Paul Denyer

Paul Charles Denyer (born 14 April 1972, known briefly as Paula whilst in prison)[1] is an Australian serial killer currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years[2] for the murders of three young women in Melbourne, in 1993.[3] Denyer became known in the media as the Frankston Serial Killer as his crimes occurred in the neighbouring suburbs of Frankston.[4][5]

Paul Denyer
Pictured in custody
Born
Paul Charles Denyer

(1972-04-14) 14 April 1972
Campbelltown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Other namesFrankston serial killer, Paula
Criminal statusIn custody
Criminal chargeMurder x 3; abduction
PenaltyLife imprisonment x 3;
with a 30-year non-parole period
Details
Date11 June 1993 (1993-06-11) – 30 July 1993 (1993-07-30)
CountryAustralia
State(s)Victoria
Killed3
Date apprehended
31 July 1993 (1993-07-31)

Later, during his imprisonment, when aged around 30, Denyer began identifying as a transgender woman, but was refused permission by prison authorities to wear make-up, receive sex reassignment surgery, or legally alter his name.[2] In the 2022 Stan documentary No Mercy, No Remorse, presenter John Silvester (Senior Crime Reporter, The Age, Melbourne) states that Denyer has reverted to identifying as Paul.[6] In 2023, Denyer became eligible and applied for release on parole, but had his application denied by the Adult Parole Board of Victoria.[7][8]

Early life

Denyer was born as Paul Charles Denyer on 14 April 1972 to British immigrant parents, Anthony and Maureen Denyer in Campbelltown, New South Wales, an outer suburb of Sydney. Denyer's parents met and married in London in the early 1960s before migrating to Australia in 1965.[9] [10] The family moved to Victoria in 1981 due to his father’s new employment. Denyer then reportedly had difficulty fitting in amongst his peers in his new town, which led to problems with study and self-confidence that were worsened by significant weight gain during his teen years.[10]

At age 11, he slashed the throat of his sister's teddy bear, and cut the throat of the family cat before hanging it in a tree. At age 13, he was arrested and cautioned for stealing a car. At age 15, he was arrested for assaulting a fellow student.[10] After school, he had problems holding down jobs, was fired seven times, and failed a physical when trying to enter Victoria Police.[10]

In February 1993, Denyer started working at a boat-building firm in Seaford named Pro Marine. A short time after he began work, colleagues observed him making knives at work. Denyer’s employment was terminated after several months due to his failure to complete assigned tasks.[11]

Crimes

Denyer, aged 20–21 started to stalk and attack a number of women in and around the Melbourne suburb of Frankston during a five-month period in 1993.[3]

Break-in and killing of animals

The first known incident attributed to Denyer occurred in February 1993, when Donna Vanes' Claude Street unit in Seaford was broken into.[12] After an anonymous threatening call, Vanes was fearful of being alone.[11] Vanes asked her boyfriend to take her and their new-born baby out while he delivered pizzas.[11]

After being out for approximately an hour, Vane’s returned to the unit with her boyfriend. After seeing blood on the floor and that one of the cats was dead, the police were called. A police officer arrived and discovered the cat had been slaughtered with its intestines strewn across the floor and its eyes removed. A pornographic image had been placed on its body.[11] Written in the cats blood above a stove were the words "Donna you're dead"[12][13]

In the bathroom, police found Vane's two kittens also slaughtered with their throats cut floating in the bath. Shaving cream had been sprayed over a mirror in the bedroom and more pornographic images had been posted over a wardrobe. These images had been slashed, as had other furniture. The intruder had placed a pornographic image, which had been slashed, inside the crib of Vane's baby.[11]

Unwilling to stay at the unit, she moved in with her sister, who was living in the unit next to Denyer, and whose neighbour had also recently been the victim of a break-in slasher.[11] After Denyer's arrest, he admitted to police he was responsible for the break-in, vandalism, and murdering Vane's cats. Denyer stated to police that had Vanes been home, he'd have murdered her.[13]

Murder of Elizabeth Stevens

The first murder victim was 18-year-old Elizabeth Stevens, who had come to Melbourne from Tasmania in January 1993 to study at TAFE Frankston.[12] She had moved to Melbourne to study in order to join the armed forces.[14]

At approximately 7:00pm on the evening of Friday 11 June 1993, Stevens alighted a bus on Cranbourne Road, the closest stop to the home she was residing in on Paterson Avenue, Langwarrin, with her aunt and uncle.[11][15] She had been living with the relatives for six months.[16]

As she turned into Paterson Avenue, she was grabbed from behind and threatened with what looked like a gun. Stevens screamed. Her screams were not heard by anyone due to heavy rain and wind. Stevens was told "Shut up or I'll blow your head off" and then escorted down Paterson Avenue. Her assailant held her hand so as not to draw suspicion, and several witnesses saw them walking past and assumed they were a couple.[11]

