He did unspeakably evil things | Derek Percy | Australian Crime Stories

[Music] foreign he's been branded Australia's Hannibal Lecter an opportunistic killer a man with unspeakable obsessions is Derek Ernest Percy Australia's worst child killer there are certain crimes where you go you go oh that is so terrible the boy's body was found in this or Thicket of undergrowth imagine this child dead and mutilated does this die with him still there the world had gone on in that matter they're dealing with someone who's obviously mentally Disturbed we asked the question was he mad two minds two people were just plain bad we hope to God that there's no one else out there quite like him again warn it is on the foreshore of Western Port Bay about 60 kilometers southeast of Melbourne the small Township is a popular spot for fishing boating and holidaying in 1969 it was exactly the kind of place that Mum and Dad could let down their hair and allow the kids to roam free with their imaginations that is until one day in this quiet location everything changed today an incredible time really that sense of Freedom children growing up in the sun most children of the time were able to to play until it got dark and once the street lights came on they had to go go home for dinner now two little children in this little Windswept corner of the the Mornington Peninsula wanted to go out and have a walk to the beach I built a little bonfire Shane Spiller picked up his neighbor Yvonne Tui took a little Tomahawk with him uh to to chop up the kindling they're going to have a picnic lunch by the sea both families didn't think anything about this you know it's probably good for the kids to get out get some fresh air I went down a well-worn track what they didn't know was that Derek Percy who was down there in his car waiting for any potential victim to come along 21 year old Naval Cadet Derek Ernest Percy worked at HMA as Cerberus Percy was so quiet and unassuming that his Navy mates called him the ghost but nobody knew the ghost was also a child killer and he was about to commit monstrous Horrors on 11 year old Shane and 12 year old Yvonne what happened next Percy confronted the children as they walked past his car he jumped out grabbed the girl asked the boy to come towards him little Shane Spiller showed a lot of courage in brandishing his tomahawk and said that he would hit him Percy being the coward that he was backed off but he kept Tui on a hold and wouldn't let go of Tui Spiller had a split second to make a decision so what does a little boy do he decided to run in the other direction and get help [Music] here as he's running away seeking help he hears Yvonne's desperate pleas for help yes she calls out to him he's going to hurt me help me help me he's going to cut my throat is what he heard my name is Kenneth Scott Robertson I joined the Victoria Police in 1953. I spent 34 years less 12 days in the police force and Rose to the rank of Chief superintendent prior to retirement Ken Robertson was working in the homicide Squad when word came through that a Von Tui had been abducted at warn eat uh the little boy that ran away who tried to prevent the abduction Shane Spiller he was very observant and observed a particular placard on the bumper bar or the car it was the Navy logo wasn't it yes police responded quickly while detectives Robertson and Delaney drove down from Melbourne police on the peninsula took Shane to HMA Cerberus where he pointed out Percy's Datsun 1000 in the car park having acetone who the owner of the vehicle was they went to his room and found him washing Blood Stained clothing I went and met the commander of the naval base and got his permission eventually to remove this person Derek Percy from the naval base and take him to a police station at this point you don't know what Percy's done no all we know is that Evon too he's gone missing was he Cooperative was he throwing off what was he doing my impression about me was making out that he's being cooperative in his banking out he had a bad memory which sort of convinced me he didn't want to help even though he was saying he wanted to help he didn't want to help Derek Percy was formally interviewed at Frankston police station by Sergeant dick Knight it's the only time that he would ever confess to anything he was forced to retrace his Steps From the Naval Base to the town of warneet and finally to Ski Beach where he abducted Yvonne Tui he wore Derek Percy down eventually and Percy gave up and confessed and was rather a frightening confession when you think about it and look back on it he'd done certain horrible things to the girl he said he would be able to take us the team back to where the body was police directed the team to Fisheries Road Devon Meadows eight kilometers from where he'd abducted the 12 year old at knifepoint [Music] once we got to the area he knew where he'd been and what he'd done because he took us for stage by stage to where the body was and said over there she's over there behind those bushes you see the body I think you're almost the first to see this yes I've seen your pictures of her body and I'll never forget