Updated
A pornographic story found on computers belonging to the accused Claremont serial killer bears “striking similarities” to the alleged abduction and rape of a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery, prosecutors have alleged.
Key points:
- The story features the abduction of a victim in “a blitz attack”, the court heard
- It starts with a narrator saying: “They say you always remember your first”
- The defence says a challenge to DNA evidence will be “a central part of the trial”
State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC is seeking to have evidence of the story, called “Chloe’s story”, admitted as evidence at Bradley Robert Edwards’s trial on charges of murdering Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
He is also accused of sexually-motivated attacks on two other women, in Huntingdale in 1988 and the cemetary attack in 1995.
Ms Barbagallo told a pre-trial hearing the story featured the abduction of a victim after what was called “a blitz attack”, with the assailant then driving her around before taking her to a house with a bunker.
The court heard the story, which was first accessed in December 2015, started with the narrator saying:
“They say you always remember your first, I remember my first as being Chloe.”
Ms Barbagallo said the story also involved “meticulous” planning of the offence.
She submitted that details of the story could be used as “identity” evidence at Mr Edwards’s trial later this year.
“What is the chance of finding this material … found on these computers by the accused, that identifies this obsessive reference to the kind of behaviour or conduct that he is ultimately charged with?” she said.
Stories ‘cannot be coincidental’: prosecutors
Ms Barbagallo also made references to other stories entitled “Nicola’s story”, “Sophie’s story”, “Sylvia’s story” and “Lauren’s story”.
The court heard some of them involved sexual assaults “with the implication the women won’t be leaving”, along with “degrading and humiliating conduct”.
Ms Barbagallo said in some of the stories the victims were sexually assaulted when they were unconscious, either because they were drunk or the “narrator” had “drugged them”.
She said they did not all involve abduction and in one story, the “Cynthia story”, there was a consensual sexual encounter with a woman.
But in another story, the victim was detained against her will and was pleading for “the narrator” to stop.
Ms Barbagallo said other pornographic and BDSM material was found on Mr Edwards’s computers in 89 zip files, some of which she described as “above and beyond degrading”.
“What is the chance of the very man who is accused of abducting women … having this material on his electronic storage devices if he’s not the offender?” she said.
“It is a piece of evidence Your Honour could have regard to.
“It cannot be coincidental that a man who is forensically linked to rapes, abduction and murder with hoods and handcuffs is suddenly found to have an obsessive interest in that sort of material.
“It is a piece of circumstantial evidence going to identity.”
Lawyers for Mr Edwards are opposing the admissibility of the material at his trial.
He denies all charges against him.
Court told ‘prison call’ discussed stories
It is alleged Mr Edwards may have authored the stories, which the court also heard had been referred to in “a prison call” made after one of his earlier court appearances where they were discussed.
Mr Edwards’s barrister, Paul Yovich SC, has opposed the admissibility of the material, arguing the prejudice to his client outweighed any “probative” value it may have to the trial.
He described some of the details of “Chloe’s story” as “completely different” and “bearing no resemblance” to the allegations in the sexual assault of the girl at Karrakatta Cemetery.
He said those parts of the story which were similar “could be readily explained by coincidence”.
Mr Yovich also challenged the prosecution’s claim that the extreme pornographic material found on Mr Edwards’s computers showed he had an obsessive sexual interest in rape and abduction.
He suggested because there was so much pornographic material found, it was to be expected that some extreme material could have been “scooped up” and included in what was discovered by police.
Mr Yovich also noted the pornography was found “a minimum of 19 plus years” after the last offence was allegedly committed.
Ms Barbagallo alleged that between December 2015 and December 2016, Mr Edwards compiled a list of almost 4,000 porn websites, including BDSM sites.
But Mr Yovich said only 10 to 12 per cent of those websites appeared to be of an extreme nature.
Defence set to challenge DNA evidence
In earlier argument, the court was told Mr Edwards had “made no admissions” about DNA consistent with his being found under Ms Glennon’s fingernails, and on a silk kimono left at the scene of the alleged Huntingdale attack in 1988.
Mr Yovich said a challenge to the DNA evidence would be “a central part of the trial” and issues to be determined may include whether it was actually the accused’s DNA and, if it was, how it got there.
He suggested the DNA found on Ms Glennon’s body may have been the result of “innocent contact” or “contamination in the collection and testing process”.
Yesterday, prosecutors outlined allegations against Mr Edwards of a “fetish” for collecting and wearing women’s underwear, along with a conviction for attacking a woman at Hollywood Hospital in Nedlands in 1990.
A trial 23 years in the making
Mr Edwards denies all charges against him, and his judge-only trial is due to begin in July — more than 23 years after the first of his alleged Claremont victims disappeared.
Ms Spiers, 18, vanished in the early hours of the morning on January 27, 1996, after a night out to celebrate Australia Day in the entertainment precinct.
Her body has never been found.
Five months later, Ms Rimmer, 23, disappeared from the same area. Her body was found almost a month later at Wellard, south of Perth.
Ms Glennon then vanished in March 1997, also after a night out in Claremont.
Her body was found about two weeks later in bushland at Eglington, north of Perth.
At the conclusion of the pre-trial hearing, Justice Stephen Hall reserved his decision on the admissibility of evidence.
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