The Frankston Serial Killer

by Vikki Petraitis

  After Denyer was sentenced 'never to be released', Justice Vincent turned to the court guards and said, 'You may remove the prisoner from the dock.'

  The reality hit Bernadette Naughton. Up until that point, Denyer had been referred to in court as 'the accused' - now he was officially 'the prisoner'. Natalie Russell's aunt knew well the premise: innocent until proven guilty. Even though Paul Denyer had confessed, he had now officially been found guilty. It was a huge relief.

  The following day, the front cover of the Herald Sun featured a large picture of Sharon Johnson wearing a long blonde wig under the banner, 'I Love Him'. She said in an interview on the TV tabloid show, Real Life, 'I still love him. I'll stand by him a hundred per cent, not for what he has done, but I stand by him for the person he is.'

  Pentridge Prison, Monday 27 December 1993

  Hi again.

  I hope you all had a good Christmas and by the time you get this it will probably be New Years, so happy New Year too.

  Christmas was all right considering the environment I'm in. We are quite well. I can say that much anyway. We had the Salvation Army and other fellowship groups bringing in small gifts. What was missing though was Sharon but I guess this feeling will get easier as the years go on.

  So no doubt you have heard the outcome of the trial. Well it's justice for those people who are hurt and that's what's more important. I had my say in court too. I got to say that I'm sorry and promise to better myself. I don't know if they would have printed that in the paper up there, but that's straight from the horse's mouth. The media always blow things out of proportion just to sell papers.

  Well you wanted to know how much of it was true. To be certainly honest with you, I didn't read any articles but my guess is that only ten per cent of it would be true. The Herald Sun are well known for that.

  I don't know if you saw Sharon on TV. She was on Real Life just telling the people what I'm really like and how I just went off the path of life. I saw it that night and I was amazed at how little true feelings of mine they said.

  Sharon was well disguised though and she hasn't had anyone approaching her. She meant every word of it too. Well I won't say too much because I don't know if you saw it. But my guess is the publicity was increased more up where you are.

  My day in court went quite smooth. I wore my black suit and red tie that Sharon brought in for me. But never seen on TV either.

  I had a little bit of shit from other prisoners lately. But most of them are stupid and don't understand the in between the lines on the case. Most just chastise me to escape their own problems and charges. It will all die down soon enough.

  But I'm doing fine myself. I've completed about 400 pages in my journal and diary. I write about anything I think of, my hobbies, days in court, religion and anything. I've estimated about 7000 pages would be done by the time I'm released.

  I'm changing my name too. I don't know what it will be as yet but after the publicity is gone, I will see legal aid and get it done.

  I haven't done much today, just watch some TV and made my phone calls to Sharon. She's coping quite well in fact.

  Anyway, I will close at this for now but I will write again soon.

  PS, I like the sound of Jason's new car. I don't know about anyone else but a HQ Holden will do me fine.

  Anyway, write to you soon.

  Happy New Year,

  Paul Denyer xxxxx

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Paul Charles Denyer

  Paul Denyer aged nine

  On 16 June 1826, a farmer called Fredrick Fisher disappeared walking home from the local pub on the outskirts of Campbelltown. On a moonlit night a couple of months later another local, John Farley, was driving his empty dray back from Sydney. Farley passed Fisher's property and to his surprise, recognised his friend Fisher sitting on the farm gate. Farley called out to him but, as legend had it, Fisher didn't reply. Instead, he seemed to glide across the moonlit paddock in the direction of an adjoining farm belonging to George Worrall. Worrall was later hanged for Fisher's murder and Fisher's Ghost entered the annals of Campbelltown folklore.

  It was in Campbelltown that Paul Denyer's parents, Anthony and Maureen, settled after migrating from the United Kingdom as 'ten-pound Poms' in 1965. They stayed for a short time in Adelaide before moving their growing family to Campbelltown. When the children were older, the family moved to Melbourne.

  Maureen and Anthony Denyer's first child, David, was born in 1963, about 18 months before the couple migrated to Australia. Five others followed: Steve in 1971, Paul in 1972, Richard in 1974, and twins Anthony and Natalie in 1976.

  When Paul was a baby, his mother Maureen recalls him rolling off a bench and knocking his head. Occasionally, his childhood misdeeds were flippantly attributed to the knock on the head.

  At kindergarten, Paul Denyer didn't mix too easily but by the time he started school, his social skills with other children had improved. Academically, he struggled at school right from the beginning. Taller than the other children his age and with a propensity towards being overweight, Paul became known as a bit of a trouble maker. Most of his primary teachers agreed that he was hard to motivate and that if he had applied himself, he could have done much better.

  Just as Paul began to finally settle, his father accepted a job offer in Melbourne and the family uprooted to a rented house in Mulgrave and Paul was enrolled in Northvale Primary School.

  By the time he got to Grade 6, Paul was overweight and much taller than most of his class mates. Even so, he tended to disappear into the background in his final year of primary school, a fact that his Grade 6 teacher attributes to the dynamics of the group. There were a number of troublesome boys in the class and Paul never got to assert himself.

