wanted to read some of her thoughts to the House to give a human side to the face of this lady and because this case raises some legal issues.
She feels a sense of injustice as a victim because she feels that she is living in a jungle. As I quoted before - NO ONE is above the law - not lawyers, nor the media, nor the Government. It offends our sense of justice if people can flout the law and get away with it, especially the rich and powerful.
Why is this case important? She feels a sense of injustice because she found her daughter, who died in terrible pain, yet the offender was acquitted because of unsoundness of mind and sent to Graylands Hospital on a custody order. That person is now out in the community. She fears that she will bump into him. During the interview, what angered me the most was when she told me the Attorney General had refused to see her. Apart from the callousness of the Attorney General, I would have thought that he wanted to see this woman. This matter raises issues concerning legal and policy decisions. Would not a person want to get to the bottom of this? Would not a person want to improve things and know what the woman was going through and what the system was all about? Would not a person want to work out what to do to help such people? According to what the Attorney General says in the article titled “Deliver us from evil”, he will have Mr Narkle off the streets.
He should be off the streets now.
I am surprised that the Attorney General has not said so in the House.
That article raises questions about the mental health system and the legal system, as does this case. When I talk about such issues I try to not criticise but to think of some solutions. I am not in government; I do not have a handle on all the departments. The Attorney General, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, the Minister for Community Development and the Premier have all these things at their disposal. Before I talk about that I will raise a disturbing aspect about this matter, which is the inability of Mrs Hunter to obtain a full transcript of the trial from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
There is danger here.
She told me today that since the trial she has been chasing the trial transcript. She started asking the police but they said she had to wait until it was passed to the DPP. She started ringing the DPP and leaving messages for the prosecutor to ring her. He never returned her calls. She finally got hold of him and he said she could come in and read it but it was too large for her to have a copy. Why? Under the Victims of Crime Act, Mrs Hunter is a victim. She is entitled to a copy of the transcript. Instead of photocopying it for her, she was told she had to go to the office to read it. She said she needed to read it to try to get some answers. Why is this woman struggling to get answers herself? Why are some of the ministers opposite not helping her? She said that at the trial a person is so traumatised and stressed that a lot goes over a person’s head. She said that even when she went to the DPP to read the transcript she felt she was under pressure so she asked for a copy. The prosecutor said he would ring her next week. That was at the end of November, but he never rang. She has been ringing since then to try to get a copy. Why can she not get one? Everyone in the group she belongs to has got theirs. She belongs to the Homicide Victims Support Group. They did not have the trouble she has had. She asks whether they want her to have a copy. She feels there is a big cover-up with Graylands Hospital. The hospital had Mr Marks for six years on and off before he murdered Michelle.
It was said at the trial that he was not responsible for the murder. Mrs Hunter asks: who is? She said she was so bitter with all of them; that is, the people in charge at Graylands, the Attorney General and the Mentally Impaired Defendants Review Board. She asks whether anyone cares whether this person bashed and killed her beautiful daughter. No-one is taking any responsibility and nobody cares. When I spoke to Mrs Hunter I looked at the Criminal Code as well as the summing up by the trial judge. A person cannot be subject to section 653 of the Criminal Code, acquittal on the unsoundness of mind, unless the jury finds that the accused person killed the victim. Is this something that needs to be looked at? Once the accused sets up a defence of unsoundness of mind, the onus shifts and he has to prove he had an unsound mind.
The jury found that he did because it appears drugs were involved; he had cannabis and other drugs in his system.
The judge then has to make a custody order.
The convicted person goes to Graylands and is detained at the Governor’s pleasure.
He can be released at any time.
The Criminal Law (Mentally Impaired Defendants) Act empowers the Governor to give such a person a leave of absence.
The Governor is able to make a release order at any time.
Mrs Hunter found that Marks was released after 10 months.
I believe that she found out by reading a newspaper or some other means.
It was certainly not through any system set up by the Attorney General. She was contacted by the victim notification register.
She read a report in a newspaper dated 1 April 2004 titled “Insane killer out on trips”. The article states that the victim’s family fear meeting the man who ruined their lives. It refers to an insane killer detained at Graylands Hospital after he choked his girlfriend to death in his Westminster home in 2001. The man was taken on community day trips less than one year after being sentenced indefinitely to Graylands Hospital.
The day release was sanctioned by the Attorney General, Hon Jim McGinty, and has left the dead woman’s mother, grandmother and sister fearing a face-to-face confrontation with the man who has devastated their lives.
That newspaper article was run on 1 April. Mrs Hunter asked to see the Attorney General on 7 April, but he would not see her.
Could the Attorney General not have sat down with Mrs Hunter and said to her that the offender had to be let out of hospital because there was no room for him to move around, or whatever the problem was? Do we need a bigger institution?
I do not know.
I am not in government.
However, this is one policy issue to which the Attorney General should address his mind.
As Colleen Egan of the Sunday Times said, one of the greatest responsibilities of the State is to protect its citizens from harm.
Mrs Hunter is fearful of this man.
Mrs Hunter’s daughter was killed by him in appalling circumstances and 10 months later she found herself bumping into him in a chemist’s shop. This matter raises all sorts of other issues. The Attorney General does not know who was with Mr Marks when he was let out of Graylands Hospital. Mrs Hunter asked the members of the Mentally Impaired Defendants Review Board, but they did not know. We do not know whether Mr Marks is under any restraint while he is out.
I would like the Attorney General to find out for Mrs Hunter why she has been given the runaround in her attempts to get a copy of the trial transcript.
She rang me after she came to see me and said that she had spoken to the secretary to the Director of Public Prosecutions. She told me that the prosecutor had gone to see the director.
She wants a copy of the medical evidence and a copy of the Crown’s opening that were presented at the trial. She has received other parts of the transcript, but she cannot get those parts.
We do not want to create the perception, as appears to be happening with Mrs Hunter, that somehow the DPP’s office is being politicised.
We do not want that in this State. Mrs Hunter, as a victim of crime, should be able to get the transcript if she requests it as soon as the DPP’s office can provide it. As the trial ended in March last year, she should not still be waiting for it. Mrs Hunter has a deep sense of injustice. We know how the system is treating Mr Marks, but how is the system treating Mrs Hunter?
I would say abysmally. I ask the Attorney General why no-one told Mrs Hunter what was happening with Mr Marks; why the board’s decisions are taken in secret; and why a distressed woman has to beg and plead - she says she has to beg and plead - to the DPP for the transcript of the trial of her daughter’s killer?
I have considered some of the solutions that are open to the Attorney General and the facilities that are available for killers who have a mental illness. Do the facilities need upgrading so that those people can be kept inside and victims can be safe from them? Mrs Hunter should not have to say that Mr Marks can go to Fremantle and she will go elsewhere. This is another classic example of the lack of respect this Government has for victims and its lack of protection for them, as referred to in my motion. The way Mrs Hunter is being treated by another minister of this Government is shabby, disgraceful and shameful. I sincerely hope that I, on behalf of Mrs Hunter, have covered as much as I could. It is important to me that I have covered everything, but if I have not, Mrs Hunter will tell me and I will be back. I hope that the Attorney General will get in contact with Mrs Hunter and that he will deal with these issues.
..........................................................
I refer now to the way in which another victim of crime has been dealt with. I raise again the case of Leo McVeigh. Mr McVeigh feels that he is in the jungle too. I asked a question on this issue in the House on 3 March, which reads -
I refer to my letter to the Premier dated 25 August 2003 in which I sought his help to have the Minister for Police respond properly to Mr Leo McVeigh’s request for a formal written explanation from the police or the Director of Public Prosecutions about why his allegations of child sexual abuse committed against him by a former Catholic priest were not pursued,
(1) Is the Premier aware that after eight months the police minister still has not provided a response?
(2) I did receive a response from the police minister - a letter I had already received - but I did not get a response to Mr McVeigh’s request, which was for a formal written explanation of why this matter was not pursued. When victims come to see me about an issue, I do not stand in this place just to criticise the minister; I try to find a solution to the issue. It appears to me that when issues are raised in the Royal Commission Into Whether There Has Been Any Corrupt or Criminal Conduct by Western Australian Police Officers - such as the Barry Cable issue about people in high places not pursuing a prosecution - and when a victim feels that an alleged perpetrator has connections with politicians and police, the only way around that is to make a policy decision that the DPP or the police give a formal written explanation. I have not got that explanation. I went on to ask -
Does the Premier support, as a matter of policy, that a victim of child sexual abuse should be able to receive a formal written explanation from law enforcement agencies of why the victim’s complaint has not been pursued?
There was no response to that question. It appears to me to be the most simple matter to put down in writing the reason a complaint has not been pursued. There is the case of Longman on that issue that could be thrown into an explanation. I further asked the Premier -
Given the circumstances of this case, has the Premier inquired or will he inquire into whether there has been any improper intervention from any person to prevent this complaint proceeding?
The Premier did not respond to that either. Mr McVeigh came with his mother and father to see me. He had been to see a few politicians. He asked me whether I would consider where he was coming from. He said he was coming from a position in which he felt it offended our sense of justice if people could flout the law and get away with it, especially the rich and powerful. Mr McVeigh’s allegation is that as a young boy he was raped by a former Catholic priest. He came with his parents to see me - all devout Catholics - because he believed that his case was being brushed under the carpet and the offender had escaped justice and could be a danger to other children. His case is different from the other victims of crime that I have spoken about, because there has been no trial. After I asked this question in the House, there was an article in “Inside Cover” in The West Australian that suggested I had not mentioned the political connections. I am not going to do that because I do not want to cloud the issue. I would like to see a policy decision implemented. I want to talk also about how the Premier and the minister have dealt with this issue when they know it is a little sensitive. Mr McVeigh said that he first complained to the church in January 1998 and that he received counselling from the church between January and September 1998. On 14 October 1998 he made a formal complaint to the professional standards resource group of the church outlining what had happened to him. I have a copy of that complaint and I have read it. He told me the person he was dealing with was, I think, Father Des O’Sullivan, the director of professional standards. Mr McVeigh said that in his presence Mr O’Sullivan telephoned Jackie Ellis of the child abuse unit on 23 October 1998. The police said, by and large, that they would take a statement in four to six weeks. After six weeks Mr McVeigh started ringing the child abuse unit and was just fobbed off. About three and a half months later, Father O’Sullivan recorded a meeting with then Assistant Commissioner Tim Atherton in the presence of David Caporn and John Wibberley. On 19 March 1999 Mr O’Sullivan had a further meeting with John Wibberley. The McVeighs were aware that there was a connection with a politician and they went to see the politician. He is now a minister and he has done nothing about this matter.
The fact that there was a political connection to this case was considered important to the church, because in the 1990s or thereabouts Leo went to inspect the church file. He was told by Father O’Sullivan that he could not take a copy of it, so he recorded it all verbally on a tape, and wrote out the notes afterwards. I have all the notes with me, and I have read them. He said that there was a large heading about the political connection. I should mention that I have with me a letter written to Leo by Father O’Sullivan, the director of professional standards, which confirms all his meetings with Assistant Commissioner Atherton and with, I think, Detective John Wibberley. Leo took a copy of those notes. He sent a letter to the Royal Commission Into Whether There Has Been Any Corrupt or Criminal Conduct by Western Australian Police Officers. It states -
In November, . . .
That is in 1999. It continues -
I rang the sexual abuse unit to speak with Officer Cresswell to enquire what progress had been made. I was informed she was on sick leave and that there was no-one available to speak with. I rang the following day and was informed that Michaela Cresswell had been transferred to the Fremantle Police Station. The same month I rang the sexual abuse unit to ask who had taken over my case from Officer Cresswell. The receptionist informed me straight away that Officer Cresswell was on holiday leave. I asked to speak to someone in charge and Detective Sergeant Wibberley came to the phone -
He was at te meeting -
and he informed me that he was very busy and asked what I wanted.
He mentioned that he had heard that Officer Cresswell was on holiday leave. It continues -
I asked him what was going on about my case and who was investigating it. His response was, “There is no-one here to investigate this.” “What; was it just these two times? This will go nowhere.”
He states -
In the year 2000, I persistently tried to find out who had taken on my case, since I had not had any contact from the sexual abuse unit. Every time I rang, the receptionist informed me that there was noone to take my calls, and she could give me no information. Promises of returned phone calls were never kept. Only after ringing the victims support unit, who on my behalf rang the sexual abuse unit, did Detective Fergus McKinnon ring me, as to what I wanted. After much frustration and discouragement on my part, Fergus McKinnon organised a meeting with me at the sexual abuse unit in Perth. Detective McKinnon seemed to be more interested with who I’d told about these allegations than asking me for specific details. He said it did not look as though he could go any further with this case but also admitted that nothing had been done to that date.
He further states -
After a phone conversation with the D.P.P. Office, it was confirmed to me -
He had been told that his file had been transferred to the DPP -
that no such file had been received by their department. After several phone calls regarding my file, Officer John Adam of the Sexual Abuse Unit enquired of Detective McKinnon why the file was still with the sexual abuse unit. Officer John Adam forwarded my file to Mr Geoff Lawrence at the D.P.P. Office. A request was made by myself to meet with Mr Lawrence to discuss the file which he had recently received. I let him know during that meeting that I wanted charges to be laid . . . . After that meeting Mr Lawrence said he would contact me at a later date. During the contact of that later date, he informed me by phone that no charges would be laid and that this case was finished.
I am not casting any aspersions on Mr Lawrence or any of the police officers. I go back to Law Week. It offends our sense of justice if people can flout the law and get away with it, especially the rich and powerful with friends in high places. I am not saying that this is an allegation; I am saying that there is a perception in this case. Other perceptions arose during the police royal commission. I ask myself how we can get around this. We can get around it by asking the law enforcement agencies to give us a formal written response. When Mr McVeigh came to see me with his parents about this issue, he said that he felt fobbed off. This is reflected in the letter to the royal commission that I have read. He does not want the law of the jungle to apply in this State. As I said, it offends his sense of justice to think that this man’s political and police connections have led to this matter being swept under the carpet. Everyone sees this case as being too hot to handle. Why? It is because of connections and because the accused, as was stated in the “Inside Cover” article, is no longer a priest and a professional person. I accept that. That is why I am not naming names. There is a simple solution, as I said: a formal written explanation. When I first wrote to the Minister for Police, who buried her head on this issue, I am sure that if she had got the police or the Director of Public Prosecutions to give a proper formal response, Mr McVeigh would have been happy. I am quite sure about that. What happened? Let us look at the attitude of Minister Roberts, the Attorney General and the Premier on this issue. I originally wrote to the Commissioner of Police on 22 April about this matter. I said that I had been approached by Mr McVeigh, who had asked me for assistance in determining why the police and the DPP did not pursue his allegations of sexual abuse. He went on to say that he reported the allegations to the child abuse unit. I asked for a copy of the police brief, and whether he could obtain copies of that. Mr Matthews, the Commissioner of Police, was away at the time. I will not go through the correspondence. However, his office could not recall ever receiving that letter. However, funnily enough, in May, my electoral office received a response regarding Leo McVeigh from Alison Karmelich, the parliamentary liaison officer to the Minister for Police - on an important matter like this. That seemed strange to me, because when I tried to ring or speak to the Commissioner of Police, he said that he had been told that the protocol was to go through the minister; yet this issue concerning Mr McVeigh was given to a minion in the minister’s office to try to deal with it. I wrote to the minister on 10 June. I gave her all the letters and asked for a proper explanation of why the matter was not pursued by the DPP, whether a police complaint had been made out and whether there had been an investigation into whether there had been a fobbing off. My office rang the minister’s office and there was no response.
I had a discussion with the member for Kingsley about how I should handle this matter, because I did not want to raise any political connections. However, I wanted to get to the bottom of it, for Mr McVeigh’s sake. Therefore, I wrote to the Premier, Geoff Gallop, on 25 August and stated -
Please find attached copies of letters between myself and Minister for Police . . . which are selfexplanatory. Mr McVeigh has come to see me because he wishes a formal written explanation from the Police Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions as to why . . .
It goes on. I told him why I was writing to him and nobody else. I stated -I do not wish to politicise this matter but am very disappointed that the Police Minister appears to be ‘burying her head in the sand’ and hoping that it will go away. . . . I am requesting from you on behalf of Mr McVeigh, a formal letter of response from the Police Minister as the office has only received an email from a “parliamentary liaison officer” which I think is entirely inappropriate.
As a matter of public policy any child who alleges sexual abuse and has the courage to come forward when they are older ought to be able to obtain a formal written response as to why the matter is not proceeding.
I asked for certain other things regarding that matter.
The Premier, to his credit, did write to me. It must be borne in mind that the Premier waxed lyrical about the Hollingworth crisis. I will refer to that. I have a document dated Wednesday, 20 February 2003, which states-
Premier Geoff Gallop said yesterday the approach by the churches to sex abuse over the years, in general, had been appalling. Dr Gallop made particular reference to the way the churches had failed to take into account the interests and emotions of the victims.I was relying on the Premier’s view of child abuse and his comments that other people had failed to take into account the interests and emotions of the victims. He was reported in The West Australian of Saturday, 3 May as saying -Child abuse is a very significant issue and because of its significance I think the Governor General would help himself and everyone else if he moved aside from the position.
He was a strong and strident campaigner for Dr Hollingworth to stand aside. He stated -
The removal of Governor-General Peter Hollingworth would send a strong signal against child abuse,
Therefore, I wrote to the Premier, hoping that he could get for me the formal written response about why this matter was not pursued. The minister wrote back to me. She thanked me and wrote that with regard to why the matter was not pursued by the Director of Public Prosecutions, it should be noted that the DPP was not in the best place to respond, since it was after consideration of all the available facts that the had DPP determined that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. She wrote that, accordingly, she had taken the liberty of referring my correspondence to the DPP for his consideration and direct response.
I wrote back and asked for a copy of that letter. I have never received it. I have not heard a word from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. I do not even know whether he received a letter from the minister. This letter was sent to me on 1 September after I had written to her in April. I am now reluctant to send anything to the minister when victims come into my office. She wrote that the DPP’s determination was also the conclusion of Detective McKinnon, who considered after extensive investigation that there was insufficient evidence to proffer charges with regard to the allegations.
She went on to detail that they had confirmed the content of a Channel Seven television program; that they had approached the complainant’s sister; that they had contacted church members, who had no knowledge of the alleged incidents; that they had assessed the actions of Mr McVeigh on the day of an alleged incident at Perth Zoo; and that they had interviewed the alleged offender. She also referred to the sensitive nature of this case, but why was it sensitive? She wrote that Detective McKinnon took the further step of seeking the opinion of the DPP regarding this matter and provided a comprehensive report of the available evidence.
The DPP’s view was that it should not proceed. I wrote and asked whether the minister could forward me a copy of the covering letter to the DPP, and whether she could tell me which church leaders were contacted and on what date. We know that there is a church file. I have all the notes that Mr McVeigh said that he made. I asked where and on what date the offender was interviewed; what actions of Mr McVeigh on the day of the alleged incident at the zoo were assessed; and why Detective McKinnon thought the matter sensitive. I received a response to that. The response was tabled by the Premier on the day that I asked the questions. That response was final.
Debate Resumed
Ms S.E. WALKER: I made that remark because, frankly, the member for Girrawheen sits there and carps at me all the time while I am talking about serious issues. I looked at the definition of the term “troglodyte”. It is a cave dweller. The point is that when the Premier tabled that document, he attached to it a briefing note by Assistant Commissioner Tim Atherton, who is now the acting deputy commissioner. He was at the original meeting with Father Des O’Sullivan when they discussed this issue. We need to get rid of the perception that people in the police department, the DPP or any law enforcement agency or in politics, or people who have friends in high places, are pulling strings. There should be a policy whereby a child abuse victim of any age is allowed to have a written formal explanation for why the charges will not proceed.
Prosecution's claim that Edwards was so upset with his ex-wife for not wanting to go with him to a fireworks display that he went out and murdered Sarah Speirs on Australia Day Night was not backed up by the testimony Edward's ex-wife, who stated that Edwards did not seem upset at her and had accepted it and also could say exactly when this event took place ... Edward's ex-wife could not confirm to the court that this was the Australia Day Night .... thus, as stated by Tim Clarke, the Legal Affairs Editor for the West Australian Newspaper, the sworn testimony of Edward's ex-wife was of little help to the prosecution in proving that it was the Australia Day Night that Mr Edwards had asked her to a fireworks display ...." her vagueness did not help the prosecution's timeline".... ..Tim Clarke.... " ...Mr Yovich has kept his powder fairly dry ...and has now been able to made a couple of good connections ... with the Mr Yovich showing that the claim that Mr Edward's wife had informed Mr Edwards she was pregnant to her lover after she had moved into the new house with her lover, the father of her child .. and according to the prosecution this was before the murder of Ms Jane Rimmer on the 9 June 1996, ... yet the gas had not been connected at the house until September, 1996 ..... thus the news given to Mr Edwards that his wife was having a baby to her new boyfriend was way past the date that Ms Jane Rimmer was murdered .... when the prosecution are basing thee case on the claim that '..it was a few days after Mr Edwards was given the news that his ex-wife was pregnant to her new boyfriend that Mr Edwards was meant o have gone and committed the murder of Jane Rimmer ..."
NYT Investigators Comment: These are two further examples on top of the misleading DNA Evidence claims that Carmel Barbagallo, the senior Prosecutor acting for the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia who is in charge of Prosecuting Bradley Robert Edwards has deliberately mislead the court so far in the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards, which is a clear breach of her sworn duties as a prosecutor to always be searching for the truth before and during the trial ... and not be just trying to win the case for the prosecution just to make a name for herself, satisfy her bosses at the DPP, the Western Australian Government, the Western Australian Police and the general public that she has convicted Bradley Robert Edwards as the sole person that planned and carried out the abduction and murders of Sarah Spiers on the Australia Day on January 26, 1996. weekend, Jame Rimmer in in the early hours of June 9, 1996. and Ciara Glennon in March 15, 1997.
It is noted that there is a lot of other evidence that Carmel Barbagallo, the senior Prosecutor acting for the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia, the Western Australian Government, and the Western Australian Police are not interested in looking into or been brought forward at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards to points towards others as being involved in the planning, carrying out the Claremont Serial Killings and covering up for those who were involved in the Claremont Serial Killings and other abductions and murders of women in Western Australia that on the evidence available to the NYT Investigators are clearly linked in various ways to the abductions and murders of Sarah Spiers on the Australia Day on January 26, 1996. weekend, Jame Rimmer in in the early hours of June 9, 1996. and Ciara Glennon in March 15, 1997.
The arrest of Bradley Robert Edwards is claimed by an insider to have been politically motivated just before the Western Australian Elections to try and help the Western Australian Liberal Party win the Western Australian State Elections by their appointed Freemason Commissioner of Police Karl Joseph O'Callaghan, who the Commissioner of Western Australia from 2004 to 2017 .... who was replaced by another Freemason Chris Dawson, after the arrest of Bradley Robert Edwards in December, 1996, a few months before the Western Australian State Elections.
NYT Investigators were informed by an insider that the plan was to have Bradley Robert Edwards murdered in prison either before or during his trial so that the DDP of Western Australia and the Western Australian Police would not have to prove at a trial that Bradley Robert Edwards was the sole person that planned and carried out the abduction and murders of Sarah Spiers on the Australia Day on January 26, 1996. weekend, Jame Rimmer in in the early hours of June 9, 1996. and Ciara Glennon in March 15, 1997. The plan according to an insider, was to make the murder of Bradley Robert Edwards, look like a suicide, because he could not deal with the shame of what he had done ..
However, because the NYT Investigation Team wrote to the .the DDP of Western Australia and the Western Australian Police and the Western Australian Government exposing this plan to have Bradley Robert Edwards and put this up on the world wide web, .the DDP of Western Australia and the Western Australian Police and the Western Australian Government have had to make sure that Bradley Robert Edwards doe snot die under any circumstances while in prison waiting for the verdict to to made by Justice Stephen Hall...
The Claremont serial killings trial examines Bradley Edwards's personal life through his ex-wife
ABC News By Andrea Mayes
27th November 2019
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-28/claremont-serial-killer-trial-who-is-bradley-robert-edwards/11743666
A dinner and an invitation
At one point during the separation Edwards turned up at her parents' house unexpectedly, but they did not discuss their relationship.
Instead he stayed for several hours and they enjoyed "pleasant" conversation over dinner, during which he invited his ex-wife to go to a fireworks display that evening, which she refused.
The prosecution claims Edwards was so upset by this rejection that he went out and murdered Sarah Spiers that night, but in her testimony the ex-wife said Edwards "did not seem upset" at her.
"He accepted it," she said.
She also could not say exactly when this event took place, contrary to the prosecution's assertion that it was Australia Day, 1996 — the night Ms Spiers vanished.
The ex-wife never returned to the marital home to live.
Instead, she moved from her parents' house into a house with her and Edwards's former flatmate.
THE West Australian coroner has found that a 20-year-old woman missing for more than 12 years was a victim of a homicide, but has refused to rule on whether a suspect in the case was involved in the crime.
Sarah Anne McMahon disappeared on November 8, 2000 after telling a colleague she was meeting a friend at 5.30pm and then failing to pick up her sister at 8.30pm that evening.
Donald Victor Morey, 57, has long been considered a suspect in her disappearance and was the last person to speak to Ms McMahon before she disappeared.
After the initial police investigation drew a blank, a further investigation was launched after Morey was convicted of the attempted murder of a Perth prostitute in 2004 and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
He had also been a person of interest in the death of another prostitute the previous year.
However, police were again unable to substantiate enough evidence against Morey, who has consistently denied any involvement in Ms McMahon's disappearance.
A cold case review of both investigations was launched last year and Morey said he was still in contact with Ms McMahon, who he claimed was living in Canada with her two children.
Coroner Alastair Hope said on Thursday that because Ms McMahon had not contacted her loved ones in more than 12 years, he was confident she was dead.
"The circumstances in which Ms McMahon disappeared are sinister and I have confidently been able to exclude the possibility that she died by way of natural causes, accident or suicide,'' he said.
"In my view, the evidence points overwhelmingly to the proposition that she died by way of unlawful homicide.''
Mr Hope said there was no evidence that Ms McMahon left the country and there were no records held in Medicare, Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or her bank that would suggest that she was alive in Australia after that time.
A key piece of evidence examined at the inquest was a statement from Natasha Tracy-Ann Kendrick, dated November 11, 2011.
In her statement, Ms Kendrick said she walked into Morey's room and saw a bloodied naked girl on the bed with an "old fashioned rope'' around her neck.
Ms Kendrick claimed that she later saw Morey carrying ``something wrapped in a quilt over his left shoulder'' and said she knew it was McMahon's body.
However, Mr Hope noted that police were unable to find evidence to corroborate her account.
He said there was also evidence capable of supporting a conclusion that Morey lied to police about his movements on November 8, 2000 and falsified documents to support those lies.
"It is always possible that some further evidence may come to light which could result in criminal charges being laid at some later date,'' he said.
"In that context, I do not propose to make any finding in relation to Mr Morey's involvement.''
Originally published as Missing woman 'a murder victim'
Claremont Killer trial LIVE: 'He threatened to kill me after finding out about affair': Wife's lover takes the stand
Proceedings have wrapped up for today
Witness evidence for today has wrapped up.
2nd December 2019
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/claremont-killer-trial-live-bradley-edwards-love-rival-to-give-evidence-at-trial-from-overseas-20191202-p53g0k.html
2nd December, 2019
Justice Stephen Hall is now considering media requests for copies of exhibits tendered in court today, including copies of Mr Edwards' Telstra uniform applications and receipts - which he has agreed to release.
He's sarcastically referred to the Telecom Pulse magazine as "fascinating material" before agreeing to release it.
Court has adjourned until 10am tomorrow where "a number of women" will be called to give evidence.
Once the tendered documents are released later today, they will be posted here to the blog.
For a full catalogue of WAtoday's coverage of the Claremont serial killer trial,
Judge releases Mr Edwards' uniform receipts and photos of old Telstra uniforms
Bradley Edwards order for navy Telstra trousers in 1995.
A receipt showing Bradley Edwards received his navy trousers in 1995.
An example of the Telstra uniform from its corporate magazine in the mid-90s.
An example of the beige Telstra uniform employees wore before switching to a navy uniform sometime in the 90s.
Justice Hall has released a number of Mr Edwards' Telstra uniform requests for navy blue trousers, the earliest being a "replacement" request in August 1995.
He has also released images from the Telecom corporate newsletter, Pulse, of models wearing the different types of uniforms used by technicians in the early to mid-90s.
Claremont Killer trial LIVE: 'He threatened to kill me after finding out about affair': Wife's lover takes the stand
As the Claremont serial killer trial enters its second week, the state is calling on the man Bradley Edwards' first wife started an affair with.
by Heather McNeill and Hannah Barry
https://www.watoday.com.au/topic/claremont-serial-killer-trial-1mh2
A simpler Perth: As Claremont evidence mounts, another story emerges
By Emma Young
December 2, 2019
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/a-simpler-perth-as-claremont-evidence-mounts-another-story-emerges-20191130-p53fnp.html
Mr Edwards is accused of murdering Jane Rimmer, Ciara Glennon and Sarah Spiers in Perth.
One of the missing posters made for Sarah Spiers. CREDIT:9 NEWS PERTH
A courtroom sketch.
Mr Edwards with his guards, who are the same every day, though they change places.
As the state and defence this week scoured the evidence against Bradley Edwards, the man accused of the Claremont serial killings, another story emerged alongside the crucial details of time and place: the story of a suburban Perth much slower-paced, and more casual and innocent, than today.
And at every turn the nostalgia such pictures might otherwise have evoked was jarred by the knowledge that elsewhere in the city, this innocence was being shattered.
On Friday, Mr Edwards’ former friend and colleague Murray Cook and his wife Brigita Cook gave evidence about “Brad” visiting their place Wednesday nights to shoot pool with Mr Cook from 1995; the colleagues working overtime together the morning after Sarah Spiers disappeared in 1996; and Mr Edwards not turning up as previously arranged to visit them, the night Ciara vanished in 1997.
In the mid-1990s Mr and Mrs Cook were an active couple, he in his early 30s and she just past 40. Him a Telstra worker, not yet diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and she working in administration. Their social life was so busy that in 1994 Mrs Cook began to keep diaries to keep it all straight.
The diaries shown were instantly reminiscent of an earlier time, the 1996 diary’s pages bordered with pale orange and yellow flowers, the 1997 diary plain, but printed in an older font and style.
Traces of a vanished lifestyle remained inked into their faded pages, the details a touching look at the ordinariness of Perth suburban life.
One night “Brad” Edwards dropped Mr Cook home from work as a favour. Their homes, in the sprawling and semi-rural suburbs of Perth’s south-east, were a suburb apart.
People weren’t as busy, it seemed, as they are now, or as guarded about striking up casual friendships. Mr Cook mentioned his Thornlie home had a fantastic big games room out the back, with darts, a pool table and bar, and invited Mr Edwards to drop around Wednesday nights for a few games.
It was normal for Mr Edwards, then living in the neighbouring suburb of Huntingdale, to simply walk over and not always bother to get into the car, instead walking a few kilometres to Thornlie.
People were recalled as using pagers instead of mobile phones, and social gatherings with friends were marked in the diary as “video night”.
Cars were Fords or Holdens. An evaporative airconditioner was the norm for a family home and if it broke on a Saturday, you just drew the blinds and shut the doors, as Mrs Cook did the morning after Sarah Spiers’ disappearance, when her husband’s team was called in to work an overtime shift and Brad Edwards came over so they could drive in together. Mrs Cook headed to the couch in her shorts and a T-shirt and settled down for a lazy Saturday watching TV.
This was before Google Calendar, perhaps before automatic timesheets and certainly before budgeting apps; Mrs Cook simply recorded her husband’s overtime, alongside paydays and loans to be repaid, noting ‘Muzz OT’ on the flower-edged page.
Mrs Cook’s birthday celebration was planned, the diary said, at Victoria Park Italian restaurant Christina’s – now an institution along the ever-changing strip and still rocking a 90s vibe with its big serves and BYO, but then new and shiny, having only been running since 1994.
In March 1997, as people did, the Cooks took a long weekend in Dawesville, Mandurah – Perth’s working-class holiday Mecca – at a friend’s almost-finished new place, a quick visit to relatives in Busselton planned afterwards.
They invited a friend to come down after work on Friday night, again, as people did.
But Brad Edwards failed to turn up on the Friday night, which the state claims was the morning after Ciara Glennon vanished, only turning up at 11am the following morning.
Far from a flat-screen in every room as there might be today, the Dawesville house had no TV and no radio; and so, as Mrs Cook said, they saw and heard no news about the disappearance of Ciara Glennon that weekend.
And it wasn’t just Friday’s evidence that evoked these scenes that so many Perth families would relate to.
The pictures released last week of Bradley Edwards during this time, faded in the pre-digital days, were typical family snaps showing him young and bearded and looking untroubled: sleeping with arm slung around a pet dog, holding a horse by the halter, his jeans stonewashed, his shirts featuring the typical patterns so many wore, in an unfashionable city in an unselfconscious time.
The family videos released showed entertainment consisting of outdoor picnics, totem tennis on the lawn and drives around a city in which Riverside Drive was not overlooked by skyscrapers, and Kings Park’s Anzac Drive was single-lane.
Evidence by witnesses earlier in the week also evoked a simpler life, with weekend activities sparked by recommendations in the newspaper: a girlfriend of Mr Edwards in 1996, trying to remember whether they went to bars in Claremont, told the court, "We were in our 20s, that's what we did on the weekend, we got the gig guide on a Friday and we went out to the local bars.”
Mr Edwards’ second wife recalled a first date proposed over a landline, preceded by a gift of two dozen roses, and taking place at McDonald’s.
The 2019 courtroom seems a world away from all this, the cultural gulf as wide as the two-decade time gap. It is hushed and carpeted and the airconditioning, much more effective than the Cooks’ broken evaporative, seems to grow colder by the hour. The walls are white, with panels in shining wood and dark aubergine matching the chairs in which sit the state prosecutor, defence counsel and 11 junior counsel ranged behind them.
A low wall separates them from the 20 journalists behind, and another space separates the journalists and the public gallery. Packed on Monday with attendees including the families of Sarah, Jane and Ciara, by Friday the crowd had dwindled. The only parent still coming daily was Denis Glennon, who told media in 1997, then still hoping Ciara would be found alive, “We know from the way that she was raised that she will fight.”
Mr Glennon, older now but still impeccable in a navy blazer, pays minute attention to proceedings, at points leaning forward, or turning his entire body to watch exhibits displayed on the court’s TV screens. He never leaves the court building, or fidgets. Sometimes he stretches from the long hours of sitting, but that’s all.
Mr and Mrs Cook are no longer an energetic young couple. Murray Cook is a heavyset grey-haired man of 55, wearing a suit and tie and an amiable smile, who walks with a cane because of his MS.
His wife is a neat 64-year old with a perfect blonde bob and tasteful jewellery, whose composure is ruptured only when she appears offended at the defence’s insinuations she got her dates wrong. Both seem unrattled by cross-examination, with Mr Cook twice correcting Mr Yovich on slips of the tongue.
Mr Edwards seems light years from the man in those 1990s photographs, now middle-aged and in glasses, 90s casual-wear replaced by a light grey business shirt and slim dark grey tie. His hair is shorter and his smile is gone; his mouth tightly compressed and further downturned at the corners than you would think possible.
Occasionally he moves his head from side to side to stretch his neck or takes a sip from a plastic cup of water. Sometimes during the Cooks’ evidence he nods in agreement, other times grips the sides of his chair in apparent agitation. At these times the guard next to him, slightly more restive than the guard behind, frowns and looks over at Mr Edwards’ hands until they are still again.
But mostly, Mr Edwards is motionless, hour after hour. He looks unassuming and mild-mannered.
None of those giving evidence last week could have known their social and romantic lives would one day be so minutely examined, and that in sharp contrast to that low-tech world, reporters would be capturing every detail on phones or tablets, feeding them through to additional reporters in an external media room, who would in turn live-blog to a voracious audience desperate to know how this could have happened in Perth.
