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Commissioner Chris Dawson was Appointed in 2017 as the Commissioner of Police for Western Australia,

How a controversial DNA test changed the course of the Claremont serial killings investigation
By Andrea Mayes
1st February 2020

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-01/dna-discovery-ciara-glennon-changed-claremont-killings-probe/11914424
PHOTO: DNA captured from Ciara Glennon's body provided a breakthrough in the Claremont serial killings investigation. (ABC News)

Who were the Claremont victims?
Sarah Spiers. Jane Rimmer. Ciara Glennon. Three women whose names were etched into Perth's consciousness more than 20 years ago.
PHOTO: Ciara Glennon's body was found in bushland in Perth's northern suburbs. (ABC News)
PHOTO: DNA evidence helped convict Bradley Murdoch of Peter Falconio's murder. (AAP)
PHOTO: Joanne Lees with her boyfriend Peter Falconio, who was murdered by Bradley Murdoch in 2001. (AAP)
PHOTO: Edwards has admitted raping a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 after abducting her as she walked home from Claremont at night. (ABC: Emma Wynne)
 
The murders that rocked Perth
RN's The History Listen examines the case that's transfixed Perth for decades.

Guilty plea rocks Claremont trial
Bradley Edwards has pleaded guilty to raping a teen girl in a cemetery and attacking an 18-year-old woman in her home.
PHOTO: Edwards has admitted raping a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 after abducting her as she walked home from Claremont at night. (ABC: Emma Wynne)

It was the eureka moment for which detectives investigating the Claremont serial killings had waited over a decade.
In January 2009, a crucial link was made between the apparent murders of three young women after they vanished from the streets of the Claremont entertainment precinct in 1996 and 1997 and the brutal rape of a teenage girl in 1995 as she walked home from Claremont at night.
The disappearances of receptionist Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare assistant Jane Rimmer, 23, and 27-year-old lawyer Ciara Glennon had shocked Perth, even more so when the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were found in bushland weeks after they were last seen.
But despite unprecedented publicity and police appeals for help, there had been no arrest.
While little appeared to be happening publicly, behind the scenes the Macro Task Force — set up specifically to investigate the case — was working diligently to find the killer.

In June 2008 then-deputy police commissioner Chris Dawson ordered a review of potential lines of inquiry, asking his team to pursue testing of the forensic evidence overseas, where more advanced techniques were being used.
Police forensic expert Sergeant George Paton, together with Laurie Webb, a senior scientist at PathWest, the state's pathology laboratory, were tasked with taking key samples that had been retrieved from Ms Glennon's body to the UK for testing.
More viable samples could be extracted from Ms Glennon's body than from Ms Rimmer's, as it had been discovered 19 days after her disappearance. In contrast, Ms Rimmer's body had been exposed to the elements for 55 days before being found.
Nonetheless, both bodies were significantly decomposed and much of the important forensic material police might expect to find at a crime scene was no longer present.

DNA technique used in Falconio murder
By 2008, various samples from the bodies of Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer had already been subjected to a variety of forensic testing, both in Australia and New Zealand, but nothing of note had been discovered and detectives were desperate for a breakthrough in the long-running case.
The UK testing — using a highly specialised technique unavailable in Australia at the time that amplifies the tiniest fragments of tissue samples — proved pivotal.
Low Copy Number (LCN) testing had been used in the UK for a number of years by then and had been employed to solve cold case murders and other serious crimes within Britain and elsewhere.

