THE CRIME WEB

AMANDA HOWARD

 

 

Paul Denyer

The beginnings of a killer’s life.

Paul Denyer’s parents Maureen and Anthony met and married in England before migrating to Australia in 1965. They both were semi-skilled workers in England but, like many other of their countrymen, took the offer of migration to Australia. The young couple, along with their new baby son David, initially arrived in Adelaide, South Australia but soon moved to Campbelltown, on the south-western outskirts of Sydney.

Campbelltown in the 1970’s was still considered a rural area. Tiny pockets of developments peppered the landscape but the city had strong plans for the future, with schools being built and planning for government housing was on the agenda. Many young and growing families were moving to Campbelltown in Sydney’s Southwest.

In 1970’s Campbelltown was a place of promise.

Even today, the area is still thriving as one of Sydney’s biggest growing areas  but there is still a rural feeling, it is never far from bushland or farms yet the area has all the major facilities and state of the art public transport, shopping and hospital facilities.

Anthony Denyer quickly found a position managing the McDonald’s Restaurant in Queen Street Campbelltown, the first one in the area. Anthony worked hard while Maureen stayed at home to look after their growing family.

The first Denyer child to be born in Australia was Stephen, who was born in 1971. Paul was the next child born on April 14, 1972. Richard was born two years later followed by the twins Natalie and Anthony Jnr in 1976.

 

Paul growing up

School was extremely boring for young Paul Denyer. Like many boys his age he preferred to get the minimum of work done, while spending the rest of his time drawing guns and weapons or daydreaming. His school reports reflected his lack of interest in school, and he began to fail. The teachers tried to bring the extremely shy boy out of his shell without success. He made very few friends and preferred to keep to himself.

By 1981, Denyer’s father Anthony found a new position managing the “Steak Place” in South Oakleigh in Victoria. So again, the family packed up and moved. The children did not like the move but had little choice; Anthony needed to go where he found work.

All of the Denyer children were extremely unsettled by the move, however Paul found it even harder than to others to adjust. He hated Victoria and did not want to go to school. He became disruptive in class, and found himself in constant trouble with his teachers.  The only time the boy was happy was when he was left to his daydreams and fantasies.

By the age of ten, Denyer’s fantasies began to turn violent. He would practice with pretend knives and guns. Then once he had improved his skills he set his sights on his first victim. His younger sister Natalie’s favourite teddy bear. Denyer’s mother Maureen was shocked to find the tortured teddy hidden under the bed in Paul’s room.  She sat on her son’s bed and turned the bear over and over in her hands, trying to understand what she was looking at. The bear’s neck had been cut open and there were multiple cigarette burns all over its brown fur. A thick marker was used to draw fangs and angry eyebrows on the bear.

Denyer took pleasure tormenting his younger sister Natalie. Denyer took any chance to attack the toys of Natalie. Drawing scary faces on dolls, or cutting and maiming animals.  He even used the young girl as target practice.

In 1985, shortly before Paul’s thirteenth birthday he was arrested but released after stealing a car. The police stressed to his family the severity of the crime and asked that they keep him out of trouble. Denyer did not heed the police warning and was arrested again two months later. The charges this time were burglary, wilful damage and making prank calls to the fire brigade.

Denyer continued to cause trouble both at home and at school. Teachers explained to his parents that Paul constantly compared Melbourne with Sydney – he wanted to move back to Campbelltown.

As Denyer got older, he also got bigger, turning from a trouble-maker into a bully, causing problems for other students at school if the got in his way. He would bully them and taunt them, with Denyer’s largish size he was a pretty scary boy and most of the other kids at school would try and keep away from him or find themselves a victim of Denyer’s wrath.

When Paul was about fourteen the family moved to another house, in Oakleigh before moving again to Mulgrave.