For it was not just a small group of families violated in the 1990s, but a whole city regarded by its inhabitants as home, a city that should have been insulated from events best kept to comfortably fictional New York crime dramas.
Outside the court on Friday, it seemed more surreal than ever. It was hot on the street and young men and women stood confidently in the sunshine, looking forward to cracking that first cold one. Life has gone on, all the people have changed. Except Sarah, Jane and Ciara, who remain frozen in that other time, so close and yet impossibly far away.
Emma Young
Emma Young covers breaking news with a focus on science and environment, health and social justice for WAtoday.
Couple saw Claremont accused just hours after alleged murders of Sarah and Ciara
By Heather McNeill
November 29, 2019
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/couple-saw-claremont-accused-just-hours-after-alleged-murders-of-sarah-and-ciara-20191129-p53fj6.html
Bradley Edwards in the mid-1990s.
If accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Edwards was acting differently in the hours after he allegedly murdered Sarah Spiers and Ciara Glennon, his workmate did not mention it when he took the stand on Friday.
On the fifth day of Bradley Edwards’ triple murder trial, the court heard evidence from a former Telstra colleague and his wife who claimed the 50-year-old failed to show up at their Dawesville holiday house on March 14, 1997, the same day Ciara was murdered.
Murray Cook, 55, said Mr Edwards instead appeared the next day, around 11am.
He claimed when Mr Edwards arrived he said, "What the hell, you were supposed to be here", to which he said Mr Edwards replied he was trying to reconcile with his first wife.
"I may have said, 'Well how'd you go' and he just shook his head," Mr Cook said.
Ms Cook also recalled the same conversation during her evidence, adding: "Once he said that, Murray and I had no reason not to believe what he said and at that time in Dawesville there was no TV or radio, so we didn't hear what had happened."
The state alleges the excuse Mr Edwards gave the couple was a lie as at that time his first wife was living with a new partner and the couple had a newborn baby together.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Paul Yovich tried to discredit Ms Cook’s memory of which day Mr Edwards was due to visit them at the holiday house, but she remained firm, saying she remembered they had travelled down after her birthday on March 9 and stayed 10 or 11 days.
Her diary entries from the time did not mention Dawesville but did include a day which said "Busselton" on March 19 which the woman said was a day they travelled to Busselton from Dawesville to visit family.
Mr Yovich also tried to suggest to the couple that Mr Edwards was speaking about another woman he was having a fling with, not his first wife, but both replied they were certain he said "wife".
The Cooks also claimed they saw Mr Edwards on the morning of January 27, 1996 - the same day Sarah was last seen waiting for a taxi in Claremont at 2am.
Mr Cook said the pair worked together that day from 8am at Dumas House in West Perth, although he could not remember how they travelled there.
Ms Cook, however, claimed she had a better memory of the day as she recalled it was rare for her husband to work overtime on a long weekend, and that the air-conditioner in their home had broken just as he was leaving.
She recalls Mr Edwards either got dropped off or walked to their house, which was in the neighbouring suburb, and tried to help fix it before he and her husband left for work around 7.20am in Mr Cook's personal vehicle.
Wife's lovers dates not adding up to wife's evidence, or prosecution's case
CLAREMONT KILLER TRIAL
RELATED ARTICLE
CLAREMONT KILLER TRIAL
Accused Claremont serial killer was in ‘turmoil’ weeks before women went missing: state lawyer
The wife's lover's dates of when key events
The wife's lover's dates of when key events occurred in his relationship with the first wife are not matching up with the first wife's evidence, or the state's case around their 'emotional turmoil' murder motive theory.
He claims the 'kissing incident' with the first wife that Mr Edwards saw was before Australia Day 1996.
He said he was still living with the couple in their marital home on Australia Day 1996. He said he moved out in February, but that the first wife remained there for about few weeks. The wife's lover's dates of when key events occurred in his relationship with the first wife are not matching up with the first wife's evidence, or the state's case around their 'emotional turmoil' murder motive theory.
He claims the 'kissing incident' with the first wife that Mr Edwards saw was before Australia Day 1996.
He said he was still living with the couple in their marital home on Australia Day 1996. He said he moved out in February, but that the first wife remained there for about few weeks.
Sarah Spiers disappeared the night of Australia Day. The state claims the wife was living with her parents at the time, and rejected an offer from Mr Edwards to go watch some fireworks.
The first wife couldn't remember when she went to her parents, whether it was in December 1995 or January 1996, and could not recall the fireworks invitation being linked to Australia Day.
Mr Yovich is now asking about the second Warnbro address the man moved to after leaving the couple's Huntingdale home.
This evidence has become confusing as the man's addresses for his two Warnbro houses are not the same as what the first wife said. The first wife said she had a baby at the second address, but the man is claiming that address was a place he moved into "much later".
"That was when [the first wife] vanished if you like ... when I came home from work and everything was gone," he said.
He's agreed he was living at a Warnbro address with a pool when his daughter was born.
The first wife recalled being at the Warnbro house with the pool when she rang Mr Edwards to tell him she was pregnant.
The pair didn't move into the house until September 1996, according to Alinta Gas records, despite the first wife claiming she told Mr Edwards about the baby early on in her pregnancy, around April or May 1996.
The timing is relevant as the state is claiming Mr Edwards found out about the pregnancy in the days before Jane Rimmer was murdered on June 9, 1996.
This witness has been excused.
Defence asking about X Files catch-ups
Mr Yovich is now asking about how the wife's lover started coming around to watch X Files on TV with the couple.
"So you started to come round to the house once a week to watch the show," Mr Yovich said.
"And then you came to have dinner and watch the show and then there was a conversation which [the first wife] initiated saying,
Mr Yovich claims the man is mistaken that this conversation happened at the man's house as he said earlier today, he appears to have agreed and is now referring to his statement to police. He claims it happened at one of the dinners.
The man said he moved in "probably" about a month after starting to watch X Files with the couple.
He is now asking about Mr Edwards being in the computer room a lot, and when it started.
"As far as I could see, that was ongoing," the man said.
Mr Yovich is now asking if Mr Edwards ever went out to bars or nightclubs at the weekends.
"He wasn't that type," he said.
They've now moved on to the man being intimate with the first wife.
He is agreeing Mr Edwards didn't know about their sexual relationship when he lived at the house.
Mr Yovich: In fact you did your best to hide it from him.
Wife's lover: Yes.
Mr Yovich: And you befriended Bradley.
Wife's over: Yes.
'I'm doing my best to remember': Wife's lover's memory being questioned
The wife's lover is now being cross-examined by Mr Yovich.
He is mentioning the events they are discussing happened a long time ago, and that the man split with the first wife in 2000.
He agrees and says he told the truth as best he could when police first contacted him in 2017.
Mr Yovich is now pointing out he couldn't remember his daughter's birthday.
"Ok, thank you," he said when Mr Yovich read aloud her correct birthday from her birth certificate.
Mr Yovich: Dates are not easy to remember, you'd agree?
Wife's lover: Yes, sir
Mr Yovich: And how long things went on for or happened might be difficult to remember too?
Wife's lover: Yes, sir
Mr Yovich is asking if he could be wrong about when his relationship with the first wife started, and he said no.
Mr Yovich is now questioning the timing of when the man says he moved out of the Huntingdale home Mr Edwards shared with his wife.
"When you first spoke to police and made a witness statement ... your recollection was that you moved out in February 1996," Mr Yovich said.
He is now referring to an Alinta Gas records that suggests the gas to the first Warnbro house was set up in September 1996.
He's agreed Mr Edwards and the first wife treated him courteously between the 'kissing incident' and him moving out.
Bradley Edwards in the mid-1990s.
'Mr Edwards threatened to kill me after learning of affair': wife's lover
The wife's lover is now talking about the last time he heard from Mr Edwards.
"Bradley called and was speaking to [his first wife] who in turn put the phone on to me and he accused me of having an affair with [first wife] and I said to him, 'I thought that was plain and clear to see' and he said 'oh, I'll kill you', and I said, 'Well you know where I live, you've got my address'.
He said he didn't think the first wife was pregnant at that stage.
Ms Barbagallo is now asking about what Mr Edwards' workwear was like.
The wife's lover said he saw Mr Edwards in his work uniform "every day" when they lived together.
"He had smart khaki trousers, sorry knee-length shorts, and a white shirt, and I think they changed their uniform for them and they became like a stripe," he said.
'She's going to hate me': Wife's lover gets daughter's birthday wrong
Ms Barbagallo is now asking about when the first wife became pregnant and what his daughter's birthday is.
"It was December umm, oh she's gonna hate me ... oh God .. 1997," he said.
His daughter was born in December 1996.
He said the pair were living together "not long at all" before they fell pregnant, "just months" he said.
He is getting confused with his dates now and taking a long time to answer questions because he doesn't want to be "conflicted".
Ms Barbagallo has asked where he was living on Australia Day, 1996, the night Sarah disappeared - he has replied the second Warnbro house, although he is calling it a different street address to the first wife.
'I thought 'oops' when Brad caught us kissing': wife's lover
Ms Barbagallo has asked the wife's lover if Mr Edwards ever caught the pair "engaging in activity".
"I can't put a date on it but I know what happened," he said.
"I was in my room just going through a few things and [the first wife] came in and she wanted to go through a few boxes that had photographs in.
"We were just looking at photographs and laughing and being stupid, Brad was in the computer room.
"She showed me a photograph of the fact she won a Miss Wet T-shirt contest, and we were laughing and she kissed me.
"It was a mutual thing it just happened, and at the same time the door opened and I thought oops.
"[We kissed on the] lips."
He said Mr dwards didn't say anything, and that he and the first wife went into their room and had a discussion.
"[I] panicked, I started getting my stuff together, I'd crossed the boundaries and I thought, I've got to get out of here.
"[The first wife] came back and I asked her what's happening and she said, 'don't worry' and then she asked me what I was doing and I said, 'I'm gone ... I can’t sleep in here another night ... I feared for my life knowing what he had in the room."
Ms Barbagallo has cut the man off from finishing that sentence, before he continued.
"He said I don’t want you to go," the man said.
"He was crying, I was crying, she was crying. I said 'I’ve overstepped the boundaries' and he said 'I don’t want you to go'. And I said 'I won’t go but I’ll look for somewhere else'."
He said he moved out a couple of weeks later to a house in Warnbro.
"The year would have been 95, it's fairly hard ... I can't get the date in my head, I don't want to get it wrong.
"It feels like an August time when I moved into [Warnbro]."
He says he lived at the house on his own for a short period, around "three weeks", before the first wife moved in.
"Every time she'd come she'd bring something and leave it," he said.
He said he lived at that address for around six months before moving to another address in Warnbro.
'He drove like a flipping lunatic': wife's lover
Ms Barbagallo is now asking about Mr Edwards' vehicles at the time but the wife's lover can't remember other than that he had a Telstra vehicle.
He is now talking about his own cars.
"When I had the BMW Bradley drove it and he drove like a flipping lunatic, I thought he was trying to kill it" he said.
Ms Barbagallo has now asked about Christmas Day 1995.
"I think I was in Warnbro at the time, I don't remember spending a Christmas with Brad or [first wife]," he said.
She is now asking about New Year's Eve 1995.
"I must have been in Warnbro then," he said.
Mr Edwards is accused of murdering Sarah Spiers on January 27, 1996.
'Bradley spent every night on computer': wife's lover
The wife's lover is now being asked how often he would see Mr Edwards on his home computer.
"Every night, seven nights a week," he said.
"The only time he wasn't on it was when we were out over the field throwing ball for softball.
"He'd come home from work, get changed, go on the computer, come out for a meal and then go back in again."
The wife's lover said he joined the same softball team as Mr Edwards that season while he lived with him.
"I ended up joining with the team," he said.
"Dave [McInroy] was on the softball team as well."
Claremont serial killings trial: Bradley Robert Edwards’ love rival in 'dangerous' affair
Angie RaphaelAAP
December 2, 2019
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/couple-saw-claremont-accused-just-hours-after-alleged-murders-of-sarah-and-ciara-20191129-p53fj6.html
A love rival has told the Claremont serial killings trial he had sex with Bradley Robert Edwards' first wife as the accused slept in another bedroom.
Edwards, 50, is accused of murdering Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in the mid-1990s during his marriage breakdown after his first wife had an affair, which resulted in the birth of a child.
The ex-Telstra technician's love rival, whose identity is suppressed, testified in the Western Australia Supreme Court on Monday via video link from overseas, saying he did not initially know the woman was married.
He said she invited him and his children to go horse riding, then he asked her out to dinner and they saw each other when they could.
"I believe we were both in a situation where we were craving something," he said.
"I didn't really have anyone that I could connect with.
"I wasn't intending to break anyone's marriage."
The man said the wife came to his home about half a dozen times and on one occasion she had car trouble, requiring Edwards to help jump start the vehicle.
After the man moved in as a boarder, the affair continued.
"She would sneak into my room while Bradley was still asleep," he said.
"I thought she was playing a dangerous game."
His evidence is in contrast to the first wife, whose identity is also suppressed.
She testified last week that the man was a close friend and they started a sexual relationship towards the end of 1995 after he moved into the marital home.
But the man did back up her evidence that Edwards spent hours on the computer alone.
Edwards and his first wife separated between late 1995 and early 1996.
She then moved in with the boarder.
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-bradley-robert-edwards-love-rival-in-dangerous-affair-ng-b881399775z
CLAREMONT KILLER TRIAL
PERTH
Heather McNeill
Heather McNeill is the crime and courts editor at WAtoday.
Supporters of jailed Perth millionaire take bail fight to the UN
Former love rival tells Clarermont killings trial about ‘sneaky’ affair
The ex-love rival of the accused Claremont serial killer has told a special night hearing of the trial how Bradley Edwards’ first wife ‘would sneak into my room’ for sex.
Candace Sutton@candacesutton1
https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/former-love-rival-tells-claremont-killings-trial-about-sneaky-affair/news-story/a77fdb204edfbdf78247f468741fef5b
The former love rival of the accused Claremont serial killer has told a Perth trial about how Bradley Robert Edwards’ first wife would “sneak into my room while Bradley was sleeping” for sex.
The man has appeared via video from overseas at a special night hearing of Mr Edwards’ trial to give his account of the affair.
Prosecutors allege it was the affair this man had with Mr Edwards’ first wife, impregnating her, that was the catalyst to kill.
The man told the court he would always see Mr Edwards on his computer.
“Every night, seven nights a week,” he said.
“He’d come home from work, get changed, go on the computer, come out for a meal, and then go back in again.
“The only time he wasn’t on it was when we were out … throwing ball for softball.
Mr Edwards’ first wife testified last week that his preoccupation with the computer helped end their marriage.
The man, whose identity is suppressed along with those of Mr Edwards two former wives, had an affair with Mr Edwards’ wife while he was a lodger in Mr Edwards’ marital home.
Bradley Edwards has pleaded not guilty to the murders of 18-year-old secretary, Sarah Spiers, childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23 and Ciara Glennon, a lawyer, 27, between 1996 and 1997.
The 50-year-old Telstra technician and amateur sports official is being tried in a judge-only trial before Western Australian Supreme Court judge, Justice Stephen Bennett.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Edwards was seen to be writing notes as a former Telstra colleague gave evidence about the uniforms the accused allegedly ordered and wore in the mid-1990s.
Part of the prosecution case alleges that polyester fibres, of a particular dye lot called “Telstra Navy” were found on the Ms Glennon, Ms Rimmer and the 1995 Karrakatta Cemetery rape victim.
Telstra employee of 39 years, Robert Kinnear, was questioned about a uniform order by Mr Edwards in August 1995, for navy trousers, and another for a pair of navy coveralls.
The court heard another receipt showed two pairs of navy shorts plus white shirts had been signed by Mr Edwards in November, 1995.
Mr Kinnear told Crown prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo Telstra changed the colour of its national uniform, from grey to blue, in 1994 or 1995.
In April 1996, just weeks before Jane Rimmer was murdered, Mr Edwards ordered a replacement navy jacket, belt and socks.
Mr Kinnear was also asked about its operations in Wellard, south of Perth, where Jane Rimmer’s body was found in August 1996 and a Telstra-issued knife was also found.
No Telstra work had been completed in the area at the time.
Mr Wellard said mapping of underground cabling infrastructure installed by Telstra at Wellard did not specify when it was done.
The Claremont serial killings trial is in its second week and is expected to continue for between six and nine months.
In the hearing’s first week, relatives of Ms Rimmer, Ms Spiers and Ms Glennon, were in court hearing often distressing or disturbing evidence.
Ms Barbagallo alleges DNA and fibre evidence links Mr Edwards to the murders of Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer and the Karrakatta rape victim.
Mr Edwards has pleaded guilty to the Karrakatta attack and another in the Perth suburb of Huntingdale 1988, but disputes alleged prosecution facts about the assaults.
candace.sutton@news.com.au
Ciara Glennon, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer were killed in 1996 and 1997 after vanishing from Claremont.Source:Supplie
Bradley Edwards, as a younger man, in photo tendered at his trial for the alleged murders of three Perth girls at Claremont.Source:Supplied
Don and Carol Spiers, the parents of Sarah Spiers, are seen leaving the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Picture: Richard Wainwright.Source:AAP
Sketch of Bradley Robert Edwards in the WA Supreme Court where he is on trial for three alleged murders. Picture: Anne Barnetson.Source:AAP
Bradley Edwards with the horse, Beau, he gave to his first wife as a gift in the 1990s.Source:Supplied
Donald Morey, aka Matusevich
THANKS FOR GETTING IN TOUCH
A member of our team will review your query and respond as soon as possible
In the meantime, feel free to take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions
https://support.7news.com.au/contact/
Email: "Seven Network"<digitalproductsupport@seven.com.au> - via.zendesk.com
Attention Alison Fan: Claremont Serial Killings and the Trial of Bradley Robert Edwards
Death and closed ears by the the Western Australian Police, the Government, the DPP, the defence counsel for Bradley Robert Edwards
With out response back, we have written a number of times to the Western Australian Police, the Government, the DPP, the defense counsel for Bradley Robert Edwards offering important evidence that puts serious doubt on whether Bradley Robert Edwards is the person solely responsible for the abduction, and murders of Sarah Speirs, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, which points the finger that other well known, well connected, powerful and high profile people , networks and organisations in Western Australia were involved in the Claremont Serial Killings, in one form or another and the cover up for over 20 years of all those involved and/responsible in the Claremont Serial Killings from being exposed , investigated and/or arrested...along with many other criminal offences covered up in the last 40 odd years which have been committed by other which include people in the Western Australia Police, the Government, people in the legal and court system, powerful business people, well known politicians ... with the situation being that if the Western Australian Public really knew the truth of how their state has been run and policed, and how police are involved in criminal activities as well as covering up and protecting those they are involved in criminal activities, the truth would be far too publicly shocking for the average person to deal with ... all crimes brought to the attention of the Police and the Authorities should be investigated ... it also seems clear that the Western Australian media including the West Australian Newspaper, the Sunday Times, the TV Networks in Western Australia are also not wanting or willing to publicize the truth, because those in control of such organisations decide which information they will allow the public to know .... and do not want to rock the boat against certain people, networks and organisations.... Alison Fan knows a lot about this situation more than most news reporters in Western Australia ... however , even Alison Fan's hands are tied.. as to what she is allowed to publicly talk about and report ....
Yours Sincerely David McDonald
Jane Rimmer - Ciara Glennon - Sarah Spiers
Lance Williams was considered by police for many years to be the prime suspect in the Claremont serial killings. (ABC News)
Claremont serial killer trial sees private life of Bradley Edwards laid bare through ex-partners, home movies
By Andrea Mayes
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-29/claremont-serial-killer-accused-bradley-edwards-private-life/11748028
He seems to have met most of his partners through his work as a telecommunications technician with Telstra, which took him to a wide variety of offices, shops and businesses throughout the Perth metropolitan area.
By their accounts, Edwards was prone to romantic gestures, and he was variously described as "gracious" and "meticulously neat".
He sent one woman a card congratulating her on her work promotion, and he sent two dozen red roses to try to woo another woman, who went on to become his second wife.
The latter gesture came just weeks after the disappearance of the third and final Claremont killings victim, Ciara Glennon, in the early hours of March 15, 1997.
Edwards's second wife met him in April 1997, when he came to fix some Telstra cables at her workplace following a lightning strike.
By the following month, he had professed his love for her and their relationship began to get serious.
Home movies show a normal family life
Video was shown to the court of Edwards with the woman's young daughter, who was not yet three years old at the time they met.
On the stilted home movie, Edwards could be seen playing totem tennis with the child and encouraging her on her efforts.
"You're getting better," he tells the little girl as they hit the ball around a pole with plastic bats
The complex, intimate relationships of the man accused of the Claremont serial killings have been laid bare in WA's Supreme Court, painting picture of a man with a steady stream of girlfriends and a seemingly normal home life.
Key points:
Edwards's second wife, two ex-girlfriends and his best man took the stand
One girlfriend said he did not seem angry about the breakdown of his first marriage
But his second wife said his first wife's infidelity 'upset him greatly'
Now thick-set and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, the Bradley Edwards of the early- to mid-1990s was much trimmer and wore contact lenses, according to photographs and witness testimony presented to the court.
Girlfriends and wives described him as being tall and of medium-build, and at times he grew a beard, giving him a different look to the older, paunchy, clean-shaven man who has sat in the dock this week.
He seems to have met most of his partners through his work as a telecommunications technician with Telstra, which took him to a wide variety of offices, shops and businesses throughout the Perth metropolitan area.
By their accounts, Edwards was prone to romantic gestures, and he was variously described as "gracious" and "meticulously neat".
He sent one woman a card congratulating her on her work promotion, and he sent two dozen red roses to try to woo another woman, who went on to become his second wife.
The latter gesture came just weeks after the disappearance of the third and final Claremont killings victim, Ciara Glennon, in the early hours of March 15, 1997.
Edwards's second wife met him in April 1997, when he came to fix some Telstra cables at her workplace following a lightning strike.
By the following month, he had professed his love for her and their relationship began to get serious.
Home movies show a normal family life
Video was shown to the court of Edwards with the woman's young daughter, who was not yet three years old at the time they met.
On the stilted home movie, Edwards could be seen playing totem tennis with the child and encouraging her on her efforts.
"You're getting better," he tells the little girl as they hit the ball around a pole with plastic bats.
Other home movies, none of which were released to the public, showed a variety of wholesome scenes:
Edwards at a picnic in a park
· Driving around the city with the woman, with her daughter strapped into a booster seat in the rear of a white station wagon
· Washing the car as his young nephew cavorts in the foreground
The playing of the videos prompted a rare smile from the usually impassive Edwards in the dock, who also grinned briefly when Paul Luff, the best man at his second wedding, took the stand.
A violent 'brain snap'
Mr Luff, a friend and former colleague, described Edwards's demeanour following the breakdown of his first marriage, noting that he "appeared quite flat" and had begun drinking heavily.
"I remember him being a little bit broken up by it," Mr Luff said.
"Brad's not a very expressive person, it's not like he was coming to work and crying or anything like that.
"I made a flippant remark like, 'you're not going to top yourself or anything like that?'
"Brad said, 'Nah look mate I'm alright, I'm going to get through this' and I took that at face value."
A woman who dated Edwards in late 1996 and early 1997 also testified he did not seem angry or bitter about the breakdown of his first marriage.
But the prosecution continued to press its case that Edwards committed violent crimes against women at times of emotional distress in his life.
His second wife — the star witness on day four — testified that his first wife's infidelity, which took place before she and Edwards were married, had upset him greatly.
"He couldn't handle it, he had a brain snap," she said.
This was how he explained to her his attack from behind on a woman at Hollywood Hospital in 1990 that left him with an assault conviction.
He was so upset about it, she said, that he cried when talking about it with her for the first time, seven years after it happened.
Girlfriend said Edwards visited Claremont haunts
Another former partner testified she met Edwards at the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe in 1995 — the venue the two other Claremont victims, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer, visited the nights they disappeared.
She aid she dated Edwards for some months, although it was not a serious relationship.
During this time she said they frequented a number of pubs and nightclubs in the CBD and other areas, including Gobbles nightclub, the Wembley Hotel and the Black Pearl in South Perth.
She said they "more than likely" went to the Continental Hotel in Claremont, where Ms Spiers, Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon all drank on the nights of their disappearances.
But in his police interview on the day of his arrest, Edwards denied ever visiting the Claremont pub.
The woman said Edwards told her he had "never had a serious relationship", but he did not like to talk about himself much, and she "never felt I got beneath the surface" of Edwards's emotions.
They never had sex and Edwards "did respect my boundaries", she said.
When she told him she was ending their relationship, she said Edwards was understanding.
"He was very gracious about it," she said.
A new film is being produced called "Devils Garden... The Darkest Side of Perth",
which will publicly expose that Police Corruption in Western Australia ran rife from the 1950's to 2016 and continuing .... with a corrupt section of police being involved in committing crimes, in condoning criminal activity and protecting certain people from being investigated and prosecuted for crimes that they committed...
A previous book called "Devil's Garden"ISBN: 978174664669 published by Random House in 2007 by well known Queensland Crime writer Debi Marshall was an in depth investigation into the Claremont Serial Killings and various miscarriages of justice in Western Australia policing and prosecution...
The 1960's American TV Police and Crime Series Called Dragnet used to say at the beginning of each episode ... " These are true stories from Police and FIB files, however the true names have been changed to protect the innocent..."
The film being produced called "Devils Garden... The Darkest Side of Perth", is a set of true stories about police and prosecutors in Perth, Western Australia being involved in committing crimes and covering up for criminals who have committed serious crimes, and deliberately charging people who they know have not committed the crime they have been charged for ..... which will leave all the true names exposed and shame the guilty ....
One of the producers of the film "Devils Garden... The Darkest Side of Perth" stated .....
"... there seems no doubt that the Western Australian Police are not going to properly investigate and charge all of those involved in various ways in the planning and committing the Claremont Serial Killings and those that helped cover up all those responsible for such serious crimes .... so the film will in effect bring the truth to light so at least the parents, families and friends of the victims and the general public can get to know the truth.... the problem is that a proper police investigation and inquiry would lead investigators too close to their own ranks and powerful business people and politicians, who were either involved or know who are involved and are prepared to help cover the truth up..."
One of the producers of the film "Devils Garden... The Darkest Side of Perth" further stated .....
".... the NYT.bz investigation report into the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings which we are using as part of the information supporting the story presented in the our film, shows clearly that the arrest and the $100 million plus cost of the prosecution of Bradley Robert Edwards as the alleged sole Claremont Serial Abductor and Killer, who, without any help or protection from others .... is to satisfy the general public that the sole person responsible for the Claremont Serial Killings has been caught, and that there is no need to look any further for anyone involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings ..... regardless of any possible alleged involvement of Bradley Robert Edwards in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings ....... it seems that other more powerful and well connected people in Perth, Western Australia ... have been involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings and the covering up of the the real truth behind the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings ...... our film will attempt to set the public record straight ..... we are expecting threats on our lives for producing this provocative film .... and or legal action to try and stop it been shown to the public ... however ... regardless of these expected reactions the film has to be made and the truth has to be told to the public ..... it seems that not even the solicitors and barristers representing Bradley Robert Edwards are interested in knowing the full truth that will help in defending their client Bradley Robert Edwards who has been charged and accused of being the sole person responsible for the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders "
David John Caporn-Former Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner-who was previously in charge of the Macro Task Force set up to investigate the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings, had to quickly resign from the Western Australian Police Force to stop an internal police investigation into his involvement senior DPP Prosecutor Kenneth Bates, in the presentation of misleading evidence and withholding
material evidence at the trial of Andrew Mallard.
Andrew Mallard was charged with the murder Pamela Lawrence in Mosman Park, Perth, Western Australia, who had his murder conviction quashed by the High Court of Australia, and was awarded around $4 million in compensation for wrongfully having to spend 12 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, and now a few years later was mysteriously killed in Los Angeles in November, 2019 by a Hit and Run Driver ... questions are being as if those that were upset with Andrew Mallard winning his High Court Appeal, arranged for Andrew Mallard to be killed in Los Angeles by a Hit and Run Driver. David John Caporn-Former Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner spent his time as the head of the Macro Task Force making sure the resources of the Macro Task Force were spend on investigating people who were in the end rules out as suspects in the Claremont Serial Killings
Above: Donald Morey, aka Matusevich
Police appealed for public help on multiple occasions. (ABC News)
A picture of Edwards's mundane suburban life has emerged during the third day of trial. (Supplied: WA Supreme Court)
From the NYT Claremont Serial Killings Archieves
Other suspects believed to the involved in the Claremont Serial Killings who the Western Australian Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia, the Western Australian Government and/or the Western Australian Media, such as the Western Australian Newspaper, the Sunday Times Newspaper and the Western Australia TV Networks, and/or any of the Australian Media outlets, have never been interested in exposing, investigating, prosecuting and/or arresting will be named in the upcoming controversial film being produced called "Devils Garden... The Darkest Side of Perth",
There are serious obvious flaws in the way the Western Australian Media have presented the facts that are known about the last known sightings of Sarah Speirs, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
The in depth over 20 year NYT Investigation into the Claremont Serial Killings show there is a connection with the disappearance of Julie Cutler from the Claremont,-Cottesloe-Mosman Park Area in 1988 and the disappearance Sarah Ann McMahon on November 8, 2000, and the disppearance of other women in and around Perth, Western Australia, and what is known as the the Claremont Serial Killings
Sarah Ann McMahon disappeared on November 8, 2000 after telling a colleague that she was meeting a friend at 5.30pm and then failed to pick up her sister at 8.30 pm that evening.
Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich, 57, has long been considered a suspect in her disappearance and was the last person to speak to Ms McMahon before she disappeared.
After the initial police investigation drew a blank, a further investigation was launched after Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich was convicted of the attempted murder of a Perth prostitute in 2004 and sentenced to 13 years in prison.and what is known.
Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich was originally convected on murdering a prisoner in his prison cell in the 1970's however, his murder conviction was quashe don a technicality by the High Court of Australia, who ordered a retrial. However, the only witness to the death of the prisoner very conveniently died in prison before any retrial of Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich could be undertaken. Thus at the Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich's new murder trial, her was aquitted after he gave an unsworn statement stating he was not involved in the murder of the prisoner in his prison cell. A serious question that needs to be answered by Karl O'Callaghan, the Western Australian Commissioner of Police is:
Why did it take over a week for the Western Australian Police for come and collect a bag belonging to career criminal and convicted attempted murderer Donald Morey which the two owners of the house in Marangaroo, Mr and Mrs Gareth Allen who were the bosses of Donald Morey say contained a real of silver, gaffer tape, two knives and explicit pornographic material of what looked like dead women in sexual positions...
which is similar to the items that Western Australia Police officer Con Bayers, who was the former head of the prostitution task-force said he found in Donald Morey's Commodore Holden car boot driving through Northbridge, Perth, Western Australia, that looked liked and unmarked police car, similar to the car that the fibres were allegedly found on the body of Ciara Glenon.
Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich,
Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia -
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?318778-Australia-Claremont-Serial-Killer-1996-1997-Perth-Western-Australia-6&p=12898398&styleid=21
Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich crabstick said: 10-28-2016
There is enough reports to suggest he is ex army. Im not sure how old he is. Yes, there is a few guys around that use the Im ex SAS as a shield when they fear someone might give them a clobber. He might have been a mechanic? selling $10,000 bundles of amphetamine is organised crime connections. ' the was selling Sarah McMahon $10000 blocks of amphetamine,
its not like he wouldn't have the cash for access to new vehicles, and cut and shut rebuild vehicles he could set up himself. Built fake taxis even. Because a fake taxi didn't have to buy a taxi plate, fake taxis were a cash cow.
If Morey is SAS or ex-military, he may have been trained in all the above.
Mechanic being one of the core subjects for SAS. (SAS barracks are a stones throw from Stirling road, Claremont.) Being SAS with a station wagon set up with a LSD diff, Morey could have driven any the back dirt tracks off the main roads up and down to the dump points with an element of ease. Police have said, it is someone who polishes their car a lot, with care to detail.
Career Criminal and self confessed SAS killer of many people, Donald Morey .. and has admitted he was the last person to see or talk to Sarah Anne McMahan alive ... and according to his phone records was in the area of Bassendean the night Sarah Anne McMahon was talking to Donald Morey on her telephone and saying she was heading to see a friend in Bassendean and there was strong evidence that Donald Morey aka Matusevich lied to the coroner about being at his boss Mr Allen's truck yard on the night that Sarah Anne McMahon Disappeared ... and a witness said she saw a bloodied dead body, with a rope around her neck that looked like Sarah Anne McMahon is his room at his boss Mr Allen's home ...
and that evening, saw him carrying what looked liked a dead body over his shoulder, wrapped up, out of the house, and said she helped clean up Donald's Morey's room at Mr Allen's home ... and Donald Morey aka Matusevich with Mr Allen's wife and Mr Allan saying that Donald Morey aka Matusevich had a bag with all the things needed to kill someone that Donald Morey aka always carried around with him .... but the police after been told about this bag being at Mr and Mrs Allan's home waited for a about a week to go and collect this important evidence ... giving plenty of time of Donald Morey's female partner he spent the weekends with in a house in Chidlow ....to come and collect the black bag ... which gives the strong impression that as a witness has said ..
that Donald Morey worked as a killer and a illegal drug dealer for corrupt police and other powerful politicians,, powerful business people and the Chinese Triads and was protected by these corrupt police .,..
who rang Donald Morey's female partner to inform her she better quickly collect Donald Morey's damming black bag which
help all the tools of trade to abduct and quickly and silently murder someone .....
and Donald Morey says he has constant contact with Sarah Anne McMahon since November, 2000 ... and Sarah Anne McMahon has not even contacted her own family ... and not contacted anyone else buy career criminal and
self confessed killer .... yet will not tell anyone where Sarah Anne McMahon is .... other that saying she is living in Canada
under another name and has two children......then with all that evidence why haven't the Western Australian Police arrested Donald Morey on some charge associated with the disappearance of Saran Anne McMahon before Donald Morey is released from prison sometime in 2017 when his 13 year prison sentence ends .. so that Donald Morey can be refused bail while he goes to court over the new charge or charges associated with the disappearance of Sarah Ann McMahon on about the 8th of November, 2000.... and at the same time further investigate the connection of Donald Morey with the abduction/murder of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. Lisa Brown and other missing girls ...
Claremont Serial Killings Trial: Love rival to testify as trial enters second week
Rebecca Le May AAP December 1, 2019
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-love-rival-to-testify-as-trial-enters-second-week-ng-b881398736z
Bradley Robert Edwards’ love rival is set to testify in the alleged Claremont serial killer’s long-awaited trial when it enters its second week.
The Telstra technician’s first wife, whose identity is suppressed, told the Western Australia Supreme Court on Wednesday the man was a close friend before she realised she had feelings for him.
That came after he moved into the marital home’s spare bedroom and they started a sexual relationship towards the end of 1995.
At one stage, Edwards saw her hugging and kissing the man on the cheek as they sat on his bed, but he barely reacted, and the boarder remained.
Edwards and his first wife separated between late 1995 and early 1996, and she ultimately moved in with the other man, whose identity is also suppressed.
According to a statement the man provided to the court, the accused then phoned him and said, “You’ve been having an affair with my missus“, threatened him and remarked he knew where he lived.
But he never heard from Edwards again, even after the woman told him she was pregnant to her lover.
The affair is central to the prosecution’s “emotional upset” theory that key moments in the marriage breakdown, including the sale of the marital home, coincided with the murders of Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997.
The man will give his testimony via videolink late on Monday
Claremont serial killings trial week one: Rooster, cannabis led to Claremont bodies
Angie RaphaelAAP
December 1, 2019
Had it not been for a rogue rooster, and a young man searching for cannabis plants, the bodies of slain women Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon may never have been found dumped in bushland.
About two decades later, a Sprite bottle provided the last vital clue to catch Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards, who prosecutors say is the Claremont serial killer who haunted Perth in the mid-1990s.