This included the murder of young British backpacker Peter Falconio in Barrow Creek, in the Northern Territory, in July 2001.
His killer, Bradley Murdoch, was arrested because his DNA was found on three crucial exhibits — the t-shirt Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees was wearing on the night he attacked the pair, the gearstick from the couple's Kombi van and the makeshift handcuffs he used to bind her hands together.
Initially only the t-shirt had yielded traces of Murdoch's DNA, but a closer examination of samples from the gearstick and handcuffs by Jonathan Whitaker of the UK's Forensic Science Service, using the LCN technique, found microscopic DNA samples that matched Murdoch.
But the LCN technique has not been without controversy.
In 2007, the year before the Claremont samples were sent to the UK, use of LCN was temporarily suspended by British authorities following the Omagh bombings trial, in which Sean Hoey was acquitted of the murders of 29 people in Northern Ireland in 1998.
The judge in that trial had concluded that LCN testing — on which much of the Omagh evidence centred — was unreliable, but the suspension was lifted after an investigation found it to be a sound technique for detecting DNA.

Karrakatta rape link discovered
Four samples from Ms Glennon's fingernails were taken to the UK, along with eyelash and hair samples.

In the UK lab, a decision was made to combine two of the samples, known as AJM 40 and AJM 42, which comprised scrapings from Ms Glennon's left thumbnail and middle fingernail.

Question: Why were the two DNA samples AJM 40 and AJM 42 combined? 

Question: Why were the two DNA samples AJM 40 and AJM 42 tested using the new controversial LCN technique, rather than testing them separately.

Once this combined sample was tested, a breakthrough finally came.
DNA from an unknown male was discovered on the sample by Dr Whitaker, the same DNA expert involved in the Falconio case.
Details of this tiny DNA sample were entered into both the UK and Australian databases, but no match was found.

But on January 16, 2009, the eureka moment came.
Having returned from London, Laurie Webb entered the unknown man's DNA onto the WA database — and there was a match.
The sample matched DNA extracted from intimate swabs taken from a 17-year-old girl raped in February 1995 at Karrakatta Cemetery, leading police to believe the same perpetrator was responsible for murdering Ms Glennon.

It would be close to another eight years before police were able to identify their suspect — Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards — through a convoluted trail of evidence from a series of crimes he committed as early as 1988.
These included the Karrakatta Cemetery rape, to which Edwards admitted just weeks before his murder trial was due to start
But this vital DNA breakthrough that prosecutors argue links the rape with the murders came under the spotlight this week in the WA Supreme Court and is expected to be the focus of the trial in the coming weeks.

The crucial PathWest testimony
The evidence of PathWest staff — which began on Thursday when forensic scientist Anna-Marie Ashley took the stand — will be pivotal to the case against Edwards.
Ms Ashley outlined in painstaking detail the way PathWest received samples from both the Karrakatta rape victim and Ms Glennon's post-mortem examination, and the administrative processes involved in labelling and documenting the items, storing them, extracting sub-samples from the main samples and analysing them.

Every step of the process has been laid bare, underscoring the importance of this evidence to the case.
Samples from the rape victim were held in the same laboratory and analysed by the same PathWest scientists as the Glennon samples, and the possibility of cross-contamination between the samples is something the defence has already flagged as a major focus.
Defence counsel Paul Yovich SC said in his opening address, "exhibit handling, recording and forensic processing protocols were not always satisfactory".
While Edwards has conceded it is his DNA on Ms Glennon's fingernail samples, Mr Yovich has indicated he would try to cast reasonable doubt on how it got there.
In his opening address, he questioned whether the DNA came from her fingernails, "or perhaps from the sides of the yellow-top containers in which that debris had been stored, or perhaps from a combination of some or all of these things".

The prosecution has been trying to head off any suggestion by the defence that the samples could somehow have got mixed up in the PathWest laboratory.
This scenario could explain how Edwards's DNA came to be found on Ms Glennon's fingernail samples, a possibility hinted at by defence counsel Paul Yovich SC in his opening address.
Mr Yovich said at the time there were four occasions when DNA from PathWest scientists were found on exhibits relating to Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer, suggesting the processes were not adequately followed in the lab.
"The process of collection, storage, handling and examination of exhibits will be live in the trial, especially when we say there are large gaps in the chain of continuity of important exhibits and also where exhibit handling, recording and forensic processing protocols were not always satisfactory," Mr Yovich said.
​

State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC, in contrast, has stated firmly that "DNA within a particular sample doesn't just fly around a laboratory".