The constant residential moves made Paul even further unsettled. He felt completely isolated and alone by the time he was a teenager. He would spend his time at school alone, he no longer wantws or tried to make friends, preferring to bully anyone who came near him. Most of the other students called him John Candy after the American comic actor – not because he was jovial but because of his large stature. To try and compensate Paul wore an over-sized jacket to try and hide his size but the jacket had the opposite effect making Paul look even bigger and more terrifying to the younger students.

The bullying that Denyer subjected on others became increasingly more violent and began to include a sexual component. In 1987, when he was fifteen Denyer forced another student to drop his pants and masturbate in front of other students. Denyer was charged with assault for the attack.

As usual Denyer showed little concern for the harm he caused. He had a cool indifference to the charges against him.

Denyer also continued to spent most of his home life causing his sister, Natalie constant grief. He constantly attacked her and her toys and one day he killed the family cat to hurt her even further.

The family cat had its throat slit and was found hanging from a tree outside. Again the whole family knew that Paul was to blame but he continuously denied it. Even when confronted by one of his brother’s had seen him cleaning his knife later that day; Later, the brother vividly recalled the knife, it had been caked in blood and fur from the cat.

Paul made up an elaborate story that someone in the neighbourhood had killed the cat because they hated the family.  None of  Denyers believed his lies. They all knew it was Paul who had killed the animal.

Maureen and Anthony’s marriage began to wane under the pressure of the boys and finally after twenty years of marriage the couple separated. Maureen, along with the tribe of children moved again, this time to Long Street Langwarrin in 1987.

Paul again felt even further isolated by another move. He now spent all of his time alone. He would go missing from the family home at night, going for long walks alone, often peering into the homes where there was activity or stealing things from people’s front yards, just general doing as he pleased.

One neighbour reported being watched undressing by Paul. Like many serial killers Paul was a compulsive Peeping Tom and chronic masturbator. The enjoyment of secretly watching women undress was all part of the serial killer fantasy.

Maureen later recalled an evening when Paul returned from one of his night-time walks bleeding. He had suffered stab wounds in his hands and legs. According to Paul he had been mugged – but Maureen suspected that the wounds were probably self-inflicted – a cry for attention.

By the end of 1987 Paul left school, his grades were dismal and he was not even trying at school anymore. Though rather than look for a job, Paul spent his days watching horror videos. His favourites were The Stepfather and the Halloween series.

Denyer would watch The Stepfather with the volume turn up loud. He knew that the scene music from the film scared his sister Natalie. She would beg him to turn the sound down or off but instead he would laugh at her, making her even more upset.

Maureen worried about Paul getting on with his life and finding a job. Once during an argument on the subject, Maureen pleaded with Paul to try and find some ambition and go and look for a job, Paul just looked at her coldly, picked up a glass mug and threw it at her, narrowly missing her head.

He would often ignore his mother when she was trying to make him see sense, then come out with hurtful sayings like she meaning nothing to him, that she was insignificant in his life.

Maureen knew that Paul was troubled, but she could never get through to him, he would push everyone away who tried to help him, preferring to be alone, often acting strangely in an unnerving manner. Maureen remembered one evening while washing the dishes that she looked out of the kitchen window to find Paul standing completely still looking in at her. The look on his face was blank. He was looking straight through her. She was completely unnerved by her son’s look. She closed the blinds to avoid seeing him.

After a lot of arguments Paul finally decided to look for work and found a few menial positions. But he was always soon fired for either laziness or dishonesty. He was not interested in working and would spend his time at work doing his own thing, often being insubordinate.

One position Paul had was as a stockroom clerk for a wholesale plumber’s suppliers company, however he was found with stock in his car and was quickly fired. He was with the company less than three months.

In June 1990, Denyer was next hired by the local petrol station but again he was fired for being lazy and not working to the normal standard.

Denyer’s next job was with Safeway supermarkets. Paul met his first and only girlfriend while working at the Supermarket, a young girl named Sharon Johnson. The couple soon became serious and moved in together.

