Claremont: The Claremont Serial Killings

Between them, veteran 7NEWS journalist and The West’s legal affairs editor Tim Clarke have decades of court reporting experience behind them. They’ve covered everything from murder, dodgy politicians, bikies and everything in between. But this case is as big as they come. Tim Clarke has followed the case in the courts since Bradley Edwards was arrested three years ago, and Alison Fan has followed the case since the very beginning, and even helped search for the Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, now she’s seeing it through to the end, whatever that will be. The two experienced court reporters reveal what it’s like doing their job, from the good and bad exciting and dull. In this bonus episode, join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and Alison Fan as they give you a behind the scenes look into a day in the life of a court reporter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The details of just how widespread contamination was in DNA testing for the Claremont Serial Killer case was detailed on day 54. At least seven exhibits were found to have been contaminated, six with the DNA of the very scientists analysing them, and one with the DNA of a victim of a completely unrelated crime. The details of how the contamination occurred were laid out by PathWest scientist Scott Egan, who himself is one of the contributors of the contamination. It’s, as Tim Clarke says in this episode, an embarrassing day for the prosecution. Joined by criminal defence lawyer Damien Cripps, Natalie and Tim discuss what this bombshell evidence means for the prosecution’s case, and what they would have to do next to gain back legal ground. The question remains however, so what? These exhibits aren’t the crucial samples the the prosecution say contained Bradley Edwards’ DNA, why is this important? The podcast team discuss this question, and answer some of your listener questions too. If you have a quest

It was the random testing of a silk kimono in 2016, which led police to their breakthrough in Australia’s most expensive and longest running investigation, and the dramatic arrest of Bradley Robert Edwards. Today, on day 53, the scientist who tested that kimono took the stand. Scott Egan, who was a scientist at Pathwest in 2016, told the court the kimono, which was taken out of storage by a cold case police officer, was tested by him on November 23, 2016. The silk kimono was left behind during a break-in, and attack on a teenager while she slept in her Huntingdale home in 1988. Earlier in the trial, the court heard Edwards snuck into the woman’s bedroom on Valentine’s day, crept onto her bed and pinned her down while placing something in her mouth. Bradley Edwards has pleaded guilty to the attack. Scott Egan not only gave evidence today, he was also the subject of another witness’s cross examination. His colleague Andrew McDonald was forced to name him, along with three other scientists who contaminated

Whenever there’s a big event, there’s bound to be news crews. That was no exception when police descended on the accused Claremont Serial Killer’s house on December 22, 2016. But unlike now, those news crews had no idea just how big that raid would be. With special guests, veteran 7NEWS cameramen Ray Raab and The West Australian photographer Justin Benson-Cooper joining Natalie Bonjolo and Tim Clarke, they discuss, even when the opposition got a shot of ‘a man’ being taken away by police from his house, they had no idea what they were looking at. As the day progressed, rumours started to swirl. Rumours turned into questions and then scrambling by news houses across the state. It was the biggest story WA had ever seen. Did police catch the Claremont Serial Killer? We still won’t find out for another few months as the trial continues. Reporters, camera operators and photographers had one chance at getting a shot of the man arrested for one of the most infamous crimes in WA history. As Justin and Ray relive