The pair arrived at Lloyd Park Reserve. Stevens was at first sexually propositioned by being asked "Do you want a fuck", then told "Well, I won't rape you or anything".[11] Stevens was strangled, stabbed, and her throat cut. Her killer then stomped viciously on her face, breaking several of her facial bones, then dragged her lifeless body across blackberry bushes a short distance to a culvert flowing with water. She suffered several post-mortem injuries, being stabbed and slashed across the torso.[14]

Stevens had left a note that morning for her relatives, stating she would be studying at either the TAFE or city library and would be home at 8:00pm. When Stevens failed to arrive home, her relatives initially thought she may simply be running late. At 10:30pm, her uncle began driving around the area searching for her. The police were notified soon after and became concerned for Stevens after seeing the note she had written. Her body was discovered at around 5:00pm the following day by a man collecting pine branches.[11] Stevens was killed only 250 metres from her home.[17]

At the post-mortem, the examining forensic pathologist noticed petechial haemorrhages, small injuries dotting her eyes and skin that indicated Stevens had been strangled.[11]: 37  Cuts and abrasions to the face were observed. The pathologist concluded that in their opinion: "The cause of death was aspiration of blood and haemorrhage from stab wounds to the next in a woman whose neck has been compressed".[11]: 39 

An extensive search was undertaken of the area both where the body was located and surrounding streets. A bag with books and documents in the name of Stevens was discovered, as was the blade of a knife.[11]: 41  Every resident in the local vicinity was spoken to. Police rode the local bus to see if anyone onboard recognised Stevens. Investigators never discovered any solid leads on Stevens' movements or discovered clues that would solve her murder.[11]

Abduction of Rosza Toth

A month later, on Thursday 8 July, 41-year-old Rosza Toth alighted at Seaford railway station, and headed north along Railway Parade on her way home. Around 5:50pm, as she walked past Seaford North Reserve, she noticed a man loitering near the toilet block, and was attacked shortly after passing him. Toth was dragged into the park, but broke free after Denyer held a fake gun to her head, and she pretended to submit. Shaken, and with light injuries, she ran back to the road, stopped a car, and was assisted by the driver back to her house.[12]

Murder of Deborah Fream

That same night, the second murder victim, 22-year-old Deborah Fream who lived near Kananook Station, Seaford, was abducted in her car in the early evening. She had left her 12-day-old son at home with a male friend when she went out at 7:00pm on a short trip to buy some milk for an omelette.[12] By 8:00pm, when she still had not returned, he called her boyfriend, the police, and the local hospital seeking news of her whereabouts and possible accidents. The friend and boyfriend drove around trying to locate her, then reported her missing at Frankston Police Station. On the afternoon of Monday 12 July, a farmer found Fream's partially covered body on Taylors Road, Carrum Downs. Like Stevens, she had been strangled, savagely slashed, and her throat cut.

Murder of Natalie Russell

On Friday 30 July, the third and final victim, 17-year-old schoolgirl Natalie Russell, was attacked while walking home from John Paul College.[18][17] At the time there was media speculation, heightened public fear, and warnings from her school.[19] Russell took her usual short cut home to Frankston North, via a fenced walkway, now called Nat's Track in her memory,[18] which passes between two golf courses on Skye Road. At 8:00pm, Russell was reported missing to Frankston Police Station, and a police search soon found her body. She had been dragged from the path through a large hole in a wire fence into adjacent scrub.[10] She had died in a similar manner to the others. During the attack she had put up a considerable fight, which assisted investigators due to DNA evidence being available at the scene.

Investigation

Police became involved with the case after the incidents at Denyer's block of units, where the first slasher break-in occurred, and at Vanes' unit in February 1993. The murder of Stevens was the first incident to attract a large investigation, as did the disappearance of Fream, when a search was organised and scuba divers examined the Kananook Creek. No external forensic evidence was found at the Stevens scene, and no witnesses came forward.[12]

With Fream, again, no foreign forensic evidence was found at the scene due to poor weather, but witnesses later recalled her car, a gray Nissan Pulsar, had been seen driving erratically and flashing its high-beam lights. Her car was located by police the next day at nearby Madden Street, and forensics found traces of Fream's blood inside, alongside a new dent in the front, and the driver's seat pushed back.[10] Denyer later explained how, at the milk bar, Fream had left her car unlocked, and he had climbed into the back seat, and threatened her with the gun shortly after she drove from the store.