them what did you see there to put a crudely not completely dismembered but a very very brutally damaged body some clothing on it some not some rope string tying her up gagged horrible wounds you've seen a lot of things in the police force we've seen numerous things I've seen numerous bodies this is the worst does stay with you still there [Applause] we roll back to the first time you've seen Percy at Cerberus quietly spoken timid and you're confronted with what he's done your son oh my God look at the mess here how could such a lovely fella 10 minutes ago I've done this so he'd have to be crazy had to be at the minute at the minute [Music] it was two wheels apart which to me says two minds two people mad or bad both when police opened Percy's Locker at hmas Cerberus they made a shocking Discovery he'd been keeping a diary where he recorded his sick and sadistic sexual fantasies one of those fantasies involved a very young boy who'd been murdered and mutilated just like Yvonne and New South Wales took careful note because a very young boy had been killed in Sydney the previous year just like that was this the work of Percy as well so now the connections to other crimes begin to be drawn and an old friend of of Percy's who has happened to be a police officer Ron Anderson was brought in what happened with Ron Ron Anderson was asked to go in and to talk to Percy to see if he would open up because he wasn't really giving away any details to the hardened police officers Anderson came in as a friend and Percy immediately recognized him and he said something quite significant he said books like I [ __ ] up this time you know this time coming up the boy's body was found in this Thicket of undergrowth the horrifying murder of Simon Brooke it wasn't a quick death do you think Percy should have hung yes [Music] in 1968 a year before Derek Percy murdered Yvonne Tui in Melbourne three-year-old Simon Brooke was abducted from his family's home here in the Sydney suburb of Glebe he too was murdered and mutilated like Yvonne so where was Derek Percy at this time living and working at Sydney's Garden Island Naval Base three-year-old Simon book was playing in the backyard which backed onto Jubilee Park and it's believed that an offender came up to the fence when the Brook family went inside to greet some family friends Simon disappeared and whether the offender coaxed Simon through the fence or lifted him up isn't known but when the alarm was sound there was a search party for the boy and it wasn't until the following day that little boy's body was found in an adjoining block of land [Music] the boy's body was found in this Thicket of undergrowth behind a partially constructed building in Glebe Point Road imagine a boy as I saw him on Sunday morning placed under the bushes bushes and this child dead and mutilated with blood on his face Simon Brooke had been asphyxiated with the newspaper and postmortem mutilated with a razor blade the razor blade had been left at the crime scene and was later discovered that the razor blade was a government issue razor blade now at the time Derek Percy was a naval rating working in Sydney at Garden Island he was on leave on that day in May when the little boy disappeared Percy knew Glee well he often visited his father who worked there after the murder of the Von Tui Percy confided to his friend Ron Anderson that he'd driven past the scene of the crime on the day Simon Brooke was murdered [Music] the other thing is that when Percy's writings were discovered in his Naval Locker he described mutilation of a young boy admitting that they're dealing with someone who's obviously mentally Disturbed police have issued an urgent appeal to any member of the public who may have seen a man acting suspiciously or have seen a man in the company of a small fair-haired boy in this Glebe area yesterday to come forward immediately what were the similarities between what happened to Simon Brooke and what happened to Yvonne Tui the most important thing was the post-mortal mutilation [Music] Percy was a coprophiliac he had the unfortunate issue of becoming aroused when he spoiled his pants and Derek Percy continues on where does he go next uh Derek Percy relocated to Cerberus in Melbourne and he's there throughout second half of 1968 which corresponds with The Disappearance of Linda Stillwell Linda Stilwell was the youngest daughter of a English immigrant family they lived in St Kilda and the children decided as many children did in those days to go out on a day's adventure to go out and have a look at the beach and walk around during the course of the afternoon they were separated the oldest children went home they thought the little girl was behind them she wasn't and when they went back to try and find her when the parents said look go and get your sister she had gone [Music] Victoria Police launched a massive search operation for seven-year-old Linda without success [Music] and for eight months from The Disappearance of Linda Stilwell to the murder of Evon Tui there were no advancements in that case so when Percy's old school friend and police officer Ron Anderson visited him in his