Shortly afterwards, Paul was fired from the grocery store after an accident where Denyer drove a line of empty shopping trolleys into a woman and her child.  Witnesses said that Denyer made no attempt to stop the trolleys from hitting the customers. Denyer was called to the Manager’s office and dismissed immediately.

In January 1993, Denyer applied for the Victorian Police Academy – however his massive weight of120kg meant he was ruled unfit for selection. The rejection was the final catalyst for the violencie that was welling up inside of him.

He always knew he wanted to kill, but felt he was to wait for the sign – the right moment when he knew the time was right. To abase his anger Paul spent his time fantasising about abducting women, even trying a few rehearsals where he would abduct a woman but let her go – just to see if he could do it.

 Denyer was given a twelve-week trial position with Pro-Marine boat building company under a government unemployment training scheme. However by the eight-week mark the manager knew he would not be keeping Paul permanently after his twelve-week trial period was over. According to staff, Denyer rarely did as he was asked, was insolent and lazy. He would spend most of his time sitting down fashioning knives from pieces of building materials. He had made himself two extremely sharp knives while working at Pro-Marine. One of them was found hidden behind paint-tins in the warehouse and was destroyed by one of the other staff members. But Denyer still had the other one.

One evening, Denyer broke into the fenced block of land beside the factory and slaughtered the two goats housed there. Denyer later explained how much he enjoyed the killing; he had slit the animals’ throat with one quick strike of his homemade knife. The murder had been a successful practice run. He now knew he was ready to look for a human victim.

After being relieved of his employment at Pro-Marine Denyer moved in to a new flat in Dandenong Road Frankston with his girlfriend Sharon Johnson.  With Paul being unemployed, Sharon worked two full-time telemarketing jobs to pay the bills and support the couple. This meant that Sharon was away from the couple’s flat all day and most of the evening, leaving Paul to do whatever he pleased.

Shortly after the couple moved in, other tenants in the units began to report unusual disturbances. One tenant saw a man looking in through the window at her, just staring, standing completely still. Another woman arrived home from work to find her apartment broken into and her clothes and photos slashed.

 

Trish and Donna

Often while Sharon was at work, Denyer would work on neighbours’ cars if they needed a hand, slowly building a double-life. He terrorised the other tenants at night but during the day was always helpful and willing to lend a hand, particularly neighbour, Trish. Trish was a young woman who got an well with the couple living next door to her, they would often get together for a quiet night in or just come around for a chat.

Trish also had a younger sister Donna who, with her son would pop around for a visit when her partner, Les was at work at a local Pizzeria. Donna spent a lot of time at her sister’s, as their blocks of flats were only a short walk from each other.

Paul seemed to enjoy Donna’s company and he would spend a large chunk of his day just chatting to her, or minding after her baby son so she could go to the shops on her own.

Donna would sometimes go with Les to the Pizza shop rather than staying home alone. It would mean they would be home late, but Donna preferred it to staying home alone.

On February 19, 1993 the couple returned home to their Claude Street Unit around 11pm. The flat was unlocked and the sight that greeted them when they opened the door shocked them.

In the kitchen the couple found the mutilated corpse of Donna’s cat Buffy. The cat had been slit open from it’s mouth to it’s tail and the intestines and organs had been dragged through most of the rooms of the flat, the attacker had thrown pieces of the cat’s body at the walls and furniture staining everything in the flat with the cat’s blood. The cat had also been stabbed in the eyes, one of the eyes was still dangling from the socket, and the other had been thrown around with the rest of the cat’s entrails.

The pictures of scantily clad women that Les had hung around the unit had been torn down and thrown around the unit; one was soaking in the blood of the cat’s disembowelled body.

Written on the television in blood were the words

Dead Don

And on the walls, using the cat’s blood was written

Donna and Robyn you’re dead

In the bathroom, Donna found Buffy’s litter of kittens. They had had their throats cut and were floating in the bath full of bloodstained water.