December 22, 2016. The day police had hoped for, for more than 20 years.That was the day they arrested the man they thought was Claremont serial killer. Bradley Robert Edwards.As he was arrested in the early morning raid and taken for questioning, police spent 2 days sifting through every item in his house.What they found was a handwritten notebook with copies of bank statements inside.  The court has previously been told that notebook belong to Bradley Edwards' second wife. She said she copied the bank statements because she was sick of the lies and she feared for her life. It was also revealed on day 52 of the Claremont serial killings trial that police sifted through every copy of the Mandurah Mail between 1995 and 1996 to see if there were any fireworks in the area the night Sarah Spiers disappeared. Join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and Alison Fan as they discuss that moment which  changed Australia's most expensive and longest running investigation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THAT moment, the phone call which changed the Claremont Serial Killings investigation after almost two decades of nothing, was described by the police officer, that took the call from UK scientists who said male DNA had been found with Ciara Glennon’s fingernail samples. That officer was former head of MACRO, Jim Stanbury, who took the stand today. What followed the call would change the whole investigation. Police no longer had to rely on alibis or witnesses. The DNA doesn’t lie, and if the person of interest didn’t match the male DNA found, they weren’t considered a suspect anymore. That’s how the man police suspected for almost a decade of being the Claremont Serial Killer - Lance Williams - was cleared. Day 51 of the Claremont Serial Killings trial also revealed the other high profile cases which police had sent tp the UK. We’d previously heard about the Gerard Ross murder case, but the FSS also tested exhibits from one of WA’s most high profile murder cases in recent history, the murder of Corryn R

When Claremont exhibits were sent over the to the UK for expert low copy number testing, the exhibits which are now seen as crucial to the prosecution’s case - Ciara Glennon’s fingernails - went missing. It turns out they were never ‘missing’, just separated from the other exhibits and placed in a fridge for storage. As Tim Clarke explains, there must have been a sense panic that went through that lab in the time the exhibits were thought to be missing. The scientists didn’t know just how important these fingernails would be to the case at that time, because they hadn’t yet been tested. But what they did have with them, that were considered important at the time, were samples from multiple ‘people of interest’ to the case, which they planned to test against the Claremont samples. As the Claremont Serial Killings trial entered its 50th day, another cold case which gripped WA was in the headlines again, just over two years since a conviction was made. But today, that conviction of Francis Wark was overtur

The two lead lawyers on WA’s mammoth case have been working for 49 days and nights every day of the Claremont Serial Killings trial. After 49 days, it seemed - as The West’s Emily Moulton pointed out in this episode - that they were getting tired. As the day was drawing to a close, a new witness, from the MACRO Taskforce took the stand. Just as soon as Senior Sergeant George Paton started his evidence, defence lawyer Paul Yovich objected, which led to a 20-minute legal argument between him and the lead prosecutor. Eventually, Justice Hall said he would ‘lock them in a room together’ so they could sort it out, which they eventually did. Outside of courtroom clashes, during UK witness Carole Evans’ cross examination, it was revealed hairs found on Ciara Glennon’s body were also sent to be tested in the UK - in fact, these samples were considered more important than the fingernails at the time. It was found that the hairs from 10 people including Ciara were found, but after comparison with those hairs again

In 2008, exhibits from Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were sent for testing in a state-of-the-art lab in the UK. Paperwork attached to the samples left no questions about what they were investigating: “The three women are believed to have fallen victim to a serial killer”. When the samples got to the Forensic Science Service, they were tested in an air-tight lab, which was known as the clean room. We heard anyone who left the ‘clean’ room and became ‘dirty’, they weren’t allowed back in, the lengths that the scientists went to, to try and stop contamination was detailed in court by FSS scientist Carole Evans, who travelled to Perth to appear in court. The court had previously been told samples from another WA case were sent along with the Claremont Serial Killings samples. Today we found out samples in the investigation of the suspected murder of an 11-year-old boy were also sent to the UK. See the investigation of the disappearance of Gerard Ross at https://thewest.com.au/features/gerard-ross Join Natal

It’s been revealed a blood-stained brick was found near Ciara Glennon’s body in Eglington in 1997. A stray bundle of hair was also found in a boot two weeks after her body was found, and tested against her samples. Why are we hearing about this now? These were part of an email chain between forensic scientist Aleks Bagdonavicius and police. The brick, in particular, was labelled as high on the WA police priority list for DNA testing at PathWest. But what we haven't found out - is what significance, if any, these pieces of evidence will hold in the trial moving forward. As Tim Clarke explains in this episode, the defence seem to have been painting a picture of a lab under pressure. But on his final day on the stand, Mr Bagdonavivius insisted quality was priority over speed. He did, however admit to human error, as it was revealed at least one of the blank samples sent with Ciara Glennon’s fingernails to New Zealand, which were found to have been contaminated with a female DNA other than Ciara, did come