cell to discuss Yvonne Tui he also questioned him about Linda Stillwell Percy made an alarming admission that he may have been driving through sin killed her on the day Linda disappeared so he was clever enough to say well I may have been there I don't remember and that answer I don't remember I can't remember became his refrain for the next 30 Years there was only one crime that Percy ever confessed to the murder of Yvonne Tui but he pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity and the jury accepted it this meant that he was never convicted for her murder [Music] at the right verdict my my own view is that there wasn't a basis for that verdict [Music] he knew what he was doing he knew what he was doing was wrong he didn't do it because he was driven by a psychiatric illness that deprived him of his moral compass or his capacity Yvonne and possibly other children they never had a chance murder was always that on the on the agenda and not just murder torture torture and murder seeing a diary written by a man before the event where he detailed horrific accounts and then seeing the damage he caused that girl over an extended period of time it wasn't a quick death [Music] in 1970 Percy was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of Yvonne Tui he was sentenced to be detained at the governor's pleasure which meant there was no set date for his release however if the jury had found Percy guilty of murder he may have been the last person to hang in Victoria do you think Percy should have hung the basis of what was done yes to me the insanity verdict stopped Justice for other families who'd lost loved ones to Percy I believe you're correct and that assumption and the jury's got to be blamed for this Percy was never convicted of a criminal offense police investigating the murders of Linda Stillwell and Simon Brooke were unable to take samples of Percy's DNA to use as evidence why because he was never convicted in 1969 police would have had to get his consent to take his DNA and Percy never agreed after the break Percy was a very smart person so he's Mensa class Inside the Mind of Derek Percy one of the extraordinary things about his sadistic fantasies is how obsessive they are when a Melbourne Court finds Derek Percy to be criminally insane he sent to Pentridge prison and put in G division populated at that time by all the prisoners who couldn't be classified like Percy he settles into prison life so well he's quickly given special privileges 1969 where are you 1969 I'm in pentry J division I'm working in a section where I'm called a writer and there was a writer in each division each division had a writer so how much work and Authority would that writer have in a division Adventure total the the writer was the person who basically ran the ran the division so who was the writer of G division the writer was Derek Posey very very young person to have a job like that he was a person who made all the decisions as to what cell people went into what type of amenities they had in the cell what type of amenities were available to the other prisons in the in the jail The rosters the routine he decided everything I met him a few times and at that stage when I first met him he was no different I never looked upon him as any different than anyone else he was unremarkable totally unremarkable [Music] Percy had no interest in his status within the prison I mean the early interest he had was in being ignored Paul Mullen is a professor of forensic psychiatry when he started seeing Percy in jail the child killer had been incarcerated for over 20 years Miss Percy was not an easy man uh to create rapport with thank you he is blank dead eyes my goodness how am I going to deal with this fellow it took a long while for him to even begin to trust you just had to sit and talk with him talk with him about anything that interested him he was fascinated by test cricket he had a companious knowledge of test Cricket so we've chatted about cricket My Hope was always at some point he'd feel able to talk more openly it's no really really wanted to know what in the world had gone on in that man's head foreign [Music] who was Derek Percy well Derek Percy came from an ordinary Australian family a very strict father absent father away working and an overly protective mother he was the oldest of three boys but he was alone he was he was an odd bod he didn't have a lot of close relationships his mother actually kept a very close eye on him it's clear that he exhibited certain behaviors at a very young age such as well the first thing that came to note in the local community where he was living at Mount Beauty in Northern Victoria was that female underwear was disappearing from the neighbor's clotheslines second thing was that a number of dresses were taken from the inside of houses neighboring houses and two school friends of Percy's observed Percy in the bush in a place called The Gorge near Mount Beauty wearing these dresses and exhibiting violent behavior in cutting the underwear the thing of ladies underwear snowdropping they used to call it the issue was that when he was identified as the