But more than two years before detectives finally swooped, Edwards' second wife was "sick and tired of all the lies" and already living in fear for her life when she began trawling through his bank statements.
She testified at his Western Australia Supreme Court trial she was "scared stiffless" as she noted at least one bank statement was missing during the period when Ms Glennon was abducted and there had been ATM withdrawals from Claremont.
Edwards, 50, denies murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare worker Ms Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ms Glennon, 27.
It is alleged Edwards' "emotional upset" about his first marriage breakdown correlated with the murders but she testified they were civil.
Claremont serial killings trial week one: Rooster, cannabis led to Claremont bodies
Angie RaphaelAAP
December 1, 2019
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-rooster-cannabis-led-to-claremont-bodies-ng-b881398400z
Had it not been for a rogue rooster, and a young man searching for cannabis plants, the bodies of slain women Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon may never have been found dumped in bushland.
About two decades later, a Sprite bottle provided the last vital clue to catch Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards, who prosecutors say is the Claremont serial killer who haunted Perth in the mid-1990s.
But more than two years before detectives finally swooped, Edwards' second wife was "sick and tired of all the lies" and already living in fear for her life when she began trawling through his bank statements.
She testified at his Western Australia Supreme Court trial she was "scared stiffless" as she noted at least one bank statement was missing during the period when Ms Glennon was abducted and there had been ATM withdrawals from Claremont.
Edwards, 50, denies murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare worker Ms Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ms Glennon, 27.
It is alleged Edwards' "emotional upset" about his first marriage breakdown correlated with the murders but she testified they were civil.
She rejected his offer to watch fireworks together in January 1996, which prosecutors say was the night Ms Spiers vanished.
Around the time Ms Rimmer disappeared in June 1996 prosecutors say Edwards learnt his former wife was pregnant to a friend-turned-boarder.
The next day, Ms Rimmer's watch was found by a man who had fallen off his horse.
Her body was found metres away almost two months later after a family stopped their car when a rooster ran in their path, after which the mother spotted the body while picking death lilies.
A Telstra-issued pocket knife was also found by two riders that day.
Around the time the marital home was sold in March 1997, a woman matching Ms Glennon's description was seen leaning into the window of a station wagon.
Her body was later found by a man searching for cannabis plants.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said the women had been "left to rot" and while Ms Spiers was never found, it was a "miracle" Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were stumbled upon, covered in branches.
They had "sawing" cuts to their necks and injuries indicating they fought back.
The investigation into Edwards slowly ramped up in 2013, when a silk kimono dropped during an attack on an 18-year-old woman in her Huntingdale home in 1988 was boxed.
Testing in 2016 showed semen stains allegedly matched swabs taken from a 17-year-old rape victim who was dragged through Karrakatta cemetery in 1995, and DNA found under Ms Glennon's fingernails.
Then in December 2016, investigators matched fingerprints taken from a 1988 attempted break-in to Edwards, who was in the database after a 1990 attack at Hollywood Hospital - a crime he later minimised as "just an assault" when he told his second wife about it.
Detectives pounced four days later, testing a Sprite bottle Edwards had discarded, then arrested him at his Kewdale home.
Edwards seemingly presents as a family man, who shared pet dogs and a horse with his first wife.
He then became a stepfather to the daughter of his second wife, whom he met on April Fools' Day in 1997 and wooed with a dozen roses.
When home videos were aired in court, Edwards smiled mildly - a rare show of emotion from him so far in WA's so-called "trial of the century".
Defence counsel Paul Yovich has attempted to poke holes in the prosecution's timeline.
RELATED:
BRADLEY ROBERT EDWARDS’ EX-WIFE TELLS COURT SHE FEARED FOR HER LIFE
COURT TOLD ACCUSED ‘SKIPPED HOLIDAY’ ON NIGHT CIARA GLENNON DISAPPEARED
HARROWING DETAILS EMERGE ON DAY ONE OF BRADLEY ROBERT EDWARDS’ TRIAL
He also suggested some DNA exhibits had been contaminated and fibre evidence may also be tainted.
At the very least, Edwards is a confessed rapist after pleading guilty in October to the Huntingdale and cemetery attacks.
Family of the murdered women have listened intently as they seek justice and some semblance of closure.
Claremont serial killings trial: Harrowing details emerge on day one of Bradley Robert Edwards’ trial
Rebecca Le MayPerthNow
November 25, 2019 1
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-harrowing-details-emerge-on-day-one-of-bradley-robert-edwards-trial-ng-b881393026z
The trial of the alleged Claremont serial killer has only just begun but already the victims' still-grieving relatives have heard harrowing details including women's screams that abruptly stop, decomposition and animal predation.
Former Telstra technician and Little Athletics coach Bradley Robert Edwards, 50, finally went on trial in the Supreme Court of WA on Monday after almost three years behind bars.
Edwards wore a blank expression as prosecutor Carmel Barabagallo began outlining the abductions of 18-year-old secretary Sarah Spiers, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, from the wealthy Perth suburb in 1996 and 1997
The confessed rapist also remained impassive as the prosecutor detailed the gruesome discoveries of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon's bodies in bushland, and how loud, high-pitched screams were heard in nearby Mosman Park on the night Ms Spiers went missing.
Sitting in the front row of the full public gallery, Ms Spiers' parents Don and Carol heard the last recording of her voice as she called for a taxi.
The confessed rapist also remained impassive as the prosecutor detailed the gruesome discoveries of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon's bodies in bushland, and how loud, high-pitched screams were heard in nearby Mosman Park on the night Ms Spiers went missing.
Sitting in the front row of the full public gallery, Ms Spiers' parents Don and Carol heard the last recording of her voice as she called for a taxi.
She was gone by the time the vehicle arrived and was never seen again.
Grim descriptions of the other women's injuries were endured by Ms Glennon's father Denis, her sister Denise and Ms Rimmer's mother Jenny.
Both women had neck injuries inflicted in a cutting or "even a sawing action", Ms Barbagallo said.
They were partly decomposed and largely covered by vegetation.
Ms Rimmer was face down and naked, and parts of her body that weren't covered by branches were damaged from animal predation, Ms Barbagallo said.
Dozens of reporters are covering the trial, with those not able to secure a seat watching proceedings via video link in three other rooms, but there appeared to be just enough seats for member of the public.
A sudden hush fell over the room 10 minutes before the trial got under way as the magnitude of the long-awaited events about to unfold sunk in.
Ronald Leslie Carey, Retired WA Police Superintendent, was one of the original lead investigators on the Cutler case.
Claremont serial killings trial: Accused Claremont killer Bradley Robert Edwards ‘silent’ during messy break-up, says ex-wife
Angie Raphael and Rebecca Le MayAAP
November 27, 2019
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-accused-claremont-killer-bradley-robert-edwards-silent-during-messy-break-up-says-ex-wife-ng-b881395180z
The first wife of accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards has testified at his trial, revealing they had an even messier break up than previously thought.
The 50-year-old ex-Telstra technician is accused of murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, after abducting or luring them into his work car at night in 1996 and 1997.
His ex-wife, whose identity is suppressed, was the first witness to give evidence in the Western Australia Supreme Court trial, saying their relationship deteriorated after he brought a computer home.
The former Little Athletics coach would often spend many hours on the device until the early morning, leaving her to go to bed alone.
"It was a long time," she said via video link on Wednesday.
"I just felt like he wasn't interested, he wasn't present in the marriage."
They separated between late 1995 and early 1996 after she became close to a boarder, ultimately moving in with the man, whose identity is also suppressed, and having his child.
Before they moved out, Edwards caught them hugging and kissing but barely responded.
"Bradley didn't say too much to me at all," she said.
The break wasn't clean.
While living with her new lover, the woman returned to the matrimonial home and had sex with Edwards.
The next morning, she asked him if they were doing the right thing, suggesting they sort out their marriage, but he was non-responsive.
"He didn't say anything to me at all," she said.
"He never made any comment about us separating.
"He did not ask me to return."
Edwards remained expressionless in the dock as the intimate details emerged.
Earlier, the woman painted a picture of Edwards as a dutiful husband who would drop her off and pick her up from work in the CBD every day, but he failed to collect her after an "incident" at Hollywood Hospital.
Edwards attacked a social worker while he was doing work for Telstra at the facility in 1990, which earnt him an assault conviction and he was also ordered to complete a sex offender program.
His ex-wife said she caught a bus home after he failed to arrive, then met up with him at his parent's house.
She said the pair had an argument the night before about getting married, which she had raised.
"He seemed a little bit upset about it, then I got upset," she said.
She went to their bedroom, he tried to console her, they talked about it, hugged and stopped arguing.
Edwards' ex-wife recalled him being a social drinker who favoured beer and did not consume alcohol excessively, but prosecutors allege his drinking increased after the relationship breakdown.
The ex-wife also told the court she and Edwards did not frequent Claremont, and while they owned a horse, they never went to a riding school in Wellard, near bushland where Ms Rimmer's body was found.
“He never made any comment about us separating. He did not ask me to return.”
Her testimony in WA's so-called "trial of the century" followed almost two days of opening addresses.
Barrister Paul Yovich said in his brief remarks the defence case was simple: Edwards did not do it.
He said some DNA exhibits relied upon by prosecutors had been contaminated in a laboratory and fibre evidence may also be tainted.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo outlined how breakthroughs in scientific evidence eventually led to Edwards' arrest in December 2016, more than two decades after the first murder.
Edwards last month admitted to five offences stemming from an attack on a sleeping 18-year-old woman in Huntingdale in 1988, and the abduction and double rape of a teenager at Karrakatta cemetery in 1995.
Claremont Serial Killings: the murders that rocked Perth
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/claremont-the-murders-that-rocked-perth/11603942
Tuesday 22 October 2019
IMAGE: SARAH SPIERS, CIARA GLENNON AND JANE RIMMER (ABC NEWS)
Every era, every city has a crime that defines it.
For Perth it was the abduction and murder of these young women after a night out in the wealthy suburb of Claremont in the 1990s.
The Claremont serial killings sparked Australia’s longest running and most expensive police investigation. For twenty years, it remained a mystery.
Then, in 2016, a man never before connected with the case was charged — Bradley Robert Edwards.
The History Listen looks at the case that’s transfixed Perth for decades, the controversial tactics of the taskforce investigating the murders, and the men very publicly, wrongfully accused.
Interviews:
Bret Christian, Managing Editor The Post, author of Presumed Guilty: when cops get it wrong and courts seal the deal
Archives: Tracey Stewart, Credits: Producer: Kirsti Melville, Sound Engineer: David Le May
Ronald Leslie Carey, Retired WA Police Superintendent, was one of the original lead investigators on the Cutler case.
Sarah Spiers went missing after celebrating Australia Day with friends in 1996. (Supplied: Fairfax Media)
Bradley Murdoch came under police scrutiny for the Claremont murders, but was ruled out. (ABC TV)
Ray Mickelberg at Fremantle Prison, describing the area where his finger was bitten off completely. CREDIT:NINE NEWS PERTH
The Author of the well known series of Books Titled "The Triumph pf Truth (Who Is Watching the Watchers?)" who was also serving a prison term in Fremantles Prison having been also set up on false charges by the Western Australian Police and Western Australian Prosecutions, witnessed Prisoner Smith deliberately biting off Ray Mickelberg's finger as a favour for Detective Don Hancock while is was in the Fremantle Prison Two Division Yard ... The Author of the well known series of Books Titled "The Triumph pf Truth (Who Is Watching the Watchers?)" was standing only a few metres from where the fight broke out and witnessed at close range Prisoner Smith deliberately biting off Ray Mickelberg's finger as a favour for Detective Don Hancock. Smith, had told him the day before that he was going to court in two days to face over 500 charges of breaking and entering and was going to do a deal with the police to receive probation instead of a prison sentence without saying at the time what the deal Smith was going to do with the police to avoid a prison sentence. Smith went to court the day after deliberately biting off Ray Mickelberg's finger as a favour for Detective Don Hancock, and received probation and did not have to come back to prison and was never charged for assaulting Ray Mickelberg or for deliberately biting off Ray Mickelberg's finger as a favour for Detective Don Hancock
Claremont accused's wife 'feared for life'
Angie Raphael and Rebecca Le Ma
NOVEMBER 28 2019
https://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/story/6515561/claremont-accuseds-wife-feared-for-life/
The trial of Bradley Robert Edwards for murdering three women in the 1990s heard from his ex-wife.
The accused Claremont serial killer's second wife says she was "sick and tired of his lies" and feared for her life when she rifled through his bank transactions and failed to find a statement covering the period of the final victim's murder.
Former Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards is battling accusations he murdered secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, after they spent nights out in 1996 and 1997.
Edwards' second wife, whose identity is suppressed, testified in the Western Australia Supreme Court on Thursday that in 2014 - the year before she left him - she took notes from his bank statements.
At least one from late December 1996 to early April 1997 was missing.
Ms Glennon was taken on March 15, 1997 and her body was dumped in bushland.
An earlier statement showed two withdrawals from a Bayview Terrace ATM in December 1996.
Edwards told police he had no association with the affluent suburb.
But another woman who casually dated Edwards in the mid-1990s said they "certainly" went to Claremont and "more than likely" visited The Continental Hotel, where Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer were seen shortly before they were abducted.
Asked by prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo why she took the notes, the second wife said their relationship "started to escalate".
"I feared for my life", she said but was prevented from expanding.
Asked if she wrote the notes in chronological order, she replied she was "terrified while writing this".
When defence counsel Paul Yovich asked if she wrote them in one go, she volunteered she was "scared stiffless" but the barrister cut her off, telling her he didn't need "editorial".
With a clear recollection, the woman said the pair "fell in love pretty quickly" after meeting on April 1, 1997.
But about two months later while driving her home, a "very edgy" Edwards stopped suddenly and confessed he had a criminal record for assaulting a woman during a "brain snap", triggered by his first wife confessing she had cheated on him while they were dating.
"He cried and everything ... I felt sorry for him," the second wife said.
"He was all 'woe is me'."
In the 1990 attack, he grabbed a Hollywood Hospital social worker from behind and tried to drag her into toilets.
Cable ties were found in his pocket and he was ordered to complete a sex offender program.
"He minimised it and that's all I knew about it - it was just an assault," the second wife said.
A former girlfriend, whose name is also suppressed, said Edwards spoke about his first marriage breakdown without anger or bitterness and was "matter-of-fact about it".
She said their relationship "started to fizzle" after they spent a weekend in Margaret River in February 1997 and ended weeks later, adding it had "well and truly finished" by late April.
"He told me he'd met somebody else," she said.
They then had sex.
Mr Yovich asked if Edwards was "trying to be nice about it" and the woman replied: "I guess so."
The next morning, Edwards still wanted to break up.
Former friend Paul Luff testified he did not remember the accused's second wedding, but he had seen photographs confirming he was the best man.
Mr Luff said after Edwards separated from his first wife he was "a little bit broken up about it" and began drinking more.
"He said he was going to give it up, it was too hard for him to keep drinking like that," he said.
"He was pretty upset, he was obviously a little bit depressed."
Mr Luff said he asked Edwards at one point if he was going to "top" himself, to which Edwards replied he would "get through this".
He said Edwards later became focused on his second wife and drank little.
Prosecutors allege upsetting moments in Edwards' first marriage breakdown corresponded with the murders.
‘I thought I was going to die’: Woman who survived accused serial killer
A woman who was attacked by the man accused in the Claremont serial killings trial told a court she thought she “would die”
Candace Sutton@candacesutton1
A woman who was attacked from behind and had fabric stuffed in her mouth by the man accused of the Claremont serial killings has told a court she thought she would die.
Testifying at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards, the woman described her terror when he attacked her at a Perth hospital in 1990.
Mr Edwards is on trial for the alleged murders in 1996 and 1997 of Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27 who vanished from the Perth suburb of Claremont.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The woman who was the victim of his 1990 attack, whose identity is suppressed, described the moment Mr Edwards grabbed her and she feared the cloth in her mouth might be soaked with something.
The assault happened at Perth’s Hollywood Hospital where the woman was employed as a social worker and Mr Edwards, a Telstra technician, had arrived to work on phone lines.
She told the Western Australia Supreme Court hearing that Mr Edwards had asked to use the toilet, and the re-emerged and asked to fetch his pen, Nine News reported.
He then attacked her from behind.
“His hand came around my face. I was trying desperately not to breathe because I thought there was something on the cloth,” the woman said.
Bradley Robert Edwards, above as a younger man, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of alleged murder.Source:Supplied
“I honestly thought I was going to die.
“I breathed in and there was nothing on the cloth so that was when I started to really struggle.
“I thought ‘I’ve got a chance here’.
“My feet kept slipping on the carpet. There was a lot of strength but I managed to twist around.”
Pulled towards the toilet on her chair in an ordeal which lasted ten seconds, the woman felt the fight for her life suddenly stop.
Then she heard her attacker say, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” before she fled the area, leaving behiond one shoe.
Police were called and Mr Edwards admitted to the attack and was placed on a two year probation order for a single charge of common assault.
He was ordered to complete a sex offenders program.
The receipt for navy workwear that was signed by Mr Edwards.Source:Supplied
In earlier evidence, the trial heard that tiny polyester fibres in a specific dye lot specially created for Telstra in the 1990s are part of the prosecution case against Bradley Robert Edwards.
Mr Edwards’ trial heard the colour of the uniform he wore to work, a special dye lot known as “Telecom Navy”, has become a key part of the prosecution’s case.
Those sitting court were treated to images of workers wearing the navy uniforms, as well two leggy models attired in an earlier version, a kind of Telecom beige.
Crown Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo has alleged that tiny Telecom Navy polyester fibres were found on the remains of Ms Rimmer, Ms Glennon and a third women.
Telstra workers pose in ‘Telecom Navy’ uniforms, similar to what Bradley Edwards wore in the mid-1990s. Source:Supplied
Green receipt shows Mr Edwards ordered navy Telstra clothing in 1996.Source:Supplied
“Telecom Navy’ fibres were allegedly found on Ciara Glennon’s body.Source:Supplied
Fibres were also allegedly on Jane Rimmer.Source: Supplied
The other woman was a 17-year-old, on her way home from Claremont in 1995 when she was abducted and raped by Bradley Edwards, who pleaded guilty last month to the sexual assault.
Receipts for the clothing displayed in the court indicated Edwards was in possession of clothing in “Telecom Navy” in the mid-1990s.
Two different receipts show Edwards ordered navy Telstra trousers and a pair of navy coveralls in August 1995.
On day seven of the trial on Tuesday, a woman gave evidence about a Telstra car circling the area in a Perth suburb where she was and how she even tried to hail it, mistakenly believing it was a taxi.
Part of what Ms Barbagallo has dubbed the “Telstra living witness” evidence, the woman said she saw the car circle five times in two hours.
The woman, then aged in her early 20s, was at Perth’s iconic Ocean Beach Hotel in the suburb of Cottesloe, around 3km west of Claremont, in 1996.
It was the Friday night before Christmas and she was drinking with friends in the front bar area when she first saw the vehicle.
The beige or light khaki coloured Telecom uniform before it was switched to navy.Source:Supplied
The woman was drinking at Perth's Ocean Beach Hotel before Christmas 1996 when she saw a Telstra car circling, at first thinking it was a taxi.Source:Supplied
When she and her companions left the hotel and walked down a main street away from the beachfront towards the train station, she saw the car again and tried to hail it.
“It was a white station wagon,” the now 47-year-old told the court. “It had a Telstra logo on the driver’s side door. It slowed and stopped. I said ‘no, I didn’t need a lift’ and they kept going.”
She said the vehicle had a ladder in the middle of the roof and an orange frame on the number plates, but the male driver was obscured by the “shadow of the car”.
As her group continued to walk, the vehicle drove past two more times on the street, slowed but did not stop, and they eventually found a taxi.
In June 1997, she reported the incident to police after a friend said she’d been picked up by a Telstra vehicle.
Under cross-examination by Mr Edwards defence counsel, Paul Yovich, Ms Clements agreed she had believed there was “something fishy about” the Telstra car.
Mr Yovich said the woman’s first police statement had made no mention of her talking with the driver.
The woman said she mentioned it in a second statement in September 1997 because police had asked her questions about it.
– with AAP
Continue the conversation | candace.sutto
https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/telecom-navy-colour-that-could-help-convict-an-accused-serial-killer/news-story/d44a2332dc3a5346ca8b7d6bc9031294
NYT Investigation Team Comment:
The trial of Bradley Robert Edwards in creating more unanswered questions than providing the much wanted answers that the families and friends of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara and the Western Australian Public want and need and have a right to have ..
It seems rather odd and strange that the Western Australia Police did not immediately flag up the name of Bradley Robert Edwards when Sarah Spiers, disappeared,, because of his previous sexual assault conviction in the Claremont/Hollywood, Karrakatta District in around 1990, only a few years before the disappearance of Sarah Spiers ..... if the Western Australian Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions sincerely believe and are convinced that Bradley Robert Edwards is the sole and only person responsible for the all;edged abduction and alleged murder of Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer and then Ciara Glennon .... then had the Western Australian Police immediately flagged up the name of Bradley Robert Edwards when Sarah Spiers, disappeared,, because he had a prior conviction around 1990 for sexual assault in the Claremont/Hollywood, Karrakatta District .. then the lives of and Rimmer and then Ciara Glennon could have been saved ..... thus if the Western Australian Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions are right, that Bradley Robert Edwards is the sole and only person responsible for the alleged abduction and alleged murder of Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer and then Ciara Glennon .. then the Western Australian Police have blood on their hands .. and partly responsible for the alleged abduction and murder of Jane Rimmer and then Ciara Glennon .... however ,,, if the Western Australian Police are wrong about Bradley Robert Edwards being the sole and only person responsible for the alleged abduction and alleged murder of Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer and then Ciara Glennon .... then they are also responsible for again spending an enormous amounts of time, money and resources paid for by the Western Australia People .. in again investigating and prosecuting the wrong ... man .. letting more time to pass for people named as being invo,ved and responsible for the Claremont Serial Abductuions and Killings ... by Sarah Anne McMahon in her statement before she disappeared in the year 2000 ... (with the Western Australian Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions or the WA Givernement not interested in knowing what was in the statement said) ... with the Coroner believing that on the evidence produced at the Sarah Anne McMahon Inquest .... that Sarah Anne McMahon was abducted and murdered .. with evidence pointing to Donald Morey aka Matusevich as being involved in the the abduction and murder of Sarah Anne McMahon ...and the landlord of the house he was living,, who was also his boss and ex-prison friend, being an accessory after the fact ... with Donald Morey aka Matusevich, having a clear long criminal history of bank robberies, attempted murder, suspicion of murder and was originally charged under his previous name Donald Matusevich, in the 1970's with the murdering a fellow prisoner, and ..... originally found guilty the murder of a fellow prisoner, however, had his conviction quashed on a technicality by the late Justice Murphy at the High Court, with a retrial ordered .... however because the only witness that could have give enidence that Donald Matusevich, in the 1970's murdered a fellow prisoner, was also murdered in prison before the re-trial of Donald Matusevich for the murder of a fellow prisoner, Donald Matusevich was able to have a not guilty verdict entered after he made an unsworn statement in the dock that he did not murder his fellow prisoner, knowing the prosecution could not produce the only possible witness, ... because that witness had been also murdered in prison .. even before the Murder Guilty Verdict was set aside by Justice Murphy at the High Court ...
Plus, when Jane Rimmer and her body were found ...why didn't that the Western Australia Police immediately flag up the name of Bradley Robert Edwards when Sarah Spiers, disappeared,, because of his previous sexual assault conviction in the Claremont/Hollywood, Karrakatta District in around 1990, only a few years before the disappearance of Sarah Spiers . and abduction and murder of Jane Rimmer ...
this could have saved the life of Ciara Glennon if the Western Australian Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions are right, that Bradley Robert Edwards is the sole and only person responsible for the alleged abduction and alleged murder of Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer and then Ciara Glennon ...
Plus, when Ciara Glennon disappeared and her body found ... why didn't the Western Australia Police immediately flag up the name of Bradley Robert Edwards when Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara were abducted and murdered ...,, because of his previous sexual assault conviction in the Claremont/Hollywood, Karrakatta District in around 1990, only a few years before the disappearance of Sarah Spiers . and abduction and murder of Jane Rimmer . and Ciara Glennon..
Why did it take till the year 2016-2017 to suddenly flag up the name of Bradley Robert Edwards when Sarah Spiers, disappeared,, because of his previous sexual assault conviction in the Claremont/Hollywood, Karrakatta District in around 1990, only a few years before the disappearance of Sarah Spiers . and abduction and murder of Jane Rimmer . and Ciara Glennon.
It seems that the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards in creating more unanswered questions than providing the much wanted answers that the families and friends of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara and the Western Australian Public want and need and have a right to have ..
The ex gratia deal that stipulated the State pay for the Mickelbergs' Legal Aid was mentioned
in this 2008 press release from Attorney General Jim McGinty.
Claremont serial killings trial of Bradley Edwards hears of the final sighting of Sarah Spiers
By Andrea Mayes
4th December 2019
PHOTO: Bradley Edwards and Sarah Spiers, the first woman to go missing from Claremont. (ABC News)
PHOTO: No trace of Sarah Spiers has ever been found. (Supplied: Fairfax Media)
PHOTO: A composite image of a person of interest compiled from a range of photographs related to the Claremont investigation. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
PHOTO: Julianne Johnstone told the court a man stared silently at her from a Telstra-branded car on the night Sarah Spiers vanished. (ABC News: Andrea Mayes)
PHOTO: Jaroslav Krupnik was meant to pick up Sarah Spiers in his taxi on the night she disappeared, but she was not there when he went to collect her. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-05/claremont-serial-killing-trial-last-sighting-of-sarah-spiers/11767442
The last man to see Sarah Spiers alive has told the Claremont serial killings trial about a young woman he spotted on a street corner apparently waiting for someone after calling a taxi, but when her taxi showed up, the driver said no trace of her could be seen.
Bradley Edwards, 50, is on trial in the WA Supreme Court for the wilful murders of 18-year-old Ms Spiers, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, who disappeared from the upmarket Perth entertainment district of Claremont between 1996 and 1997.
The bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were found in bushland some weeks after their disappearances, but Ms Spiers's body has never been found.
Alec Pannall, 47, who now works for Shell International in London, told the court he had been leaving popular nightclub Club Bay View in the early hours of January 27, 1996, when he noticed the young woman as he was being driven home.
Mr Pannall said she was near the corner of Stirling Highway and Stirling Street, outside the Body Club gymnasium, and leaning against a metre-high telecommunications post with her arms crossed.
"She looked as though she was waiting for someone," he said.
He described her as being "roughly 20 years old" and of slim build, and he observed her for 15-20 seconds as the car he was in waited at nearby traffic lights.
The taxi ride Spiers never took
His account came after taxi driver Jaroslav Krupnik, 70, told the court no one was present when he went to pick up a fare from the corner of Stirling Street and Stirling Highway around 2:00am on January 27, 1996.
Ms Spiers called for a taxi from that location at 2:06am, and last week her final phone call to Swan Taxis was played to the court, in which she told the operator in a young Australian-accented voice she wanted to go to Mosman Park.
Mr Krupnik, a Czech national, said no one was at the location when he arrived about two minutes after receiving the fare from the Swan Taxis computer system.
He said it had been a busy night and he was coming from the direction of Cottesloe, which is adjacent to Claremont.
"I not see anybody so I kept going," he said.
He then picked up two men and a woman from Club Bay View, where Ms Spiers had been socialising with friends before she left to get a cab, and headed back towards Stirling Highway to drop them in Mosman Park.
He passed the intersection again where he was meant to pick up the fare, and again did not see anyone.
"I was looking at the space but still nobody was there," he said.
Under cross-examination from defence counsel Paul Yovich SC, he admitted he did not have a thorough look for Ms Spiers because he knew he could easily get a fare from nearby Club Bay View if he could not see her.
Identifying the 'suspicious' Telstra driver
The court was also showed an identikit police sketch of man based on a description given to them by Julie-Anne Johnstone, who was also a patron at Club Bay View on the night Ms Spiers went missing and is part of the prosecution's so-called Telstra Living Witness project.
The project consists of a series of witnesses who reported seeing a lone man driving a white vehicle marked with Telstra insignia and behaving suspiciously in the Claremont and Cottesloe areas in 1996 and 1997.
Ms Johnstone, now 47, said the identikit sketch was of a man who was driving a white sedan with Telstra insignia when he stopped to stare at her as she waited on Stirling Highway for a taxi.
She had been at Club Bay View with friends, arriving around 1:00am, but had left on her own after about 40 minutes, exiting via the rear staircase and walking past a nearby Hungry Jack's to stand at a bus stop on the highway.
It was while she was standing there that the man pulled up in the car, which she described as looking like a Toyota Camry.
"It wasn't a wagon," she said.
It is the State's case that Edwards was driving one of two Telstra work vehicles he was allocated at the time — both station wagons, not sedans — when he abducted Ms Spiers, Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
One was a white Toyota Camry station wagon, which he drove between 1992 and 1996, and the other a white Holden Commodore station wagon he was allocated from April 29, 1996 to December 1998.
When the car stopped, Ms Johnstone "just assumed that the car was pulling up to pick someone up", but after it had remained there for 10–15 minutes, she turned to look at it
The driver wound down the passenger side window, she said, and leaned over to stare at her silently for 10–30 seconds.
"I said 'what?' but there was no response," she said, and the car then drove off.
But her description of the driver does not match the descriptions given by other witnesses in the Telstra Living Witness project who have given evidence to the court so far.
Annabelle Bushell, Jane Ouvaroff and Natalie Clements told the court of a clean-shaven man with a short, neat haircut driving a Telstra-branded station wagon or van.
But Ms Johnstone said the man she saw had brown hair that was "a bit messy maybe" or possibly curly, styled longer at the back than the front, and facial hair.
Further witnesses from the Telstra Living Witness project are likely to give evidence today.
The trial of accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards has begun in the WA supreme court. Edwards is fighting accusations he killed three women in the Perth suburb of Claremont in 1996 and 1997.
Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP
Witnesses heard screams on nights of Claremont murders, court told
Fifty-year-old former Telstra technician is charged with murdering three women in the affluent Perth suburb in 1996 and 1997
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/25/accused-claremont-serial-killer-bradley-edwards-pleads-not-guilty-as-trial-begins-in-wa
Multiple people heard high-pitched screams on the nights two victims of the accused Claremont serial killer were murdered, a Perth court had heard.
Confessed rapist Bradley Robert Edwards is fighting accusations he murdered three women – secretary Sarah Spiers, 18; childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23; and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27 – after each of them spent a night out with friends in the affluent suburb of Claremont in 1996 and 1997.
The 50-year-old former Telstra technician was re-arraigned in the WA supreme court on Monday and again pleaded not guilty.
In her opening address, prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said that on the night Spiers vanished on 27 January, 1996, four people heard screams several streets apart in Mosman Park.
One couple was woken by the screams and saw a light-coloured station wagon, while a second woman said she heard a high-pitched scream that abruptly stopped.
“In the still of the night, the screams of a female in distress can carry long distances and may be difficult to accurately ascertain the direction from which they come,” Barbagallo said.
The court also heard the call Spiers made for a taxi minutes before she vanished
Barbagallo said Rimmer declined a taxi ride with friends on 9 June 1996, and that was the last time they saw her.
Security footage outside the pub was played in court but none of the four cameras at the venue captured everything.
The camera showed Rimmer outside, then panned away and when it returned 13 seconds later, she had vanished.
She said Rimmer’s naked body was discovered by “absolute chance” 55 days later in Wellard, in an advanced state of decomposition metres from the road.
A couple said they were woken by the sound of a female yelling that night then a car driving off, while another couple about one kilometre away also heard screaming that stopped suddenly, the prosecutor said.
Rimmer’s watch was found the next day by a man who did not realise its significance.
Glennon had returned from a year of travelling overseas 14 days before she disappeared, and was supposed to be her sister’s bridesmaid.
The court heard 12 people saw a lone woman matching Glennon’s appearance walking away from the Continental Hotel on 15 March 1997, including a group referred to as the “burger boys” who told her she was “crazy to hitchhike”.
They later saw her leaning into the window of a station wagon.
Barbagallo said each of the young, bright and beautiful women vanished “under the cover of darkness”.
“Two were found dead, dumped in bushland, covered in foliage and left to rot in the killer’s hope that they would never be found ... so that any evidence that might connect the killer to the crimes would be lost forever – lost in the bush, in the dirt, in the foliage that he left them in,” she said.
“Despite the killer’s best efforts, miraculously the bodies of those two young women were found.”
Barbagallo said the absence of Spiers’ body meant the killer’s identity would be proved in other ways.
She said the community had lived in fear “caused by an enigma of the dark” and in coming months the prosecution would demystify that enigma.
“There was one killer and that killer was Bradley Robert Edwards,” she said.
Among those in the packed public gallery were the parents of the victims including Don and Carol Spiers, Jenny Rimmer and Denis Glennon.
The trial is being held without a jury owing to the publicity surrounding the case. Justice Stephen Hall is expected to reserve his judgment for months before handing down a lengthy written verdict.
Claremont serial killings trial: Witness Annabelle Bushell says ‘strong instinct’ forced her out of white Telstra car
Shannon Hampton
The West Australian
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-witness-annabelle-bushell-says-strong-instinct-forced-her-out-of-white-telstra-car-ng-b881402017z
Claremont serial killings trial: Telstra promoted Bradley Robert Edwards after Hollywood Hospital assault
Shannon Hampton
The West Australian
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-telstra-promoted-bradley-robert-edwards-after-hollywood-hospital-assault-ng-b881401736z
Claremont serial killings trial: Hollywood Hospital victim says ‘I thought I was going to die’
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-hollywood-hospital-victim-says-i-thought-i-was-going-to-die-ng-b881400975z
Inspector Paul Ferguson,-Former Macro Taskforce boss, who was suddenly removed from being the boss of the Macro Task Force, when he stated publicly the the Claremont Serial Killer or Killers could be a Police Officer, a Taxi Driver, a Security Guard, or someone appearing to be one of these, and/or a well respected person, and asked for any possible theories to be provided ... it appears that there was a concern that Inspector Paul Ferguson,-Former Macro Task Force boss, was getting to close to the truth and for that reason was quickly replaced by David John Caporn-who later because the Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner... .David John Caporn was later forced to resign as a Western Australian Police Officer after being accused of helping the Western Australian Director of Public Prosecutions provide misleading evidence to have Andrew Mallard wrongly convicted of the murder of Pamela Lawrence.
Andrew Mallard spent 12 years in jail for a murder he didn't commit.
Rather strange that Andrew Mallard died at 56 in a hit-and-run crash in Los Angeles in November, 2019
Andrew Mallard, who died at 56 in a hit-and-run crash in Los Angeles this week, served 12 years in jail for the 1994 murder of Perth woman Pamela Lawrence.
His lengthy fight to have his name cleared was the subject of the two-part Australian Story episode The Wronged Man, highlighting the lengths a politician and a journalist went to to prove his innocence.
Among the prosecution files was a conclusion by a pathologist that a wrench could not have caused Ms Lawrence's injuries, after a test had been conducted on a pig's head. The test had been kept from court.
After the team were able to access police files, they discovered original witness statements did not correspond with second and third statements which were presented to court
In November 2005 the High Court quashed Mr Mallard's conviction and declared a miscarriage of justice occurred.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-20/andrew-mallard-accused-of-and-how-did-they-prove-he-was-innocent/11033294/
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/how-the-mallard-case-unfolded-20081007-4vhk.html
Andrew Mark Mallard was wrongfully convicted in 1995 of murdering jeweller Pamela Lawrence at her Mosman Park shop on May 23, 1994.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment but in 2006 walked free after 12 years in jail, when his conviction was quashed by the High Court of Australia.
It was later revealed that during the original trial, police withheld vital information from Mr Mallard's defence team.
After Mr Mallard's successful High Court appeal, a re-trial was ordered, but the charges against him were dropped and he was released.
