Claremont killings: Who is Bradley Robert Edwards? Serial killer found guilty in two of three murders from 1990s
Bradley Robert Edwards, a 51-year-old former Telstra technician from Western Australia has been found guilty of the murders of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon but acquitted of the murder of Sarah Spiers,18, in the Claremont serial killings case on Thursday, September 24. This was the longest-running and most expensive criminal investigation in Australia. Edwards will face a sentencing hearing on December 23 — almost exactly four years since he was charged, reports PerthNow. Prosecutors may seek an order that he never be released.
The Claremont serial killings refer to the deaths of three women between 1996 and 1997 - childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, solicitor Ciara Glennon, 27 and Spiers who had been working as a secretary. All three women went missing after a night out at the Claremont entertainment district in Perth’s eponymous western suburb, according to an article by The Guardian. The bodies of Rimmer and Glennon were found dumped in bushland at opposite ends of Perth. Spiers was never found and is presumed dead.
Edwards was arrested in 2016 and charged with wilfully murdering Spiers, Rimmer and Glennon, as well as for indecent assault on an 18-year-old woman during a break-in at her Huntingdale home in February 1988 and abducting and raping a 17-year-old girl in February 1995 in Claremont.
"The propensity evidence makes it more likely that the accused was the killer of Sarah Spiers, but it cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt, in the absence of any other evidence, as to the identity of her killer," Justice Stephen Hall ruled. Justice Hall found Edwards abducted both Rimmer and Glennon from Claremont, although he said it was impossible to determine exactly how he got them into his Telstra-issued vehicle. The verdict comes more than two months after the conclusion of a judge-alone trial which sat for 95 days over seven months (November 2019 to June 2020), costing the Western Australian justice system $11 million. The majority of the trial was the prosecution case led by Carmel Barbagallo, who called 200 witnesses, news.com.au reported.
Who was Bradley Robert Edwards?
Edwards was a children's athletics coach and telecommunication technician who had a history of rape and murder cases against him until he was finally arrested in 2016. In 2019, in October, a surprise confession from Edwards came in regarding the case, before the trial. Edwards pleaded guilty to abducting and raping the 17-year-old girl while she was walking alone through Rowe Park after a night out in Claremont in 1995. He bound and drove her to Karrakatta Cemetery, where he raped her twice before dumping her naked in the bushland.
According to the Guardian, "He also confessed, breaking into the house of the 18-year-old woman who he said he knew and was assaulting her in 1988. In both cases, the State had strong evidence against Edwards: DNA retrieved from intimate swabs of the 17-year-old survivor in hospital shortly after her rape was matched with Edwards and the state recovered Edwards’s DNA from a silk kimono left at one of the crime scenes. While earlier he had denied any involvement in killing the three women, the prosecution pointed to the fact Edwards’s DNA was found under Glennon’s left thumb and middle fingernail during testing in 2008. Edwards admitted it was his DNA, but said he didn’t know how it had got there. Fabric fibers found on the three women were manufactured in the unique color ‘Telstra navy’ and matched the pants Edwards would have worn in the '90s as a Telstra technician."
Hundreds of witnesses testified during the trial, including Edwards’s two ex-wives, his love rival, former friends and people who saw a stranger offering lifts in Claremont.
As per a report by ABC, "Edwards had a history of violence during emotionally distressing times: as a 21-year-old he had grabbed and tried to force a dishcloth into the mouth of a 40-year-old social worker while working as a Telecom technician at Hollywood hospital. A court-ordered psychological report at the time said Edwards had been in distress that week after his wife confessed to cheating on him."
As Hall handed down his verdict, he brought to an the state’s so-called “trial of the century” in the WA Supreme Court and partly solving a mystery that has haunted Perth for decades.