snowdropper the parents had an opportunity to get some counseling for him and they didn't so that behavior was normalized within Derek's family it was then there was an incident in his final year in Mount Beauty where he molested two young children in a caravan they were the daughters of a neighbor and Percy's father Ernest Percy tried to smooth things over by appealing to the parents that they would get help for the sun it actually led to them moving away from our Beauty and going into New South Wales [Music] something deeply disturbed about his son he had discovered Derek had detailed his evil fantasies in Diaries instead of challenging his son he just destroyed them perhaps if there was action taken for the snow dropping or for the for the for the violent Diaries at an early age um something could have been done Percy continued to journal his perverted thoughts when he was in the Navy and also when he was in Pentridge one of the extraordinary things about his sadistic fantasies is how obsessive they are how detailed they are and how rigid essentially he had carried a complex sadistic Fantasy Life in a single stream really from the age of mid adolescence I suspect until the day he died having served in the Navy Percy felt at ease with the hierarchy of the prison environment the governor was ex-navy and so was the chief prison psychologist Alan Bartholomew who encouraged Percy to share his writings he starts to share the details of this extraordinary complex fantasy and it's a disaster because it becomes knowledge both of the prison authorities and other people that story was public knowledge throughout the whole prison the whole prison was aware of that and from that day forward no one really trusted Bartholomew Percy was a very smart person his Savvy IQ was up in the 150s these Mensa class he's no deal at all no matter what they offered him he never ever took debate and revealed anything whatsoever so Percy closed himself off to the prison psychologists but amazingly he still found a way to express his sadistic fantasies a prisoner Action Group smuggled his writings out of prison into a couple of storage units that Percy rented this went on for over 20 years until the day it came unstuck and the Diaries were discovered next the potential evidence found in this Melbourne Self Storage Warehouse could blow Australia's biggest murder mysteries wide open was Derek Percy Australia's worst child killer this is the area where the two girls were brutally murdered the Beaumont is one of Australia's great Mysteries [Music] the potential evidence found in this Melbourne Self Storage Warehouse could blow Australia's biggest murder mysteries wide open 35 boxes containing the Diaries files and sadistic thoughts of child killer Derek Ernest Percy have been hidden here for 20 years the discovery of Derek Percy's horde of material in 2007 led to a string of Unsolved child murders from the 60s being reopened including the Wanda Beach murders in Sydney and The Disappearance of the Beaumont children in Adelaide if Percy could be linked to these crimes he would become Australia's worst child killer Wanda was the first case in 1965 the murder and rape of two 15 year old girls on Wanda Beach Marianne was attacked first stabbed 17 times Christine was chased down a night seven times their bodies were buried in the sand police believe that Percy's grandmother lived in an adjoining suburb to the two victims in Western Sydney and that Percy may have been visiting his grandmother on that summer that the girls were murdered [Music] five and I'm still at school those girls were coaxed into the Sandhills those girls went into the Sandhills for a reason I doubt very much speaking to Percy's High School classmates that he would have had the inclination or the charm to coax those ghouls he would never even had the guts to go up to those girls and introduce himself so the idea that somehow this boy from Victoria hid in the Wanda Sandhills hoping that somebody would come past that he would murder is fanciful and secondly if he wasn't interested in 15 year old girls [Music] Beaumont kids that's it's such an iconic case in Australia every homicide detective in Australia wants to solve that one began with a troubling missing person's report a Glenelg police station late on Australia Day in 1966 nine-year-old Jane seven-year-old Anna and four-year-old Grant had been expected home no later than two o'clock well you can understand Melbourne police looking into the vermonts because you've got a case of multiple children being abducted from a beach Percy said to his friend Ron Anderson that he thinks he was at the beach that day but a family member told me that the only time the family had been to Adelaide was on a cruise and that they may have stopped off in Adelaide to have a look at Adelaide oval because they were Cricket nuts but at Beggars belief you know where does a 17 year old boy on holiday with his parents hide the body of three children Whittaker believes Percy was not involved in The Disappearance of the Beaumont children what about Alan redstone's murder the story of Alan Reston is a tragic case six-year-old boy