A four-month Corruption and Crime Commission investigation headed by NSW Supreme Court judge John Dunford QC was launched last year. The high profile probe examined whether there was misconduct by any police, prosecutors or Members of Parliament associated with the prosecution and appeals of Mr Mallard.
The findings of that investigation were released today.
Mr Dunford considered 25 adverse findings against two of WA's top policemen for their roles in convicting Mr Mallard.
A total of 14 adverse findings were recommended against Assistant Police Commissioner Mal Shervill and 11 against fellow Assistant Commissioner David Caporn. The inquiry was told the pair had removed and changed facts in the statements of four witnesses to get rid of inconvenient material and to convict Mr Mallard.
Leading prosecutor in the Mallard case, Ken Bates, who is now Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, had 13 adverse findings levelled against him.
On May 12, 2006, five police officers were stood down by Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan over the original investigation into the murder. At the time, Mr O'Callaghan apologised to Mr Mallard for any part the police had played in his conviction.
Andrew Mallard, who spent 12 years in jail in WA for a murder he didn't commit, has been killed in an apparent hit and run in Los Angeles
20/04/2019
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/man-wrongfully-jailed-in-wa-killed-in-us
A man who was wrongfully jailed for murder in Western Australia has been killed in the US in an apparent hit and run.
Andrew Mallard was imprisoned for 12 years over the 1994 death of Mosman Park jeweller Pamela Lawrence but had his conviction quashed by the High Court in 2005 and was freed in 2006. A spokesman for the WA government confirmed to AAP Mr Mallard had been killed on a Los Angeles road.
"I'm terribly saddened by this tragedy," Attorney General John Quigley, who led the fight to overturn the conviction, said in a statement on Friday.
"It's just fortunate that he got to spend 13 years of freedom after so much time wrongfully imprisoned."
Missing person poster in the phone box where Sarah Spiers called for a taxi on the night she disappeared from Claremont. (ABC News)
Ms Julie Cutler's car is taken out of the water on Cottesloe Beach, Western Australia by two police divers .CREDIT-WA POLICE
Jaroslav Krupnik was meant to pick up Sarah Spiers in his taxi on the night she disappeared, but she was not there when he went to collect her.
(ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western ... https://www.websleuths.com › Home › Forums › CRIMES › Serial Killers
00001. "I also believe that David Caporn single handedly destroyed any potential this investigation had. Despite all of this, the fact remains that the WA Police inquiries into these ... The "blonde haired guy" didn't know SS and wanted to get out with the drunk .... Remember, it has stated in the image source, the cops are DNA testing …
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/australia-claremont-serial-killer-1996-1997-perth-western-australia-5.306032/page-42#post-12607185
A few things I didn't know 1. The "blonde haired guy" didn't know SS and wanted to get out with the drunk woman dropped in Dalkeith.
2. Macro approached him 12 month ago asking about the blonde haired guy. Bartholemeus, Jun 4, 2016
Jane Rimmer's body was found in bushland at Wellard, south of Perth. (ABC News)
Police outside the Kewdale house where Bradley Robert Edwards was arrested. (ABC News: Robert Koenig-Luck)
Sarah Ann McMahon
Coverage of Sarah’s disappearance in The Sunday Times in December, 2000. Credit: Supplied
Murder trial of Bradley Robert Edwards begins in Perth
Duration: 02:17 https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/science/murder-trial-of-bradley-robert-edwards-begins-in-perth/vp-BBXhfIS
Edwards is accused of murdering three young women after their disappearance from a Perth nightspot in the 1990s. He is about to stand trial in Western Australia's Supreme Court.Duration:
Julie_Cutler
Sarah Anne McMahon 20 holds little sister Kate, then 13, in 1999 before Sarah went missing. Credit: News Limited
Sarah Spiers. Jane Rimmer. Ciara Glennon.
Peter and Ray Mickelberg exit court after another battle. CREDIT:NINE NEWS PERTH
Don and Carol Spiers, the parents of Sarah Spiers, are seen leaving the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Picture: Richard Wainwright.Source:AAP
Defence counsel Paul Yovich SC accuses Ms Barbagallo, the Western Australian, DPP Prosecutor of misrepresenting the alleged DNA Evidence the DPP say they have against Bradley Robert Edwards in Ms Barbagallo's attempt to convince the trial judge Stephen Hall that Bradley Robert Edwards is the sole and only person responsible of the abduction and murder of Australian girls Sarah McMahon, Jane Rimmer and Irish/Australia girl Ciara Glennon.
The Western Australian Police and Director of Public Prosecutions, allege Bradley Robert Edwards is responsible for the abduction and murder of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon from the upmarket Claremont suburb between January 1996 and March 1997.
Mr Edwards was arrested in December 2016 after forensic evidence allegedly linked him to the attacks.
It is serious breach of a prosecutor's sworn duty to the court the try and misrepresent the evidence in any way to the court. A prosecutor swears an oath to the court to that she or he will at all times seek the truth, during the preparation for a trial and during a trial ..... and will not push for a guilty verdict just for the sake of being the prosecutor that won a case.... It is already looking very like Western Australian DPP Prosecutor, Ms Barbagallo, feels that just because the Western Australian Government on behalf of the Western Australian People .... are spending over $Aust 100 million on the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards, in an attempt to convince the trial judge Stephen Hall, that Bradley Robert Edwards is the sole and only person responsible of the abduction and murder of Australian girls Sarah McMahon, Jane Rimmer and Irish/Australia girl Ciara Glennon ... that she must win the case at all costs, even if she has to try misrepresent the evidence ....
Defence counsel Paul Yovich SC will argue that it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that Bradley Robert Edwards was the killer, based on any of the evidence presented by Western Australian DPP Prosecutor, Ms Barbagallo to the trial judge Stephen Hall.
The NYT Investigations Team, that have been investigating the Claremont Serial Killings for 20 years, wrote to the Western Australian Government, the Western Australian Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia and Western Australian Prison System about their concerns that Bradley Robert Edwards would be murdered while in prison waiting for his trial to end, and waiting for the verdict to be brought down by Justice Stephen Hall ... with such murder being made to look like a suicide ...... because the Western Australian Government, the Western Australian Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia could not handle the public backlash of a non guilty verdict against Bradley Robert Edwards by Justice Stephen Hall .... which would leave the Claremont Serial Killings unsolved and leaving the police still looking for the person or people responsible for the Claremont Serial Killings ... having spent over $Aus 100 million dollars prosecuting Bradley Robert Edwards as the alleged the sole and only person responsible of the abduction and murder of Australian girls Sarah Anne McMahon, Jane Rimmer and Irish/Australia girl Ciara Glennon....
Defence counsel Paul Yovich SC said a fundamental issue at stake would be that of identity and the Alleged DNA Samples
Ms Barbagallo said this DNA was found to be a match from samples taken from underneath the fingernails of Ms Glennon, which were 80–100 million times more likely to have come from Edwards than from any other man.
Ms Barbagallo said a mixed DNA sample had been extracted from scrapings taken from two of Ms Glennon's fingernails after her body was found in a bush grave in Eglinton, in Perth's north. Experts had concluded that the DNA was 80 million to 100 million times more likely to have come from Ms Glennon and Edwards than from an unrelated male and Ms Glennon, she said.
Ms Barbagallo said the DNA samples found on Ms Glennon fingernails showed that "in fighting for her life, Ciara Glennon scratched or clawed at the accused with her left hand".
This had enabled enough DNA to be left behind and obtained three weeks later, when her body was found.
Ms Barbagallo said at some point during the attack on Ms Rimmer or the disposal of her body, Edwards dropped or discarded his Telecom-issued knife on Woolcoot Road in Wellard.
Some of the fibres found in Ms Rimmer's hair matched fibres from the same make and model of car Edwards was driving at the time, while other fibres matched those used in the manufacture of Telecom-issued shorts and trousers that Edwards wore for work at the time.
Other fibres also found on Ms Glennon's body "entirely corresponded" with the vehicle Edwards was driving at the time ” a white Holden Commodore station wagon which was found by police at a property in Chidlow in December 2016.
DNA the key legal battleground Defence counsel Paul Yovich SC said a fundamental issue at stake would be that of identity.
He questioned whether or not the only conclusion Justice Stephen Hall could draw was that DNA evidence obtained from Ms Glennon was from Edwards, and whether or not it got there during a struggle.
In a relatively brief opening address, Mr Yovich said DNA material obtained from Ms Glennon was not from "scrapings", as the prosecution had claimed, but from fingernail cuttings.
He said the mortuary assistant who cut the young lawyer's thumbnail had difficulty doing so because the nail had been torn to the quick.
State forensic laboratory PathWest had determined at the time that material from the left thumb was debris only and "not suitable for testing", yet by 2008 that same material had been deemed fit for testing.
Mr Yovich said many of the scientists and technicians involved in the handling of the forensic material would testify that they could not remember the exact details of the testing, but would describe instead what they "would have done".
This raised doubt about the reliability of the testing.
He said protocols for testing material were "much less sophisticated" in the late 1990s than today, and initial testing of DNA samples from both Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon had matched male PathWest scientists involved in handling the samples.
Mr Yovich also flagged that cross-contamination would be an issue in relation to fibres found on the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
For instance, he said that the jacket Ms Glennon was wearing on the night she went missing, which has never been found, had been thrown on the floor of the Continental Hotel and worn around the waist of a male friend, suggesting fibres could have come from a wide variety of sources.
He said the defence would argue that it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that Edwards was the killer, based on any of the evidence presented.
Defence counsel for Bradley Robert Edwards, Paul Yovich SC, accuses Ms Barbagallo, the Western Australian, DPP Prosecutor of misrepresenting the alleged DNA Evidence the DPP say they have against Bradley Robert Edwards
An older Bradley Edwards has sat in the dock for the first week of his murder trial. (Facebook)
Julie Cutler
Bradley Edwards led a seemingly uneventful life before his arrest for three murders. (Supplied: Facebook, Supreme Court of WA)
Australia's 'trial of the century' begins as accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards fronts court charged with the murders of three young women
Bradley Robert Edwards' murder trial kicked off at WA Supreme Court Monday
The ex-Telstra technician is accused of the 1996-1997 Claremont serial killings
Victims were Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, Ciara Glennon, 27
Ms Spiers' and Ms Glennon's parents were seen arriving at the trial
By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS - PUBLISHED: 25 November 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7721713/Claremont-serial-killer-Bradley-Robert-Edwards-arrives-court-day-murder-trial.html
Bradley Robert Edwards is accused with murdering three women - Sarah Spiers 18, child care worker Jane Rimmer 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon 27, after they each spent a night out with friends in the affluent suburb's pubs in 1996 and 1997
Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western ... https://www.websleuths.com › Home › Forums › CRIMES › Serial Killers
00001. "I also believe that David Caporn single handedly destroyed any potential this investigation had. Despite all of this, the fact remains that the WA Police inquiries into these ... The "blonde haired guy" didn't know SS and wanted to get out with the drunk .... Remember, it has stated in the image source, the cops are DNA testing …
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/australia-claremont-serial-killer-1996-1997-perth-western-australia-5.306032/page-42#post-12607185
A few things I didn't know 1. The "blonde haired guy" didn't know SS and wanted to get out with the drunk woman dropped in Dalkeith.
2. Macro approached him 12 month ago asking about the blonde haired guy. Bartholemeus, Jun 4, 2016
Michael Mischin, Previous Western Australian Attorney General has a long history with the Mickelbergs.CREDIT:NINE NEWS PERTH
Edwards blamed his delay on a bid to reconcile with his estranged wife, the court heard. (Supplied: Central Crocs Football Club)
NYT Investigation Team Comment: The trial of Bradley Robert Edwards is creating more unanswered questions than providing the much wanted answers that the families and friends of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara and the Western Australian Public want and need and have a right to have ..
please see full comment further down this webpage
An example of the beige Telstra uniform employees wore before switching to a navy uniform sometime in the 90s.
The Sunday Times December 10, 2000 edition featured Sarah's disappearance on the front page. Credit: Supplied
Prosecutors reveal the link connecting Edwards to the Claremont killings
Prosecutors reveal the link connecting Edwards to the Claremont killings
By Andrea Mayes
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-26/missing-dna-link-bradley-edwards-claremont-serial-killings/11738494/
A DNA sample obtained by undercover detectives from a discarded soft drink bottle definitively linked the accused Claremont serial killer with the alleged murder of Ciara Glennon, the second day of his trial has been told.
But this DNA link looms as the key argument that may decide the fate of Bradley Robert Edwards, as his defence opened their argument by targeting prosecution claims about the forensic evidence supposedly linking him to the crimes.
Edwards, 50, is accused of abducting and killing three women — 18-year-old Sarah Spiers, 23-year-old Jane Rimmer and 27-year-old Ciara Glennon — in Perth in 1996 and 1997.
State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC on Tuesday detailed the way police homed in on Edwards in the closing days of 2016, after a cold case review of the case yielded new information.
The review was established in 2013 to try to establish whether there were any crimes in the lead up to the killings that could be linked to them.
Ms Barbagallo said this DNA was found to be a match from samples taken from underneath the fingernails of Ms Glennon, which were 80–100 million times more likely to have come from Edwards than from any other man.
Ms Barbagallo said a mixed DNA sample had been extracted from scrapings taken from two of Ms Glennon's fingernails after her body was found in a bush grave in Eglinton, in Perth's north.
Experts had concluded that the DNA was 80 million to 100 million times more likely to have come from Ms Glennon and Edwards than from an unrelated male and Ms Glennon, she said.
Ms Barbagallo said the DNA samples found on Ms Glennon fingernails showed that "in fighting for her life, Ciara Glennon scratched or clawed at the accused with her left hand".
This had enabled enough DNA to be left behind and obtained three weeks later, when her body was found.
Ms Barbagallo said at some point during the attack on Ms Rimmer or the disposal of her body, Edwards dropped or discarded his Telecom-issued knife on Woolcoot Road in Wellard.
Some of the fibres found in Ms Rimmer's hair matched fibres from the same make and model of car Edwards was driving at the time, while other fibres matched those used in the manufacture of Telecom-issued shorts and trousers that Edwards wore for work at the time.
Other fibres also found on Ms Glennon's body "entirely corresponded" with the vehicle Edwards was driving at the time — a white Holden Commodore station wagon which was found by police at a property in Chidlow in December 2016.
DNA the key legal battleground
Defence counsel Paul Yovich SC said a fundamental issue at stake would be that of identity.
He questioned whether or not the only conclusion Justice Stephen Hall could draw was that DNA evidence obtained from Ms Glennon was from Edwards, and whether or not it got there during a struggle.
In a relatively brief opening address, Mr Yovich said DNA material obtained from Ms Glennon was not from "scrapings", as the prosecution had claimed, but from fingernail cuttings.
He said the mortuary assistant who cut the young lawyer's thumbnail had difficulty doing so because the nail had been torn to the quick.
State forensic laboratory PathWest had determined at the time that material from the left thumb was debris only and "not suitable for testing", yet by 2008 that same material had been deemed fit for testing.
Mr Yovich said many of the scientists and technicians involved in the handling of the forensic material would testify that they could not remember the exact details of the testing, but would describe instead what they "would have done".
This raised doubt about the reliability of the testing.
He said protocols for testing material were "much less sophisticated" in the late 1990s than today, and initial testing of DNA samples from both Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon had matched male PathWest scientists involved in handling the samples.
Mr Yovich also flagged that cross-contamination would be an issue in relation to fibres found on the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
For instance, he said that the jacket Ms Glennon was wearing on the night she went missing, which has never been found, had been thrown on the floor of the Continental Hotel and worn around the waist of a male friend, suggesting fibres could have come from a wide variety of sources.
He said the defence would argue that it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that Edwards was the killer, based on any of the evidence presented.
Prosecutors reveal the link connecting Edwards to the Claremont killings
By Andrea Mayes
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-26/missing-dna-link-bradley-edwards-claremont-serial-killings/11738494/
A DNA sample obtained by undercover detectives from a discarded soft drink bottle definitively linked the accused Claremont serial killer with the alleged murder of Ciara Glennon, the second day of his trial has been told.
But this DNA link looms as the key argument that may decide the fate of Bradley Robert Edwards, as his defence opened their argument by targeting prosecution claims about the forensic evidence supposedly linking him to the crimes.
Edwards, 50, is accused of abducting and killing three women — 18-year-old Sarah Spiers, 23-year-old Jane Rimmer and 27-year-old Ciara Glennon — in Perth in 1996 and 1997.
State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC on Tuesday detailed the way police homed in on Edwards in the closing days of 2016, after a cold case review of the case yielded new information.
The review was established in 2013 to try to establish whether there were any crimes in the lead up to the killings that could be linked to them.
A kimono taken from a crime scene in the southern Perth suburb of Huntingdale in 1988 was among the items re-tested as part of the review, and this fresh examination, in November 2016, yielded DNA samples from sperm on the garment.
Ms Barbagallo said this DNA was found to be a match from samples taken from underneath the fingernails of Ms Glennon, which were 80–100 million times more likely to have come from Edwards than from any other man.
The DNA also matched intimate swabs taken from the teenage victim of a brutal rape at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995.
But she said the DNA did not match any profiles on the national police database.
Detectives then turned their attention more closely to the Huntingdale offence, in which a man had broken into the house of an 18-year-old woman and straddled her as she lay asleep in bed while forcing a cloth into her mouth.
The teenager woke up and was able to fend off the intruder, but not before he left behind a silk kimono and a pair of women's stockings.
Detectives seized bottle from bin, court told
Re-examining the case, police found fingerprints taken from the scene matched fingerprints taken from Edwards when he attacked a social worker at Hollywood Hospital in 1990.
He pleaded guilty to that offence at the time and was sentenced to two years' probation.
Ms Barbagallo said detectives then homed in on Edwards, who was at the time living with his stepdaughter in Kewdale, and put him under surveillance.
When the pair went to the movies on December 19, 2016, undercover police retrieved a discarded Sprite soft drink bottle Edwards had tossed into a rubbish bin in order to obtain his DNA.
This sample matched those taken from Ms Glennon's fingernails, from the Karrakatta rape victim and from the kimono, Ms Barbagallo said.
Edwards pleaded guilty to the Huntingdale and Karrakatta Cemetery offences at a pre-trial hearing last month.
But he denies murdering Ms Spiers, Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
Glennon scratched off DNA in 'fight for her life'
Ms Barbagallo said a mixed DNA sample had been extracted from scrapings taken from two of Ms Glennon's fingernails after her body was found in a bush grave in Eglinton, in Perth's north.
Experts had concluded that the DNA was 80 million to 100 million times more likely to have come from Ms Glennon and Edwards than from an unrelated male and Ms Glennon, she said.
Ms Barbagallo said the DNA samples found on Ms Glennon fingernails showed that "in fighting for her life, Ciara Glennon scratched or clawed at the accused with her left hand".
This had enabled enough DNA to be left behind and obtained three weeks later, when her body was found.
'Blitz-style' attacks on two victims
Ms Barbagallo said Edwards had no alibi to account for his movements on the night Ms Spiers disappeared.
She said the prosecution's case was that he had taken Ms Spiers from the streets of Claremont, driven her to Mosman Park, where he attacked and subdued her before wilfully murdering her and disposing of her body in an unknown location.
Likewise, Edwards had no alibi on the night Ms Rimmer disappeared, which was just days after he learned his estranged wife was pregnant to her boyfriend — Edwards's former housemate.
It was also 18 months after the Karrakatta attack, by which time she said Edwards "had an established propensity for violence towards women".
Ms Rimmer either willingly got into Edwards's vehicle on the night of June 9, 1996, or was abducted as she walked away from the Continental Hotel in what Ms Barbagallo described as a "blitz-style attack consistent with the manner in which he attacked [the Karrakatta rape victim]".
Ms Barbagallo said at some point during the attack on Ms Rimmer or the disposal of her body, Edwards dropped or discarded his Telecom-issued knife on Woolcoot Road in Wellard.
Some of the fibres found in Ms Rimmer's hair matched fibres from the same make and model of car Edwards was driving at the time, while other fibres matched those used in the manufacture of Telecom-issued shorts and trousers that Edwards wore for work at the time.
On the night Ms Glennon disappeared, Edwards had been due to visit friends at their holiday home in Dawesville, but "unexpectedly" failed to show up until the next day.
Ms Barbagallo said he instead drove to Claremont where he saw Ms Glennon alone and in an intoxicated state on Stirling Highway.
Ms Glennon either accepted a lift from Edwards or, like Ms Rimmer and the Karrakatta victim, was "abducted by him in a blitz attack".
She said he drove her to Eglinton and murdered her, and fibres found in Ms Glennon's hair and on her white t-shirt matched the Telecom-issued pants Edwards wore.
Other fibres also found on Ms Glennon's body "entirely corresponded" with the vehicle Edwards was driving at the time — a white Holden Commodore station wagon which was found by police at a property in Chidlow in December 2016.
Edwards's six-hour police interview
The court also heard evidence about Edwards's early life, some of it from a six-hour police interview conducted on the day of his arrest in which he spoke of his family and his previous relationships.
He "wasn't the best looking guy" at Gosnells Senior High School, he told police, and his glasses were "a bit of a drawback", so he began wearing contact lenses.
He had a girlfriend for a six-week period when he was 15, but had no other relationship until he met his first wife when he was about 20.
That was one of only two significant intimate relationships in his life, the second being with the woman who became his second wife.
During that initial police interview, Edwards said he did not frequent the Claremont area, although he had done work for Telstra at the Bankwest branch in Claremont in 2009.
He told police he had "no reason whatsoever" to go driving to Claremont at night.
But Ms Barbagallo said his first wife had kept meticulous records of Edwards's banking transactions from the time, which showed he had accessed banks in Claremont during December 1996.
She said his admissions to the Huntingdale offences, the Hollywood Hospital attack and the Karrakatta rape showed an incontrovertible pattern of behaviour.
"[The admissions] demonstrate a propensity to attack vulnerable women who are effectively strangers to him from behind and without warning, using force to physically restrain them, and using some type of fabric or material in or over their mouths to stifle sounds," Ms Barbagallo said.
DNA the key legal battleground
Defence counsel Paul Yovich SC said a fundamental issue at stake would be that of identity.
He questioned whether or not the only conclusion Justice Stephen Hall could draw was that DNA evidence obtained from Ms Glennon was from Edwards, and whether or not it got there during a struggle.
In a relatively brief opening address, Mr Yovich said DNA material obtained from Ms Glennon was not from "scrapings", as the prosecution had claimed, but from fingernail cuttings.
He said the mortuary assistant who cut the young lawyer's thumbnail had difficulty doing so because the nail had been torn to the quick.
State forensic laboratory PathWest had determined at the time that material from the left thumb was debris only and "not suitable for testing", yet by 2008 that same material had been deemed fit for testing.
Mr Yovich said many of the scientists and technicians involved in the handling of the forensic material would testify that they could not remember the exact details of the testing, but would describe instead what they "would have done".
This raised doubt about the reliability of the testing.
He said protocols for testing material were "much less sophisticated" in the late 1990s than today, and initial testing of DNA samples from both Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon had matched male PathWest scientists involved in handling the samples.
Nonetheless, he said Edwards had no explanation for how his DNA came to be linked to Ms Glennon.
Mr Yovich also flagged that cross-contamination would be an issue in relation to fibres found on the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
For instance, he said that the jacket Ms Glennon was wearing on the night she went missing, which has never been found, had been thrown on the floor of the Continental Hotel and worn around the waist of a male friend, suggesting fibres could have come from a wide variety of sources.
He said the defence would argue that it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that Edwards was the killer, based on any of the evidence presented.
Coroners Act, 1996 [Section 26(1)] Western Australia
RECORD OF INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH OF
Sarah Anne McMAHON
Inquest into the suspected death of Sarah Anne McMAHON
https://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Mcmahon_finding.pdf
Ref No: 47/2012
I, Alastair Neil Hope, State Coroner, having investigated the suspected death of Sarah Anne McMAHON with an Inquest held at Perth Coroner’s Court on 11-14 December 2012, find beyond reasonable doubt that the death has been established, that the identity of the deceased person was Sarah Anne McMAHON and that death occurred on or about 8 November 2000 at an unknown location as a result of unknown causes, by way of Unlawful Homicide, in the following circumstances
Counsel Appearing : Philip Urquhart Counsel Assisting the State Coroner John Rando (John Rando & Co) appearing on behalf of Natasha Kendrick
Table of Contents
Introduction .....… 2
Events Leading up to Sarah McMahon’s Disappearance .... 6
The Movements of Donald Morey on 8 November 2000..................... 10
The Account of Natasha Kendrick .................................................... 13
Evidence Tending to Implicate Mr Morey ..................... 16
Possible Lies Made by Morey Indicative of Consciousness of Guilt .... 18
A Claim by Mr Morey that Sarah McMahon had been Meeting a Nurse or
Doctor Called Christine or Christian on 8 November 2000 ........... 22
Mr Morey’s Bag................................. 24
The Claim by Mr Morey that Ms McMahon is Still Alive ..............… 26
Finding in Relation to the Suspected Death...................................... 27
The Possible Verdict.................. 29
The Person or Persons Responsible for the Death.......................... 30
Conclusion ..................................... 31
INTRODUCTION
Sarah Anne McMahon was 20 years of age when she disappeared on the afternoon of Wednesday 8 November 2000. At the time she was residing with her parents in their family home in Parkerville. She was reported missing on the following day by her mother. Since 8 November 2000 she has made no contact with her family or friends. Police investigators are satisfied that there have been no reliable sightings of her. Police investigators advised that all usual avenues of enquiry in the case of missing persons have been explored without success in this case. The result of these investigations included: o There are no records of Ms McMahon receiving any Centrelink benefits or being recorded on any Centrelink databases; o There is no record of Ms McMahon residing in accommodation supplied by the Department of Housing;
Apart from what appears to be a clerical error in Medicare records, there is no information recorded which would indicate that Ms McMahon has sought any medical treatment;
Enquiries with the Australian Taxation Office reveal that there has been no activity recorded for Ms McMahon since October 2000;
Ms McMahon had a ‘Flexi Account’ with the National Australia Bank. The bank account has not been used by Ms McMahon since her disappearance; o Enquiries with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reveal that Ms McMahon’s passport expired on 10 October 1994 and since that time no Australian passport has been issued to her; o Ms McMahon has not used her passport to travel overseas so if she had left Australia, she would have had to have done so without use of her own passport. Police considered the circumstances of Ms McMahon’s disappearance suspicious and an investigation was conducted by the Major Crime Squad named Operation Inez. Despite an extensive investigation, this operation did not shed any light on the whereabouts of Ms McMahon. In 2004 a second police operation named Operation Gantry was commenced, this time with a specific target, Donald Victor Morey. Mr Morey is a middle-aged man (date of birth 16 August 1955) with an extensive criminal record. At that time he had recently been charged with a number of crimes including the attempted murder of a female sex worker which had occurred in November 2003. Mr Morey was subsequently convicted of those charges and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment on 2 September 2005. He remains in custody for those offences. Following this investigation Ms McMahon was not located and there was insufficient evidence obtained to charge Mr Morey. Since 2005 the WA Police Service has operated a Special Crime Squad which is tasked to review major unsolved crimes. In 2011 this squad commenced a full investigative and forensic review of the evidence obtained into the disappearance of Sarah McMahon. As a result of that investigation, the Special Crime Squad requested that an inquest be conducted into the suspected death of Ms McMahon. The Special Crime Squad prepared a report for the coroner dated 1 October 2012 concerning the disappearance and suspected death of Sarah Anne McMahon. Of particular interest to the Special Crime Squad was a relatively new and detailed series of allegations contained in an account given by a witness, Natasha Tracy-Anne Kendrick, and recorded in a statement dated 11 November 2011.
That account contained a claim that Ms Kendrick had seen the dead body of a young woman, who she believed to be Ms McMahon. It also contained allegations that comments were made by Mr Morey and another man, Gareth Allen, which if accurate would have certainly implicated Mr Morey in the murder of Ms McMahon and Mr Allen as being an accessory to that crime. That statement was prepared in a context where Ms Kendrick claimed to believe that she had a fatal illness and wanted to ‘make amends’.1 In the context of Ms Kendrick’s possible ill health there was a perceived need to ensure maximum evidence capture by obtaining her account on oath. In addition it was clearly important to ascertain the reliability or otherwise of Ms Kendrick’s account, particularly in a context where she had previously provided accounts to police which had not contained this information. In the context of the report prepared by the Special Crime Squad I concluded that I did have reasonable cause to suspect that Sarah McMahon had died and that the death was a reportable death. In that context it was necessary to hold an inquest into the circumstances of the suspected death, and in the event that a finding could be made that the death had been established beyond all reasonable doubt, into how the death occurred and the cause of the death.
EVENTS LEADING UP TO SARAH McMAHON’S DISAPPEARANCE
At the time of her disappearance Sarah McMahon was living with her family in the suburb of Parkerville. She had been enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts Course at Murdoch University, but on 11 September 2000 she had suspended her studies. It appears that a significant reason for her withdrawing from her studies was the fact that she was then regularly using illicit drugs. The reasons given in the application for suspension of enrolment were, ‘Family problems that need sorting and personal reasons of same nature.’2 At the time of her disappearance Ms McMahon had become reasonably friendly with Mr Morey, in spite of their age difference of approximately 25 years. It appears that they met reasonably regularly, they texted each other and spoke on the telephone. Shortly before her disappearance Ms McMahon had obtained a part-time job at Hugall and Hoile, an irrigation company. She worked at the company’s Claremont office at 213-215 Stirling Highway, Claremont.
Ms McMahon’s first day at the new job was Wednesday 1 November 2000, she then worked on Friday 3 November 2000 and Wednesday 8 November 2000. On that afternoon staff began having after work drinks at about 4pm. Ms McMahon joined the others at about 4.15pm. At one stage she spoke to a reticulation contractor named Paul Pritchard and told him that she had to be somewhere at 5.30pm and asked how long it would take to get there. Mr Pritchard believed that she said the location was Bassendean, a suburb of Perth. He told her that it would take half an hour to which she replied, ‘If I’m late, the bloke won’t be there’.3 According to Mr Pritchard he recalled Ms McMahon receiving two telephone calls, one at about 4.50pm and another at about 5pm. The last Mr Pritchard recalled of Ms McMahon was her saying, ‘See you later. See you Friday’.4 According to Mr Pritchard at the time the deceased looked ‘fine; wasn’t upset; laughing’ 5.
Michael Thrush, an Assistant Manager at Hugall and Hoile, recalled Ms McMahon only having one drink and leaving the premises at about 5.15pm. Mobile telephone data reveals that Ms McMahon received four telephone calls on her mobile telephone during the day. Of these four calls, one was from a friend, another was from her sister, Kate, and two calls were from Mr Morey. Kate McMahon, Ms McMahon’s younger sister, had called at about 5.15pm. She had arranged for Sarah to collect her from the Mount Helena Baptist Church at 8.30pm that night. The original arrangement had been for their mother to pick Kate up, but due to a headache she had at the time, she had asked Kate to call Ms McMahon to have her pick her up instead. The last known call was from Mr Morey at 5.20pm. No other calls made to Sarah McMahon’s telephone after that time were answered. Ms McMahon did not arrive at 8.30pm to collect her sister from the church. Calls made from about 5.35pm onwards to Ms McMahon’s phone that night were not answered.
Police were not able to locate any witness who could give reliable information as to a sighting of Ms McMahon after that time. On the evening of 20 November 2000 Ms McMahon’s Ford Meteor sedan was located in the car park of Swan District Hospital in Middle Swan by members of the McMahon family who were coincidently attending the hospital. Based on information provided by members of the public it appears that the first known observation of the car in the car park was on Friday 10 November 2000, two days after Ms McMahon’s disappearance. It appears to have been assumed by police that the car was in the car park earlier and was probably left there on 8 November. Thorough forensic examination was conducted on the vehicle but nothing was found which would assist police to determine what happened to Ms McMahon. The keys to the vehicle and Ms McMahon’s mobile telephone were not located in her car. The mobile telephone was, however, subsequently located by the caretaker of the Middle Swan Primary School in November or early December 2000. He had located the telephone on the Great Northern Highway at a location not far from the Swan District Hospital.
Unfortunately by the time police obtained possession of the telephone, a forensic examination of it failed to provide useful information in relation to the disappearance. It is significant that the location where the mobile telephone had been discovered was very close to the location where Ms McMahon’s vehicle was found.
THE MOVEMENTS OF DONALD MOREY ON 8 NOVEMBER 2000
To some extent objective evidence relating to Mr Morey’s movements on 8 November 2000 can be ascertained from review of his mobile telephone records. At the time Mr Morey was using a mobile telephone which had been provided for his use by his then employer, Mr Allen. Police obtained information from Telstra Corporation Limited, the server for the mobile telephone. These records provided information relating to the time of each call, the duration of the call and, importantly, also the location of the cell tower where the call had been connected.
According to Telstra witness, Timothy Miller, an Assistant Specialist with Telstra Corporation Limited, each tower has a number of cells on it and a caller is connected with one of those cells. Leaving aside 000 calls, Telstra customers are able to use Telstra towers. The call is usually connected to the cells which provide the best signal strength for the telephone. Ordinarily this means that the call is connected to the geographically closest tower, subject to a number of anomalies. The circumstances when the connection would not be to the geographically closest tower include when there is extremely bad weather or when the cells cannot cope with the number of calls. An example given by the witness when cells cannot cope was during the Grand Final of the AFL when there may be 100,000 spectators using mobile telephones at the half time break and some calls will be transferred to towers further away. Unfortunately evidence was not obtained from Telstra in 2000 in relation to the number and location of cell towers then in use, although for present purposes it is assumed that there were a significant number of towers in all the relevant areas and so it is likely that Mr Morey’s calls went to the cell tower closest to him when he made the calls, or at least to a cell tower nearby.
The records reveal that Mr Morey made a telephone call transmitted by the Hillarys cell tower at 4.08pm. This telephone call was to Ms McMahon. He then made calls transmitted by the Padbury cell tower and at 5.20pm made a call transmitted by the Warwick cell tower of 1 minute and 30 seconds to Ms McMahon. He then made a telephone call at 5.42pm which was transmitted by the Midland cell tower to his then defacto partner, Lynne Bishop. Of significance in the present context is the fact that the cell tower in Midland is close to both the Swan District Hospital, where Ms McMahon’s car was located, and the location on the Great Northern Highway where her telephone was found. These telephone records are of potential importance to the case as they reveal that Mr Morey was in telephone contact with Ms McMahon, that the last call which she received was made by him at 5.20pm at a time when he appeared to be moving in the direction of Midland and Middle Swan, and that the paths of the two persons appear to have been converging at about the same time, immediately before Ms McMahon’s disappearance. Ms McMahon is believed to have left the Hugall and Hoile premises at 213 Stirling Highway, Claremont, at about the time when she received the telephone call from Mr Morey and at that time she is believed to have been travelling towards Bassendean, which is on the way from Claremont to Midland and Middle Swan. If Sarah McMahon’s final destination was at a location close to where her motor vehicle and mobile telephone were subsequently located, and she went directly there, then she must have been in the same general area as Mr Morey.
THE ACCOUNT OF NATASHA KENDRICK
In her statement dated 11 November 2011 Ms Kendrick claimed to have seen a body at Mr Allen’s home at 2 Augustus Place, Marangaroo. On her account the body looked like Ms McMahon and it is clear from her statement that she was referring to Ms McMahon. According to her statement Mr Allen told her to come to the address at about 9.30pm on a night which must have been either 8 November 2000 or close to that date. In this account she stated that Mr Allen had said something like, ‘He’s gone and killed her’. She said she walked into Mr Morey’s room and saw a naked girl on the bed. She said that there was an ‘old fashioned rope’ around the girl’s neck. She stated that she later saw the rope on the bedroom floor and it was about a yard long She stated that the person looked dead to her and there was blood on her face and on her stomach. She stated that Mr Allen’s right hand was swollen and there were marks on his knuckles. She claimed that he said something like, ‘He had punched her in the head to shut her up but it didn’t’. 6 Later she stated that she cleaned the house. Ms Kendrick claimed that she saw Mr Morey carrying ‘something wrapped in a quilt over his left shoulder’.7 She said she knew it was the girl. Later she saw Mr Allen put the body in the bed of a utility and Mr Morey drove away. Police were unable to identify evidence which would corroborate this account. After the statement was obtained police questioned Mr Allen about its contents and he denied that the account was true. Ms Kendrick was made aware that Mr Allen had been advised of her allegations. At the time of inquest Ms Kendrick claimed that everything recorded in that statement relating to what she had claimed to have seen at the house in Marangaroo was false.