  However, there was one incident his Grade 6 teacher never forgot: the day Paul Denyer nearly killed one of his class mates. The children were all returning from a physical education lesson and one boy ran back before the others. He was standing by the door chewing on the blunt end of a pen. As Paul Denyer walked through the doorway, the boy made a derogatory comment to him and in the blink of an eye, Paul lifted his hand and viciously slapped the boy across the face, hitting the pen and shoving it deeply into the boy's mouth. The pen lodged in the boy's throat, missing his windpipe by only a few millimetres. An ambulance was called and the boy was rushed to hospital.

  Paul Denyer was unemotional and unrepentant. Later, when the shaken teacher tried to discuss the incident with him, Paul merely shrugged. He wouldn't explain why he did it and he wasn't sorry.

  Aside from that one visible loss of control, Paul was basically a quiet student. He struggled academically and his teacher would often sit by him and help him with his work. He didn't really seem interested in academic achievement, a fact his teacher put down to a self-esteem problem. Paul was isolated from the group and had no friends; other children tended to keep away from him. So great was his ability to fade into the background, Paul's Grade 6 teacher says that if it weren't for that violent incident and his large size, she would hardly have remembered him. He was so quiet and well behaved that the incident with the pen stood out, as did his complete lack of emotion with everything he did.

  While Paul Denyer may have faded into the background at school, at home was another matter. His family noticed a number of strange events occurring around the house. When Natalie Denyer was seven years old, her brother David gave her two big Care Bears. One day she went into her room to find the two bears had their throats cut and most of the stuffing pulled out. When confronted with the mutilated toys, Paul merely smirked at accusations that he had done it. It was the same as his reaction to the pen incident at school - no emotion, no feeling.

  Another time, Natalie found her favourite Agro toy buried in the back yard.

  When Paul was 10 years old, his brother found the family's kitten hanging dead in a tree. Its throat had been cut. Paul said that somebody in the neighbourhood mustn't like them, but when his brother demanded to see his po
cket knife, it was smeared with fur and blood.

  Four days before his 13th birthday, Paul Denyer was charged with the theft of a motor vehicle and cautioned as a juvenile. Two months later, he was charged with theft and wilful damage and making a false report to the fire brigade. In September 1987, aged 15, Denyer was charged with assault; he had made another boy masturbate in front of some other children.

  By the time the family moved to Long Street, Langwarrin in 1987, Maureen and her husband had separated, David had left home, and Paul had dropped out of school and begun walking around the streets most evenings. His family thought little of his nocturnal wanderings; they had no inkling of his urges to kill. He was still overweight and they figured that the exercise would do him good. It wasn't long before he began what was to become four years of stalking women and mapping out plans for his eventual murders.

  Paul Denyer aged seventeen

  Denyer was once caught looking through the window at Melissa, his brother Steve's girlfriend, as she undressed. Fumbling with the buckle of her jeans, Melissa noticed a figure at her window. Hurrying over, she flung it open and saw Paul staring at her transfixed.

  'Paul, Paul,' she said, waving her hand in front of his face a number of times before his eyes lost the glazed look that she had never seen before. 'What are you doing?' she yelled at him. He came to his senses and ran away.

  When she told Steve what his brother had done, he angrily confronted Paul and told him what he would do if he ever caught him looking at Melissa again. Paul never did, he simply took his strange habits elsewhere, leaving the family oblivious to his increasingly bizarre behaviour.

  Paul spent a lot of time with his brothers, Steve and Richard, because he didn't really have any friends of his own. The boys were all close and Richard and Steve never minded Paul tagging along. They felt they had to look out for him because he was socially inept, although around his brothers he was good company, known for his jokes and his happy disposition.

  In fact, the Denyer clan never really needed anyone else. Although Steve and Richard were very popular, they were just as happy to hang out together; the family was big enough to be an instant crowd. Steve's girlfriend Melissa fitted right in and they would all sit around watching videos - usually comedies but sometimes horror movies - or listening to music. Occasionally, they would all take off and drive down to Taylors Road in Carrum Downs and smoke marijuana.

  Maureen Denyer never approved of the kids smoking dope and consequently, the teenagers took off to find other places. Taylors Road was a favourite place because it was so isolated and the chances of getting caught were slim. When Paul smoked the drug he became mellow and happy. He loved listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Melissa was trying to teach him the basics of guitar. He wasn't very good but the family would listen to him and encourage his hobby.

  Maureen Denyer struggled to keep a comfortable home for her children. Now a single mother, she worked as a cleaner and then came home, cleaned, shopped and put food on the table. Every evening, the family would sit around the table and eat fresh bread with the simple but well-cooked meals that she prepared. Afterwards, Maureen would be on her hands and knees scrubbing the floors and keeping the house spotlessly clean.

  The Denyer family had no idea of the homicidal thoughts that occupied Paul's mind, although they did notice that he day-dreamed a lot. He would stare into space with a blank look on his face and sometimes laugh for no reason. But these aberrations were slight and, to his family, Paul was normal and happy.