In Donna and Les’ bedroom, the cupboard and set of drawers had been smashed and ransacked. All of the clothing had been torn to shreds and the doors of the cupboard was kicked into great shards of splinters. The baby’s nursery had suffered a similar attack with all of the baby’s clothes torn to shreds and covered in the blood from the cat.

On the mirror in the bedroom, again the attacker had scrawled a message. This one said

Donna and Robyn

In shaving cream. No one knew who Robyn was.

Paul, after his later arrest for the murders of several women, confessed that his initial plan was to murder Donna. He said he hated her sister Trish and this was a way to get back at her. He had found out that Donna was meant to be home alone that evening when he came around – luckily she had changed her plans and gone with Les to work.

In his later confession Denyer told police that when he arrived at the flat and found it empty he decided to take his anger out on the cats. He thenenjoyed using their blood to write the messages on the walls. It was raining that evening and Denyer knew enough about evidence from watching television that the rain would wash away evidence of him being there.

Les, Donna and the baby left the unit that night, never to return. They stayed at Trish’s unit for the next few days while they tried to find a new place to live.

The next morning Donna told Paul about what had happened to them. Denyer listened and feigned outrage at the attack. He told her

“If you ever catch the guy who did that let me have a go at him”

He had them completely fooled.

A month after the attack, Denyer and Sharon visited Trish to help celebrate her birthday. Paul  drank heavily and began talking about being sexually abused by his older bother when he was a child. He often would talk about the allegations when he was drunk.  Paul even tried to call his mother that evening but broke down crying, and handed the phone to Sharon. She just apologised to Denyer’s mother and ended the phone call.

 

The murder of Elizabeth Stevens

On Friday June 11, 1993 Paul finally got his sign to kill. The night was rainy and cold but Denyer did not notice, he was out to kill and waited in the shadows for a victim to walk by unsuspectingly.

At 7 pm eighteen-year-old TAFE student Elizabeth Stevens alighted from her bus at Cranbourne Road Langwarrin. Cranbourne Road was a major arterial road through Langwarrin, Frankston and other suburbs and Elizabeth did not feel too threatened getting off the bus alone in the dark as she had many nights before this one.

Elizabeth was staying at her aunt and uncle’s house only a short walk from the bus-stop. With the cold rain coming down, Elizabeth tried to quickly get home. She was unaware that she was being watched.

Denyer spotted the lone young woman alight from the bus, she was perfect, and he knew that she would be his first victim. Denyer stalked Elizabeth as she snuggled herself against the rain and cold night air. Quickly, Denyer closed the gap between his victim and himself and grabbed her, covering her mouth to prevent her from screaming. He shoved a gun into her ribs and whispered in her ear that he would kill her if she screamed.

Elizabeth nodded that she understood what he was saying and stopped struggling against her attacker. Little did she know but the gun that Denyer was holding to her ribs was a fake. It was a piece of pipe with a wooden handle; it looked like a gun, but could do little damage if at all.

Denyer forced his victim to walked to nearby Lloyd Park.  He continued to march Elizabeth into a small group of bushes – he kept her hidden there while he collected his thoughts and worked out what to do next. He was calm and calculating during the entire abduction.

Next Denyer forced Elizabeth over the next dune and towards a more secluded area away from any possible interruption. Elizabeth asked Denyer if she could go to the toilet. Denyer allowed her to squat behind a bush. He even turned away while she urinated on the ground. Perhaps Elizabeth was going to use the opportunity to escape – with Denyer facing away from her it would have been her chance to escape but the threat of the ‘gun’ may have made her changed her mind.

When Elizabeth was finished and stood up, Denyer made her continue to walk in the rain across the playing fields at Lloyd Park until the reached the goalposts on the other side. It was near here that Elizabeth’s slain body would be found early the next morning.