in a Canberra suburb is bound and hogtied suffocated rolled up into an old piece of cloth and left to die the chief suspect was a teenage boy seen riding a red bike Percy didn't own a red bike it also seemed implausible as at the time Percy was living with his family hundreds of kilometers away in the Alpine town of cancoben yet with renewed interest in all these cold cases a special police task force was set up to interrogate Percy members of Victoria's homicide squad's Cold Case Unit were in court this morning seeking access to Derek Ernest Percy 59 years old he's been in prison since 1970 perhaps by sometime this evening we may have more information about what they've learned from Derek Ernest purse Percy told the Cold Case unit the same story he'd been telling everyone else he may have been there he just didn't remember investigators have long believed that Derek Percy killed three-year-old Simon Brooke in the year 2000 Simon's father Donald approached New South Wales police to ask whether DNA science could be used to pin the crime on Percy the answer was no and there were two reasons for that when New South Wales police looked into the crime they discovered much to their disappointment that most of the crime scene exhibits and material had been destroyed so unfortunately any hope of using DNA was uh nullified police would have been unable to take DNA from Percy because a jury found him not guilty in 1970. of course if you're found not guilty by virtue of insanity then you haven't been convicted of a of a criminal offense I've always thought it was a rather silly decision um it always seemed to me it'd be much better if you said guilty but insane in my view if Derek Percy were to appear before a court in Victoria today he'd be found guilty despite the setbacks a second Colonial inquest was held into the brook case like to say how grateful we are to be the police and the judicial system for pursuing this this business for so long Percy was actually brought up for that Colonial inquest but Percy once again did not give anything away could not remember anything could not add anything to the investigation and they just didn't have the Smoking Gun they just didn't have that one piece of evidence that linked into that case and the case fell apart coming up you're really good to like him didn't you yeah yeah what happened to Shane Spiller the little boy who stared down Derek Percy it's cost shame his mental health but he saved the community [Music] let's be clear when Derek Percy killed Yvonne Tui in 1969 he was not insane he knew exactly what he was doing in 1998 after 29 years inside Percy applied for the first of several custodial reviews he wanted out and the man who assessed him was Professor Paul Mullen I would never have recommended his release in fact I'd had an absolute fit if anyone suggested releasing it why I would never ever have been able to say to myself or anyone else that I thought he was entirely without risk of repeating event gonna be absolutely sure with something like that I couldn't be absolutely sure there was no place for Mr Percy in the community it may have been very clear to Professor Mullen that Percy would never be released but there was at least one person still living in fear I'm on my way to see what happened to Shane Spiller the brave little boy with the tomahawk who stood up to Percy the little boy who ran to get help Shane had a troubled life he ended up living in the remote Village of Wyndham on the New South Wales South Coast I'm heading to the Village Pub to meet up with someone who knew Shane Spiller by his nickname Stig my name's Mark winterfloat I'm a retired detective Sergeant I retired in 2014 I was a Vega which is 30 plus kilometers from where we are how often did you come to Windham no half a dozen times a year pretty quiet place it is a quiet place yeah which I guess has made a good place for Shane Spiller to be this Village was basically his family in so many respects he lived alone but he would go to the General Store and hear almost on a daily basis and people kept an eye out for him and he was a well-known local identity so how did you first meet him and I met him around about 97. when he showed me around his yard and his there is equipment that was in all states of repair and he was incredibly friendly chatty sort of guy clearly quite sort of anxious and nervous but gentle Shane became increasingly paranoid when Percy was agitating to be released he was openly telling people what had happened to him at ski Beach who's to me the most dramatic moment in story is when Shane fronts up to Percy with the tomahawk yes and basically decides he's going to run for help yes and he hears Yvonne's cries I mean I would see it as Survivor guilt you're always going through your mind what if you know um and realistically if you had turn around and tried to do anything we would probably not have the case we have today um he would have died you know there's no two ways about him because Percy wanted to kill him we know the intent was clearly that Shane was supposed to die that day that was a mistake by Percy that he's taken on to near teenage children