Claremont serial killings trial podcast: The Day a Teenager’s Innocence was Taken

The West Australian

***WARNING: Distressing Content***

On February 11, 1995 a teenager’s life was changed forever.

It was the night Bradley Robert Edwards brutally raped the 17-year-old, snatching her as she walked home after a night out with friends. The stuff of nightmares.

Edwards has admitted to the horrific crime pleading guilty to the assault at Karrakatta Cemetery just weeks before his trial for rape and murder was due to start late last year.

And in archived stories from The West Australian a year after the rape, the victim told journalist Ingrid Mansell she didn’t want to ruin her friends night, by forcing them to leave early, deciding instead to make the 700 metre walk home.

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That’s when Edwards grabbed her from behind, tied her hands together, put a hood over her head and carried her to his car where he tied her feet together before driving to Karrakatta Cemetery.

Once there he dragged her into the bushes and raped her twice.

Claremont had already been reeling from the impact of the Birnies — the serial killer couple who abducted four of their five victims from the suburb in the 1980s — and a series of rapes and attempted rapes in the area that had residents in the affluent suburb on high alert.

This crime sent shockwaves through the area.

The victim said she lived in fear other women would suffer a similar fate to her.

“I realised that unless they found (my attacker) straight away, the only way they would catch him would be if he offended again and I could not bear the thought of that happening to someone else,” she told The West Australian.

Then Sarah Spiers went missing.

Bradley Edwards has always denied killing Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.

John Townsend was The West Australian’s crime reporter at the time. As a guest on the podcast, John recalled speaking to police and the startling information he received shortly after Sarah Spiers disappeared.

The case has clearly stayed with him for more than 25 years - his anger about the lack of information or misinformation clear in his emotional description of the time.

Join John Townsend, Natalie Bonjolo and Tim Clarke for this extra episode during a brief court adjournment.

If you, or anyone you know has been affected by the content in this podcast, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC) on 08 6458 1828.

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