The woman who escaped the 'Bogeyman' Claremont serial killer | 60 Minutes Australia

it's further proof of how perverted he is but the man we now know is the clermont serial killer used to call himself the bogeyman to people he met online on thursday bradley robert edwards was found guilty of murdering two young women in the mid-1990s the judge at his trial said it was likely he also killed a third woman but because her body was never found there wasn't enough evidence for a conviction notwithstanding that setback the verdict ends more than two decades of fear in perth but before edwards began his killing spree he attacked numerous other women one of them is speaking publicly for the first time tonight and asking a very uncomfortable question if her case had been investigated more seriously could edward's evil have been stopped much sooner jane rimmer and kyra glennon two beautiful young lives so brutally ended by serial killer bradley edwards who was also charged with the murder of sarah spears [Music] and there were other victims women who somehow survived wendy davis is one she fought for her life after edwards attacked her in 1990 wendy you're the victim of a serial killer who has lived to tell the tale how does that sit with you not easily liam but i feel very very very blessed and very grateful that i'm actually here to tell the story [Music] wendy davis now lives a world away from perth with husband tim and dog maisie in a glorious part of tasmania tonight she's telling her story for the first time a story of how a killer could have been stopped in his tracks before the murders started why have you chosen to speak out now about this to relive this terrible ordeal this hasn't been an easy decision for me to do this i'm a very um private person but i wanted to have the opportunity to tell my part in this terrible terrible story in my own words and i know this sounds silly in one regard but you are one of the lucky ones aren't you oh yes yep yep i was very lucky i was very lucky today's discovery confirms perth's worst fears another young girl murdered a serial killer amongst us it's impossible to understate the impact edwards crimes had on perth in the 1990s targeting young single women in the upmarket suburb of claremont after they had been on a night out he would kindly offer them a lift home in his telstra station wagon before murdering the girls and dumping their bodies in isolated bushland photographic evidence of the shallow grave was taken police divers arrived to search the nearby swamp there was a monster at large the equivalent would be i guess ivan mullatt driving around you know double bay or turret in a telstra car picking up you know single young women walking the streets i mean it really changed this area didn't it it used to be a bustling place for young people to come to it completely altered that exactly it became rigid with fear this this town you could you could almost smell the fear when first one then two then three young women went missing brett christian is the owner and publisher of the local clermont newspaper the post the abductions and murders happened on his beat no one has followed this story more forensically over the past 25 years you come here during the day and you have no idea that this was a place of horror really that's it became that in people's minds so this really these streets here were the hunting ground for the killer that's that's not putting it too harshly exactly you know he was a predator he prowled the area looking for prey and found it bradley edwards grew up on the other side of perth from clermont in the suburb of huntingdale he and his family have long since moved on but it was from this house a teenage edwards began his prowling habits from here at night time he became a burglar a peeping tom and on at least one occasion a sexual offender in 1988 he was responsible for a string of offences around nearby homes police collected fingerprints even dna from clothing left behind but they simply couldn't catch him then two years later he chose a very different location to attack another victim in broad daylight [Music] in 1990 wendy davis worked as a senior social worker in the palliative care unit of hollywood hospital in the perth suburb of netherlands i thought i'd found my vocation i loved my job we worked with the doctors and the nurses to provide end-of-life care for patients who were dying yep at the time of the attack wendy was a 40 year old mother of three and edwards a 21 year old employee of telecom now known as telstra around mid-afternoon may the 7th 1990 wendy was at her desk immersed in her work i can remember what i was doing because it was my youngest daughter's 11th birthday and i was hurrying to get this report done so that i could get home at a reasonable hour and a voice said is it okay if i use the toilet is it okay if i use the toilet and i was on one of those swivel chairs on wheels and i turned round and i saw that it was a telstra worker he must have had some identification or uniform and i didn't really look at him i i was vaguely aware of him going behind me to go into the toilet when i heard the toilet flush he hadn't been in there long enough to go to the toilet but it just as i was thinking those things a hand came from behind me with a cloth on it around my face another hand came round behind me and grabbed me and hoiked me up back off my chair and started to drag me towards the toilet area and the utility room and i was absolutely petrified i thought there was something on the cloth and i thought i was going to die i thought the force with which he did it was so frightening i was so scared i couldn't breathe eventually i had to breathe