Denyer leapt at Elizabeth and wrapped his hands around her throat and choked her into unconsciousness. He then took out his hand-made knife and stabbed her several times while she lay on the ground.

However Elizabeth was not dead, she regained consciousness and tried to stand up and fight off her attacker only to be thrown to the ground once more. Denyer then stood on Elizabeth’s throat to stop her breathing. She tried to struggle against him, but Denyer was determined to kill her, there was nothing that was going to stop him now.

Only once Elizabeth was dead could Denyer inflict his rage on her. He stripped her upper body and stabbed her six further times; he made several long cuts across her chest in  a criss-cross pattern. He cut her face and slashed her throat. He even broke her nose in his frenzied attack. According to later examinations Denyer did not sexually molest Elizabeth’s body.

Denyer then dragged the woman’s body to a nearby drain and haphazardly covered her with branches broken off nearby trees. He was happy with the murder, he had accomplished what he had set out to achieve.

The next morning when Elizabeth’s body was found the entire city was shocked by the randomness and brutality of the attack. Elizabeth had no enemies and there appeared to be no motive for the murder. The police canvassed the area and placed a mannequin dressed like Elizabeth at the bus stop where she was last seen. A door-to-door knock was also done, and posters put up around the area in case someone had seen something but it was all in vain.

Two days after the murder of Elizabeth Stevens, Paul and Sharon along with the rest of the Denyer family celebrated Richard’s birthday. After the party Maureen drove Sharon and Paul home – the murder of Elizabeth came up in the conversation. Sharon said to Maureen that Paul would have been the first one under suspicion because he was in the area that night. Denyer sat in the car and said nothing.

Sharon was concerned that her partner may be question and possibly arrested though he was – so she thought- innocent. Little did she know but the man she loved was a murderer.

 

The attack on Roszsa Toth

Three weeks later on Thursday July 8, 1993, Paul again had a taste for blood. His last murder had been so successful that he used the same mode again. He decided to try near the local Langwarrin train station. He crouched behind some bushes and waited for the right victim to come by.

Forty-one year old bank clerk Roszsa Toth walked home along the same path from the train station to her home as she did most days, this time however a murderer was watching her from the shadows. As Roszsa walked past Denyer he grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth as he had done to Elizabeth, telling her that if she screamed he would kill her. But Roszsa put up a strong fight. As Denyer tried to pull Roszsa into the brush of the park, she  struggled so much that she was able to momentarily escape.

Denyer pounced on his victim, grabbing her by the hair and throwing her to the ground, but Roszsa was prepared to fight for her life, she bit into Denyer’s hand and screamed at him as he pulled large clumps of hair from her head. He yelled back at her,

“Shut up, shut up, shut up or I’ll blow your fucking head off”

But it had little effect on Roszsa, she fought him until she got away from him, and ran onto the road to flag down the first car that came past.

Denyer ran away into the night, while Roszsa got into the car and asked the driver to call the police, telling him she had just been attacked. The police arrived- but there was not sign of her assailant. Police first assumed that the attack was a bag-snatch gone wrong. However by the end of the night they knew that Roszsa was lucky to have escaped with her life as later the same evening the attacker struck again, this time he killed the victim.

Denyer had ran up onto the train station and caught the next train heading to Frankston, Denyer alighted at Kananook and wandered over the railway bridge looking for another victim.

The murder of Debbie Fream

Twenty-two year old Debbie Fream was a new mum. Twelve days earlier she had given birth to a healthy baby boy who she and her partner had named Jake. On the evening of July 8, 1993 as Roszsa was being attacked Debbie began making dinner for her new little family. She went to the fridge and realised she was out of milk. She kissed her husband and son good-bye and drove to the local milk bar in McCulloch Avenue Seaford in her trusty grey Pulsar.

She parked out the front of the tiny corner store and walked inside to purchase eggs, milk, cigarettes and some chocolate. While she was inside the store Denyer slid into the back seat of Debbie’s car and waited for her to return. Though Denyer noticed the car had a brand new baby seat – he did not care, the woman he was stalking was the next victim to die.