Two never-before-heard about leads police were following up on during the mammoth investigation were revealed to the court on day 46. A leather glove which had been found near Jane Rimmer’s body when she was found in Wellard bushland on August 3, 1996, and two fingernail clippings which were found in a taxi. Both were revealed during forensic scientist Aleks Bagdonavicius’ cross examination by defence lawyer Paul Yovich today. At this stage it’s unclear whether the leather gloves will form part of the defence’s case, but as Tim Clarke explains in this episode of Claremont in Conversation, police sent the gloves off to be tested for blood. We’ll have to wait to see if they ever come up again in the trial, or if like so many other pieces of evidence and statements in this trial, they could be left out in the open with no explanation. What could form part of the defence’s case, however, was two tree branches which were found to have been cross contaminated with another victim’s DNA - completely unrelated to

In this episode, Alison Fan tells us some of the theories she’s heard from friends, strangers and people attending the public gallery at court, as she and the team try and put some of those questions into context - some of which have come up in the trial and left open-ended, or not answered at all. Such as the question raised earlier in the week, during evidence about Ciara Glennon's fingernails being sent to New Zealand - who’s female DNA contaminated the blank control samples which were sent with Ciara Glennon’s fingernails to New Zealand in 2003? The female scientist who tested Ciara Glennon’s fingernails before they went to New Zealand took the stand today, but she wasn’t asked by the prosecution about contamination. So we’re not any closer to finding out who that female DNA belonged to. Natalie Bonjolo asks the question which many must be asking; those fingernail samples which were found to be contaminated by female DNA, which were AJM41 and AJM46 aren’t crucial to the prosecution’s case, so why do w

In the last hour of day 44’s evidence, the prosecution began reading out statements from the former PathWest manager, senior DNA analyst Laurie Webb, who was sacked from his role in 2016 for breaching testing protocols and cutting corners. He’s not giving evidence in court, and as Tim Clarke explained last week as he broke the story, it’s not likely we’ll find out why. But what we did find out was that he was the person who had that ‘eureka moment’ - he was the person who, in 2009 entered the male DNA found from UK testing into WA’s DNA database and found a hit. That DNA hit matched with a then-unsolved rape from 1995 - the Karrakatta rape. As Tim Clarke has explained in the podcast, what it would have felt like to see that, a lead in one of WA’s most notorious unsolved crimes for more than a decade, would have been astounding. We also heard in detail how those DNA samples made their way to the UK in the first place, taken in person by Laurie Webb, the samples never leaving his sight. But the court hear

Around 17,000 people had their DNA tested during the largest and most expensive investigation in Australia’s history. They included thousands of taxi drivers, MACRO Taskforce’s prime suspect Lance Williams and even the former mayor of Claremont. But what we don’t know is if any Telstra workers were asked to give their DNA. We probably won’t find out, because as Tim Clarke explains in this episode, unless something extraordinary happens, those 17,000 names won’t be released to the public. This was revealed on Day 43 of the Claremont Serial Killings trial, which lasted just 10 minutes. After two days of adjournment, the trial was delayed for another day as prosecutors asked for more time following the discovery of more than 400 documents relating to LCN testing on Ciara Glennon’s fingernails conducted by PathWest. The delay will allow forensic scientist Aleks Bagdonavicius from PathWest to read through at 35-page statement he and the prosecution put together following the document discovery. The prosecut

***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. We can say this because Edwards' admitted the crime, pleading guilty to the horrific assault at Karrakatta Cemetery just weeks before his trial for rape and murder was due to start late last year. 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, so she decided to make the 700 metre walk home. 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 seri