in because i was starting to choke and the cloth was being pushed further and further into my mouth so i breathed in and i realized that i was still all right that i wasn't that there was nothing on the cloth i thought that and that's when i really started to struggle i somehow managed to twist around and i kicked out with my legs and the next minute he just stopped and it all just stopped and i fell away and i looked at him and it it was the weirdest weirdest feeling because he had this strange look in his eye like he was completely disassociated and he shook his head and he he was he said he started to say i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry hospital security quickly apprehended edwards and along with the gag police discovered cable ties in his pockets wendy is convinced he was planning to sexually assault her he was actually going to write me to molest me there was no other reason that he would be dragging me back into the toilet it really turned out to be ground zero in this case didn't it it was yeah it's a good description ground zero god knows what would have happened had she not had the strength to kick free um he'd pin one of her arms you know but she you've really got to give it to her and she she really fought for her life she thought she was going to be killed and i think it's quite possible she would have been he has cable ties on him that's right and is prepared to use a gag and as you say physical force yeah and he and he he'd scoped out the toilets beforehand and he was dragging her towards them so what could happen to her in there you know it doesn't be a thing about [Music] it's incredible to think that all those years they were hunting this clermont serial killer and here you are unknowingly of course having a first-hand eyewitness experience with him yeah it's chilling isn't it it's terrifying really to think that coming up why wasn't he treated as a sexual offender i have absolutely no idea not taken seriously i'd be furious did a lack of police action i wonder he thought he was bulletproof and a slap on the wrist how in the heck did he get to keep his job at telstra that's a great mystery help make a monster if police had treated edward's attack on you properly do you think he would have gone on to become a killer that's next on 60 minutes a 48 year old man is behind bars tonight charged with the murders of kyra glennon and jane rimmer the claremont killer bradley edwards was arrested in december 2016 after the longest manhunt in australian criminal history for wendy davis this news brought back long suppressed traumatic memories and also anger she believes edward's attack on her in 1990 was never properly dealt with by police and if it was it could have saved lives i absolutely believe that the fact that bradley edwards was not charged with a more significant crime effectively left him off the police radar but he would have been on their radar wendy if they had done their job properly in addressing his attack on you that's yes that's right you were the dress rehearsal for him weren't you yes i i absolutely believe that he was practicing edwards attacked wendy while she was working at hollywood hospital and attempted to drag her into a nearby bathroom after the police took your statement and obviously talk to him what was he charged with he was charged with common assault just common assault common assault is a charge that could be leveled at somebody swearing at somebody across the street yeah not trying to drag them into a toilet with a rag over their mouth and cable ties in your back pocket that's right why wasn't he treated as a sexual offender i have absolutely no idea and i didn't know until it came out at the trial that it actually been referred to a sexual offenders program i didn't know that i'd be furious it was her i mean at the very least it was deprivation of liberty and you know potentially a sexual assault and the extraordinary thing about it was that the magistrate recognized it and he he ordered that edwards undergo sexual counselling you know in fact he ordered a sexual uh offenders program for which lasted eight months so so even the magistrate got it that it was a sexually motivated attack sure did edwards pleaded guilty but only received two years probation author brett christian believes this slap on the wrist empowered a young assailant onto a deadly path not treating him as a sex offender at that time at that instant what difference did that make to him i think his life could have taken a much different path had that crime being treated a lot more seriously at the time when edwards attacked wendy davis here at hollywood hospital his family home was still in huntingdale that's the same suburb where a string of sex-related assaults and burglaries remained on police file waiting to be solved but inexplicably not one police officer investigated any link between edward's vicious attack here and unsolved crimes in his own backyard [Music] is it melodramatic to say that if he hadn't been treated as a sex offender the crime had been treated properly in 1990 that that kira and jane and sarah could be alive today i think it's very possible yeah you can't say for sure but but it's likely this is a tough question if police had treated edward's attack on you properly do you think he would have gone on to become a killer i've thought about that many times and wondered if i could have done anything else at the time that may have um altered the charge but i um i did the very best i could and the police force were not listening and telstra telecom as it was were certainly not listening to what i was saying about the attack at the time [Music] wendy maintains edward's bosses