Debbie dumped her shopping on the passenger-seat beside her and started the car, looking out into the darkness. She was unaware that Denyer was crouching in the back. Debbie put on her indicator and looked around before beginning to make a u-turn to head back home to her new family.

Denyer sat up in the back of the car and startled Debbie. In fact the scare  made her clip the side of the milk bar as she tried to regain control of the car. Denyer demanded that she keep driving giving her instructions on the route he wanted her to take. He told her that he would kill her if she did not do as she was told. Paul held the fake gun at Debbie’s head to show her he was serious. Debbie tried to plead with Denyer to let her go, she had just had a baby and needed to get home to him. But her pleas fell on deaf ears, all Denyer said to her was that if she didn’t do as she was told he would ‘decorate the car with her brains’

Denyer guided Debbie to a secluded spot and told Debbie to stop the car close to a clump of trees. In his pocket, Denyer had his make-shift murder kit consisting of a length of cord and his homemade knife.

As Debbie walked away from her car, as she was instructed, Denyer slipped the cord around her throat from behind. At first, in the darkness Debbie had not seen what Denyer had done, so he told her to feel at her neck to see what he had just placed around it. As she put her hands to her throat Denyer pulled the cord tight. He struggled with the young mother until she finally passed out and collapsed at his feet.

Once she was unconscious Denyer took his knife from his pocket and began to stab into the body of his victim. He stabbed Debbie’s throat, her chest and her stomach. Denyer then tore of her white jumper and stabbed her in the stomach and breasts.

Debbie was still breathing shallowly after the savage attack – air was escaping from her lungs and bubbling through the multiple stab wounds in her throat. Denyer could not stand the noise and so stabbed Debbie in the throat again.

When Denyer was sure that Debbie was dead, he dragged her ravaged body into the clump of trees, concealing his crime with branches he broke off the surrounding trees. Denyer then picked up the  knife he had dropped while concealing the body and drove away in the young mother’s car.

Denyer dumped the car near his flat and walked back to the apartment in time to organise to pick up Sharon from Kananook Station in his own car. It was as if nothing had happened.

The next morning Paul returned to his victim’s dump car and raided it, he threw away the groceries, took the cigarettes and the $20 she had remaining in her purse. He then buried her purse with her identification in it at the nearby golf course.

When Denyer returned to the flat he cleaned his knife and then took it apart, concealing it in the laundry’s air vent.

Paul was feeling good, so far he had committed two murders and no one suspected him.

Debbie’s body was located four days later.

 

The murder of Natalie Russell

The next murder Denyer planned in advance, he was going to leave nothing to chance, the escape by one of his last victims made him think that he needed to be sure he could subdue them quickly.

So on the morning of Friday 30 July, 1993, Denyer drove his car to the bike track between the Peninsular and Long Island Golf Courses. In the cyclone fencing he cut three large holes, large enough to fit his victim and himself through in one swift movement. He then returned home to  get ready for murder. He packed his knife and a length of leather strapping to strangle his victims with.

At 2.30pm the same day, Denyer returned to the spot where he had cut the holes in the fence and waited. He waited for a woman, any woman to walk by, many people used the track between the golf courses and Denyer knew he would not have to wait long before someone perfect came by.

Denyer had his plan all complete. He would just hang around until the right person walked passed. He would then follow her along the track until she reached the holes in the fence where Denyer would subdue the victim from behind. He would grab her and drag her through the fence to a secluded spot where he would then proceed to murder her.

Just before 3pm, Denyer spotted his next victim. Seventeen year old Natalie Russell was walking home along the bike track as she did every day. It was the most direct route to her house from John Paul College where she in her a final year.

As Natalie walked along the path Denyer began to follow her at a distance. As she got closer to the holes in the fence, Denyer closed the gap between them, in his confession Denyer later told police ’just when I got to that hole, I quickly walked up behind her and stuck my left hand around her mouth and held the knife to her throat’.