  Paul's eldest brother David went to the United Kingdom for a holiday in 1989, and stayed with his uncle Tom and his aunt Julie. David soon began a relationship with his aunt, whom he married the following year after she divorced Tom.

  When David returned home to Australia in May 1990, with Julie and her two children, it set something in motion within the family. When his mother collected them from the airport, David announced that she was to acknowledge Julie's children - Maureen's actual niece and nephew - as her grandchildren instead.

  It wasn't a good start. Maureen was embarrassed about what David had done; it was her brother's wife who David had stolen.

  Despite Maureen's discomfort, the Denyers tried to make David and Julie and her children feel welcome. David was adored by his brothers and sister. Being the eldest, he had become something of a substitute father after his parents' divorce and they all looked up to him. He was smooth and charming. But Julie didn't try to fit in and it wasn't long before trouble began.

  Steve drove David around looking for furniture, lending him money to buy mattresses for the children's beds and, on occasions, letting him use his car. David crashed this car and didn't offer to pay for the damage. Nor did he offer to pay Steve back for the beds.

  A couple of weeks after David and Julie arrived in Melbourne, Julie sent Maureen a letter:

  Maureen,

  This will be the last time your ever hear from Dave and myself, but before we go off completely I would like to let you know how we feel. I was willing to make things work with you. I had a chat to you on the phone before we left England. I could see from that phone call you were not interested in trying, but still I gave you a chance. From the time we all met at the airport, you ignored not only myself, but my children. I can handle you not talking to me as you are not the sort of person I would like to associate with anyway. But for David's sake, I was willing to give you a go.

  So now you have made it quite plain you do not wish to be grandmother to my children, not even for your own son's sake. Just shows us how much you think of your son. As far as seeing your new grandchild goes, you can forget it, he or she will not even be told about you, our baby deserves better than you can ever give. I think you fall into the same category as David's father. I find the family greatly lacking in grey matter between the ears.

  Tom's the best out of the lot of you, he just needs to stand on his own feet. David's brothers and sister are all very nice and thank God have minds of their own. They know the way we feel about you so it's up to them if they wish to come to see us. But they will always be welcome in our home, you will never be. I will close now, I think I have said everything I wanted to say to you, Maureen. At least I can never be accused of being two faced. I have always told your dear mother what I thought and now I am letting you know too.

  Thanks for nothing,

  Julie

  The next thing they knew, David and Julie had taken out restraining orders on the whole family except the twins who were only in their early teens. Puzzled by the court orders, Steve and Melissa drove around to David's house. They knew that David was having problems with Maureen, but they couldn't understand why David would issue court orders against his brothers as well. Steve wanted to sort out the trouble that had begun and he wanted to know why David was distancing himself from the family. His brother wasn't home, so Steve and Melissa waited for a while in their car until he returned.

  Melissa remained in the car while Steve went to the door to speak to David. He returned to the car 10 minutes later and they left. Melissa had never seen Steve so upset. He had tried to ask David about the court orders, but David refused to discuss the matter and threatened to call the police.

  Steve Denyer couldn't understand why his brother did what he did and he never saw the money for his wrecked car or the money he lent David for the beds.

  Later, after Paul's arrest, David told the police how Paul had followed him and had once threatened Julie when he ran into her while she was shopping at Frankston.

  While the media made much out of this incident, Richard Denyer's girlfriend, who was with Paul at the time, witnessed his outburst to Julie and claimed that Paul's anger was proportionate to what David had done and the grief he had caused. Indeed, the whole family was angry with him.

  Not long after David and Julie returned to the United Kingdom, in 1992, Richard Denyer approached a Frankston real estate agent to rent a flat. When he gave his surname, the agent told him that they wouldn't rent to
him because his brother David had skipped owing them so much money.

  After the murders David told a current affairs program, via satellite from the United Kingdom, that Julie might have been one of Paul's victims had they remained in Australia. While that is debatable, mid-1990 was certainly a high stress period for Paul Denyer.

  Continuing his almost nightly routine of long walks, Paul struck trouble one night. Melissa and Steve were in bed asleep when they were awakened by a banging on the door. They opened it to Paul covered in blood and an ambulance in the driveway. He was as white as a ghost and explained that he had been stabbed. A paramedic had urged Paul to go to hospital but the young man had insisted the ambulance bring him home. Apparently he had been stabbed in the car park of the Langwarrin Hotel restaurant and had staggered inside and they had called the ambulance. Paul had instructed the ambulance to take him home rather than to the hospital because he wasn't a subscriber to the ambulance fund and was worried about the cost of the trip. He wanted Steve to drive him instead. Steve quickly dressed and rushed his brother to the hospital.

  Detective Colin Clark, who later worked on the Frankston murder investigations with the homicide squad, was called in by uniformed officers to investigate the stabbing. He drove to the car park and saw a large amount of blood and figured that this was where the stabbing occurred.

  Just as he was about to drive to the hospital to interview Paul Denyer, a call came over the radio informing him that the victim did not want to press charges against his attackers and wanted the investigation dropped. Colin Clark shrugged and went on with other pressing duties, figuring that the victim probably knew his attackers; the fight may have been over something that they didn't want brought to the attention of the police.