Claremont killings trial: prosecutor says crucial DNA evidence unmasked serial killer

The defence team of accused Claremont killer Bradley Robert Edwards walk from the court in Perth. Photograph: Will Russell/Getty Images

---

Bradley Robert Edwards has been unmasked as the Claremont serial killer after months of evidence that gradually cast a light on the enigma of the dark prosecutors allege. The 51 year old denies murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and solicitor Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997. He did not testify at his judge-alone Western Australian supreme court trial. The prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo wrapped up her three and a half day closing address on Thursday saying there was both physical and circumstantial evidence against Edwards.

She said, Nearly seven months ago, in this very place, the state made reference to an enigma of the dark and promised to shed light on and demystify that enigma. We say that that light has been cast incrementally from the months of many witnesses.

Of more than 200 witnesses some still had vivid memories while the recollections of others had faded over time.

She said, but what has remained impervious to the two decade span is the forensic evidence. Physical evidence cannot be intimidated it can’t forget. (The evidence) has cast light on and unmasked the killer sought by so many and for so long.

Barbagallo said, it was difficult to argue against the logic that one offender was responsible for the murders. Bradley Robert Edwards, we say is the Claremont serial killer.

Edwards admits attacking three other females, including a 17 year old girl he abducted from a dark Claremont park then raped in a nearby cemetery in 1995. Prosecutors say the murder victims were either abducted or lured into his Telstra work vehicle, which looked like a taxi after nights out in the affluent Perth suburb. All the crimes were allegedly sexually motivated with Rimmer’s body found naked in bushland while Glennon was discovered in scrub at the opposite end of the city with her skirt up around her waist. Spiers’ whereabouts remains a mystery. The state relies heavily on fibres it says came from Edwards’ work car and clothes that were found on Rimmer and Glennon. But the crucial physical evidence is DNA extracted from Glennon’s fingernails some of which tore as she fought for her life. The defence counsel Paul Yovich has suggested contamination is possible.

He said, in his closing address that there was no satisfactory explanation for a scratch on a container holding Glennon’s thumbnail clipping. It was possible someone opened the container and applied an instrument. It’s a question of the continuity and integrity of the most crucial exhibit.

Prosecutors say the container remained sealed from the postmortem until 2008 when the sample was combined with another from Glennon’s nails and tested in a UK lab, when Edwards’ DNA was recovered.

Justice Stephen Hall said, it appeared to be dried smear marks dried droplets rather than scratches which would be consistent with swabbing done in 2008.

Yovich also zeroed in on the small size of the trace DNA sample.

He said, the state’s case hinges on something in the order of one fifth of one billionth of one gram of cellular material.

The lawyer urged against glossing over matters that did not fit the state’s case or explaining away inconsistencies. We must be careful not to form a view based on certain aspects that appear more persuasive.