In evidence Ms Kendrick made the following explanation in relation to the statement:
You just signed it without caring what it said?---No, not without caring what it said. I - I was pretty messed up when - when I went in there. This isn't my statement. This isn't exactly what I said. Some parts of it there is - there is bits of it that I said. I didn't look at it. I was, like - I hadn't slept all night. I'd been drinking vodka, I didn't have my medication, and I didn't know I was going to be in there that long, and I didn't take any medication with me. I think I took one antiviral that was in my bag. I was scared and I was - the main thing I was scared of was that they were going to charge me with something that I hadn't done, and I wasn't going to get out of there. The door was locked - two big doors were locked. I was stuck with all these coppers around me, telling me, ‘Boom, boom, boom’, telling me what's – ‘This happened, that happened, that happened’, and - and a fire alarm went off. At the end of this thing a fire alarm went off in the building and it was - they had a good laugh about that, because I freaked out. I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, what's going to happen now?’ Are you saying that these police officers weren't behaving appropriately?---No, they were as far as it looked - you know, I thought they - well, they didn't - they didn't threaten me then. They didn't - they didn't do anything physically to me, or anything, but it was just - the thing at the end, I didn't - that's probably why I didn't read it. I - I just wanted to get out of there, and I was scared. You were scared of them?---Yes.
At the inquest telephone calls between Ms Kendrick and former detective Michael Bone, Ms Kendrick and her mother and the Ms Kendrick and her brother made shortly after she provided the statement were played. In these it is clear that the account which Ms Kendrick had given to police contained in this statement had been volunteered by her.
Ms Kendrick, for example, referring to her contact with the police told her brother ‘… I have done something positive’. In the telephone calls Ms Kendrick spoke at length of her interaction with police in very positive terms. While I accept that Ms Kendrick volunteered the account given in her statement of 11 November 2011 and the conduct of police officers who took the statement was appropriate and professional, in the context of her various accounts and her present claim that the important aspects of the statement are not accurate, little reliance can be placed on the statement. In so far as the statement referred to the involvement of Mr Allen, he categorically denied its truth.
EVIDENCE TENDING TO IMPLICATE MR MOREY
There was evidence from a number of witnesses at the inquest to the effect that Mr Morey was physically attracted to Ms McMahon and that she did not respond to his approaches. There was also evidence to the effect that Ms McMahon had been obtaining amphetamines from Mr Morey. Witness Christian Hilderbrandt claimed that about one week before she went missing, Ms McMahon told him that she had obtained about $10,000 worth of drugs from Mr Morey which she had to sell. Mr Hilderbrandt also claimed that on 6 November 2000 he was present when Ms McMahon received a telephone call on her mobile telephone which she had said was from Mr Morey. He claimed that at the end of the conversation she said, ‘… that she’d broken the code of silence over the phone’. He said that the reference to breaking the code of silence referred to saying his name and mentioning the drugs. According to Mr Hilderbrandt, Ms McMahon was ‘… very, very, scared’ (ts 81). There is, therefore, evidence which could explain why Mr Morey may have had reason to kill Ms McMahon. Mr Morey in his evidence, however, disputed these claims and asserted that he was friendly to Ms McMahon and tried to be of assistance to her. As indicated earlier in these reasons the last known contact between Ms McMahon and anyone else was the telephone call which she received from Mr Morey at about 5.20pm on 8 November 2000. Following that conversation their paths appeared to converge and Mr Morey’s telephone call of 5.42pm to his defacto partner must have been made from a location reasonably close to where Ms McMahon’s car and mobile telephone were subsequently located. This evidence is clearly important evidence tending to implicate Mr Morey. It was further suggested by police that there was evidence that Mr Morey lied following the disappearance on a number of occasions in relation to his own movements. It was contended that those lies may have resulted from consciousness of guilt. In addition it was suggested by police that Mr Morey had fabricated entries in his work diary with a view to providing himself with an alibi and that those diary entries were made at a later time than other entries for the same day and were a fabrication. There was other evidence capable of implicating Mr Morey referred to by police, but I do not propose to refer to the entire case in these reasons.
POSSIBLE LIES MADE BY MOREY INDICATIVE OF CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT
Mr Morey was interviewed by police on a number of occasions and also provided interviews to media representatives.
He was interviewed on 21 December 2000 during which a 17 page deposition was obtained. A typed version of this statement was subsequently acquired on 6 March 2001. In that statement Mr Morey gave an account of his movements on 8 November 2000 in which he claimed that he had driven back from Nedlands to the trucking yard in Wangara at about 2.30pm and had greased, fuelled, watered and oiled two trucks at the yard. He then completed a maintenance run on both trucks. He claimed that he had finished work at about 6.30pm that evening. He claimed that he had not seen Sarah McMahon that evening. During an earlier interview with police, on 29 November 2000, Mr Morey had been asked what he was doing on 8 November and at that stage he had referred to his work diary. Unfortunately that work diary had not been immediately seized, but was produced to police about 22 days later.
That work diary on its face appeared to support Mr Morey’s account of his movements on 8 November 2000. In the work diary Mr Morey recorded that he worked from 4pm to 6.30pm completing tasks as follows:
Back at yard greased both trucks fuelled etc water and oil for both Gareth’s truck back to his place and washed truck
Later on down the page the entry reads:
Stayed Gareth’s at night
Evidence suggested to cast doubt on the reliability of these entries included:
1 Fuel cards were routinely used by drivers to fuel the trucks and these fuel cards had not been used by Mr Morey on 8 November 2000.
2 Mr Morey was not paid a set weekly wage, he was paid an hourly wage according to the number of hours he worked. For the week commencing Monday 6 November 2000 Mr Morey’s claim did not appear to include the 2 ½ hours he had supposedly spent servicing the two trucks on 8 November 2000.
3 Telephone records of the mobile telephone in the possession of Mr Morey do not support his contention that he was in the area of his work from 4pm to 6.30pm that day
4 Mr Allen contended in his evidence that on 8 November 2000 Mr Morey had not spent the night at his home, but had borrowed one of the trucks saying that he was planning to use it to see Ms McMahon.
It is not helpful to analyse the evidence relating to these various points in detail for the purposes of these reasons, but I make the observation that in respect of the use of the fuel cards, evidence capture by police to this time is not sufficiently comprehensive to positively exclude the use of a fuel card. It would have been helpful if a statement had been obtained from the fuel supplier and records had been obtained from both Mr Allen’s business and the fuel supplier relating to all fuel cards being used by the business at that time. This issue highlights the importance of comprehensive evidence capture at an early stage in cases such as this where investigations may continue for a number of years and evidence not adequately captured at an early time may be lost. Bank accounts and signed fuel dockets obtained from the service station routinely used, however, show that Mr Morey refuelled trucks on 1, 3, 6 and 13 November but not on 8 November 2000. In his evidence at the inquest one of the suggestions made by Mr Morey to explain the fact that there were no fuel dockets for 8 November was that he may have used a fuel pump at Mr Allen’s premises. Mr Allen, however, in his evidence stated that it was not possible to fuel trucks at his yard at the time and the petrol bowser at the yard had been moved for the purpose of making it impossible to fuel the trucks at that bowser. He said that the bowser was intended to be used to fuel bobcats and the diesel which it provided was different to that used by the trucks.
Another suggested explanation made by Mr Morey in his evidence was that he may have paid for the fuel himself using his own funds. Mr Allen, however, emphatically claimed that no drivers ever paid for fuel out of their own funds. There is evidence capable of supporting a conclusion that Mr Morey lied to police about his movements on 8 November 2000 and falsified documentation to support those lies
A CLAIM BY MR MOREY THAT SARAH McMAHON HAD BEEN MEETING A NURSE OR DOCTOR CALLED CHRISTINE OR CHRISTIAN ON 8 NOVEMBER 2000
Early on in the investigation Mr Morey claimed that in the last conversation he had with Ms McMahon she told him that she was meeting a nurse or doctor called Christine or Christian and that they intended going to the casino that night. It was suggested by counsel assisting at the inquest, Mr Urquhart, that this account may have been fabricated by Mr Morey, based on incorrect information which it appears may have been conveyed to him by Patricia McMahon, Sarah McMahon’s mother, in the days after the disappearance.
In fact it appears that there was no such person. This proposition is possibly supported by the fact that in Mr Morey’s various accounts this Christine or Christian appears to have evolved from being a former doctor or former nurse to being a ‘hooker’.
Mr Morey was questioned about this person at the inquest and the following exchange took place:
I do need to clarify a few points, and I will not be with you for very long. One of the issues that was raised is that I understand when you spoke to police you referred to a "Christine" and you said that Sarah may have been going with this Christine to the casino - a nurse or a doctor, or something like that. Do you recall that?---Yes. Can you assist me at all in respect of who this Christine person is?--- Just a person, your Honour. Is there any - - -?---She travelled with that person to go over to Victoria. And have you seen that person?---Certainly have. Yes, I know her. What does she look like?---Yes, well, I can't divulge that. But you have given a person's name, "Christine"?---Yes. Is that the real name?---No. So that is a false name?---Obviously it's not a real name. I am sorry?---Obviously it's not her real name. I see, so that is just a made up name?---Well, to protect her identity, yes. I see. And is this person - - -?---Quite a lot of things that I said to the police were obviously mumbo jumbo. But as far as Sarah being alive, she is alive.8
MR MOREY’S BAG
Evidence was given at the inquest by a number of witnesses that Mr Morey had a bag with sinister contents. Marta Allen, Mr Allen’s wife, claimed that at a time which appears to have been relatively shortly after Ms McMahon’s disappearance, she saw a bag which belonged to Mr Morey and which he regularly had with him. She claimed that inside the bag there were two rolls of dirty grey, used gaffer tape, four lengths of ropes with knots in the ends about two feet in length, two knives, one of which was Mr Allen’s pocket knife, two large rubber bands, one condom in a packet, two pornographic magazines, between five and seven key rings and a map. She claimed that the porn books contained pictures of men with blood on their genitals and women tied up who appeared to be dead. In evidence Mrs Allen described the pictures of these women in the following terms (ts 99):
There was a magazine, a couple of them, they had pictures of women tied up.
These women had red lipstick on or bright pink lipstick on, they had their mouths gagged, their eyes gagged or their eyes blindfolded. They had – they were naked and these girls looked dead.
Mrs Allen said that she rang police about the bag as soon as she saw it, but it took them four days to get back to her and for someone to come to their house. In that time Mr Morey’s then partner, Lynne Bishop, had taken the bag.
This account in relation to the bag was essentially supported by Mr Allen and Ms Kendrick, who claimed to have seen the bag and its contents at the Allen’s house. Ms Bishop in her evidence vaguely recalled the bag being given to her, but is confident that it was in her possession at some stage.
She said she did look inside the bag and saw a magazine which contained, ‘a vision that I didn’t like so I just went straight, closed it like that’ (ts 119). She said that what she had seen was a pornographic picture. She said she thought she also saw rope and gaffer tape, but said that rope and gaffer tape were everywhere around her properties and in her car.
She claimed that she had given the bag to a Stephen Taylor.
Mr Taylor was approached by police and he provided a statement in which he claimed that he had never been asked to look after any property by Ms Bishop or Mr Morey and that he had never heard of, seen or taken possession of the bag.
Unfortunately in the context of the fact that the bag has never been located, its potential significance is greatly diminished. If it could be established confidently that Mr Morey had owned a bag containing items described by the witnesses, this may have constituted propensity evidence or indicated that at the time of Ms McMahon’s disappearance he had regularly with him items that could have been used in an attack on her. Whether or not evidence as to the contents of the bag could have been significant would depend very much on the precise nature of those contents and without the bag, evidence in that regard is lacking.
THE CLAIM BY MR MOREY THAT MS McMAHON IS STILL ALIVE
Mr Morey has always claimed that Ms McMahon is still Mr Morey has been interviewed on a number of occasions by police. The most recent interview was on 14 June 2012 when he was interviewed by officers of the Special Crime Squad at the Bunbury Regional Prison. In that interview he stated that Sarah McMahon was alive and she had two children. He said that she had voluntarily left the country and that he had helped her. He was not, however, prepared to say where she was.
Mr Morey wrote a letter addressed to the ‘Chief State Coroner’ dated 2 December 2012 in anticipation of the inquest in which he made similar claims. He claimed that Ms McMahon now has a daughter and a son. He claimed, however, that he is not prepared to say anything further about her whereabouts as he fears for her safety. Mr Morey was questioned at the inquest and he again claimed that Ms McMahon was alive. He provided no further information and certainly no information which could be checked. In written submissions to the court after the inquest these claims were again made, but again no credible information was provided in their support. All of Mr Morey’s claims have been unspecific and he has not provided any information as to when he says Ms McMahon left the country, how she left the country or where she is living. At the inquest Mr Morey was a most unimpressive witness and I did not consider him to be a witness of truth
FINDINGS IN RELATION TO THE SUSPECTED DEATH
In the context that Ms McMahon has not been seen since 8 November 2000 and has not contacted her loved ones in the intervening years, I am confident that she is now deceased.
There was no evidence that Sarah McMahon left the country and there are no records held in Medicare, Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or her bank which would suggest that she was alive in Australia after that time. While Mr Morey has claimed that she is alive, living overseas, he has provided no supporting information or evidence. As Mr Morey is aware of the fact that he is viewed as a suspect by police he has, and has always had, a motive to claim that Ms McMahon is still alive. I do not consider it likely that Ms McMahon decided to leave the country and managed to do so without using her passport and without any relatives or close friends knowing what she was doing. On the day when she went missing Ms McMahon had arranged to pick up her younger sister from the Mount Helena Baptist Church at 8.30pm which she did not do. Her car and mobile telephone were later found abandoned, the car at the car park of the Swan District Hospital and the mobile telephone on the median strip of the Great Northern Highway. The fact that Ms McMahon did not pick up her sister as planned and her car and telephone were found abandoned in these circumstances is sinister and suggests that something untoward had happened to her.
Based on all of the evidence I am satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that Sarah McMahon is dead.
THE POSSIBLE VERDICTS
Ms McMahon was a 20 year old woman in relatively good health. There is no reason to believe that she would have died suddenly of natural causes. If that had happened, her body should have been located. Although there is some evidence that Ms McMahon had been depressed on occasions in the period before her disappearance, evidence of witnesses who saw her on 8 November 2000 describe her as being in a happy and positive mood. When she was last seen Ms McMahon was going to meet someone and had later plans to pick up her sister. There is no reason to suppose that she would suddenly contemplate suicide and take her own life. In addition, had the death arisen by way of suicide, that would not explain the disappearance. There is no suggestion that Ms McMahon could have suffered some unforeseen accident and, again, the fact that she has disappeared appears to be inconsistent with the possibility of accidental death. In the circumstances of this case I am satisfied that the death arose by way of Homicide.
THE PERSON OR PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH
In these reasons I have explored some of the evidence obtained by police during a number of investigations into the suspected death, particularly investigations relating to a person identified as a suspect, Mr Morey. A possible benefit served by the inquest is that it has assisted to crystallise where the evidence has been going in respect of a number of issues raised in relation to the suspected involvement of Mr Morey. It is for that reason I have reviewed some of that evidence in these reasons. It is important to recognise that section 25(5) of the Coroners Act 1996 provides:
A coroner must not frame a finding or a comment in such a way to appear to determine any question of civil liability or to suggest that any person is guilty of any offence.
In the above context my function in relation to analysing the evidence relating to Mr Morey is clearly limited.
While in an appropriate case a coroner may find that a person has caused or contributed to the death, in this case the evidence is complex and there are many credibility issues which would need to be resolved in making any such determination. It is always possible that some further evidence may come to light which could result in criminal charges being laid at some later date.
In that context I do not propose to make any finding in relation to Mr Morey’s involvement.
CONCLUSION
Sarah McMahon was 20 years of age when she disappeared on the afternoon of Wednesday 8 November 2000. She was reported missing on the following day by her mother and there have been no reliable sightings of her since that time. I find that she died on or about 8 November 2000. As indicated above, the circumstances in which Ms McMahon disappeared are sinister and I have confidently been able to exclude the possibility that she died by way of natural causes, accident or suicide. In my view the evidence points overwhelmingly to the proposition that she died by way of Unlawful Homicide. As her body has not been located I am unable to determine how she died.
A N HOPE STATE CORONER - 17 January 2013
Jones accepted a lift from a man driving a Telecom van in Cottesloe in December 1995. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
Bradley Robert Edwards has pleaded bot guilty to murdering the three women. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
The five lies prosecutors say Bradley Edwards told police
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/the-five-lies-prosecutors-say-bradley-edwards-told-police-20191126-p53ecs.htm
By Hannah Barry
Hannah Barry
Hannah Barry is a journalist for WAtoday.
November 26, 2019
Prosecutors will allege the accused Claremont serial killer told at least five "blatant" lies to investigating officers in his first police interview, claiming he had very little to do with the affluent western Perth suburb before 2008.
Bradley Robert Edwards was arrested in December 2016 after police made a considerable DNA breakthrough in the case.
When he was brought in for questioning, state prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said Mr Edwards told "blatant and repeated lies" during the 6½-hour interview with officers.
Mr Edwards has since pleaded guilty to the rape of a 17-year-old girl in Karrakatta Cemetery and an attack on a sleeping 18-year-old in Huntingdale in her family home, which Ms Barbagallo said made it clear he had not been honest with detectives in his initial interview.
The WA Supreme Court on Tuesday heard that back in December 2016, Mr Edwards claimed to not know of Rowe Park, a small park in Claremont which was later revealed to be the location where he abducted his teenage victim before taking her to Karrakatta Cemetery.
He also said he had only been to Karrakatta from 2008 onwards, and had never been there in the early hours of the morning or late in the evening.
The state now alleges the girl was taken between 2.30am and 4am in February 1995, and while Mr Edwards has not agreed with the facts presented by the prosecution, he accepts the charge and has pleaded guilty.
Mr Edwards also denied all knowledge of the Huntingdale offences and expressed "disbelief" as to why his DNA was found on a kimono seized from the crime scene.
He also distanced himself from the Claremont and Cottesloe areas, and allegedly told police he had only visited from 2009 onwards when he was working at the local Bankwest branch in his capacity as a Telstra installation technician.
But the state will allege his second wife kept records of Mr Edwards' bank statements and there were two concerning entries.
"[She] meticulously recorded in an exercise book, word by word, number by number, the accused's bank statements," Ms Barbagallo said.
She said in there were two notable entries; two withdrawals from a Bay View Terrace ATM from the local Bankwest branch on December 5 and 6 in 1996.
Ms Barbagallo said the entries stood in "stark contrast" to what Mr Edwards told investigators in the interview, and tied him closely with the sightings used in the body of evidence that put him in the Claremont area at the time.
"He went on to say he had no friends in Claremont, no girlfriends in Claremont, and he would not have had any reason to go to the Claremont area," Ms Barbagallo said.
Mr Edwards allegedly told police he used to go clubbing in the Perth CBD, but he was aware of the nightclubs in Claremont.
He told them he did not know what they were called and claimed he had never been to Club Bayview, the Claremont Hotel or the Continental Hotel.
Ms Barbagallo said at one point Mr Edwards was shown photos of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. He denied knowing any of them, and denied any connection to their abductions and murders.
Ms Barbagallo said further in the police interview, Mr Edwards could not provide an explanation as to why his DNA had turned up in intimate swabs from the Karrakatta rape victim and under the fingernails of Ciara Glennon.
Mr Edwards also couldn’t explain why his fingerprints had been found on the rear door of the house he broke into in Huntingdale in 1988.
Bradley Edwards is on trial in the Supreme Court of WA accused of murdering Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in the mid-1990s. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Composite image of a person of interest compiled from a range of photographs related to the Claremont investigation.
(Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
Coroner says missing woman Sarah McMahon was murder victim
THE WA coroner has found that a woman missing for more than 12 years was murdered, but has not ruled on who the culprit is.
Angie Raphael
AAPJANUARY 18, 2013
https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/coroner-says-missing-woman-sarah-mcmahon-was-murder-victim/news-story/d64ef5cdd62f86daf5f6034797190448
THE West Australian coroner has found that a 20-year-old woman missing for more than 12 years was a victim of a homicide, but has refused to rule on whether a suspect in the case was involved in the crime.
Sarah Anne McMahon disappeared on November 8, 2000 after telling a colleague she was meeting a friend at 5.30pm and then failing to pick up her sister at 8.30pm that evening.
Donald Victor Morey, 57, has long been considered a suspect in her disappearance and was the last person to speak to Ms McMahon before she disappeared.
After the initial police investigation drew a blank, a further investigation was launched after Morey was convicted of the attempted murder of a Perth prostitute in 2004 and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
He had also been a person of interest in the death of another prostitute the previous year.
However, police were again unable to substantiate enough evidence against Morey, who has consistently denied any involvement in Ms McMahon's disappearance.
A cold case review of both investigations was launched last year and Morey said he was still in contact with Ms McMahon, who he claimed was living in Canada with her two children.
Coroner Alastair Hope said on Thursday that because Ms McMahon had not contacted her loved ones in more than 12 years, he was confident she was dead.
"The circumstances in which Ms McMahon disappeared are sinister and I have confidently been able to exclude the possibility that she died by way of natural causes, accident or suicide,'' he said.
"In my view, the evidence points overwhelmingly to the proposition that she died by way of unlawful homicide.''
Mr Hope said there was no evidence that Ms McMahon left the country and there were no records held in Medicare, Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or her bank that would suggest that she was alive in Australia after that time.
A key piece of evidence examined at the inquest was a statement from Natasha Tracy-Ann Kendrick, dated November 11, 2011.
In her statement, Ms Kendrick said she walked into Morey's room and saw a bloodied naked girl on the bed with an "old fashioned rope'' around her neck.
Ms Kendrick claimed that she later saw Morey carrying ``something wrapped in a quilt over his left shoulder'' and said she knew it was McMahon's body.
However, Mr Hope noted that police were unable to find evidence to corroborate her account.
He said there was also evidence capable of supporting a conclusion that Morey lied to police about his movements on November 8, 2000 and falsified documents to support those lies.
"It is always possible that some further evidence may come to light which could result in criminal charges being laid at some later date,'' he said.
"In that context, I do not propose to make any finding in relation to Mr Morey's involvement.''
Originally published asMissing woman 'a murder victim'
Donald Morey, aka Matusevich
Claremont serial killings trial told Bradley Edwards did not show up at holiday house the night Ciara Glennon vanished
ABC News By Andrea Mayes
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-29/claremont-serial-killings-bradley-edwards-missing-ciara-glennon/11750286
29th November, 2019
The man accused of the Claremont serial killings did not turn up to a friend's holiday house as planned on the night Ciara Glennon went missing in 1997, the WA Supreme Court has been told.
Former Telstra technician Bradley Edwards, 50, is on trial in WA's Supreme Court for the wilful murder of three young women who disappeared from the Claremont entertainment precinct in 1996 and 1997.
Sarah Spiers, 18, was the first to go missing after a night of Australia Day celebrations on January 26, 1996. Her body has never been found.
Jane Rimmer, 23, disappeared in the early hours of June 9, 1996, before her body was found in bushland nearly two months later.
Edwards's third alleged victim, 27-year-old Ciara Glennon, vanished in the early hours of March 15, 1997, and her body was found, also in bushland, on April 3.
The accused's work colleague and friend, Murray Cook, testified he had invited Edwards to visit him and his wife at an A-framed holiday house at Dawesville, south of Perth, in March 1997.
Mr Cook had recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had taken some time off work.
He said Edwards had been supportive of him after his diagnosis, and he had invited his workmate to join him and his wife at the holiday house on Friday, March 14.
Edwards didn't arrive until next morning, court told
Mr Cook had expected Edwards to drive down after work, but even though he waited up until 10:00pm or 11:00pm, Edwards never made it.
Instead, he showed up about 11:00am the following day, which led to a confrontation.
"I said words to effect of 'what the hell? You were supposed to be here on Friday night'," Mr Cook said.
"He said 'I was trying to reconcile with my wife'.
"I said 'how did it go?' He just shook his head."
Ms Glennon was last seen in Claremont in the early hours of March 15, and the prosecution alleges Edwards abducted and murdered her, dumping her body in bushland in the northern Perth suburb of Eglinton and covering it with branches and foliage.
Under cross-examination from defence counsel Paul Yovich SC, Mr Cook agreed he had relied on his wife's diary to help jog his memory about the exact dates he was in Dawesville.
But he said the holiday definitely started immediately after his wife and stepdaughter's birthdays, on March 9 and 10 respectively, and ended before his mother's birthday on March 21.
Giving evidence to the court, Mr Cook's wife, Brigitta, also testified Edwards had been late arriving at the house on Saturday March 15.
He turned up in a white Telstra-branded Holden Commodore station wagon, she said.
"We asked him why he didn't come on Friday night. He said to Murray and I that he was trying to reconcile with his first wife," she said.
"Murray and I had no reason not to believe what he'd just said."
In an apparent reference to Ms Glennon's disappearance, she said they had "heard nothing of what had happened", given there was no radio or TV at the Dawesville house.
Work as normal the day after Spiers disappearance
Mr Cook also testified he had worked with Edwards on a job at Dumas House — an office building next to State Parliament that houses a number of government ministers — on January 27, 1996.
That was the same day Ms Spiers went missing.
She was last seen in Claremont after she phoned for a taxi shortly after 2:00am on that day, and Mr Cook said he and Edwards turned up for work at 7:55am that day.
But he was not questioned further about Edwards's appearance on the day.
Ms Cook also told the court Edwards had once mentioned his ex-wife had been pregnant but had lost the baby.
"Brad didn't like to discuss that," she said.
It was mentioned only once and "never spoken of again".
Edwards has pleaded not guilty to the three murders, but has admitted attacking a woman as she slept in her Huntingdale home in 1988 and raping a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995.
Ray and Peter Mickelberg forced to fight another day after Legal Aid bombshell
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/ray-and-peter-mickelberg-forced-to-fight-another-day-after-legal-aid-bombshell-20160311-gngwpx.html
And
http://inlnews.com/PerthMintSwindleTheMovie.html
By David Prestipino
March 12, 2016
Peter and Ray Mickelberg exit court after another battle. CREDIT:NINE NEWS PERTH
Ray Mickelberg at Fremantle Prison, describing the area where his finger was bitten off completely. CREDIT:NINE NEWS PERTH
The Mickelberg brothers are back... back in the news, back in court and reluctantly back in the spotlight again as bad boys in the eyes of their usual enemies in the legal fraternity.
Framed by corrupt WA police for the 1982 Perth Mint Swindle and wrongly convicted and jailed (Ray for eight and a half years and Peter for just short of seven years), the brothers were given an ex-gratia payment in a 2008 deal made with then Labor attorney-general Jim McGinty on behalf of the state, which included payment of the Legal Aid fees the Mickelbergs needed to clear their names.
"The brothers will receive $500,000 each, which is in addition to the $658,672 they have already received to pay for legal representation during their appeals in 1998 and 2004," Mr McGinty said in a statement in January 2008.
But on March 30, Legal Aid will take Ray Mickelberg to court (Peter is also in its sights), in an attempt to recover $141,000 in payments used to clear his name.
A writ was issued more than two years ago in the District Court but served only recently.
The Mickelbergs are not the mafia but, just when they think they're out, the state pulls them back in.
Legal Aid told WAtoday it would reconsider its action against them if the the Deed of Settlement between the State and the Mickelbergs – missing since the 2008 deal was signed – indicated the funds owed to them were settled as part of the agreement.
This week, a copy of that deed landed in the hands of the Mickelbergs for the first time, via their lawyer Malcolm McCusker QC.
It confirms that Ray and Peter Mickelberg's Legal Aid fees would be paid as part of the deal with the State, a fact Mr McGinty confirmed in a radio interview last week.
"When we determined an ex-gratia payment be made to the Mickelbergs, we took into account the amount of money they had already received by way of Legal Aid to enable them to clear their names, that was about $650,000 and then on top of that we made a payment of $500,000," Mr McGinty said.
"A lot of people at the time thought that was a modest amount for eight-and-a-half years in prison, and that is true because, you need to add to that the amount of money that was paid to them for Legal Aid.
"To see the State now trying to recover part of the settlement that was made by the Mickelbergs.. I was very surprised by that... in fact I find it quite extraordinary they would try to do that."
Perth Mint Swindle investigator Tony Lewandowski and WA police involved in the Mickelberg conviction confessed prior to Lewandowski's suicide that they had perjured themselves in the trial.
"Ex-gratia payments are not often made but when they are they're made because of some horrible wrongdoing by a State official... and in this case it was the fact the police perjured themselves in order to get the conviction of the Mickelberg brothers and that was subsequently confessed to by the police," Mr McGinty said.
"So to try and recover in those circumstances I think is quite extraordinary.
"The State should acknowledge the Legal Aid funding was part of the consideration of the ultimate settlement and drop any recovery action against the Mickelbergs.
"I suspect if it does go to court it will be found to be part of an ex-gratia payment that was made to them and the court will throw out the application by the State to recover this money in any event.
"Why the State would want to put the Mickelbergs, the justice system, through that sort of process, frankly is beyond me."
So who has the power to prevent this latest legal action against the brothers?
"Political responsibility rests with the Attorney General, Michael Mischin, and he should make that call," Mr McGinty said.
"Alternatively the Legal Aid Commission should have a good look at the case and determine they've got no real prospect of success - and it's wrong to proceed in any event - and withdraw the application for recovery."
Mr Mischin, who prosecuted the Mickelbergs when he worked for the Director of Public Prosecutions in the 1980s and 1990s, refused to comment on Legal Aid's recovery efforts.
Peter Mickelberg says Mr Mischin has "a gross conflict of interest" because he prosecuted them and met with Legal Aid prior to them serving the writ against Ray.
"Why did Legal Aid feel the need to approach the Attorney General before issuing action against Ray?" Peter said.
In a letter sent to WAtoday last week, Legal Aid claimed Ray Mickelberg wasn't aware of its attempts to recover the debt until he learned of the writ, but had paid them $5000 in 1994 following written correspondence.
"That statement ... is patently false," Peter told WAtoday.
"[We] are both aware of the demands made by the Legal Aid Commission that we repay alleged debts.
"In fact, I met with (Legal Aid director) George Turnbull and said the alleged debts were not owed by Ray or I, rather they were the responsibility of the corrupt police who fabricated the evidence that saw us jailed for a crime we did not commit.
"The $5000 payment referred to was not paid by Ray. The funds were sent from a lawyer's trust account against Ray's wishes in 1994."
Why Legal Aid did not seek to obtain a copy of the Deed of Settlement remains a mystery.
"We were only supplied with a copy of the deed on Wednesday so there was no opportunity to supply it to the Legal Aid Commission," Peter said.
"Legal Aid, however, has been in direct contact with the Attorney General's office and the office of the Solicitor General and it would have been easy for them to have obtained a copy, if it desired to do so."
The brothers are also perplexed as to why Legal Aid did not contact Mr McGinty, the Attorney General at the time, and the State to inquire about the outstanding alleged debt.
"The issue of whether Mr McGinty considered that the Legal Aid expenses were covered by the ex-gratia consideration is clearly settled by reference to the recent public remarks he made," Peter said.
"Mr McGinty is unequivocal in his public comments, saying that the deal he struck included all legal expenses.
"That deal was formalised by a deed signed by us and Mr McGinty in his capacity as Attorney General and it is open to the Legal Aid Commission to contact Mr McGinty directly and to also make inquiries of the State in relation to this issue."
Peter stressed the brothers were not playing victim but said the action by Legal Aid was distressing for his family.
"I am sure that many people do repay Legal Aid as they should," Peter said.
"I doubt they were victims of a serious miscarriage of justice and received an ex-gratia payment from the state that ... dealt with all outstanding legal matters including Legal Aid."
While Peter's two daughters, aged 19 and 23, have watched their father continually battle law and order authorities their entire life, the stress and drama are new for his five-year-old son.
"He ran to his bedroom crying after seeing a news report that said his father had been in jail," Peter said.
"I know we sound like victims but.. I've got two children who grew up with this crap, and all of a sudden it's back.
"We didn't ask to be treated the way we were by police. They simply do not care about the effect on human life."
Legal Aid silent on accuracy of records
Legal Aid again refused to comment to WAtoday after we challenged several points it raised in the initial letter it sent us about the Mickelberg action.
When Peter Mickelberg met Mr Turnbull on several occasions in 2008 to discuss the Legal Aid debt (before the ex-gratia deal was made), he claims he was told there were no records of their Legal Aid applications on file.
"[But] anytime you get Legal Aid, you are granted a certificate which details how much [the debt is], what it's for and for how long," Mr Mickelberg said.
"Now they have the records, when before they didn't?
"This action by Legal Aid is a gross waste of the public's dollar. Here they are, trying to recoup $141,000 for a case we won based on police corruption."
Peter also claims the March 30 hearing should never have proceeded because the two-year deadline to prosecute the writ to his brother Ray had passed in December 2015.
"Ray rang the court the day it expired and the District Court told him they had struck it off," Peter said.
"But in January 2016, the State Solicitor's office reopened the matter, which it can only do under 'extraordinary circumstances'."
WAtoday understands those "extraordinary circumstances" involve a clerk from the State Solicitor's office who forgot to take relevant documents to the District Court before the deadline passed.
How other victims of WA police corruption fared
While $500,000 seems a lot of money for a wrongful conviction, it's not when you consider the lengths police took to frame Ray, Peter and their other brother Brian.
Brian was released on appeal after nine months in jail but later died in a plane crash; Ray spent eight-and-a-half years in prison and had his finger completely bitten off in the process, while Peter spent almost seven years behind bars – all terms served at the notoriously-violent Fremantle Prison.
The trio weren't cleared until former detectiv Lewandoski confessed in 2002 that he, his boss Don Hancock and other colleagues fabricated evidence and lied in police statements in order to convict the brothers.
"He was a very courageous man, for all his faults... Lewandowski stood up and told the truth, and he paid the ultimate price," Ray told Nine News Perth a few weeks ago.
Though it's been 34 years since the Perth Mint Swindle, there are still people in WA's law and order system who refuse to let the Mickelbergs live in peace.
"The State needs to let this go," prominent lawyer John Hammond told Nine News.
"It's mean-spirited, particularly in light of the deal that was done between the State Government and the Mickelbergs."
Opposition spokesman and lawyer John Quigley said his Liberal counterpart, current Attorney General Michael Mischin, should put an end to the brothers' ordeal once and for all.
"Obviously he'd be biased because he spent so much of his time as a lawyer keeping the Mickelbergs wrongfully imprisoned - on instruction of course - and he should come out and stop this," Mr Quigley told Nine News.
Legal Aid said the Attorney General did not influence its decision to pursue the Mickelbergs because its independence as a statutory authority was "necessary to avoid any conflict with a role which includes providing legal representation for persons who are being prosecuted by the state".
When you consider other ex-gratia payments the State has made to victims of police corruption, you can understand why the Mickelbergs should be livid at this latest action against them.
Andrew Mallard was wrongfully convicted of the 1995 murder of Pamela Lawrence after police withheld vital information from his defence team. He received an ex-gratia payment of $3.25 million from the State in 2009 after losing 12 years of his life behind bars. WAtoday understands Mr Mallard used Legal Aid to help clear his name and was not required to repay it.
Prominent barrister Lloyd Rayney also has a Legal Aid debt of $2 million but was not required to repay it after he was named the "prime and only suspect" in his estranged wife Corryn's 2007 murder, of which he was cleared after a high-profile trial in 2012.