at telstra didn't take the attack seriously either indeed a company rep met with wendy to vouch for his character during that meeting where the telstra manager was actually advocating so strongly for his employee he actually referred to bradley edwards as young bradley young bradley and that's always stuck in my mind as well he referred to him as young bradley the other thing that he said was he um was very stressed that he was having personal relationship problems and he just snapped and when he'd attacked me he just snapped and my response to that was well it's not normal behaviour for somebody with relationship problems to attack a vulnerable person that they don't even know but if they had been listening properly if they had just done their job properly and he had been punished appropriately and lost his job accordingly it may have changed everything it may have changed everything yes how in the heck did he get to keep his job at telstra that's a great mystery i can't fathom it you know you imagine someone attacking a client of your employer while you're on the job and they say oh by the way you just keep your job and you've got a promotion and a pay rise you know and a year or so later but just carry on just carry on yeah no wonder he thought he was bulletproof edwards got off virtually scot-free after his attack on wendy davis it was a critical stage in the making of a monster to the police edwards was a young bloke with a minor assault charge not a sexual predator on a lethal path if the police had just looked a little further into the attack on me they would have seen that he lived in huntingdale where only 18 months or so before there had been a series of attacks where his fingerprints were actually already on record they would have seen that if they just looked into the attack on me a little bit further and it would have changed the course of his life and dare i say kyra glennon sarah spears and jane rimmer yes when you look at the facts the cold hard facts that's exactly the case yes yes yes coming up everything came flooding back to me reliving a nightmare 30 years old just looked exactly the same just older fatter and you admit that that was bad policing criticism what criticism 18 000 suspects we've never had a case like it but top brass defend their investigation at least you did play a role in identifying him too late though liam that's next on 60 minutes in less than 10 years bradley edwards morphed from a suburban peeping tom to a rapist and then a serial killer yet throughout his reign of terror and the decades that followed until his arrest in 2016 he remained hidden in plain sight he had a good job got married a couple of times played local footy and was even president of a little athletics club a regular civic-minded bloke but author brett christian knows edwards was anything but he liked to call himself the bogeyman the bogeyman yeah does that tell us anything that's really really creepy isn't it yeah that is creepy i mean the bogeyman is what he was [Music] after attacking wendy davis in 1990 the bogeyman didn't strike again for another five years then in 1995 edwards abducted bound gagged and raped a 17 year old girl multiple times in the karakata cemetery the girl had been walking home after a night out in nearby clermont she survived but soon all of perth would be terrorized i can't see any reason why she wouldn't be with us if she could be with us it must be something more to it first 18 year old sarah spears vanished after a night out in clermont on australia day 1996 her body was never found a mother and her two children making the gruesome find then in august 1996 the remains of 23 year old jane rimmer were discovered two months after she went missing three and a half hours after the body had been found finally in april 1997 the body of young lawyer kira glennon who had traveled back to perth for her sister's wedding was found in another bush grave only now do i even begin to understand the the terrible trauma that the parents of gin and sarah went through when cara was deemed a missing person i appealed for help to find her in a press conference like this in this very same room it would take 23 excruciating years for dennis glennon to finally discover who killed his daughter and he has nothing but praise for the efforts of wa's police force the wa police force deserve a special thank you they permitted me to enter their world and express my profound desire for justice this is an investigation not only spanning decades but this struck fear into the heart of all western australians we knew we were hunting a serial killer chris dawson is wa's police commissioner proud that his force finally delivered from a policing perspective from your side of the fence what was the pressure like to find this bloke we've never had a case like it and one would hope that we will never have to endure anything of that scale it's a staggering number of suspects and persons that were identified we went through eighteen thousand nominated people and or suspects that police developed themselves and ironically well it's more than ironic bradley edwards was never nominated he was never one of those 18 000 on the list no he was not never came up no but the fact that edward's evaded capture for so long raises questions not about police effort but execution this bloke from 1988 for 10 years that we know was attacking assaulting raping and murdering for 10 years and yet he was never even a suspect how is that possible and how is that anywhere near good police work because you're being very selective not every offense gets solved in 1990 here's a bloke who attacks someone at hollywood hospital in a sexually motivated