who obviously quite fit and feisty and all he has is a knife and he probably wasn't expecting a stick to have a tomahawk so that's how we came unstuck you're really good to like him didn't you yeah yeah yeah he was a very likable character um unfortunately he couldn't judge people that well so anyone that treated him well became a friend whether you were a criminal or had other intentions he was very easily taken advantage of by people a heavy dependence on drugs and alcohol fed Shane's Paranoia by 2002 he was suicidal he tried to end his life with a plastic bag he was admitted to Goldman Hospital he came out of there and he tried a game with an overdose and went into big hospital and then he'd only been out of legal Hospital a few days and then disappeared detective Sergeant winter flood began his investigation into Shane's disappearance he heard that Spiller believed that Percy had ordered a hit on him from inside prison so I had contact with Victoria Police they arranged the armed offender Squad to turn over himself there was apps absolutely no reference to Shane Spiller whatsoever no his other colleagues in the jail said he never mentioned the name winter flood searched high and low for Shane he even set a team down a gold mine shaft on a rumor [Music] however no evidence of Shane Spiller or his remains were ever found I put together a brief for the coroner at bega with three scenarios one was that he committed suicide which would have been consistent with his most recent Behavior one that he'd had an overdose with friends who had panicked and disposed of him somewhere unknown or the last one that he'd been murdered but I think that was highly unlikely Shane lived with the horror of what happened to him and his best friend Yvonne on Ski Beach all his life and the nightmare of that day was compounded by what police forced him to do after Percy's arrest now Shane Spiller had to give evidence in the police station and had to go up to Percy's face and point to him as was the custom of the day as was the practice of the day but that was very confronting for a little boy then he had to give evidence in 1970 at the trial and had to sit in the same room to look into those dead baleful eyes once would be enough but twice psychopath has no empathy so to look at them that's what you see it's just that empty non-emotional clear Shane stick Spiller the little boy with the tomahawk really is the hero of this story he's the brave boy who stopped Percy taking more lives he clearly would have been a serial killer would have killed more children if Shane hadn't seen and done and observed and given that evidence so although it's cost chain it has mental health a man was lost he saved the community [Music] come that has been reported that he only has Days to Live will Derrick Percy finally confess on his deathbed Percy did you abduct and murdered [Applause] okay [Music] there are many who believe the disappearance of seven-year-old Linda Stillwell from the St Kilda foreshore in 1968 was the work of Derek Percy to test that the coroner called for a second inquest into the Stillwell case in 2009 a four-year battle with the Linda Stillwell's mother Gene priest to force Derek Percy onto the witness stand round one went to Percy when the coroner ruled he would not compel the child killer to appear in court we need to have some closure and at the moment I just feel as if he's laughing at me when Percy sent Jean a bill for 32 000 to cover his legal expenses there was public outrage there's just no way that I can do that he's amassed more than three hundred thousand dollars in jail through a Navy penship there should be a law that stops IT state government won't get involved simple fact is it's before the courts and it's not appropriate for me to comment specifically upon it eventually the Attorney General accepted responsibility giving Gene an undertaking to pay all her costs [Music] earlier Edith Jamison gave more evidence that she was the last person to sealinda Stillwell alive on the St Kilda foreshore that afternoon she described having a premonition that something bad was going to happen to the girl as Linda played Ms Jamison says she recalls seeing a man sitting on a parked bench watching her these extra sensory things do frighten you she told the inquest the vibrations were coming from that man on the seat it wasn't until Percy was charged for the murder of Yvonne Tui that Edith Jamison saw his photo in the paper that's when she realized he was the man she had seen watching Linda Stillwell retired policeman Ron Anderson also testified he'd been Percy's childhood friend but in 1969 he helped get inside Percy's head the homicide Squad asked the young officer to go into Percy's cell and chat to him to figure out what made him tick while in the cell Anderson asked Percy about The Disappearance of Linda Stillwell the year before he told the inquest Percy admitted to being insane Kilda on the day she disappeared but could remember nothing else do you think he was insane no definitely not on that occasionally it's distressed let's be normal do you think he was distressed for the victims or he saw