Darryl Beamish ($425,00 for 15 years' jail) and John Button ($460,000 for five years' jail) are other victims of corruption who received ex-gratia payments from the State.
"The terms we made in 2008 with Mr McGinty were that if you don't pursue us, we won't pursue you," Peter Mickelberg said.
"We were preparing to sue the State but they said 'take the $500,000 and we will leave it there'."
Mickelbergs appeal to public for justice
One of Peter's daughters recently set up a Facebook page - Justice for the Mickelbergs - after they learned about the writ against Ray. She hopes crowdfunding will help her father and brother defend the Legal Aid action and avoid Ray Mickelberg losing the family home.
"Your generosity and support is giving Ray and Peter strength to keep up the fight in what is a tough time for both them and their families," the Facebook page says.
On the public appeal on social media, Peter Mickelberg told WAtoday:
"It's totally transparent. It is our intention that if associated costs needed to utilise this are no longer required, we intend to return all the money. "
THE ACCUSED - BRADLEY ROBERT EDWARDS
Sarah Anne McMahon
https://www.mamamia.com.au/missing-australian-women/
Sarah was a “happy and healthy” 20-year-old when she left her workplace around 5:15pm in Grenmount, West Australia to meet someone.
It was Wednesday, November 8, 2000, and she hasn’t been seen since.
Sarah was last seen on November 8, 2000. Image via Missing Persons Australia.
Auburn-haired and green-eyed, Sarah - who would now be aged 37 - was last seen driving her vehicle, a 1986 White Ford Meteor Sedan, registration 7FO-731 east on the Great Eastern Highway, wearing dark jeans, a black turtle neck sweater and a black suede jacket.
Bradley Robert Edwards Edwards is accused of killing Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer. (Fairfax Media)
Above: Donald Morey, aka Matusevich
Sarah Anne McMAHON
Bradley Edwards, as a younger man, in photo tendered at his trial for the alleged murders of three Perth girls at Claremont. Source: Supplied
Bradley Edwards worked for Telstra for 30 years before his arrest in 2016. (Facebook: KLAC)
Bradley Edwards with the horse, Beau, he gave to his first wife as a gift in the 1990s. Source: Supplied
Don Spiers and Carol Spiers - the parents of Sarah Spiers arrive at the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth,
Monday-25th_November, 2019
Reporters converge on Lance Williams' parents' house in Cottesloe, seeking interviews. (ABC News)
Claremont Serial Killings Trial: Bradley Robert Edwards’ ex-wife tells court she feared for her life
Angie Raphael and Rebecca Le MayAAP
November 28, 2019
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-bradley-robert-edwards-ex-wife-tells-court-she-feared-for-her-life-ng-b881396307z
Bradley Robert Edwards’ second wife says she feared for her life during her marriage to the accused Claremont serial killer and compiled a notebook of his bank transactions, with some showing he’d been in the area.
The ex-Telstra technician is battling accusations he murdered secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, on nights in 1996 and 1997.
Edwards’ second wife, whose identity is suppressed, testified on Thursday that the year before she left him, she took detailed notes from his bank statements from 1996 to 1998, including two withdrawals from a Bayview Terrace ATM in December 1996.
Asked why she wrote the notes, she said their relationship “started to escalate”.
“I feared for my life“, she told the Western Australia Supreme Court on Thursday, but was prevented from expanding further.
She later said she was “terrified while writing this” and was “scared stiffless”.
The court has previously heard that in his police interview Edwards claimed he had not visited the Claremont area around the times when the three victims were murdered.
He said he had no association with the affluent suburb so had no reason to go there.
With a clear recollection of specifics, Edwards’ second wife said she met him on April 1, 1997 when he attended her workplace for a Telstra job following a lightning strike.
“I thought it was an April Fools’ joke,” she said.
She said Edwards, 50, asked her out and she joked: “If you’re going to take me out, I deserve two dozen roses - and he did.”
They had a “meeting” at McDonald’s to thank him for the bouquet and brought her young daughter to show him they were a “package” before having their first official date on April 12.
“We fell in love pretty quickly, I guess,” she said.
The second wife said Edwards told her he had a prior conviction but labelled it “just an assault” committed after his first wife, who was his girlfriend at the time, cheated on him and he had a “brain snap”.
She said she later learnt it was the Hollywood Hospital “incident”.
Edwards attacked a social worker from behind and tried to drag her into toilets at the hospital in 1990.
He pleaded guilty to assault and was ordered to complete a sex offenders program.
“He minimised it and that’s all I knew about it - it was just an assault,” the second wife said.
“He cried and everything ... I felt sorry for him.”
The couple married in December 2000 but broke up in July 2015.
Earlier, an ex-girlfriend, whose name is also suppressed, testified she saw Edwards on most weekends while they were dating after both coming out of marriage break-ups.
He spoke about his marriage breakdown without anger or bitterness.
“He was matter-of-fact about it,” she said.
Their relationship changed after they spent a weekend in Margaret River in February 1997.
“That was when I noticed things were different between us ... it started to fizzle,” she said.
The ex-girlfriend said their relationship ended in March or the beginning of April 1997, adding it had “well and truly finished” by her daughter’s birthday in late April.
“He told me he’d met somebody else,” the woman said.
She agreed with the suggestion it came as a surprise.
They then had sex.
Defence counsel Paul Yovich asked if Edwards was “trying to be nice about it“ and the woman replied: “I guess so.”
The next morning, Edwards said he still wanted to break up, then left.
Sign up for the Claremont Serial Killer Trial newsletter
The West Australian
Wednesday, 20 November 2019
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/sign-up-for-the-claremont-serial-killer-trial-newsletter-ng-b881388003z
On Monday, the questions West Australians have been asking for decades may finally be answered.
The death of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, who disappeared from the streets of Claremont in 1997 and 1998, changed Perth forever.
A wide-ranging police investigation touched the lives of thousands, and as the weeks, months and years went on the hopes of solving the crimes faded.
That was until Christmas 2016, when the first charges were laid against Bradley Robert Edwards.
Next week his trial begins.
There is unprecedented demand for information from the public, and The West Australian will answer those demands with a daily podcast, live coverage of every day of the trial, extended video bulletins and all the news as it happens from our award-winning team.
Sign up here to have all the latest news delivered directly to your inbox, every day of the trial.
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/sign-up-for-the-claremont-serial-killer-trial-newsletter-ng-b881388003z
The United States vs Julian Assange | Four Corners
ABC News In-depth
In the 2016 race to the White House, presidential candidate Donald Trump took a shine to the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, led by its Australian founder Julian Assange. Trump revelled in the damage inflicted upon his opponent, Hillary Clinton, by a series of sensational leaks published by the site. Now, as President, Donald Trump has performed a spectacular flip, presiding over an administration determined to imprison the publisher of the leaks. In Part Two of its investigation into Julian Assange, Four Corners looks at Assange’s activities conducted during the nearly seven years he spent sheltering in the Ecuadorian Embassy. For Part One, Hero or Villain: The Prosecution of Julian Assange, click here: https://youtu.be/HtelzRAPlT8 Read more about this story here: https://ab.co/2GyyXIh Watch more Four Corners investigations here: https://bit.ly/2JbpMkf You can also like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abc4corners/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/4corners And sign up to our newsletter: www.abc.net.au/4corners/newsletter/
Map showing Sarah Spiers's last known movements in Claremont before her disappearance in 1996. (ABC News)
Claremont serial killings trial witness had 'strong instinct to get out' of Telstra car after being offered a lift
By Andrea Mayes
4th December, 2019
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-04/claremont-serial-killings-bradley-robert-edwards-trial-day-8/11765176Key points:
Annabelle Bushell was drinking with a friend at a pub in Cottesloe in 1996
The pair accepted a lift home from a man driving a station wagon with a Telstra logo on it
Ms Bushell said she had a "strong instinct to get out of the car" when it stopped at a red light
PHOTO: Bradley Robert Edwards is accused of murdering three women who went missing from Claremont in the 1990s. (ABC News: Anne Barnetson)
PHOTO: Edwards began working for Telecom (now Telstra) in the mid 1980s. (Supplied: WA Supreme Court)
PHOTO: Previous logos for Telecom, later rebadged Telstra, tabled in court. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
RELATED STORY: 'I honestly thought I was going to die': Edwards's victim breaks her silence
RELATED STORY: Flatmate's affair with Edwards's wife exploded in threats to kill, court told
RELATED STORY: Those who know him best have presented wildly different versions of Bradley Edwards
RELATED STORY: Bradley Edwards went missing the night Ciara Glennon vanished, friend testifies
A woman who accepted a lift from a man in a Telstra-branded car at the height of the Claremont serial killings has told the WA Supreme Court she made an excuse to exit the car after feeling a "strong instinct to get out".
Bradley Robert Edwards is on trial for the wilful murders of three women — Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon — who went missing from the Claremont entertainment district in 1996 and 1997.
Annabelle Bushell told the court she had been drinking with her friend Trilby Smith at the Ocean Beach Hotel in neighbouring Cottesloe in late 1996 and would have drunk between 15 to 20 middies of full-strength beer over a five- or six-hour session at the pub.
"We were just enjoying each other's company, playing pool," she said.
Ms Spiers and Ms Rimmer drank at the same hotel on the nights they disappeared in January and June 1996 respectively.
When Ms Bushell and her friends finally called it a night, they began to walk along Eric Street towards Stirling Highway when a station wagon with a Telstra logo — identified as either a Toyota Lexcen or Holden Commodore — slowed down and drove past them, before circling back and stopping to offer them a lift.
The women got into the car, but Ms Bushell said she began to feel uneasy as the car stopped at a red light on the corner of Bay View Terrace and Stirling Highway in Claremont.
"I just had a strong instinct to get out of the car," she said.
"I wasn't in a good spot."
She said the driver was "middle-aged", 30 to 40 years old, with neat dark-coloured hair, and appeared to be fairly tall because he filled up the seat.
However, there were discrepancies between her account of the incident and that of her friend Ms Smith, who gave evidence yesterday.
Ms Smith described the vehicle as a van, not a station wagon, and gave a detailed description of the rear section containing electrical tools.
She did not recall the vehicle having any Telstra signage on it.
Edwards promoted despite assault conviction
A number of documents were earlier submitted to the court by state prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC relating to Edwards's employment at phone utility Telecom (later rebranded Telstra), where he worked for 30 years until his arrest in December 2016.
Among them was a job application for a position within Telecom from June 1992 — two years after he admitting attacking a female social worker at Perth's Hollywood Hospital — in which Edwards referred to his work ethic and the advantages of having "a careful plan of attack".
The social worker attack took place while he was working for the utility repairing telephone systems at the hospital, in Perth's western suburbs.
Justice Stephen Hall said although the document, which came under the "personal attributes" section of the job application, showed Edwards was "well-organised', it was ultimately irrelevant and therefore inadmissible as evidence.
Edwards pleaded guilty to a charge of assault over the attack and was given two years' probation, but Telstra records presented to the court on Wednesday showed he continued to rise through the ranks at the telecommunications company despite his conviction, becoming a senior telecommunications technician grade 1 by June 1992.
Telstra payroll manager Tony Vomero gave evidence about documents taken from the Telstra archives detailing Edwards' positions, and payslips and internal job applications from selected periods throughout his employment.
But he was unable to say what Edwards' work schedule would have been in the 1990s, covering the period the three women went missing, because records were not kept for the time.
NYT Investigation Team Comment:
One has to wonder why and how a person such as Bradley Robert Edwards with a conviction for what seemed to be a serious sexual assault that the woman says that she thought she might be killed by her attacker .... was allowed to rise up in Telstra and one has to wonder why Bradley Robert Edwards even was able to keep his job in Testra after pleading guilty to a serious sexual assault where the woman says that she thought she might be killed by her attacker ....
Also Bradley Robert Edwards went on to play with the Krocs Football team along side police who must have become friends...
There seems no concern by anyone that Bradley Robert Edwards has a sexual deviant problem after being convicted a serious sexual assault.... and there seemed no concern by anyone that Bradley Robert Edwards would escalate his sexual crime to further attacks and eventually abduction and murder ..... maybe because even though on his own admissions has has a sexual problem that has caused him to attack two women for sexual gratification, he is not a person who would murder his victims .... and would think he could get away with continuous abductions and murders while a major hunt for a serial killer was going on .... after the disappearance of Sarah Spiers and Abduction and Murder of Jane Rimmer.....
in particular if Bradley Robert Edwards was the man driving around in a Telstra station wagon or van picking up girls .... Bradley Robert Edwards would have known he would soon be a suspect in the Claremont Serial Killings for many different reasons which include him being known as a person that drives in his Testra car r van (if that was him?) and the fact that he already had a serious sexual assault conviction in Claremont/Hollywood/Karakatta Area ... and would be expected to be on the police radar as a person of interest as soon as the first girl, Sarah Spiers went missing ... without some good connections in the police ... Bradley Robert Edwards to keep him off the radar .... as a person of interest .. in the disappearance of Sarah Spiers .... how would Bradley Robert Edwards ever think in his wildest imagination he could get away with continuing to abduct and murder girls from the same hotels and nightclub and from the same streets in Claremont with a major Serial Killer Manhunt being carried out ..headed by the Macro Task Force ...
Some thing doe snot ass up here ....
It seems that either Bradley Robert Edwards is either:
(a) not the sole abductor and murderer of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ...
and/or
(b) Bradley Robert Edwards was involved with other well connected and powerful people in the abduction and murderer of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ....
or
Bradley Robert Edwards has nothing to do with the abduction and murderer of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ....
It does not seem possible that Bradley Robert Edwards could have kept off the radar for so long and could have carried out all three abductions and murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon .... without help from well connected and powerful people and in particular some of those well connected and powerful people being in the Western Australian Police Force ... would have made it a lot easier for Bradley Robert Edwards to keep off the radar for so long ...
There is one thing for certain .... if Bradley Robert Edwards was involved in any way with the three abductions and murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ... and/or Julie Culter who disappeared on the 20th June, 1988 ... and there was also well connected and powerful people involved as well in the disappearance of Sarah Spiers and Julie Cutler and the abduction and murder of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon along with Bradley Robert Edwards ... then there is no way Bradley Robert Edwards is going to speak about his well connected and powerful associates ... so he would have to keep silent and have the one of the best criminal barrister's money can buy in Western Australia try and obtain a not guilty verdict on the charges accusing him of he three abductions and murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon....having pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of sexual assault ans rape ...
Another thing is for certain .. the legal, political, business, media, court, police and prosecution systems and the general public would have trouble dealing with the names mentioned by Sarah Anne McMahon is her statement before she disappeared in the year 2000 as to who the well connected and powerful people that she says were involved in the Claremont Serial Killings, which she said included Julie Cutler ...who disappeared on the 20th June, 1988 ..
Hungry Jacks sign were boys were sitting just after 12pm eating Hungry Jacks Burgers when they saw Giara Glennon walk past on Stirling Highway on early
Sunday morning the 15th of March, 1997.
Accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards sometimes grew a beard as a young man. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
Police undertook checks on all Perth taxi cabs. (ABC News)
After 34 years of fighting for justice, Peter Mickelberg just wants to be left alone .CREDIT:NINE NEWS PERTH
Bradley Robert Edwards in the mid-1990s.
Police searched Edwards's former Huntingdale home in 2017, 10 years after he sold it. (ABC News: Eliza Laschon)
Sarah Anne McMahon
A Sketch Bradley Robert Edwards at his Trial in November, 2019- Picture: Anne Barnetson. Source: AAP
Ms Barbagallo, the Western Australian, DPP Prosecutor
FREEDOM TO PROVIDE FACTS, INFORMATION, OPINION AND DEBATE WIKIPEDIA EXPOSED MEDIA - TRUTHFUL NEWS MEDIA, ENCOURAGE OPEN DEBATE
Further Comment by an investigator for the NTY.bz Claremont Seial Killers Investigation Team (NYT_CSKIT)
1. The Western Australian Police Macro Task force seem to have misrepresented the truth to the Western Australian Public, the Western Australian and Australian newspapers and TV Networks, by always saying for the last 20 odd years, that the last known sighting of Jane Rimmer was on the video footage taken just after midnight on the 9th of June, 1996 on the famous video footage talking to a mystery man outside the Continenal Hotel in Bay View Terrace, Claremont, Western Australia ... when as per the report given to the Western Australian Police by four 21 year old university students ... they saw Jane Rimmer hitchhiking on Stirling Highway at about 12.30 am on the 9th of June, 1996 near the corner of Stirling Highway and Lock Street, Claremont, and was heading towards Nedlands of Perth and not heading towards Mosman Park of Wembley where Jane Rimmer lived ...
2. The Western Australian Police Macro Task force seem to have misrepresented the truth to the Western Australian Public, the Western Australian and Australian newspapers and TV Networks, by always saying for the last 20 odd years, that the circumstances of the last known sighting of Ciara Glenon was .... that the boys sitting on the bus stop opposite Hungry Jacks actually saw Ciara Glennon leaning over on her knees talking to the driver of a light coloured vehicle on Stirling Highway, Claremont, when one of the boys have stated that they never saw any vehicle after seeing Ciara Glennon walk past them, and he said that they only saw the back lights of a car that looked like may be be putting its breaks on ...but never actually saw Ciara Glennon standing taking to anyone in the car ..... the reinactment on the Channel 9 TV program of the last sighting of Ciara Glennon seems to have been false .....
The question remains is ..." Why did the Macro Task Force mislead the general public about the about last sightings of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon?"
This is a question that the Commissioner of Police for Western Australian should answer to the Western Australian People, the new Labor Western Australian Government and to the people of Australia as well.
The other very disturbing thing is that there was so much evidence offered by the public over the last 20 odd years to the Macro Task Force appointed by the Commissioner of the Western Australian Police Service to investigate the Claremont Serial Killings ..that the Mcacro Task Force do not seem to have bothered to properly investigate ... and when they bothered to investigate .... it was a long time after the crimes have been committed ... making it harder to collect the important evidence needed to apprehend the person to people involved in the Claremont Serial Killings..
For example there is a bricklayer going early to work, who saw a taxi driver early in the morning without lights near were the body of Ciara Glennon was found, about the time Ciara Glennon went missing ... who said there was a female person sitting on the back of the taxi.... this is important independent evidence that fairly well proved beyond reasonable doubt that there was a taxi involved, a person who had access to a taxi involved, and that there was at least two people involved in the abduction and murder of Ciara Gennon....which fairly proves that the police are wrong in saying that Bradley Robert Edwards committed the abduction and murder of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon all by himself and had no help in any way from anyone else .... the evidence that a taxi was seen with a female person in the back near where the body of Ciara Glennon was found, about the time that Ciara Glennon was abducted .... fits in with the statement by Noel Geoffrey Coward who said "..that there was this guy who lived in Fremantle called Tony, who was a part ti,me taxi driver, and a woman using the name Michelle, involved who sat in the back of the taxi where the bodies were dumped... there was mention in the statement by Noel Geoffrey Coward (now conveniently deceased) that there was a woman known as ""Michelle and a taxi driver Tony involved is picking up the Claremont Serial Killer Victims .. and that Michelle went away to the Eastern States after each of the Claremont Serial Killer Victims disappeared .... there was mention by Noel Geoffrey Coward (now conveniently deceased) of an underground bunker/celler in Fremantle, which Noel Geoffrey Coward claimed was used for making "Snuff Movies" for sale overseas .... it seems that what ever Noel Geoffrey Coward had to say has been completely ignored by the Macro Task Force in charge of the Investigation of the Claremont Serial Killings ...
3. One of the main questions that needs to be answered and established is "if Bradley Robert Edwards was somehow involved with the Claremont Serial Killings in one way or another ... then was Bradley Robert Edwards the sole and only person responsible for and involved in the abductions and murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon as the Western Australian Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions are trying tying to prove....
We now have a witness who lives in Mosman Park stating that screams of a female were heard the early morning that Sarah Spiers disappeared .. and that the screams seems to be coming from the direction of a nearly phone box which has a car parked near it ... then two doors slammed and the car drove off.... The reality seems to be that if this car had something to do with the alleged abduction and murder of Sarah Spiers and the scream was of Sarah Spiers .... then then there seems no doubt by the fact that two doors were slammed before the car drove off that was near the phone box,,,, then there were at least two people in that car and/or got out of that car .... because there were two doors that slammed .. not just one door slammed .. so there had to be two people there ... either getting in or out of the car .... which leads to a strong deduction that there could well be at least two people involved in the alleged abduction and murder of Sarah Spiers .... then added to the evidence of the taxi and a woman sitting in the back of the taxi seen near where the body of Ciara Glennon was found .. early morning that Ciara Glennon disappeared.... further leads to a the strong conclusion that there was at least two people involved (Including a taxi driver and a taxi) in the abduction and murder of Ciara Glennon ... all one can say is that the plot thickens ... with the question as to whether the Western Australian Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia are wanting all fingers to be solely pointed at Bradley Robert Edwards as being the Sole and only person responsible and involved in the alleged abduction and murder of Sarah Spiers and the Abduction and Murder of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ...because there are other well connected and powerful people involved in the alleged abduction and murder of Sarah Spiers and the Abduction and Murder of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon..... which as even the former heads of the Marco Task Force, Paul Ferguson and David John Caporn said ""... could involve a police officer ...... so even police officers are not immune from suspicion ...."
4. There is also the issue of the blond male and also female that was reported to have gone in the the taxi with Sarah Spiers to Dalkeith where Steven Ross dropped off the female and the took Sarah Spiers and the blond male to the Windsor Hotel .... the witness Katrina Jones stated in her police statement that she Jones accepted a lift from a 21 year old blond man driving a van in Cottesloe in December 1995, but strangely tried to change her story n the witness stand to it being a 27 year old dark haired man ... one wonders if the police and prosecution asked Katrina Jones to changer her evidence from the man being 21 year old blond to the man being 27 years old and having dark hair? Reason to have Katrina Jones? Because the evidence of a 21 year old blond man did not fit into the profile of it possibly being Bradley Robert Edwards ... there is also information being discussed that there was a blond son of a policeman who tried to befriend Sarah Spiers before she disappeared .. the police and the prosecution have to bring all possible evidence out at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ... regardless of whether such evidence helps of hinders a guilty verdict being brought down against Bradley Robert Edwards of being the sole person responsible for the alleged abduction and murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. Steven Roos the Taxi Driver, Tony the Taxi Driver, the girl named Michelle and the bricklayer who saw a taxi with a girl in the back near where the body of Ciara Glennon was found all have to be brought to court and placed on the witness stand.
The week WA waited 20 years for: What we know after five days
The West Australian
View Online
As the families of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon strode into and then sat inside WA’s Supreme Court on Monday, they must have felt the eyes of Australia were all on them.
Sheep shearer Don and his wife Carol. Businessman and photographer Denis Glennon and his doctor daughter Denise. And Jenny Rimmer, frail, wheelchair-bound, alongside her son Adam.
For them all to be in the same room at the same time was noteworthy enough.
The occasion was even more remarkable, marking as it did what could be the beginning of the end of part of their nightmare.
READ THE FULL, SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE REPORT.
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-the-week-perth-had-waited-20-years-for-ng-b881396434z?utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CLAREMONT+-+December+2%2C+AM
LIVE COVERAGE: ‘THIRD WHEEL’ IN MARRIAGE TO TELL STORY
Subscribe to the podcast for daily updates from our team
Join our team of journalists and legal experts as we cut through the legal jargon and break down all the key information from the proceedings in Claremont: The Trial.
SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
The 10 key issues that will define the Claremont trial
The prosecution and defence cases for accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Edwards has begun to be laid bare. Court reporter Shannon Hampton delves into the key issues that will define the trial.
SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
Prosecution has no Silence of the Lambs ‘calling card’
The first week of the Claremont serial killings trial has failed to produce evidence all three murders were overwhelming linked with the State’s opening statement failing short of expectations.
SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
Meet the artist sketching the Bradley Edwards trial
Anne Barnetson is a fine artist, in training and in talent. Now she’s responsible for sketching WA’s trial of the century.
SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
How much one day of the Claremont Trial costs
With extra staff, LegalAid, equipment and prosecution costs, the bill for running the Claremont serial killer trial is already estimated to be in the multi-millions.
CLAREMONT: The Trial
Ever since the shocking deaths of three young women in 1996 and 1997, the unanswered questions surrounding the Claremont serial killings have remained one of the biggest mysteries in WA history. Any hope of justice in the tragic deaths of Ciara Glennon, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer seemed bleak for more than 20 years, with police coming unstuck and no sign of a breakthrough. That was until the arrest of Bradley Robert Edwards in 2016, who was subsequently charged with the trio's murders. For the past three years details about the allegations facing Mr Edwards have been in short supply as his case headed toward what has been dubbed the trial of the century. Now, we bring you in to the courtroom and walk you through all the revelations, allegations and talking points as the historic court case unfolds. Join our team of journalists and legal experts as we break down all the key information from the proceedings in Claremont:
The Trial
The Missing Hours
In what’s already been a week of bombshells, day five, despite being a shorter day, was no exception. Former friends of Bradley Edwards, a couple named Murray and Brigita Maria Cook took the stand. Mr Cook told of his annoyance when Edwards never showed up to a pre-planned holiday in Dawesville...
21:46 Nov 29, 2019 11:03 AM
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/the-missing-hours
Description
In what’s already been a week of bombshells, day five, despite being a shorter day, was no exception.
Former friends of Bradley Edwards, a couple named Murray and Brigita Maria Cook took the stand.
Mr Cook told of his annoyance when Edwards never showed up to a pre-planned holiday in Dawesville, an hour south of Perth, on March 14 1997 - the night Ciara Glennon disappeared.
He said Edwards told him he was trying to reconcile with his wife, who told the court on an earlier day that he never tried to reconcile with her.
In an eerie admission, Mrs Cook said they had no TV and no radio, so they didn’t know Ciara Glennon was missing.
Join Natalie Bonjolo, Alison Fan and Tim Clarke (in the studio) as they discuss the days’ events, as Tim described them, a reverse-alibi.
A Killer Strikes Twice
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/claremont-the-claremont-serial-killings-episode-1
Description
It's 1996 and a young, blonde girl stands on the side of the road in Claremont and calls a taxi. By the time it arrives, Sarah Spiers is gone.
A few months later and Jane Rimmer is out with friends in Claremont when she, too, disappears. Her body was found weeks later.
As police desperately hunted a serial killer a third young woman, Ciara Glennon, was snatched and killed.
The West Australian's Gary Adshead takes you inside the Claremont Serial Killings, the biggest criminal investigation in Australian history and a tale which haunts an entire city.
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings?utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CLAREMONT+-+December+2%2C+AM
Ex Wives and Sex Lives
Day four of the Claremont Serial Killings trial saw a parade of Bradley Edwards’ former lovers take the stand, with intimate details told to the court. Two of Edwards’ former lovers told of their brief relationships with him, one saying she was ‘fond’ of Edwards. Day four was also the first day..
27:40 Nov 28, 2019 12:24 PM
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/ex-wives-and-sex-lives
Ex Wives and Sex Lives
Description
Day four of the Claremont Serial Killings trial saw a parade of Bradley Edwards’ former lovers take the stand, with intimate details told to the court.
Two of Edwards’ former lovers told of their brief relationships with him, one saying she was ‘fond’ of Edwards.
Day four was also the first day Bradley Edwards appeared to show emotion, seeming to smile as home videos during his time with his second wife were played to the court.
But when his second wife took the stand, she revealed the meticulously detailed journals she kept of his bank statements.
Journals she kept because she said she ‘feared for her life’.
Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and Emily Moulton discuss day four.
The First Witness
The first witness, Bradley Edwards’ first wife took the stand on day three of the Claremont Serial Killings Trial. Her name and identity has been suppressed. She revealed their bizarre living arrangements, as well as intimate details of their life as husband and wife including an obsession with ...
27:53 Nov 27, 2019 12:30 PM
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/the-first-witness
Description
The first witness, Bradley Edwards’ first wife took the stand on day three of the Claremont Serial Killings Trial. Her name and identity has been suppressed.
She revealed their bizarre living arrangements, as well as intimate details of their life as husband and wife including an obsession with a computer, an affair and pregnancy that saw the end of their relationship.
All while prosecutors tried to paint a picture of how emotional turmoil experienced by Mr Edwards coincided with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers, and the deaths of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
Join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and The West's court reporter Emily Moulton as they discuss day three.
The DNA Twist
The defence’s opening statement may have only taken 25-minutes, but in that time, Bradley Robert Edwards' defence lawyer, Paul Yovich dropped a bombshell. He claimed crucial DNA samples - which the prosecution will use as evidence to prove Bradley Edwards is the Claremont Serial Killer - had bee...
26:36 Nov 26, 2019 12:15 PM
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/the-dna-twist
Description
The defence’s opening statement may have only taken 25-minutes, but in that time, Bradley Robert Edwards' defence lawyer, Paul Yovich dropped a bombshell.
He claimed crucial DNA samples - which the prosecution will use as evidence to prove Bradley Edwards is the Claremont Serial Killer - had been contaminated by lab scientists.
Day Two also heard the movie-like investigation of how Bradley Edwards came to be charged with murder.
Join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and veteran journalist Alison Fan as they discuss the Claremont Serial Killings Trial.
Claremont: the trial begins
A never-before heard phone call Sarah Spiers made in the hours before she disappeared. Descriptions of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon’s final movements, and gruesome evidence shown to a packed-out court on the first day of the accused Claremont Serial Killer, Bradley Robert Edwards’ trial. Join N...
23:45 Nov 25, 2019 12:41 PM
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/claremont-the-trial-begins
Description
A never-before heard phone call Sarah Spiers made in the hours before she disappeared. Descriptions of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon’s final movements, and gruesome evidence shown to a packed-out court on the first day of the accused Claremont Serial Killer, Bradley Robert Edwards’ trial.
Join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and legal experts, criminal defence lawyer Damien Cripps and Barrister Nicholas van Hattem as they discuss Day 1 of the trial WA has waited 23 years for.
Claremont: S2 Trailer
As the trial of the century gets underway in Perth, Western Australia, Seven West Media journalists take you inside the courtroom. Two girls dead, one missing, presumed murdered. The Claremont serial killings, as they have come to be known, struck fear into West Australians for 23 years. Now, th...
11:27 Nov 22, 2019 7:19 AM
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/claremont-s2-trailer
Description
As the trial of the century gets underway in Perth, Western Australia, Seven West Media journalists take you inside the courtroom.
Two girls dead, one missing, presumed murdered. The Claremont serial killings, as they have come to be known, struck fear into West Australians for 23 years. Now, the man accused, Bradley Robert Edwards faces trial.
Join us daily for an in-depth conversation with reporters who covered the case of the Claremont serial killings from the start and legal experts who will discuss the case in a language you can understand.
The case against Bradley Robert Edwards
Years pass and with the public losing hope that the horrific mystery will ever be solved, a new suspect emerges. Telecommunications technician Bradley Robert Edwards is arrested in a dawn raid. The 50-year-old pleads not guilty and will stand trial for three murders, rape and abduction. So what i...
47:01 Mar 25, 2019 1:33 PM
http://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/the-case-against-bradley-robert-edwards
Description
Years pass and with the public losing hope that the horrific mystery will ever be solved, a new suspect emerges. Telecommunications technician Bradley Robert Edwards is arrested in a dawn raid. The 50-year-old pleads not guilty and will stand trial for three murders, rape and abduction. So what is the police case against him? And is it possible that police missed a link that could have led them to the accused man than a decade ago?
The Wrong Man
As the hunt for a serial killer who has struck three times in Claremont continues, police train a laser focus on one very peculiar man who admits to driving the streets and picking up at least one woman. But the man’s mother says enough is enough. A TV reporter spends an hour with the suspect in..
32:15 Mar 15, 2019 2:51 AM
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/claremont-the-wrong-man
Description
As the hunt for a serial killer who has struck three times in Claremont continues, police train a laser focus on one very peculiar man who admits to driving the streets and picking up at least one woman. But the man’s mother says enough is enough.
A TV reporter spends an hour with the suspect in his beachside apartment, quizzing him over the case. She concludes that detectives are pursuing the wrong man and contacts the father of one victim to share her view.
Now, more than 20 years later, a former police commissioner says that suspect and his family are owed an apology.
Taskforce, Tears and a Suspect
One woman missing, one woman murdered. A city gripped by fear. Then Ciara Glennon vanishes off the streets of Claremont. As her grieving father takes up the hunt, police launch the biggest murder taskforce in Australian history. But when their focus narrows on a suspect, the question is asked: ha...
36:26 Mar 8, 2019 6:01 AM CLEAN
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/claremont-taskforce-tears-and-a-suspect
Description
One woman missing, one woman murdered. A city gripped by fear. Then Ciara Glennon vanishes off the streets of Claremont. As her grieving father takes up the hunt, police launch the biggest murder taskforce in Australian history. But when their focus narrows on a suspect, the question is asked: have police got the wrong man?
A Killer Strikes Twice
It's 1996 and a young, blonde girl stands on the side of the road in Claremont and calls a taxi. By the time it arrives, Sarah Spiers is gone. A few months later and Jane Rimmer is out with friends in Claremont when she, too, disappears. Her body was found weeks later. As police desperately hun..
21:23 Feb 27, 2019 7:31 AM CLEAN
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/claremont-the-claremont-serial-killings-episode-1
Description
It's 1996 and a young, blonde girl stands on the side of the road in Claremont and calls a taxi. By the time it arrives, Sarah Spiers is gone.
A few months later and Jane Rimmer is out with friends in Claremont when she, too, disappears. Her body was found weeks later.
As police desperately hunted a serial killer a third young woman, Ciara Glennon, was snatched and killed.
The West Australian's Gary Adshead takes you inside the Claremont Serial Killings, the biggest criminal investigation in Australian history and a tale which haunts an entire city.
Bradley Edwards order for navy Telstra trousers in 1995.
Police staked out Lance Williams' house for more than a year. (ABC News)
Justice Stephan Hall warned the public against any outbursts, adding Edwards was presumed innocent of the murders and it was for the prosecutors to prove his guilt
Sarah Anne McMahon inquest hears of grim bag contents
WOMAN tells inquest she regrets handing over a bag containing knives, rope and pornography that belonged to a person of interest in Perth girl's disappearance.
Rebecca Le May
AAP DECEMBER 11, 2012
https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/mcmahon-inquest-hears-of-grim-bag-contents/news-story/bfd0e14f8f066e4dbd3aef91352b9a62
A WOMAN has told an inquest into a young Perth woman's disappearance 12 years ago that she regretted relinquishing a bag containing knives, rope, gaffer tape and extreme pornography that belonged to a person of interest.
Sarah Anne McMahon has not been seen since she went missing after leaving her workplace in Claremont in November 2000, aged 20.
Three widespread police investigations since then have failed to discover her whereabouts.
WA coroner Alastair Hope was yesterday told that police had long suspected 57-year-old Donald Morey, an acquaintance, was involved in her disappearance.
Marta Margaret Allen, whose husband Gareth became friends with Morey in prison, told the inquest today she was shocked and concerned when she saw the contents of a bag belonging to Morey that he had left at their family home.
Morey, a former abattoir worker who is currently serving 13 years in prison for the attempted murder of a Perth prostitute in 2004, was staying part-time in the Marangaroo house after being employed by Mr Allen's trucking company.
Ms Allen described the pornographic magazines inside the bag as "horrific'', depicting bound, gagged and heavily lipsticked women who appeared to be dead.
It also contained dirty lengths of rope and two knives.
"Gareth was in shock - he had to leave the room - he was pretty disgusted,'' Ms Allen said.
Mr Allen had been looking for work documents sought by his employer when he found the bag while Morey was in hospital with heart problems.
Ms Allen said she immediately called police to tell them about the bag, but they took four days to respond.
In the meantime, she had given the bag to Lyn Bishop, Morey's partner at the time.
"I just wanted that bag out of my house,'' Ms Allen said.
"It's the one thing I regret - handing that bag over.''
She said she had an argument with Ms Bishop, asking her how she could be with someone like that.
She said Ms Bishop replied: "Don's done nothing and even if he has, you can't prove it.''