After the second attack, and with Toth's description, she described her attacker as 18–20 years old, 180 cm tall, with a round face and blue-eyes, police drew up a profile of the suspect: a male, likely unemployed or with a menial job, likely a local resident, aged 18–24, average looking, and living alone.[12]

Leading up to the murder of Natalie Russell, investigators were in the process of door knocking 4,700 homes in Frankston. Codenamed "Operation Pulsar", the door knock was at the time the largest door knock ever conducted by Victoria Police.[17]

The Russell attack provided police with the breakthrough they needed. At 2:30pm, a postal worker saw a rusted yellow Toyota Corona without number plates parked near Nat's Track on Skye Road, with a man using binoculars, acting suspiciously inside.[12] As she stopped at a house to call police, she noticed Russell approaching the track alone, observed by the suspicious man, who then ran up the track. Police responded, noted the registration label number, door-knocked a few nearby houses, but soon had to leave to attend to another call before the man returned. The later forensic investigations of the walkway revealed three holes cut in the fence with the same tool, with blood traces on one, alongside skin and hair traces on Russell but not belonging to the victim.[20] Police informed investigators of the registration details, which were quickly traced to the car's owner, Paul Charles Denyer.

Detectives visited his small unit at 186 Frankston‑Dandenong Road, Seaford, the afternoon of 31 July - a unit shared with Denyer's girlfriend, and next door to Donna Vanes' sister.[5] While his movements were being checked, he admitted to being in the vicinity of the Fream and Russell murders at the time.[10] Denyer was then taken to Frankston Police Station, and his videoed interview began at 9:20pm.[20]

He was unable to adequately explain the cuts and scratches the officers noticed, and admitted being in the area of the Stevens attack.[10] He agreed to have his DNA collected, and early on 1 August, suspecting that the police had DNA evidence, admitted to the murders, the Toth assault, and the slasher break-ins.[10] Denyer told detectives that he had been stalking women in the Frankston area "for years",[5][20] and that the motivation for the crimes was a desire to kill from the age of 14 and a general hatred of girls and women.[21]

Trial and imprisonment

Denyer was charged with three murder counts and one of abduction, charges to which he later pleaded guilty and did not contest.[10] Psychologists and experts examined Denyer, noting a lack of emotion regarding the crimes, a single-minded desire to kill, and the unusual randomness by which victims were chosen, leading to a diagnosis of sadistic personality disorder but not legal insanity.[5][10]

He found intentional maltreatment of victims intensely gratifying taking pleasure in torment, anguish, distress, hopelessness and suffering of the victim. In contrast to simple anger, the behaviour of a sadistic personality is fully premeditated. He is not suddenly exploding with rage...The more aggressive he became, the more powerful he felt.[22]

— Dr Ian Joblin - Denyer's treating forensic psychologist

During examination, he admitted being influenced by the 1987 film, The Stepfather.[10] On 20 December 1993, after four days of hearings, he was sentenced in Melbourne's Supreme Court to three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with no parole period.[5] On 31 December, Denyer lodged an appeal, which was heard in July 1994 - granting him a non-parole period of 30 years, until 2023.[10]

Denyer was sent initially to HM Prison Barwon, and is currently at Port Phillip Prison.[2] In January 2004, after 10 years in jail, Denyer was the subject of a 7:30 Report titled "Murderer's sex change request sparks rights debate".[21] In September 2004, news broke of a letter Denyer had sent to his estranged brother, who he had accused in his trial of sexually abusing him as a child, and sister-in-law who had re-emigrated to the UK.[23]

In July 2012, Denyer again came to the attention of the media over allegations of four rapes conducted over a six-week period.[24] In April 2013, the Herald Sun created a website with images of 14 letters, written by Denyer in 2003 and 2004 to another inmate, titled "The Paul Denyer Letters".[25] On 8 April, the newspaper ran articles related to analyses of the letters and handwriting.[26]

Gender identity

According to the first of "The Paul Denyer Letters", dated 29 November 2003, Denyer began identifying as a woman that same year.[25] Denyer has claimed that these feelings of gender dysphoria are what led him to seek revenge against women by murdering them.[27] In "Letter 6", dated 4 February 2004, he wrote: "I committed these disgusting crimes ... not because I ever hated womankind, but because I have never really felt that I was male."[25]

Denyer began wearing women's clothing and cosmetics in prison, in defiance of prison orders.[21][28] Medical specialists evaluated whether Denyer could receive sex reassignment surgery and rejected the idea. Prisoner support groups said that he "cannot be anything but serious" about his transition, given that it would entail personal risk. One victim's mother said Denyer's transition made her and her husband feel "sick", calling it a "stunt".[21]

Denyer has since reverted to identifying as Paul.[29]

Bid for parole

In 2023, Denyer became eligible and applied for release on parole, but had his application denied by the Adult Parole Board of Victoria. The Parole Board notified the families of the victims, including Natalie Russell's father Brian, and Deborah Fream's son Jake. [30][8][31]

Media

Australian author Vikki Petraitis has written a number of texts on the case:

  • The Frankston Murders – the true story of serial killer, Paul Denyer, 1995
  • "The Frankston Murders and The Paedophile Witch" in Outside the Law, 2008
  • The Frankston Murders: 25 Years On, 2018

The case was covered by Casefile True Crime Podcast in June 2016. It was covered by Australian True Crime in July 2018 when Petratis was interviewed[19] and again in September 2017 when investigator Charlie Bezzina was interviewed.[32]

See also

References
  1. Carlyon, Terry (director), Silvester, John (presenter/narrator (2022). No Mercy, No Remose (Documentary). Melbourne: STAN Entertainment.)
  2. "Serial killer Paul Denyer quizzed on four jail rapes in just six weeks". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney, Australia. 25 July 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  3. "Stop pandering to 'sicko', says Doyle". The Age. 28 June 2004. Archived from the original on 16 May 2006. Retrieved 14 September 2008.
  4. Deery, Shannon (21 July 2011). "Serial killer's family: Don't let him out". AdelaideNow. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  5. Robbo (20 April 2012). "Paul Charles Denyer -The Frankston Serial Killer". Aussie Criminals and Crooks. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  6. Carlyon, Terry (director), Silvester, John (presenter/narrator (2022). No Mercy, No Remorse (Documentary). Melbourne: STAN Entertainment.)
  7. "Frankston serial killer Paul Denyer denied parole three decades after murders". ABC News. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  8. Travers, Brianna (10 May 2023). "Frankston serial killer Paul Denyer's parole bid denied". The Herald Sun.
  9. Munro, Ian (28 August 1994). "Portrait of a Serial Killer". The Age. p. 48. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  10. "Case 23: The Frankston Serial Killer (Part 2)". Casefile: True Crime Podcast. 26 June 2016. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  11. Petraitis, Vikki (1995). The Frankston murders : the true story of serial killer Paul Denyer. Carrum Downs, Vic.: Nivar Press. ISBN 0-646-22828-5. OCLC 35655011.
  12. "Case 23: The Frankston Serial Killer (Part 1)". Casefile: True Crime Podcast. 19 June 2016. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  13. Jepsen, Belinda (7 August 2021). "Less than an hour after taking a life, Paul Denyer sat down to dinner at his girlfriend's house". Mamamia. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  14. Wilson, Amber (3 March 2023). "Friend of murdered Tassie girl fights against killer Paul Denyer's release". The Mercury. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  15. Lang, Adelaide (27 October 2022). "Family of murdered schoolgirl warn Frankston serial killer will kill again if released". News.com.au. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  16. Attwood, Alan (15 December 1993). "For the living, the pain of death goes on". The Age. p. 3. ProQuest 2521910771. Retrieved 20 April 2023 – via Proquest.
  17. Mitchell, Ben; Tippett, Gary (1 August 1993). "Squads knock on 4700 doors". The Age. p. 3. ProQuest 2521885082. Retrieved 20 April 2023 – via Proquest.
  18. Schefman, Lisa (5 August 2013). "Parents of murdered teen Natalie Russell thank community 20 years on". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 11 February 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  19. "The Frankston Murders: 25 Years On with Vikki Petraitis". Australian True Crime Podcast. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  20. "Australian True Crime: The Frankston Serial Killer: A Charlie Bezzina Case - #23". Apple Podcasts. 7 September 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  21. Gearin, Mary (9 January 2004). "The 7.30 Report: Murderer's sex change request sparks rights debate". ABC TV. Archived from the original on 2 June 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2008.
  22. Munro, Ian (28 August 1994). "Portrait of a Serial Killer". The Age. p. 48. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  23. "Serial killer's family shocked by letter". The Age. 30 September 2004. Archived from the original on 29 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  24. Dunn, Mark (26 July 2012). "Serial killer Paul Denyer quizzed on four jail rapes in just six weeks". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  25. "The Paul Denyer Letters". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 29 October 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  26. Hunt, Elissa (9 April 2013). "Signature of a twisted serial killer". Herald Sun. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  27. Valemont, Pamela Lillian (August 2015). I Always Wanted To Kill: Paul Denyer Serial Killer. Lulu Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-1326148607.
  28. Kaila, Jon (8 April 2013). "Serial killer Paul Denyer defies prison order to stop dressing as woman". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 3 May 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  29. Carlyon, Terry (director), Silvester, John (presenter/narrator (2022). No Mercy, No Remorse (Documentary). Melbourne: STAN Entertainment.)
  30. "Frankston serial killer Paul Denyer denied parole three decades after murders". ABC News. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  31. Silvester, John (10 May 2023). "Frankston serial killer Paul Denyer to stay behind bars". The Age. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  32. The Frankston Serial Killer: A Charlie Bezzina Case - #23, retrieved 16 October 2020

Further reading
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