Day 42 of the Claremont Serial Killings trial started with a revelation which immediately led to a delay of proceedings for at least two days. That revelation was the discovery of more than 400 documents relating to testing of the crucial evidence - Ciara Glennon’s fingernails. Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo started off proceedings by admitting the blunder to the court, which Justice Hall called ‘extremely unsatisfactory’. Ms Barbagallo revealed the documents were discovered during a briefing with PathWest witnesses ahead of their appliances, which was due to be this week. The defence received those documents just five minutes before court began. Before the trial started, it was revealed there would be at least one million documents presented by the prosecution. During preparation for the trial, Ms Barbagallo said PathWest found and scanned all of their documents relating to the case, but at least 400 were scanned and not sent to the defence, or never scanned at all. Both Justice Hall and defence lawyer Pa

Just days before what would have been Ciara Glennon’s 28th birthday in November 1997, her grieving family were given a gift from A MACRO detective and pathologist Dr Karin Margolius - a bit of their daughter back. A lock of her hair. Detectives on the case had become close to the families as the massive investigation spanned months, turning into years, and this - as it was with Jane Rimmer’s family - an act of compassion. This act, however has somewhat divided our podcast team, with veteran 7NEWS reporter Alison Fan describing the act of signing out the hair mass for two days as ’bizarre’. As forensic scientist Aleks Bagdonavicius finished his evidence today, he revealed a record, which showed one of the crucial DNA exhibits, Ciara Glennon’s left middle fingernail labelled AJM 42, had at some point between 2001 and 2003 been tested with results showing a ‘possible match for male DNA’. This had never been heard in court before. The only time the court had previously been told of male DNA showing up in AJM4

The defence honed in on potential DNA contamination from samples sent to a lab in New Zealand on day 40 of WA’s trial of the century. During cross examination, defence lawyer Paul Yovich pointed out to Dr SallyAnn Harbison, who was on the stand for a second day, that when testing Ciara Glennon’s fingernail samples, four blank control samples were found to be contaminated with another woman’s DNA. Forensic DNA expert Brendan Chapman joins us for this episode, and as he explains, this isn’t a ‘blow’ for the prosecution, and that was because, although the court heard two fingernail samples AJM 41 and 46 had been affected by contamination and showed a woman’s DNA unrelated to the case - Dr Harbison said the crucial left middle fingernail - AJM 42, which the state says contained Bradley Edwards’ DNA - was not affected by the contamination. Brendan helps the podcast team discuss contamination, DNA and even a bit of ancestry on episode 40, he also answers some of your complex DNA questions, which have come up dur

Lance Williams was the main suspect as being the Claremont Serial Killer for 10 years, and today it was revealed scientists once believed they found a possible match between his hair and that found on the third victim, Ciara Glennon. During his final day on the stand, retired forensic scientist Martin Blooms revealed in 2002, scientists did suspect a match had been made between the hair from Lance Williams and hairs found on Ciara Glennon’s body, following testing on Mr Williams hair after he was arrested. Lance Williams was arrested in 1998 and interrogated by police for 17 hours. Shortly after his arrest, Lance Williams voluntarily offered his DNA samples for testing, He was placed under intense scrutiny by police, who openly followed him to and from work every day for years. In 2002, they conducted the test, which at the time was designed to exclude suspects, but forms shown to the court on day 39 revealed at least one hair recovered from Ciara’s shirt as well as her skirt noted that it “possibly matc

A former senior forensic scientist has defended his work practices in the 1990s, maintaining he never took shortcuts and followed the protocols of the time. During day 38 of the Claremont Serial Killings trial, Martin Blooms rather cheekily said on the stand that DNA doesn’t ‘just fly around’ when asked whether there was any chance DNA samples from the Karrakatta rape victim could have come into contact with intimate samples from Ciara Glennon, both of which he tested. The trial has previously heard there is no evidence to suggest Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were sexually assaulted before their deaths, but Mr Blooms said there was no way to ever tell whether the women were raped, because decomposition and time had decayed any sperm or semen, if any existed in the first place. In Episode 38 of the trial, Tim Clarke, Alison Fan and Natalie Bonjolo also discuss Mr Blooms evidence, how even in the 1990s, the lab technicians knew technology would only advance, so they took measures to ‘future-proof’ the exhib