nothing but evicted to himself Jean priest was finally successful in her push to have Percy give evidence but before he took the stand there was a dramatic turn of events well Dirk Percy is being treated here at St Vincent's Hospital where it's believed he's suffering an aggressive form of cancer now neither Corrections Victoria or Victoria police will confirm the status of Derek Percy's Health but it has been reported that he only has Days to Live at the 11th Hour Derek Percy agreed to be questioned on his deathbed by detective Wayne Newman and Deputy State coroner Ian West I swear by almighty God the theater inside giving the same place shall be true a whole trim arches and nothing but the proud [Music] Percy was giving nothing away so Wayne Newman showed him a road atlas found in his possession when he was arrested in 1969. Percy had made markings showing the exact position where Linda Stillwell was last seen those markings consistent wait for surgery he had previously told Ron Anderson he was there on the day tomorrow Percy wouldn't admit to the murder but would he say we're the seven-year-old's body had been disposed we could buy fines there was some consolation for the Stillwell family in 2014 the deputy State coroner found that Derek Percy had abducted and killed Linda in 1968. Linda Stillwell's family cried and hugged at the coroner's words she met with Foul Play he found Derek Percy was at St Kilda on the afternoon she was abducted and he caused her death this just been marvelous today but it's really Vindication I suppose of of the uh the efforts that have been made in terms of the police investigation there was some sort of closure for the stillwells with that finding but without a body this will always be unresolved for the family Percy died soon after his bedside interview in 2013. he was Victoria's longest-serving Prison inmate having done 43 years inside and he held his interrogators at Bay for every one of those years what close did you get to any aspect of Percy's personality if you like things like what did he believe in did he believe in God did he believe in retribution what insights did he give you I have to say over nearly 20 years I never felt that I produced a kind of bond with him I remember when I went to tell him that I was retiring I wouldn't be seeing him anymore I was absolutely stunned when he started to cry I felt that quite distressing at the time yeah I think one of the things that that last interview told me that probably I hadn't done a very good job that if I'd realized that I was important to him a lot earlier I could have gained a lot more insight there's a man who'd been in prison his entire life really from the time he was 19 until really he died he'd never had friends I mean he maintained contact with with very few people including the mother and even that's perfunctory it's not a warm you know wonderful relationship but he has no meaning in his life it seemed the only to be released which brings us back to the debate was Justice served by the Court's decision not to convict him in 1970. but you've got to remember back there you if you were convicted of murder the typical length of sentence served was about seven or eight years I can't imagine in those days him serving more than 20 years so the outcome for Mr Percy of a successful Insanity defense was a catastrophe so in effect Justice was done with this very pragmatic flawed process I think the final result was the right outcome I don't believe Derek Percy killed nine children the evidence is just not there I think it's possible he killed three and he also sentenced poor Brave Shane Spiller to a life of trauma and substance abuse Percy was Pure Evil and I hope the world never sees the like of him ever again had the professional privilege I guess I'll call it somewhat dubious I'm talking to some of the worst people in the Australian penal system including Martin Bryant how does Percy compare with the pantheon of evil villains in Australia Justice Bryant is special just as a snow time murders are special I mean you know there are certain crimes where you go oh that is so terrible [Music] Percy was only 19. when cyberbrook was killed he was only 19 when Linda Stillwell disappeared he was only 20 when Evon Tui was killed for a person to jump from fantasist to activist in such a short time that's very rare the horrific thing about Derek Percy is that that we know what he was thinking and we know what he did and we hope to God that there's no one else out there quite like him again foreign

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 602,459

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Psychology of Crime, child crime, crime, crime series, disappearances, family crime, murder, serial killer, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series, Old crime, Australian crime, Crime Podcast, Muderers, ser9ial killers, Australian serial killers, hannibal, unsolved mystery, serial killer podcast, crime stories, pleading insanity, killer clown, crime alert, john wayne gacy, jwg

Id: 0zFE1W641Vc

Length: 51min 30sec (3090 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2022