Natalie at first struggled against her attacker and Denyer cut his own finger while trying to subdue her in the attack. Natalie panciked and tried to free herself from the strong-hold that the heavy-set Denyer had on her but he just tightened his grip and threatened her, telling the young student he would slit her throat if she tried to escape.

Denyer’s victim feared for her life, it is quite possible she knew she was about the become the next victim of the murderer dubbed the Frankston Serial Killer by the media. She offered him all the money she had and even offered him sex if he would spare her life. The offer of sex repulsed Denyer. He wondered how a young girl could dare offer her body to him. He rationalised that she was just a dirty tramp and felt no remorse for killing her.

Denyer made Natalie kneel down in front of him, he held his knife close to her eyes making sure that Natalie knew he was going to kill her. Next Denyer pushed the young woman down onto the ground. Natalie saw the opportunity and managed to get up and began screaming, hoping someone would hear her pleas for help.

Denyer grabbed the girl and slashed her face for disobeying his demands. He threw her back down onto her knees, screaming at her to shut up, but Natalie was terrified and kept pleading with Denyer to leave her alone.

However Natalie’s pleas for her life fell on deaf ears, Denyer was only thinking about murder. The same violent fantasies he had been having since he was only fourteen, the fantasies he had made into his reality.

Pulling the leather strap from his pocket, Denyer wrapped it around Natalie’s throat and pulled it tighter and tighter, strangling the life out of the student. Finally after several minutes Natalie stopped struggling against Denyer and fell forward onto her stomach, in the fall, the strap around her throat snapped, she was still alive and her body convulsed as she gasped for breath. She rolled onto her back trying to catch her breath.

Denyer grabbed his knife and kicked Natalie back over onto her stomach, he pulled her head back by her hair, plunged the knife into her neck and slit her throat from ear to ear.  IN his confession Denyer claimed, “She sort of started to faint and then when she was weak… I grabbed the opportunity of throwing her head back and (made) one large cut which sort of cut almost her whole head off. And then she slowly died”

Denyer remembered the ghastly gurgling sounds of his last victim Debbie Fream had made as she was dying. This time, he pushed his finger and thumb into the cut in Natalie’s throat and squeezed her oesophagus, twisting it until he was sure she was dead. Denyer enjoyed watched the life escape from the young girl’s tortured body.

Denyer enjoyed telling the police about having his fingers enmeshed in the woman’s vocal cords, showing them how far along his hand he had inside her throat.

After Natalie was dead, Denyer continued to cut her face and then enjoyed kicking her lifeless body repeatedly – just to make sure she was dead.

When Denyer was finished with Natalie’s body he just left it where it was and climbed back through the fence. As he walked towards his car he saw a police officer taking down the details from the registration sticker on the windscreen. The car did not have number plates and Denyer knew it looked suspicious. Denyer quickly left the scene, he walked home from the murder site. Not looking back.

 

The net closes in

Denyer called Sharon as always and planned to meet her at the train station, the couple then went and picked up the car and drove to Sharon’s mother’s house for dinner.

The police were horrified when the body of Natalie was found only eight hours after the attack. They knew if they did not catch the killer he would continue to kill, each attack was more violent, the damage inflicted on each victim was escalating. The killer was obviously completely out of control.

This time the police were in luck, when the crime scene investigators arrived and checked Natalie’s bodies for any possible clues, they saw the killer had finally slipped up.

Stuck to Natalie’s skin in a smear of dried blood was a tiny piece of skin. It did not belong to Natalie so it must belong to the killer. The piece of skin was preserved for DNA testing, when the police had a suspect they would be able to test his DNA against the skin.

Also in the days running sheets was a report about a suspicious car parked near the scene of the crime. The car was missing it’s number plates so the officer at the scene had taken down extensive details from the car’s registration label.