Giving evidence later, Ms Bishop said she could not recall the argument.
She did recall looking inside the bag and while she quickly closed the magazines after a peek, saying she "didn't like'' their contents, she didn't think there was anything unusual about the rope and gaffer tape.
"It didn't really compute with me,'' she said.
She said gaffer tape and rope were "everywhere'' around her Chidlow property, which Morey had helped her renovate and landscape.
Ms Bishop said she then gave the bag to Morey's friend Steven Taylor at the request of her then-boyfriend.
Ms Allen also told the hearing a statement by a friend, whose name has been suppressed, was incorrect and had been "fabricated'' by police.
In the statement taken only last week, a woman claimed she had seen Ms McMahon's naked body on Morey's bed with rope looped around her neck, and that Ms Allen had helped clean up after the murder.
"That statement is false,'' Ms Allen said.
The inquest continues.
Originally published asRegret over grim bag contents
PHOTO: Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon all went missing from Claremont. (ABC News)
What happened to Julie Cutler? 30 years on, the question still remains
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/what-happened-to-julie-cutler-30-years-on-the-question-still-remains-20180423-p4zb5k.html
By Phil Hickey - May 8, 2018
Nothing would make Ron Carey happier than for the case of Julie Cutler to be solved.
The former WA Police detective gave everything he had to try and get to the bottom of her disappearance in 1988.
Alas, Mr Carey and his team - in what was then the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) - were unable to provide any answers to the Cutler family.
It was disappointing to go into retirement knowing that we had not been able to establish what had happened to Julie Cutler,” Mr Carey told WAtoday.
“I would have liked to have been able to tell Julie’s father and family what had happened to his daughter, so they could have at least had closure.”
It has been 30 years since Julie Cutler went missing in Perth.
The 22-year-old was last seen leaving the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in the Perth CBD about 12.30am on June 20, 1988 after a staff function.
Two days later her car was found in the ocean at Cottesloe beach.
Apart from several Parmelia Hilton champagne flutes in the four-door Fiat, nothing else significant was found inside the vehicle.
No belongings, no clothing. No body.
The back seat of the car had washed up on the beach.
A shoulder bag Ms Cutler was known to carry has also never been found.
WAtoday can reveal a review of the case file was carried out last year by the Cold Case Homicide Squad in an attempt to unearth new clues.
But to this day no charges have been laid in connection to the case and Ms Cutler's body has never been located.
In an interview with WAtoday, Mr Carey, who spent 30 years with WA Police, reflected on the three decade old mystery.
He believes that by speaking out, there is a chance someone in the community who knows what happened will finally come forward after all these years.
Mr Carey, who rose to the rank of superintendent before retiring in 2005, first became attached to the case when he was sent to Cottesloe beach, the day Ms Cutler's car was found.
He was then a detective senior constable.
“When we received the report that a vehicle registered in Ms Cutler’s name had been found in the ocean at Cottesloe beach, I guess we expected the worst, thinking that we might find her body inside the car,” he said.
“When the vehicle was found to be empty, we began our inquiry in earnest to establish what had happened to her.”
Over the next few days Mr Carey searched the 22-year-old's home, spoke to her work colleagues and guests of the hotel and examined her car with a fine-toothed comb.
"After we recovered Julie’s vehicle...we were able to establish that one of the rear doors of her car couldn't be locked,” he said.
“So we looked at the possibility that someone may have secreted themselves in the back seat while it was parked at the hotel without her knowing and that she was forced to drive somewhere.”
Mr Carey said some time after the 22-year-old went missing, police received information which suggested she could have gone to the Burswood Casino after she left the Parmelia.
"We went there but unfortunately the CCTV footage did not extend back to the night she disappeared," he said.
“In the months following Julie’s disappearance, we spoke to numerous people in the hope we might have been able to establish what had happened to her.
“Despite our best efforts, we were not able to solve this mystery”.
The former cop believes Ms Cutler succumbed to whatever fate she met in a five-hour window between 12.30am on June 20 and daybreak that morning.
"In my view someone must have intervened between the time Julie left the Parmelia Hotel and daybreak,” he said.
“(For the car) to have found its way into the ocean, we concluded that it must have been driven off or rolled off the wall straight into the water where it must have floated momentarily, before being taken out with the motion of the waves, before sinking to the floor of the ocean.
“We were able to arrive at that conclusion because there was no sign of the vehicle at the beach when the regular swimmers arrived at daybreak to undertake their daily exercises.
“That particular night, there were strong winds and rain to the extent that the waves were lapping the retaining the wall of the Cottesloe Surf Club.
“It had to go into the water that night because the next day, the water had subsided, the tide had gone out leaving a wide gap of sand between the edge of the retaining wall and the surf.”
Mr Carey said he was convinced Ms Cutler was never in the car when it went into the water.
He said this was because nothing belonging to her was ever found on the ocean floor, or washed-up on the beach.
“Knowing that the back seat of her vehicle was able to find its way to the beach, we would have expected that something belonging to Julie would have washed up, had she been in the vehicle," he said.
The former cop said he often wondered if there was someone who could have helped police solve the case in 1988, but who chose not to come forward.
“All these years later I am still wondering if that person did exist, then maybe their relationship with the person or persons responsible for Julie’s disappearance has changed or soured to the point whereby he or she no longer feels the need to remain silent,” he said.
“That being the case, I call on those persons to do the right thing.”
Senior Sergeant Quentin Flatman, of the Cold Case Homicide Squad, said police remained committed to finding out what happened to Ms Cutler.
“The suspicious disappearance of Julie Cutler in 1988 is an open and active case at the Cold Case Homicide Squad," he said. "The WA Police Force is committed to solving this and other long-term unsolved missing persons cases."
Anyone who has information about the circumstances of Julie Cutler's disappearance can contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or www.crimestopperswa.com.au.
Reward offered
A $250,000 reward is being offered for information about Ms Cutler's disappearance, with police saying her family has been waiting in "pain and aguish".
The reward is for information that leads to the conviction of the person, or people, responsible for Ms Cutler's disappearance, as detectives launch a fresh investigation into the case.
The state government said it may also be prepared to consider recommending protecting an informant from prosecution, provided they weren't directly responsible for her disappearance.
The case against Bradley Robert Edwards- Podcast
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/the-case-against-bradley-robert-edwards
Description
The case against Bradley Robert Edwards- Podcast-Fourth-Episode
Years pass and with the public losing hope that the horrific mystery will ever be solved, a new suspect emerges. Telecommunications technician Bradley Robert Edwards is arrested in a dawn raid. The 50-year-old pleads not guilty and will stand trial for three murders, rape and abduction. So what is the police case against him? And is it possible that police missed a link that could have led them to the accused man than a decade ago?
A Telecom van from 1993.
Why is over $100 million being spent on the investigation on the alleged abductions and/or murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimer and Ciara Glennon and prosecution of Bradley Robert Edwards, when very little effort, resources and money has been spent on finding the abductor and/or murderer of Julie Cutler and Sarah Anne McMahon, in circumstances there is a witness who originally gave a statement to the police of the involvement of Donald Morey, aka Matusevich in the murder of Sarah Ann McMahon., Why aren't the WA Police and DPP interested in the fact that Sarah Anne McMahon, gave a statement prior to her abduction/murder stating who was involved in the Claremont Serial Killings, and this seems to be the main reason for her abduction/murder. Sarah Anne McMahon was 20 when she disappeared after leaving work in the Perth suburb of Claremont on Wednesday, November 8, 2000. "..Career Criminal and self confessed SAS killer of many people, Donald Morey, aka Matusevich has admitted he was the last person to see or talk to Sarah Anne McMahan alive ... and according to his phone records was in the area of Bassendean the night Sarah Anne McMahon was talking to Donald Morey, aka Matusevich on her telephone and saying she was heading to see a friend in Bassendean .... there was strong evidence that Donald Morey aka Matusevich lied to the coroner about being at his boss Mr Allen's truck yard on the night that Sarah Anne McMahon Disappeared ... and a witness Natasha Tracy-Anne Kendrick, recorded in a statement to the police, dated 11 November 2011, which said she saw a bloodied dead body, with a rope around her neck that looked like Sarah Anne McMahon is his room at his boss Mr Allen's home... ". ... "..That account contained a claim that Ms Kendrick had seen the dead body of a young woman, who she believed to be Saran Ann McMahon. It also contained allegations that comments were made by Mr Morey and another man, Gareth Allen, which if accurate would have certainly implicated Mr Morey in the murder of Ms McMahon and Mr Allen as being an accessory to that crime. https://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Mcmahon_finding.pdf
Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia -
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?318778-Australia-Claremont-Serial-Killer-1996-1997-Perth-Western-Australia-6&p=12898398&styleid=21 Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich crabstick said: 10-28-2016.
"..There is enough reports to suggest he is ex army. Im not sure how old he is. Yes, there is a few guys around that use the Im ex SAS as a shield when they fear someone might give them a clobber. He might have been a mechanic? selling $10,000 bundles of amphetamine is organised crime connections. ' the was selling Sarah McMahon $10000 blocks of amphetamine, ... its not like he wouldn't have the cash for access to new vehicles, and cut and shut rebuild vehicles he could set up himself. Built fake taxis even. Because a fake taxi didn't have to buy a taxi plate, fake taxis were a cash cow. If Morey is SAS or ex-military, he may have been trained in all the above. ..."
The NYT 20 plus year investigation into the abductions/murders of Julie Cutler, Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer, Ciara Glennon, Sarah Ann McMahon and other women in Western Australian from the 1980's onwards, clearly indicates that even if a court rules that Bradley Robert Edwards is somehow involved in the abductions/murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer, Ciara Glennon, .. that Bradley Robert Edwards was not the sole person responsible for the planning and carrying out the abductions/murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer, and Ciara Glennon, as well as it seems clear that the abductions/murders of Julie Cutler and Sarah Anne McMahon are related in various ways to the abductions/murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer, and Ciara Glennon
The knots in the Mickelberg stitch
http://inlnews.com/PerthMintSwindleTheMovie.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-knots-in-the-mickelberg-stitch-20020612-gduakf.html
The Age - Melbourne- Australia- June 12, 2002
On July 26, 1982, Peter Mickelberg was driving to his home in the northern Perth suburbs when a car pulled across in front of him, forcing him to brake suddenly. It was the police - more specifically, detectives involved in investigating the spectacular swindling of the Perth Mint. Peter Mickelberg was bundled into the police car and taken, curiously, to Belmont Police Station.
Little more than a month earlier, three separate couriers bearing three false cheques had arrived at the mint, been admitted, and not long after driven out with 49 gold bars worth about $653,000. The gold had then been delivered by the unsuspecting couriers to an office a few kilometres away. The couriers then disappeared.
The crime caused a sensation around Australia. It had all the ingredients of a Hollywood heist - it was daring, complex, carried out with almost military precision - and no one was hurt.
The crooks had also carried it out with ridiculous ease, taking advantage of the incredibly lax security procedures at the mint, which was smack bang in the middle of the city. Leading the investigation was one of the hard men of the Perth CIB, Detective Sergeant Don Hancock, or "the grey fox" as he was known at the time.
Through circumstantial evidence, the Mickelberg brothers - Peter, Brian and Ray - had come to the attention of police. They were basically cleanskins, with Peter having been fined $50 for possessing an unlicensed firearm.
Nevertheless, Ray Mickelberg was no soft touch - he had served in the SAS and Vietnam and once described the selection process for the Special Air Services as "a crushing of the weak". Police believed him to be the mastermind.
So it was that Don Hancock was waiting at Belmont Police Station one rainy day when Peter Mickelberg, the youngest, and whom police believed to be the most vulnerable of the brothers, arrived.
With Hancock was another officer, a more junior detective named Tony Lewandowski.
As author Avon Lovell records in his courageous 1985 book, The Mickelberg Stitch, Belmont was a curious choice of venue given there was a special operational headquarters set up in the city.
Stranger still was that by the time Peter Mickelberg arrived, all the officers stationed there had gone, except the officer in charge, and he left soon after. That officer, Bob Kucera, is now the WA Health Minister. The opposition yesterday called for him to stand down pending an inquiry.
Mickelberg was left alone with Hancock and Lewandowski. For the best part of two decades the WA Police, up to the commissioner himself, have strenuously denied Mickelberg's version of what happened next. It is central to the claims by the three brothers that they were framed for the great mint swindle.
According to Peter Mickelberg, and as recorded in Lovell's book, detective Lewandowski grabbed him by the throat and said: "This is where you die you little fucker."
When Mickelberg asked for his solicitor, Lewandowski replied: "You're on another planet, no one knows you're here. As far as they're concerned, you could be dead."
Don Hancock then entered the room and said to his colleague: "Make him strip." Naked, he was handcuffed and seated.
"It was then that Hancock punched me in the solar plexus on at least two or three times . . . I was pretty shocked. He then chopped me . . . in the throat."
Peter Mickelberg said in the 1980s, and says to this day, he never confessed at Belmont to any involvement in the swindle. Nor did he implicate his big brother Ray, who police claimed was the strong man behind the operation.
Of course, the police, Hancock and Lewandowski, had a different version - Mickelberg had confessed and made statements implicating himself and his brothers, although they were unsigned.
Given the times, it's perhaps not surprising the jury believed the police. Peter, Ray and Brian were found guilty of swindling the mint, although Brian was later acquitted on appeal after serving nine months. Ray got 20 years, Peter 16.
The courts, initially at least, accepted the police version of events without too many qualms.
In November, 1989, seven years after the robbery and a great deal of publicity, the WA Court of Criminal Appeal rejected Peter's appeal against his conviction and sentence.
The police commissioner, Brian Bull, said the decision "totally vindicates the actions of the police in their investigation into the Perth mint swindle".
Brian Mickelberg died in a helicopter crash in 1986. Ray, the Vietnam veteran, served eight years, Peter ended up doing seven. After the two brothers were released they campaigned relentlessly to convince the courts and the public they were framed, although many believe the police had good reasons for "loading them up".
In the meantime, Don Hancock went on to become head of the Perth CIB, partly on the back of his "solving" of the high-profile case.
Enter Tony Lewandowski, the former detective who was with Hancock at Belmont Police Station.
His stunning admission that he fabricated the evidence is a development the brothers would never have dreamed of.
Lewandowski now tells a version of events that fits with the one told by Peter Mickelberg, and published by Avon Lovell, way back in 1985. In an affidavit to Western Australia's Director of Public Prosecutions last week he recalled the incident at Belmont Police Station on July 26, 1982: "I said to Don Hancock that I didn't believe we had enough evidence and he said to me: 'Don't worry, it will get better.'
"(On that day), Don Hancock came into the room and told me to make Peter strip naked. Don then went up to Peter and gave him two or three quick punches in the solar plexus. The statements purportedly taken from Peter Mickelberg . . . on July 26, 1982, were in fact not taken in Peter's presence that day, but were a fabrication made by Don Hancock and myself shortly after September 2, 1982.
"I gave evidence at the trial and numerous appeals. All that evidence in relation to the (brothers') so-called confessions . . . was false."
An insight into Hancock's character and his modus operandi emerged in late 1982 in a conversation involving Hancock, Peter and Ray, just before they went to trial. Secretly recorded at Ray's house, Hancock says at one stage: "Don't ever challenge me to do something because I'll f---ing well do it, all right. You can rest assured about that."
Peter: "You're mean Don."
Hancock: "I'm not a mean person, but I'll tell you what: I've done things in my life that you never did, and harder things, worse things, and if I've got to do them again, well, I'll do them again."
Ray: "In the line of duty?"
Hancock: "That's it, yes. What I believe is my line of duty - to get the job done."
Ray: "With violence if necessary?"
Hancock: "Well, maybe not - tried everything else!"
That conversation was not tendered during the trial, although it later emerged in another matter. Don Hancock's reputation is encapsulated in that tape recording - a hard, tough cop who knew how to get things done, to get results.
Retiring as head of the Perth CIB, and having grown up in the Goldfields, he went to the hamlet of Ora Banda to run the local pub. But in October, 2000, things started to go terribly wrong. Members of the Gypsy Jokers outlaw motorcycle gang started abusing the barmaid - Hancock's daughter - and he threw them out.
Later that night, one of the bikies, William Grierson, was shot dead as he sat around a campfire and the Gypsy Jokers immediately blamed Hancock.
In September last year, he and his mate, Lou Lewis, were blown up by a car bomb. Right to the end, Hancock refused police protection.
According to Lewandowski, it was the death of his former boss that freed him to tell the truth after all these years. "When Don Hancock was alive there was no chance of me going against his wishes. A couple of times I wanted to come clean but there was no way I could go against Don."
Apparently a broken man, he added: "I have had 20 years of hell. I lost my business, I have lost my wife, I have lost my son. I have gained nothing out of this, I am now telling the truth."
"Now that Don Hancock is dead I cannot harm him . . ."
Some of the material used in this article has been drawn from Avon Lovell's The Mickelberg Stitch
Claremont killer trial LIVE: 'She looked like she was waiting for someone': Witness on night Sarah vanished
https://www.theage.com.au/national/western-australia/claremont-killer-trial-live-bradley-edwards-faces-telstra-living-witnesses-in-court-20191204-p53gog.html
By Heather McNeill and Hannah Barry
December 4, 2019
Justice Stephen Hall
Identikit of 'Telstra man who stared at woman' shown in court
Ms Johnstone is now talking about how she went to a police station to help with an identikit in late-1998.
She has been shown the drawing.
The image is of a man with dark features, a mullet and black, curly hair with dimples and a chiselled jaw.
Mr Yovich has pointed out during cross-examination that Ms Johnstone said the car was a Toyota Camry sedan in her original statement to police.
Mr Edwards drove a Toyota Camry station wagon at the time.
An identikit drawn with Julie-Anne Johnstone in 1998 of a Telstra driver who leered at her while she was waiting for a taxi in Claremont the night after Sarah Spiers disappeared.
Judge releases identikit of Telstra driver and station wagon photo
An identikit drawn with Julie-Anne Johnstone in 1998 of a Telstra driver who leered at her while she was waiting for a taxi in Claremont the night after Sarah Spiers disappeared.
Bradley Edwards in the 1990s.
The station wagon Annabelle Bushell said looked most like the Telstra vehicle of a man who offered her a lift in 1996 before her 'instincts' told her to get out.
Proceedings have wrapped up for today
Proceedings have wrapped up for today.
Justice Stephen Hall is now considering media requests for exhibits to be made public.
He has agreed to make public the identikit and map drawn by Ms Johnstone and some of Mr Edwards' pay slips.
Next witness was in Claremont night after Sarah
The next witness is Julie-Anne Johnstone, 47.
She has light brown hair, tied back into a bun and is wearing a patterned blouse.
She is now recounting an incident which occurred late on January, 27 1996 while she was waiting for a taxi in Claremont.
"I left Club Bayview ... and walked ... down to Stirling Highway to catch a taxi ... in front of Hungry Jacks," she said.
She is now being shown a drawing she made with prosecutors in 2019 demonstrating where she was standing, and where "a car pulled in".
"It would have been 1.30am - 1.40am," she said.
"There was another male [at the bus stop] he was there for a few minutes but I think he sort of gave up and walked off ... I was waiting for a taxi there and I assumed he was doing the same."
Ms Johnstone said she was waiting alone after the man left.
"A car pulled in [the bus stop] and I just assumed the car was pulling in to pick someone up but the car remained there for some time - 10 15 minutes," she said.
"Eventually I turned around and there was a gentleman in the car and he had lent over to the passenger side and had wound down the window.
"It was a white sedan four-doors and it had a Telstra sign on the passenger side door.
"It sort of looked like a Toyota Camry to me."
She said the man stared at her for around 10 to 30 seconds.
Ms Johnstone described him as aged between 30 and 35, caucasian or olive skinned with curly short, brown hair with a receding hairline and broad shoulders.
"I did sort of turn and go, 'What?', and there was no response and I just turned around and walked west towards Fremantle way," she said.
'She looked like she was waiting for someone': Witness on night Sarah disappeared
The next witness is Alec Pannall.
The 47-year-old is appearing via video link from London and is dressed in a suit and tie.
Ms Barbagallo is now asking him about what he was doing on Australia Day, 1996 - the night Sarah disappeared.
"During the evening I went out with some friends into Claremont," he said.
"We went to The Continental Hotel and Club Bayview.
"The two friends were Mark Latham and David Brand .. .we left around 2am.
"We went to David's car that was parked in St Quentin's Avenue, he was driving."
He is describing driving away from the venue down Stirling Road towards Stirling Highway.
"It was relatively quiet a few people were walking around, a few cars," he said.
"The traffic lights were red so we had to stop and wait for them to turn green.
"Mark made me aware of a young lady on the left-hand-side of the road.
"He said something along the lines of, 'Have a look at her'.
"I turned to my left and on the side of the road was a female, probably around 20 years old, slim build, waiting next to a telecommunications inspection post."
Mr Pannall said the woman was around three metres away.
"She looked as though she was waiting for someone," he said.
"She was leaning against a telecommunications inspection post.
"She had her arms crossed and was looking around as if expecting someone."
Mr Pannall said he thought the group were at the red light for around 15 to 20 seconds before they drove away west down Stirling Highway heading towards Cottesloe.
This witness has been excused.
Mr Edwards is taking notes in the dock, as he has done all day.
Sarah's taxi driver gave police at least two statements
Mr Yovich is now cross-examining Mr Krupnik.
He said Mr Krupnik made statements to police around one week after Sarah disappeared, and then again a year later.
Sarah Spiers called a taxi from this telephone box around 2am. Three minutes later when it arrived, she was gone.
Mr Krupnik has agreed he didn't particularly like collecting people from Claremont.
"At 2 o'clock in the morning, it's a bit tricky," Mr Krupnik said.
He is agreeing he only glanced towards the telephone box and didn't look further down the road.
Mr Yovich: You didn't take long to look for this fare?
Mr Krupnik: No
"It was very dark," Mr Krupik said.
Mr Krupik has been excused.
A taxi driver could not locate Sarah Spiers.
A fly-through of Sarah Spiers' last known movements.
'I didn't see anyone there': Sarah's taxi driver recounts night she vanished
The next witness is Jaroslav Krupnik, who speaks some English but requires a Czech interpreter.
The 70-year-old has thinning brown hair and is wearing a striped blue, black and white polo t-shirt with sunglasses clipped into the buttons.
He said he is retired but on the night of January 26, 1996 he was working as a Swan Taxi driver.
That is the night Sarah Spiers disappeared.
"I started about 6pm [and my shift was due to finish at] 6 in the morning," he said.
"[I worked] basically in the western suburbs."
He said he recalled getting a call for a request for a taxi about 2am to go to Mosman Park.
"There was pick up on the corner Stirling Highway, Stirling Street in Claremont," he said.
"I don't remember the name [for the job] it was too many days.
"I was coming from Cottesloe via Stirling Highway, I was driving down Stirling Highway and I just look at the corner and didn't see anyone there.
"[It took me about] two minutes [to get there after I received the call]."
He said there were no people or vehicles at the intersection when he was stationary at its red light looking for the fare.
"I kept going to Bay View Terrace and then I turn left and went to Bayview club," he said.
"Because there was always possibility of job there because it was a nightclub."
He said he was able to pick up a fare "very quickly" within five minutes from the nightclub.
"Three people, two girls and one man [got into the taxi] and they went to Mosman Park," he said.
He said he then travelled with the group via Stirling Street and turned right at the intersection onto Stirling Highway.
"I was looking because this fare is not there, but still nobody is there," he said.
"There was a telephone box there ... there was nothing."
He said he took this fare to Monument Street. This is the same street the state alleges 'blood-curdling' screams were heard around 2.30am - 3am.
Woman claims Telstra car was doing laps outside Cottesloe pub
The next witness is Rebecca Morse, 45.
She has long blonde hair and is wearing a grey, loose top.
Ms Morse is one of the Telstra living project witnesses and was with Natalie Clements - who has already given evidence - on a night just before Christmas in 1996 at the Ocean Beach Hotel.
She said she would usually get a taxi home from the venue but on this occasion noticed a Telstra vehicle doing laps of the area.
"We were walking away and the same car came past us regularly, it looked like a taxi .. and we kept trying to flag it down thinking it was a taxi but it wasn't a taxi, it had a Telstra logo on the door," she said.
"It came past us quite a few times, enough to be annoying that we thought it was a taxi when it wasn't."
Ms Morse never accepted a lift from the Telstra vehicle.
The evidence of this witness is complete.
Court is breaking for lunch
Court has broken for lunch and will recommence at 3pm when a new witness will be called.
Claremont woman originally gave statement to police in 1997
Ms Bushell said she provided a statement to police in March 2017 about the encounter with the Telstra vehicle - four months after Mr Edwards' arrest.
Her original statement was taken by police in June 1997 - three months after Ciara Glennon disappeared.
She said she was shown about 42 images of vehicles, one was a white Holden Commodore. It is not clear if this occurred in 1997 or 2017.
Ms Bushell said there were three station wagons similar to the one she recalled from that night.
Ms Barbagallo is now asking about the description of the driver.
"My recollection is that he was middle-aged, 30 to 40," Ms Bushell said.
"He didn't seem to be big or small, he just seemed to be a normal build."
Mr Yovich is now cross-examining Ms Bushell.
She is accepting the details of her statement from mid-1997 - six months after the encounter - would be more accurate than her recollection today.
He is now asking about how much alcohol she drank on the night.
"I guess it was a bigger night than most, it was a pretty big night,' she said.
He is now asking about when the woman got out the car.
Mr Yovich: The man that was the driver was a man you have a minimal recollection of?
Ms Bushell: Yes
Mr Yovich: You weren't paying much attention to him.
Ms Bushell: No
Mr Yovich pointed out in her original 1997 statement, Ms Bushell estimated the driver was 35 to 40 years old.
Ms Bushell was 22 at the time of the incident.
A woman was drinking at Perth's Ocean Beach Hotel before Christmas 1996 when she saw a Telstra car circling, at first thinking it was a taxi.Source:Supplied
Ciara Glennon's father Denis Glennon was among those in the packed public gallery
Claremont serial killings trial: Harrowing details emerge on day one of Bradley Robert Edwards’ trial
Rebecca Le MayPerthNow
November 25, 2019
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-harrowing-details-emerge-on-day-one-of-bradley-robert-edwards-trial-ng-b881393026z
The trial of the alleged Claremont serial killer has only just begun but already the victims' still-grieving relatives have heard harrowing details including women's screams that abruptly stop, decomposition and animal predation.
Former Telstra technician and Little Athletics coach Bradley Robert Edwards, 50, finally went on trial in the Supreme Court of WA on Monday after almost three years behind bars.
Edwards wore a blank expression as prosecutor Carmel Barabagallo began outlining the abductions of 18-year-old secretary Sarah Spiers, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, from the wealthy Perth suburb in 1996 and 1997.
The confessed rapist also remained impassive as the prosecutor detailed the gruesome discoveries of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon's bodies in bushland, and how loud, high-pitched screams were heard in nearby Mosman Park on the night Ms Spiers went missing.
Sitting in the front row of the full public gallery, Ms Spiers' parents Don and Carol heard the last recording of her voice as she called for a taxi.
She was gone by the time the vehicle arrived and was never seen again.
Grim descriptions of the other women's injuries were endured by Ms Glennon's father Denis, her sister Denise and Ms Rimmer's mother Jenny.
Both women had neck injuries inflicted in a cutting or "even a sawing action", Ms Barbagallo said.
They were partly decomposed and largely covered by vegetation.
Ms Rimmer was face down and naked, and parts of her body that weren't covered by branches were damaged from animal predation, Ms Barbagallo said.
Dozens of reporters are covering the trial, with those not able to secure a seat watching proceedings via video link in three other rooms, but there appeared to be just enough seats for member of the public.
A sudden hush fell over the room 10 minutes before the trial got under way as the magnitude of the long-awaited events about to unfold sunk in.
The Claremont serial killings trial examines Bradley Edwards's personal life through his ex-wife
ABC News By Andrea Mayes
27th November 2019
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-28/claremont-serial-killer-trial-who-is-bradley-robert-edwards/11743666
Ms Spiers's body has never been found, while the remains of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were found, weeks after they disappeared, at remote bush locations to the south and north of the city respectively.
Who is Bradley Robert Edwards?
It was a question posed by defence counsel Carmel Barbagallo SC in the WA Supreme Court on the second day of his trial on three counts of wilful murder and a question more fully answered on day three as the first witness took the stand.
That witness was Edwards's first wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and who painted the most intimate portrait yet seen of the man charged with the three killings that rocked Perth in the mid-1990s.
It is the prosecution's case that Edwards murdered Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23 and Ciara Glennon, 27, after abducting them from the streets of upmarket Claremont after they had each spent happy evenings socialising with friends.
Accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards's first wife left him for another man.
A teenage romance that led to marriage
Ms Barbagallo took Edwards's ex-wife through the details of their marriage and how their relationship began in the late 1980s.
The woman described how she had met Edwards through a man she was dating at the time, who worked at Telecom with Edwards.
She and Edwards had got together during an event known as the Sandhurst Run in WA's north, a rock concert held over a weekend, and she had immediately ended her relationship with her previous boyfriend.
They had shared a three-bedroom villa in suburban Noranda, but the boyfriend moved out and some months later Edwards moved in.
By her account, she and Edwards led an ordinary suburban existence.
They had two dogs and also a horse, which was kept on an agistment property in Perth's foothills where they would visit every Saturday and Sunday.
Edwards would drive her to work in the city every day in his Telecom work van, then pick her up again in the late afternoons.
They had friends from the agistment property with whom they would socialise, having dinner together and barbecues.
His ex-wife said Edwards was not a big drinker, and while his favourite drink was beer — Redback or Corona — she never saw him very drunk.
Although they were still in their late teens when they got together, by 1990 she was keen for them to marry. He, apparently, was not, as was illustrated in testimony the ex-wife gave about a fight they had with major consequences.
"I was asking questions of whether we were going to think about getting married or if marriage was on the cards for us," she said.
"He seemed to get a little bit upset about it."
The next day, Edwards attacked a woman at Hollywood Hospital without warning, grabbing her from behind as she sat at her desk, stuffing a cloth into her mouth and dragging her backwards across the room.
Edwards's ex-wife was not questioned further about what she referred to as "the Hollywood Hospital incident", other than it had meant he did not pick her up from work as usual that day and she was forced to take the bus home.
The relationship starts to break down
Accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards's first wife left him for another man.
Their marriage began to collapse in 1994 and 1995 after Edwards began spending excessive amounts of time on his computer at night, according to his ex-wife.
"He wasn't interested, wasn't present in the marriage," she said. "It slowly deteriorated."
In 1995, Edwards has admitted brutally raping a 17-year-old girl he abducted from Claremont and assaulted in Karrakatta Cemetery.
Around the same time his ex-wife began to take an interest in a man she met at work and they began spending time together with his children at the agistment property.
The man moved into the Huntingdale home she shared with Edwards and became their boarder, which was a "helpful arrangement" for all three parties, Edwards's counsel Paul Yovich SC said.
Money was tight for the young married couple and the man's contribution to the mortgage came in handy.
Sometime before Christmas in 1995, Edwards caught his wife and the man embracing on the man's bed — the first time they had become physically intimate, the ex-wife said.
Edwards's reaction was unexpectedly mild — while he was "upset", she apologised and he "appeared calm" with no further recriminations.
Edwards never again broached the subject and the trio continued to live under the same roof.
But the ex-wife realised around this time that she had romantic feelings for the flatmate and she moved out to her parents' house for a week or two to try to sort out her feelings.
She did not tell Edwards why she was moving out and he never asked.
A dinner and an invitation
At one point during the separation Edwards turned up at her parents' house unexpectedly, but they did not discuss their relationship.
Instead he stayed for several hours and they enjoyed "pleasant" conversation over dinner, during which he invited his ex-wife to go to a fireworks display that evening, which she refused.
The prosecution claims Edwards was so upset by this rejection that he went out and murdered Sarah Spiers that night, but in her testimony the ex-wife said Edwards "did not seem upset" at her.
"He accepted it," she said.
She also could not say exactly when this event took place, contrary to the prosecution's assertion that it was Australia Day, 1996 — the night Ms Spiers vanished.
The ex-wife never returned to the marital home to live.
Instead, she moved from her parents' house into a house with her and Edwards's former flatmate.
A final fling
Despite this, some weeks later Edwards invited her to a dinner with his parents and siblings at the Lakelands Tavern in Thornlie, a "cordial and friendly" evening she said she was "very happy" to attend.
The pair ended up back at the former matrimonial home, where they had sex and the ex-wife spent the night.
When she got up the next morning, she found Edwards in the laundry ironing a shirt for work.
She said she initiated a conversation about their future together, but he did not respond.
His silence made it clear to her he was not interested in reconciling or repairing their relationship in any way, she said.
The estranged spouses had little contact after that, despite their shared dogs, shared ownership and mortgage on the house in Huntingdale and a shared loan on a car.
Delivering some major news
A rare moment of conversation between the pair came in May or June of 1996, although the ex-wife appeared uncertain of exactly when it took place.
It was an important conversation — she was calling him to tell him she was pregnant by another man.
She said Edwards did not become angry or in any way emotional, he merely questioned whether the child could be his.
When she said it could not, "he accepted that and did not get upset".
It was around this time the prosecution argues he abducted and murdered Ms Rimmer.
A courtroom sketch of the Trial of Bradley Robert Edwards
Sarah Spiers was 18 when she disappeared after leaving a Claremont nightclub. (Fairfax Media)
An example of the Telstra uniform from its corporate magazine in the mid-90s.
Donald Morey, aka Matusevich
Don Spiers (l) in front of a billboard appealing for help to find his missing daughter Sarah. (ABC News)
Mr Edwards with his guards, who are the same every day, though they change places.
Australia's 'trial of the century' begins as accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards fronts court charged with the murders of three young women
Bradley Robert Edwards' murder trial kicked off at WA Supreme Court Monday
The ex-Telstra technician is accused of the 1996-1997 Claremont serial killings
Victims were Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, Ciara Glennon, 27
Ms Spiers' and Ms Glennon's parents were seen arriving at the trial
By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 25 November 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7721713/Claremont-serial-killer-Bradley-Robert-Edwards-arrives-court-day-murder-trial.html
Bradley Robert Edwards is accused with murdering three women - Sarah Spiers (left) 18, child care worker Jane Rimmer (centre) 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon (right) 27, after they each spent a night out with friends in the affluent suburb's pubs in 1996 and 1997
Australia's 'trial of the century' has begun, with confessed rapist Bradley Robert Edwards fighting accusations he committed the Claremont serial killings that have haunted Perth for almost 23 years.
The 50-year-old former Telstra technician is charged with murdering three women - secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27 - after they each spent a night out with friends in the affluent suburb's pubs in 1996 and 1997.
Among those in the packed public gallery at the West Australian Supreme Court on Monday are the parents of the victims including Don and Carol Spiers, Jenny Rimmer and Denis Glennon.
Edwards, wearing a grey shirt and a tie, was re-arraigned and again formally pleaded not guilty to the three murders.
Justice Stephan Hall, who is presiding over the trial without a jury due to the huge publicity and graphic exhibits, then began by explaining how the court process would unfold.
He warned the public against any outbursts, adding Edwards was presumed innocent of the murders and it was for the prosecutors to prove his guilt.
Edwards was due to face a nine-month trial, but his shock confession last month that he committed five offences - including the double rape of a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta cemetery in 1995 and a separate attack on an 18-year-old woman sleeping at her Huntingdale home in 1988 - has shortened proceedings to about six months.
Many revelations have already emerged at pre-trial hearings.
Prosecutors say Edwards' DNA was found on a kimono he left behind after the Huntingdale attack, at the cemetery and under Ms Glennon's fingernails.
Fibres from Telstra work trousers were also allegedly found on the two women and on the rape victim's clothes.
The court has not heard of any physical evidence connected to Ms Spiers, whose body has never been found.
Justice Hall is expected to reserve his judgment for months before handing down his lengthy written verdict.