way that night of his arrest he goes home to stay with mum and dad in huntingdale where 18 months previously there's this string of unsolved crimes as you've acknowledged and yet no policeman on the beat puts two and two together and at least does a search i don't think you appreciate that the systems were simply not as integrated then as they are now and yet if i mentioned that there were 27 000 exhibits if i've already mentioned there were eighteen thousand suspects if i mentioned that there were three thousand witness statements [Music] it's true that this was an incredibly complex and demanding case but it's also true police didn't realize the most vital clues were gathering dust on their evidence shelves matching blue polyester fibers later revealed to be from telstra work pants were found in the hair of both jane rimmer and kira glennon grey seat fibers from a commodore station wagon were also found on both girls and it took 11 years until the fingernail scrapings of kira glennon were properly analyzed and finally produced the killer's dna and when they did test it over they took the example to england and when it was tested bingo they got a hit [Music] that hit linked cura's killer with the unknown karakata rapist so they finally had the dna match but still no name seven years later in 2016 police discovered another dna match and also fingerprints left behind in a huntingdale sexual assault in 1988 and guess who those fingerprints belonged to it was the hand of the young telstra worker who attacked wendy davis at hollywood hospital police had their killer bradley edwards how momentous was that that was probably the critical moment where the investigators then knew that they were on the pathway to the person who ultimately is now found as the clermont serial killer back in tasmania the arrest of edwards stirred awful memories of the attack and its aftermath for wendy davis even now i feel very very very guilty that i didn't make more of a fuss at the time that the attack happened wendy you can't feel guilty i mean you were the victim that's that's not fair but but i do i did my best but i felt powerless i felt as though nobody was listening to what i was saying i felt as though it was all taken completely out of my hands the attack on wendy davis in 1990 how can you explain how it was that edwards was treated so lightly look i'm well aware that the offence for which bradley was convicted of was that of assault indeed common assault common assault yeah how the hell look i can that happen i've looked at that um i was not the investigating officer or the arresting officer i believe other charges could have been preferred including depriving her of her liberty for instance the manner in which he did that had that offence been one of a sexual nature in our systems i don't have any difficulty in saying it would have escalated it on the radar now that would have it would have and could have quite possibly changed the course of the entire case you admit that that was bad policing i'm saying that had that offence characterized this person as a sex offender a motivated sex offender which may well it may well have then escalated this person it might be a surprise to you liam that there are two or three thousand very perverted offenders who live in the city of perth last december wendy davis was asked to confront this pervert again she agreed to fly back to perth to face a much older bradley edwards in court i was terrified when i went in but the way that i dealt with it was not to focus on bradley edwards i just focused completely on the prosecutor and and just told my story it's something that you don't forget it was so terrifying when you looked at his face wendy did it all come back to you then oh absolutely everything came flooding back to me he just looked exactly the same just older and um and you know fatter bigger just larger but exactly the same the same the same hair it was exactly the same i am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was the killer of miss rimmer and miss glennon three days ago justice stephen hall found wendy's attacker bradley edwards guilty of murdering jane rimmer and kyra glennon and most likely sarah spears it brings an end to one of the most extraordinary chapters in australian criminal history i think you get some closure but it's always going to be the same no one's ever going to bring it back for wendy davis justice has been a long time coming and she is now writing her own book it's a form of therapy and a way of excising her demons the attack on you was really the cornerstone of this whole case it came right back to that didn't it that's how police learnt his identity because he had to plead guilty to that very superficial charge of common assault against you yes yes that's right so so wendy at least you did play a role in identifying him in the end too late though liam too late very very very sad story hello i'm liam bartlett thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the nine now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: undefined

Views: 789,144

Rating: 4.7643595 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liam Bartlett, claremont killer, claremont murders, surviving a serial killer, i survived a serial killer, serial killer, claremont, great escape, escape from evil, bradley edwards, perth killer, perth murder, wendy davis, ciara glennon, jane rimmer, sarah spiers, tracking a killer, escape from a serial killer, murder investigation, bradley robert edwards, bogeyman, catching a killer, man hunt, australian true crime, australia true crime

Id: 1gdB7MGOF2s

Length: 32min 59sec (1979 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020