The police knew that the car could be another piece in the puzzle and wasted no time in checking the cars details in the Motor Registry’s vehicle owners computer database. Soon a name flashed on the computer’s screen: Paul Charles Denyer.

The officers were sure they had their man, a large group of them piled into police cars and headed to the flats on Dandenong Road where Paul lived. However when Det Mick Hughes knocked on the door no one answered. The couple were out for dinner with Sharon’s mother.

So Det Hughes slipped his business card under the door asking them to call when they got home, just part of their routine enquiries.

Sharon opened the door when the couple got home to their flat and saw the business card that had been pushed under their door. She called the name on the card and was told the same story again, that police were just checking everyone in the neighbourhood in case they had seen something.

The officer asked if they could come around to talk to her and Paul. Sharon said it was fine, Denyer had no idea that police believed him to be their number one suspect.

The police taskforce wasted no time in bashing down Denyer’s apartment door. Paul was quite surprised to see so many police there just for a routine check but still suspected nothing.

Denyer happily answered questions asked of him about his car being at the scene of the crime. He explained that it had broken down the day before and he was going to get back to get it later that day. He also explained that he did not have the number plates for the car, but was trying to fix the car and had a special permit to drive it for twenty-eight days without plates.

One of the officers standing in the tiny flat noted the fresh cuts on Denyer’s hands, particularly the cut that looked like it matched the piece sitting in the police laboratory.

When asked directly if he had anything to do with the murder of Natalie Russell or the other two women, Denyer denied any knowledge of the cases except what had been on the news and in the newspapers. Denyer’s feeble attempt to lie to the police was obvious and he was asked to accompany them to the police station to answer some further questions.

It was now the early hours on August 1, 1993, the police knew that Denyer was feeling the pressure and it would only be a matter of time before he confessed.

Denyer was put into one of the interview rooms and was formally read his rights by Det Darren O’Loughlin, he was then asked to submit a blood sample.

The response was what the police had been waiting for.

“Have you got something to DNA (test)? When they get the blood will the DNA match? Ok, I killed them, all three of them”

The murder spree of the Frankston serial killer, Paul Denyer was over. Police now interviewed Denyer to try and understand why he had killed the three women and attacked a fourth.

Denyer told the police matter-of-factly how he had committed the murders of the women in detail, he never showed any revulsion or remorse, he spoke in a monotonous tone, even when telling the police about squeezing Natalie’s throat he showed no emotion.

According to Paul he had been stalking women for years, he had known it would lead to murder but he was just waiting for the sign.

The police then asked the most important question, why did he kill the women.

Denyer sat and pondered the question, it was apparently the first time he had to think about the reasons why he had brutally murdered his three victims.

He answered in a monotone voice.

   “I just hate them”

It was an extremely simplistic answer, to a perplexing question, so the officer questioned Denyer further, asking if he hated all women or just those he ruthlessly murderer.

Denyer was quick to answer, in a tone barely above a whisper on the recording.

   “In general”

He shrugged his shoulders, dismissing the heinous crimes he had committed. Paul was formally charged with the murders of Natalie Russell, Debbie Fream and Elizabeth Stevens as well as the attempted murder of Roszsa Toth. The charge of attempted murder was later amended to the lesser charge of abduction. Denyer was booked to appear in court on December 15, 1993 to answer the charges against him.

Denyer pleaded guilty to all charges filed against him and five days later was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility if parole. His file was marked “never to be released” the harshest sentence available in Australia. An additional eight years was also added to the sentence for the abduction of Roszsa Toth.

On July 29, 1994 Denyer appealed to the High Court of Victoria against the severity of his sentence and was finally granted a non-parole period of thirty years meaning that when Denyer is in his early fifties he will be eligible for parole.

Since his incarceration, Denyer has been in the news several times, most notably in 2004 when he attempted to have the Victorian Government pay for a sex change operation.