KEY DATES IN CLAREMONT SERIAL KILLER CASE:
February 15, 1988
- 18-year-old woman indecently assaulted in her sleep during break-in at a Huntingdale home but attacker flees after a struggle
February 12, 1995
- 17-year-old girl abducted while walking through Rowe Park in Claremont and taken to Karrakatta Cemetery where she's sexually assaulted
January 27, 1996
- Secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, disappears after leaving Club Bayview in Claremont after calling a taxi from a nearby phone booth. Her body has not been found.
June 9, 1996
- Childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, similarly vanishes in Claremont and is last seen outside the Continental Hotel
June 10, 1996
- WA Police set up Macro taskforce
August 3, 1996
- Ms Rimmer's body found by a mother and her children picking flowers in Wellard, south of Perth
March 15, 1997
- Lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, last seen in Claremont after also visiting the Continental Hotel
April 3, 1997
- Ms Glennon's body found in bushland at Eglington, north of Perth
October 16, 2015
- A suburban newspaper claims police have established a forensic link between Ms Glennon's murderer and the man who raped a teenager in Karrakatta two years earlier but police refuse to comment for 'operational reasons'
December 23, 2016
- Bradley Robert Edwards, 48, from Kewdale, charged with eight offences related to two of the deaths and the two other attacks, but no charges laid over the disappearance of Ms Spiers. Edwards remanded in custody.
22 February 2018
Edwards was also charged with the wilful murder of the third victim, Sarah Spiers
July 22, 2019
- A judge-alone trial begins and is expected to last for nine months.
Source: AAP
Bradley Edwards with the horse, Beau, he gave to his first wife as a gift in the 1990s .Source-Supplied
CLAREMONT: The Trial
The case against Bradley Robert Edwards- PodCast
https://omny.fm/shows/the-claremont-serial-killings/the-case-against-bradley-robert-edwards
Description Years pass and with the public losing hope that the horrific mystery will ever be solved, a new suspect emerges. Telecommunications technician Bradley Robert Edwards is arrested in a dawn raid. The 50-year-old pleads not guilty and will stand trial for three murders, rape and abduction. So what is the police case against him? And is it possible that police missed a link that could have led them to the accused man than a decade ago?
Accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards's first wife left him for another man. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
Bradley Robert Edwards was confronted by his friend after he didn't arrive at a holiday house on time. (ABC News: Anne Barnetson)
Tim Clarke is the Legal Affairs Editor for the West Australian Newspaper, heads the team reporting on all the courts in Perth and wider Western Australia. A journalist for more than 20 years, Tim began his career on a local newspaper in the UK, before working for the national newswire services and here in Australia. He has had work published in every major newspaper in the country, writing about sport and news, as well as working for several news websites.
A receipt showing Bradley Edwards received his navy trousers in 1995.
Amanda Spiers tells Claremont serial killings trial of Bradley Edwards about Sarah Spiers's final moments
By Andrea Mayes
5th November, 2019
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-05/claremont-serial-killings-trial-hears-of-telstra-van-man-lift/11768998
PHOTO: Sarah Spiers was 18 when she disappeared after leaving a Claremont nightclub. (Fairfax Media)
INFOGRAPHIC: A map showing Sarah Spiers's last known movements in Claremont before her disappearance in 1996. (ABC News)
PHOTO: A missing person poster in the phone box where Sarah Spiers called for a taxi on the night she disappeared from Claremont. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Bradley Edwards is accused of killing (from top) Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Katrina Jones accepted a lift from a man driving a Telecom van in Cottesloe in December 1995. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
PHOTO: A Telecom van similar to the one issued to Bradley Edwards in the 1990s. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
PHOTO: Bradley Edwards worked for Telstra for 30 years before his arrest in 2016. (Facebook: KLAC)
Amanda Spiers dropped her little sister Sarah off for a night out with friends, gave her a hug and a kiss and said goodbye, never to see her again.
Key points:
Bradley Edwards is on trial accused of killing three women taken from Claremont
Sarah Spiers, the first alleged victim, was enjoying a night out on Australia Day
The trial has also been told of a man in a Telstra van allegedly prowling the area
The sister and a close friend of Ms Spiers have both told the Claremont serial killings trial of how the teenager spent her last moments alive celebrating Australia Day in 1996, before she was allegedly abducted and murdered by Bradley Robert Edwards.
Edwards is on trial in the WA Supreme Court for the murder of Ms Spiers, 18, along with 23-year-old Jane Rimmer, who disappeared in June 1996, and 27-year-old Ciara Glennon, who vanished in March 1997.
Ms Spiers's body has never been found, but the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were found weeks after their disappearances.
Emma Wates, now 43 and previously known as Emma McCormack, told the court Ms Spiers had been in good spirits that night and in the company of a group of friends.
After meeting at the Spiers house in South Perth, the group had gone to Kings Park for a picnic, then onto the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe where they met more friends.
"She was happy, she was talking with friends," Ms Wates said of Ms Spiers.
When the pub closed at midnight, Ms Spiers, Ms Wates and two other friends got a lift to Club Bay View in Claremont with Ms Spiers's sister, Amanda, where they continued to socialise.
After a while, Ms Spiers approached Ms Wates on the dance floor and said she was going to leave.
Ms Wates said she suggested Ms Spiers wait so the friends could leave together, but Ms Spiers said: "No that's fine, I'm ready to go now."
"She spoke to me clearly, she wasn't upset, she just was going to leave. She seemed normal, there was nothing unusual," Ms Wates said.
Ms Wates had tears in her eyes as she acknowledged it was the last time she ever saw or spoke with Ms Spiers.
A hug, a kiss and a final goodbye
Earlier, a statement given to police by Amanda Spiers in the days after the 18-year-old vanished was read out to court.
In it, Ms Spiers described her last moments with her sister as she dropped her outside the Claremont nightclub.
"Sarah walked around, gave me and a hug and a kiss and said goodbye," Ms Spiers said in the statement.
"I never discussed with Sarah how she was going to get home."
She said although her sister was intoxicated when she dropped her off, she was not concerned about her.
"Sarah was drunk when I dropped her off but she seemed OK," she said.
It was the last time she saw her sister, who had been due to host friends at their shared home the next day and go to the Skyworks fireworks display.
A mysterious car sighting
The court was also played the telephone call Sarah Spiers made to Swan Taxis the night she disappeared, in which she said she needed a cab to Mosman Park and was standing by a phone booth near the corner of Stirling Highway and Stirling Road.
Witness Mark Laidman told the court he had been at Club Bay View the same night and had been in a car driving home with friends when he noticed a woman of Ms Spiers's description standing near the same street corner.
That part of the street was well lit, he said, and the young woman "stood out" because there was no-one else around at the time.
"She was kind of leaning, half-standing" against a low-rise bollard, he said, and was wearing a white top and light-coloured shorts with a jacket or jumper wrapped around her waist.
As he sat in his friend's car at red traffic lights, another vehicle pulled up behind them, although he was unable give a clear description of the car other than that the space of the headlights reminded him of his friend's Mazda 808.
When the lights changed to green and Mr Laidman's car turned into Stirling Highway, he looked back but the other car did not appear.
"I looked back and didn't see it come through the lights after us, which I would have expected," he said.
'Blood-curdling' screams heard
Not long after this, a man living in the nearby suburb of Mosman Park told the court he heard a "loud, distressing" woman's scream in the early hours of the morning.
Wayne Stewart had been asleep in bed in his apartment on the top floor of a two-story apartment block in St Leonards Avenue when his fiancee Jessie-Marie Munro woke him up to tell him she had heard a woman screaming.
"She just woke me up, she was quite concerned, she said there was something going on outside," he said.
Ms Munro told the court she was woken at 3:00am by "really, really blood-curdling screaming".
"My heart was pounding," she said.
She said she thought the screams were coming from the direction of the phone box on Monument Street.
Mr Stewart said the scream did not last long "but it was very loud and very distressing".
"My primary concern was to look for the person who was screaming," he said.
When he got onto the balcony, he looked towards a phone box outside a shopping centre on the corner of Monument Street, about 100 metres away, and noticed a vehicle with its tail lights on facing the wrong direction. The car was a light-coloured station wagon, probably a Toyota Corona, he said.
He heard two car doors slam hard, within about 5-10 seconds of each other, and then the car drove off.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC said Mr Stewart was one of four witnesses to have heard screams in the Mosman Park area that night.
Judith Borrett, who lived in nearby Fairlight Street, told the court the "desperate" screams stood out in an area that was "always, always very, very quiet".
She said the screams "were very high pitched" and from a female. "I wish I'd gone outside but I didn't," she said.
Telstra van man looking for 'damsels in distress'
Earlier in the day another witness testified she was accosted by a man who said he worked for Telstra, after accepting a lift from him in his white work van a month before Ms Spiers vanished.
Katrina Jones told the court she had been at a wedding reception with her boyfriend at the Albion Hotel in Cottesloe, a suburb adjacent to Claremont, in December 1995.
The couple had a row after he hooked up with his younger brother's girlfriend and she broke up with him, walking off along Stirling Highway in search of a taxi to take her back to her car, which was parked at his parents' house in Innaloo.
A white van then slowed down and stopped, and the lone male driver offered her a lift.
"He looked across at me and he said are you all right … can I give you a lift?" she said.
She "had to lift myself up" to get into the passenger seat of the van and began chatting to the driver, asking what he was doing out so late at night.
"He said, 'I was heading to Cottesloe picking up damsels in distress like yourself'," she said.
"He was ever so polite, he really was very friendly."
Offer of a ride takes a sinister turn
When they arrived at Innaloo, Ms Jones said the driver followed her out of the van.
"He grabbed my arm … and tried to kiss me," she said.
But she told him she was a "blue belt in tae kwon do".
"I just said, 'no, don't even go there or I will drop you'," she said.
She said the man then put his arms up and said "it's OK, it's OK".
"I thought, 'well you're some sort of piece of work'," she said. The man then drove off.
She said he was aged about 25-27 with short brown hair, but under cross-examination from defence counsel Paul Yovich SC, Ms Jones admitted she had originally told police he was about 21 with fair hair.
She also admitted that she had not mentioned him working for Telecom or Telstra in her original statement to police, merely that he worked in telecommunications.
The trial, before Justice Stephen Hall, is continuing
Edwards's first wife has described their ordinary suburban life together, in which they owned a horse on adgistment.
(Supplied: WA Supreme Court)
Claremont serial killings: WA Police quiz new people, request DNA samples
JOHN FLINTPerthNow
December 27, 2014
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/claremont-serial-killings-wa-police-quiz-new-people-request-dna-samples-ng-bc48350f2d83ae30f2f574c948331e82
COLD case detectives investigating the Claremont serial killings are reaching out to new people, asking them to fill out a questionnaire and provide DNA.
Pensioner Noel Geoffrey Coward was interviewed on December 18 at Curtin House by two detectives from the Special Crime Squad.
But Mr Coward is not a person of interest in the case. For many years he has been urging police to look closely at a former taxi driver he brought to their attention after the abduction and murder of Ciara Glennon in 1997.
Mr Coward is unsure why detectives wanted him to fill out the questionnaire or why they wanted his DNA.
He said one of the detectives explained it was part of “a process of elimination” and they were making the same approach to many more people whose names were on file.
He said the special crime squad had gone to some effort to locate him and arrange the interview.
WA Police would not comment on Mr Coward’s account of the interview.
Detective-Inspector Casey Prins of the special crime squad provided a brief statement to The Sunday Times. He said: “Claremont (Macro) is an ongoing investigation, hence inquiries will continue to be made.
“WA Police remain committed to resolving these and other significant offences.”
The statement is identical to one issued by Insp Prins in 2012 when the media reported on another man who was interviewed.
Mr Coward said he told the two detectives he wouldn’t fill out the questionnaire or let them have his DNA.
“Primarily (that was) because I don’t trust them,” he said. “And because they had not, in my opinion, investigated the original evidence I supplied.
“(The detective) said he could not show me (the questionnaire) unless I complied and filled it out.”
Mr Coward said the detectives then tried to convince him that the former taxi driver was “not their man” and that he had been last interviewed by police in 2011. Mr Coward is known to The Sunday Times because he brought his suspicions about the taxi driver to the newspaper in 2001.
At the time, the Macro task force, set up to investigate the killings, was focused on an introverted public servant who lived with his parents in Cottesloe.
The then prime suspect was the target of around-the-clock surveillance.
WA Police were criticised in intervening years for being too narrowly focused at the time.
Mr Coward believes police failed in the early years to properly investigate the former taxi driver, who he claims was in Claremont at the precise time Ciara Glennon went missing, and was driving his taxi on the nights the other murder victims, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer, vanished from the entertainment precinct.Mr Coward said there was other evidence he passed to the police that should have raised a flag about the man.
In 2001, police claimed the taxi driver’s explanation for his movements on the night of Ciara Glennon’s disappearance checked out.
Then-police commissioner Barry Matthews got involved after a university professor and a former senator, both friends of Mr Coward, sought a meeting with Mr Matthews, suggesting Mr Coward’s information was not being treated seriously enough. Mr Matthews told the pair that the taxi driver had been interviewed twice and his taxi logs had been checked.
The former taxi driver told The Sunday Times in 2001 that he’d only been interviewed once, when he, along with other taxi drivers volunteered a saliva sample at the East Fremantle vehicle inspection pound. He denied any involvement in the killings.
The special crime squad uses new forensic and investigative techniques to help crack cold cases.
Former senior UK and NSW detective Robin Napper suggested the questionnaire might be for scientific content analysis, a technique used by police to detect concealed information. “It’s a linguistic technique used to find people who are lying in written word,” he said.
The Continental Hotel in Claremont was visited by all three Claremont killings victims on the nights they disappeared. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Julianne Johnstone told the court a man stared silently at her from a Telstra-branded car on the night Sarah Spiers vanished.
(ABC News: Andrea Mayes)
Bradley Robert Edwards will face trial accused of the Claremont serial killings. (Supplied: Central Crocs Football Club)
Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia -
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?318778-Australia-Claremont-Serial-Killer-1996-1997-Perth-Western-Australia-6&p=12898398&styleid=21
Donald Victor Morey, aka Matusevich crabstick said: 10-28-2016
There is enough reports to suggest he is ex army. Im not sure how old he is. Yes, there is a few guys around that use the Im ex SAS as a shield when they fear someone might give them a clobber. He might have been a mechanic? selling $10,000 bundles of amphetamine is organised crime connections. ' the was selling Sarah McMahon $10000 blocks of amphetamine, its not like he wouldn't have the cash for access to new vehicles, and cut and shut rebuild vehicles he could set up himself. Built fake taxis even. Because a fake taxi didn't have to buy a taxi plate, fake taxis were a cash cow.
If Morey is SAS or ex-military, he may have been trained in all the above.
Mechanic being one of the core subjects for SAS. (SAS barracks are a stones throw from Stirling road, Claremont.) Being SAS with a station wagon set up with a LSD diff, Morey could have driven any the back dirt tracks off the main roads up and down to the dump points with an element of ease. Police have said, it is someone who polishes their car a lot, with care to detail.
Career Criminal and self confessed SAS killer of many people, Donald Morey .. and has admitted he was the last person to see or talk to Sarah Anne McMahan alive ... and according to his phone records was in the area of Bassendean the night Sarah Anne McMahon was talking to Donald Morey on her telephone and saying she was heading to see a friend in Bassendean and there was strong evidence that Donald Morey aka Matusevich lied to the coroner about being at his boss Mr Allen's truck yard on the night that Sarah Anne McMahon Disappeared ... and a witness said she saw a bloodied dead body, with a rope around her neck that looked like Sarah Anne McMahon is his room at his boss Mr Allen's home ...
and that evening, saw him carrying what looked liked a dead body over his shoulder, wrapped up, out of the house, and said she helped clean up Donald's Morey's room at Mr Allen's home ... and Donald Morey aka Matusevich with Mr Allen's wife and Mr Allan saying that Donald Morey aka Matusevich had a bag with all the things needed to kill someone that Donald Morey aka always carried around with him .... but the police after been told about this bag being at Mr and Mrs Allan's home waited for a about a week to go and collect this important evidence ... giving plenty of time of Donald Morey's female partner he spent the weekends with in a house in Chidlow ....to come and collect the black bag ... which gives the strong impression that as a witness has said ..
that Donald Morey worked as a killer and a illegal drug dealer for corrupt police and other powerful politicians,, powerful business people and the Chinese Triads and was protected by these corrupt police .,..
who rang Donald Morey's female partner to inform her she better quickly collect Donald Morey's damming black bag which help all the tools of trade to abduct and quickly and silently murder someone .....
and Donald Morey says he has constant contact with Sarah Anne McMahon since November, 2000 ... and Sarah Anne McMahon has not even contacted her own family ... and not contacted anyone else buy career criminal and
self confessed killer .... yet will not tell anyone where Sarah Anne McMahon is .... other that saying she is living in Canada
under another name and has two children......then with all that evidence why haven't the Western Australian Police arrested Donald Morey on some charge associated with the disappearance of Saran Anne McMahon before Donald Morey is released from prison sometime in 2017 when his 13 year prison sentence ends .. so that Donald Morey can be refused bail while he goes to court over the new charge or charges associated with the disappearance of Sarah Ann McMahon on about the 8th of November, 2000.... and at the same time further investigate the connection of Donald Morey with the abduction/murder of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. Lisa Brown and other missing girls ...
Comment:
A serious question that needs to be answered by Karl O'Callaghan, the Western Australian Commissioner of Police is:
Why did it take over a week for the Western Australian Police for come and collect a bag belonging to career criminal and convicted attempted murderer Donald Morey which the two owners of the house in Marangaroo, Mr and Mrs Gareth Allen who were the bosses of Donald Morey say contained a real of silver, gaffer tape, two knives and explicit pornographic material of what looked like dead women in sexual positions...
which is similar to the items that Western Australia Police officer Con Bayers, who was the former head of the prostitution task-force said he found in Donald Morey's Commodore Holden car boot driving through Northbridge, Perth, Western Australia, that looked liked and unmarked police car
Claremont serial killings trial: Harrowing details emerge on day one of Bradley Robert Edwards’ trial
Rebecca Le MayPerthNow
November 25, 2019
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-harrowing-details-emerge-on-day-one-of-bradley-robert-edwards-trial-ng-b881393026z
The trial of the alleged Claremont serial killer has only just begun but already the victims' still-grieving relatives have heard harrowing details including women's screams that abruptly stop, decomposition and animal predation.
Former Telstra technician and Little Athletics coach Bradley Robert Edwards, 50, finally went on trial in the Supreme Court of WA on Monday after almost three years behind bars.
Edwards wore a blank expression as prosecutor Carmel Barabagallo began outlining the abductions of 18-year-old secretary Sarah Spiers, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, from the wealthy Perth suburb in 1996 and 1997.
The confessed rapist also remained impassive as the prosecutor detailed the gruesome discoveries of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon's bodies in bushland, and how loud, high-pitched screams were heard in nearby Mosman Park on the night Ms Spiers went missing.
Sitting in the front row of the full public gallery, Ms Spiers' parents Don and Carol heard the last recording of her voice as she called for a taxi.
She was gone by the time the vehicle arrived and was never seen again.
Grim descriptions of the other women's injuries were endured by Ms Glennon's father Denis, her sister Denise and Ms Rimmer's mother Jenny.
Both women had neck injuries inflicted in a cutting or "even a sawing action", Ms Barbagallo said.
They were partly decomposed and largely covered by vegetation.
Ms Rimmer was face down and naked, and parts of her body that weren't covered by branches were damaged from animal predation, Ms Barbagallo said.
Dozens of reporters are covering the trial, with those not able to secure a seat watching proceedings via video link in three other rooms, but there appeared to be just enough seats for member of the public.
A sudden hush fell over the room 10 minutes before the trial got under way as the magnitude of the long-awaited events about to unfold sunk in.
Bradley Robert Edwards. Credit: Anne Barnetson
Taxi driver Steven Ross was questioned by police investigating the murders. (ABC News)
Sarah Anne McMahon 20 holds little sister Kate, then 13, in 1999 before Sarah went missing. Credit: News Limited
The Claremont serial killer investigation and the wrong men caught up in a massive murder probe
By Andrea Mayes- 16 Nov 2019,
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-17/claremont-serial-killer-trial-the-wrong-suspects/11147118
Police appealed for public help on multiple occasions. (ABC News)
Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon all went missing from Claremont. (ABC News)
Polygraph machines were among the tools used in the investigation. (ABC News)
Police undertook checks on all Perth taxi cabs. (ABC News)
Taxi driver Steven Ross was questioned by police investigating the murders. (ABC News)
Lance Williams was considered by police for many years to be the prime suspect in the Claremont serial killings. (ABC News)
Police staked out Lance Williams' house for more than a year. (ABC News)
Reporters converge on Lance Williams' parents' house in Cottesloe, seeking interviews. (ABC News)
Weygers' Claremont home was searched by police. (ABC News)
Mr Weygers wanted the Continental Hotel to upgrade its security. (ABC News)
Bradley Murdoch came under police scrutiny for the Claremont murders, but was ruled out. (ABC TV)
Don Spiers (l) in front of a billboard appealing for help to find his missing daughter Sarah. (ABC News)
Jane Rimmer's body was found in bushland at Wellard, south of Perth. (ABC News)
Bradley Robert Edwards will face trial accused of the Claremont serial killings. (Supplied: Central Crocs Football Club)
Police outside the Kewdale house where Bradley Edwards was arrested. (ABC News: Robert Koenig-Luck)
For more than 20 years, it was the notorious murder case many assumed would never be solved.
The disappearance of three young women in eerily similar circumstances from the upmarket Perth suburb of Claremont in the mid-1990s spooked the city like no other case before or since.
Sarah Spiers, 18, was the first to vanish in January 1996, followed by 23-year-old Jane Rimmer in June the same year and Ciara Glennon, 27, in March 1997.
The women had all been enjoying nights out with friends and each had farewelled their mates and headed home before abruptly disappearing.
No trace of Ms Spiers has ever been found.
Ms Rimmer's body was found in bushland in Wellard, on Perth's southern fringes, in August 1996, nearly two months after she was last seen alive.
Ms Glennon's body was found in the city's northern outskirts on April 3, 1997, less than three weeks after she disappeared.
After that, there was nothing.
No more young women went missing from the area in the same way and there were no more apparent breakthroughs in what was now openly referred to as a serial killer case.
Young people remained wary of going out, parents continued to warn their daughters of the dangers lurking in the shadows after dark, and everybody fervently hoped the case would be solved.
Pressure on police mounted as every day passed without an arrest.
It seemed hard to believe such brazen acts could be committed without detection, that a serial killer could lurk in the quiet suburbs of Perth without anyone knowing.
A special police unit — the Macro Task Force — had been established to solve the crime and resources were being allocated like never before.
Macro would grow to become the biggest police investigation in Australian history and detectives had several people in their sights for the crimes.
The taxi driver
Taxi drivers were one of the first groups to come under suspicion in the case.
With all three young women thought to have been planning to get taxis home from Claremont, drivers were the obvious first place to start.
The only problem for police was the sheer number of taxi drivers.
In the pre-ride-sharing era, taxis were the only choice for late-night revellers trying to get home and Perth had more than 3,000 of them registered in 1996.
Thus began a massive police campaign to try to investigate every Perth taxi driver.
Background checks were conducted on all drivers in the city and their cabs were searched, leading to 78 of them losing their taxi licences.
Thousands of drivers voluntarily submitted to fingerprinting and giving saliva samples in Australia's first mass DNA-testing exercise.
But the samples collected from drivers didn't match the evidence police had collected. There was no breakthrough.
One driver to attract police attention early in the piece was Steven Ross, who had told officers he believed he had given Ms Spiers a lift the night before she disappeared.
Mr Ross lived in a granny flat at the back of a house owned by then Claremont mayor Peter Weygers, who would himself also come under suspicion in the case but has never been charged.
He said he had been driving taxis on the nights the three women disappeared, but always maintained his innocence.
He was interviewed by police but not arrested.
Then in 2004 his home was raided by Macro Task Force officers and his taxi was seized for forensic analysis. He was forced to provide a DNA sample.
Mr Ross said at the time he believed police "want a taxi driver to be charged" over the murders.
"They're trying to frame me. They can't find the killer and they're trying to put someone away," he said.
The public servant
By September 1997, police had begun to hone in on one particular suspect — a mild-mannered public servant with some odd behavioural quirks.
Lance Williams, then aged 41, lived with his parents in beachside Cottesloe, adjacent to Claremont and home to the Ocean Beach Hotel, where both Ms Spiers and Ms Rimmer had been drinking on the nights they disappeared.
The unremarkable looking middle-aged man had never been married, had recently been treated for depression following the death of a friend and came across as socially awkward and eccentric.
It had been six months since Ms Glennon went missing and Claremont remained the focus of heavy police attention, with dozens of uniformed and undercover officers present in the area after dark.
Mr Williams attracted their attention because of his habit of cruising around the streets of the affluent suburb after dark on weekends in his white Hyundai.
Undercover female officers were a major part of the police operation in Claremont. It was hoped that the officers, dressed like the throngs of other young women who flocked to the area to socialise at night, would attract the attention of the serial killer.
When Mr Williams gave one of the officers a lift in the early hours of the morning after she asked him where the nearest bus stop was, police had reason to pay close attention to him.
They began secretly watching him day and night.
Then in the early hours of Sunday February 5, 1998, they pounced, arresting him as he drove through Claremont's central entertainment precinct.
Detectives would spend more than 12 hours interrogating Mr Williams that night and well into the daylight hours — without him having a lawyer present.
However, the interrogation was not fruitful and, lacking evidence to lay charges, police released him.
But Mr Williams was far from off the hook.
By that stage officers had been watching him covertly for months — now their surveillance of him became round-the-clock, both at home and at his workplace in the Main Roads Department.
His parents' home was searched and parts of their backyard dug up, and both his car and his parents' cars were forensically tested.
It didn't take long for the media to get wind of it.
Hungry for a new development on the case, the media's focus on Mr Williams became almost as relentless as the police's, and the farcical spectacle of Mr Williams leaving his home being tailed by police vehicles, which were being tailed by news cars, became a regular occurrence.
Mr Williams was hounded by reporters, as was his family, with his elderly parents forced to contend with packs of journalists and cameramen descending on their modest bungalow seeking interviews.
When it emerged Mr Williams had failed a polygraph, or lie detector, test administered by US expert Ron Homer, the media frenzy went into overdrive.
The fact that polygraph test results were not permitted to be used as evidence was irrelevant — finally police appeared to have made a breakthrough.
Mr Williams was ambushed by reporters as he left work, who asked him point blank if he was the serial killer as he tried to protest his innocence.
"All I had was concern, you know, that there was women walking around Claremont on their own late at night, specially from what had happened all the years before," he said.
That night, he was described on TV as the prime suspect in the Claremont case — a tag Mr Williams would wear in the minds of the public almost until the end of his life.
While police ended their round-the-clock surveillance of him in 1999, they were still undertaking searches of his home as late as 2004.
But nothing changed the fact that there was no evidence he committed the crimes.
In February 2018 Mr Williams died of cancer, aged 61.
The Mayor of Claremont
At the time of the women's disappearances, Peter Weygers was mayor of the Town of Claremont and president of the Civil Liberties Association of WA.
As mayor, he copped a lot of criticism from people including Ms Glennon's grieving father, Denis, that the streets of Claremont were unsafe and that not enough security measures were in place to protect people after dark.
The problem for Mr Weygers was that his passionate belief in civil liberties meant he publicly objected to the use of security cameras to "spy" on citizens and the mass screening and DNA collection from taxi drivers.
Mr Weygers called on Club Bayview and the Continental Hotel to do more to improve security at their own venues and attacked the police's relentless focus on Mr Williams.
This position cost Mr Weygers his mayoral position in the 1997 Claremont Council elections and by this time he was also a person of interest in the police investigation.
While Mr Weygers had a strong alibi on the night Mr Glennon disappeared, having been at a late-night council meeting, he was unable to produce alibis for the nights Ms Spiers and Ms Rimmer went missing.
Police kept him in their sights.
In 2004, ahead of an independent review of the Macro taskforce and its methods, police raided homes he owned in Embleton and Claremont, including a property where his friend Mr Ross lived.
Extensive forensic tests were conducted on the houses, including checking for bloodstains, prompting Mr Weygers to accuse officers of victimisation.
"It's the most outrageous abuse of a fundamental right, a basic civil liberty … It's a gross invasion of privacy, a gross invasion of your right to have some anonymity," he thundered at reporters as police searched his home.
Mr Weygers was not arrested and no charges have ever been laid against him.
The other suspects relating to the Claremont Serial Killings
Police themselves were not immune from suspicion.
"We make no secret about the fact we have interviewed serving police officers," Macro chief Inspector Dave Caporn said early in the investigation.
"People aren't beyond suspicion just because they might be employed as a police officer."
Bradley Murdoch, the man who killed British backpacker Peter Falconio
Bradley Murdoch, the man who killed British backpacker Peter Falconio and abducted and assaulted his girlfriend Joanne Lees in the Northern Territory in 2001, was investigated by Macro at one point.
Born in Geraldton, Murdoch had worked as a truck driver and mechanic while living in Broome, but police ruled him out of their inquiries when they realised he had been in jail at the time of the first two murders.
UK man Mark Dixie, also known as Shane Turner
UK man Mark Dixie, also known as Shane Turner, was another to come into the frame for the Claremont murders while working as a chef in WA during the 1990s.
After returning to the UK he raped and stabbed to death 18-year-old model Sally Anne Bowman after she left a nightclub in Sussex in 2005, and police said it was likely he had committed other crimes while in WA.
But he was officially crossed off the suspect list in December 2006, with police saying he was not in the state at the time Ms Spiers disappeared.
Profiling a 'next-door neighbour' killer
At its peak, more than 100 officers were assigned to the Macro Task Force and money came pouring in at an unprecedented rate.
The State Government provided additional policing resources, plus a foundation established by business friends of Denis Glennon went on to raise a reported $850,000.
This money changed the course of the investigation.
It allowed police to utilise innovative investigative techniques sourced from around the world, including a controversial lie detector machine — used on scores of suspects — and criminal profiling, which had been featured in the Oscar-winning Hollywood thriller The Silence of the Lambs.
Experts trained with the FBI and US police outlined personality sketches of the killer, which described him as a highly organised person who probably planned the murders meticulously.
Victorian police criminal profiler Claude Minisini said he would more than likely have a job and drive a recent-model car, and was probably comfortable mixing in the lively after-dark Claremont social scene. He would not frighten those he came into contact with.
David Caldwell, head of forensics at South Carolina police, said the suspect was probably quite different from the image people expected of a serial killer.
"This person is probably very bright, very much in control of himself, has all of the outward appearances of a very stable person," he outlined during a press conference in his distinctive southern drawl.
"This is probably a very pleasant, normal appearing person
"I daresay that when this guy is arrested, I guarantee that people are going to be absolutely astounded.
"They're gonna say, 'I worked with this guy. He's my next-door neighbour. Surely it can't be?'"
Polygraph expert Ronald Homer, a former FBI agent, was also flown in from the US twice to help Macro detectives test suspects.
Polygraph tests measure changes in blood pressure, breathing and sweat gland activity as a suspect is asked a series of questions, but there is widespread scepticism about their validity and accuracy, and concern they can be used to coerce the innocent into false confessions.
They are not permitted as evidence in Australia, but police defended the tests as an important screening tool to eliminate people from their inquiry.
One final suspect — the Telstra technician
The year 2016 marked 20 years since the first victim, Ms Spiers, went missing.
By this time the Macro Task Force had been subjected to at least 11 independent reviews, none of which had apparently uncovered the smoking gun.
While its detectives continued their work, people were beginning to give up hope the Claremont serial killer case would ever be solved.
Then on a hot December afternoon, just three days out from Christmas 2016, came the bombshell news many thought they would never hear.
Macro detectives had raided a home in the Perth suburb of Kewdale and had taken a 48-year-old man into custody in connection with the Claremont killings.
The following morning police held a press conference to announce the man, Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards, had been charged with the murders of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
Bradley Robert Edwards was also charged with violent attacks on two other young women in 1995 and 1988, including twice raping a 17-year-old at Karrakatta Cemetery after abducting her from Claremont.
In February 2018, Mr Edwards was additionally charged with the murder of Sarah Spiers.
Bradley Robert Edwards has pleaded guilty to the 1988 and 1995 attacks, but continues to plead not guilty to the three murder charges.
His trial begins on November 25.
Mr Weygers wanted the Continental Hotel to upgrade its security. (ABC News)
Claremont serial killings trial told Bradley Edwards did not show up at holiday house the night Ciara Glennon vanished
By Andrea Mayes
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-29/claremont-serial-killings-bradley-edwards-missing-ciara-glennon/11750286
29th November, 2019
Edwards didn't arrive until next morning, court told
Mr Cook had expected Edwards to drive down after work, but even though he waited up until 10:00pm or 11:00pm, Edwards never made it.
Instead, he showed up about 11:00am the following day, which led to a confrontation.
"I said words to effect of 'what the hell? You were supposed to be here on Friday night'," Mr Cook said.
"He said 'I was trying to reconcile with my wife'.
"I said 'how did it go?' He just shook his head."
Ms Glennon was last seen in Claremont in the early hours of March 15, and the prosecution alleges Edwards abducted and murdered her, dumping her body in bushland in the northern Perth suburb of Eglinton and covering it with branches and foliage.
Perth trial of alleged killer of Irish woman hinges on DNA
Bradley Robert Edwards (50) charged over death of Ciara Glennon (27) in March 1997
Sun, Nov 24, 2019,- Brendan Foster
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/perth-trial-of-alleged-killer-of-irish-woman-hinges-on-dna-1.4093688
A sole piece of DNA evidence from an Irish woman killed in Australia more than 20 years ago could hold the key to one of the most anticipated trials in the country’s history.
Bradley Robert Edwards (50) will appear before a Western Australian court on Monday charged over the death of Ciara Glennon, whose family are originally from Westport in Co Mayo.
Ms Glennon (27) disappeared on the night of March 14th, 1997, after celebrating St Patrick’s Day with friends in the upmarket suburb of Claremont, Perth.
Her parents, Denis and Una Glennon, identified their daughter’s body three weeks later after it was found in bushland, 50km north of Perth.
A postmortem on her body revealed the cause of death was consistent with a neck injury such as a laceration.
In an update published in early November, Western Australian supreme court justice Stephen Hall allowed state prosecutors to submit late evidence of DNA material found under the fingertips of Ms Glennon.
‘Claremont serial killings’
Prosecutors will allege the DNA belongs to Mr Edwards, who is also accused of the murders of Sarah Spiers (18), and Jane Rimmer (23), who also both vanished from the Claremont area in the mid-1990s. The killings were later dubbed the Claremont serial killings.
The state is expected to argue Ms Glennon scratched Mr Edwards’s face before he murdered her, with the DNA allegedly located underneath her fingernails when her body was found.
The prosecution will call on UK-based Principal Forensic Services scientist Jonathan Whitaker, who will consider whether that DNA was a result of passive social contact, or the scratching of a person.
Mr Edwards’s defence lawyer Paul Yovich has previously stated he would challenge the DNA evidence, claiming it could have been contaminated.
The DNA evidence is expected to form a crucial part of the trial, as it is the single piece of such evidence the state has in relation to Mr Edwards.
Justice Hall – who will preside over the non-jury trial, expected to last six months
NYT Investigaton Team’s Question and Observation:
If Bradley Robert Edwards arrived at his friend Mr Cook’s house at 11am the 15th March, 1997, the morning after Ciara Glennon disappeared, and the prosecution are right that Ciara Glennon ended up with Bradley Robert Edwards’s DNA under her finger nails as a result of Ciara Glennon scratching the face of Bradley Robert Edwards, why didn’t Mr Cook and his wife notice scratches on the face of Bradley Robert Edwards when he arrived at their house at around 11am on the 15th March, 1997?
Polygraph machines were among the tools used in the investigation. (ABC News)
--© All rights reserved
``Wikipedia Exposed Media - WEM