Key parts of the defence's argument are expected to be revealed when Mr Yovich begins what is expected to be a robust line of questioning of Ms Ashley on Monday.

Claremont serial killings trial hears how hairs linked suspect Lance Williams to Ciara Glennon
By Andrea Mayes- 5th February 2020 ABC News
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-05/claremont-trial-hears-hear-linked-lance-williams-ciara-glennon/11933

The men accused of the Claremont killings
A number of men were in the frame for the shocking crimes, including one who was relentlessly pursued as the prime suspect.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-17/claremont-serial-killer-trial-the-wrong-suspects/11147118

The Claremont serial killings
Three young Perth women disappeared in the mid-1990s. Two decades later, a man faces court.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/how-the-claremont-serial-killings-shocked-perth-to-its-core/9490836

PHOTO: Lance Williams was considered by police for many years to be the prime suspect in the Claremont serial killings. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Ciara Glennon, 27, disappeared on March 15, 1997. (Fairfax Media)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-05/ciara-glennon-individual-photo/11933702
Ciara Glennon individual photo
Ciara Glennon, 27, disappeared on March 15, 1997.
Fairfax Media

PHOTO: Ciara Glennon's father, Denis Glennon, has been a fixture at court. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-05/denis-glennon/11933708
Denis Glennon
Posted yesterday at 6:53am
Ciara Glennon's father, Denis Glennon, has been a fixture at court.
ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn

PHOTO: Ms Rimmer's watch was found the same day she disappeared, not far from where her body lay. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-12/watch-belonging-to-jane-rimmer-found-near-her-body-in-wellard/11794022
Watch belonging to Jane Rimmer found near her body in Wellard
Posted 12 Dec 2019, 5:42am
Ms Rimmer's watch was found the same day she disappeared, not far from where her body lay.
Supplied: Supreme Court of WA

Key points:
Lance Williams was a suspect because he used to cruise the streets of Claremont
He was under close surveillance for more than a year, but was never charged
Telstra technician Bradley Edwards is on trial accused of killing the three women

RELATED STORY: Forensic expert tells Claremont trial DNA doesn't 'just fly about' as defence argument tested
RELATED STORY: Claremont trial told of graphic injuries found on Ciara Glennon, Jane Rimmer

Lance Williams
Updated yesterday at 6:35am
Lance Williams was considered by police for many years to be the prime suspect in the Claremont serial killings.
ABC News
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-17/csk-lance-williams/11147360

Hairs taken from the clothing worn by lawyer Ciara Glennon on the night she was murdered were identified by scientists as a possible match with public servant Lance Williams, a long-term suspect in the Claremont serial killings, a Perth court has been told.
Former Telstra technician Bradley Edwards, 51, is standing trial for the murder of 27-year-old Ms Glennon, as well as Sarah Spiers, 18, and 23-year-old Jane Rimmer in 1996 and 1997.
All three women had been enjoying nights out in Claremont when they vanished and only the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon have ever been found.
Scientist Martin Blooms, who worked at state pathology laboratory PathWest from 1994 until 2012, told the triple-murder trial he had examined the clothing Ms Glennon was wearing when her body was discovered in bushland north of Perth on April 3, 1997 — 19 days after she went missing.

Under cross-examination from defence counsel Paul Yovich SC, Mr Blooms said PathWest had several hair samples from Mr Williams, which were compared with hairs recovered from Ms Glennon's skirt, bra and t-shirt.
Several hairs found on Ms Glennon's t-shirt and skirt were a "possible match" for Mr Williams, Mr Blooms said.

But he said hairs were more useful as a tool for excluding suspects from a case than including them, because it was only possible to say a hair sample was "similar" to that of a suspect, not that it definitely came from them.
Mr Williams was for many years considered by police to be the prime suspect in the case because of his habit of cruising around the streets of Claremont late at night, and officers conducted round-the-clock surveillance of him for more than a year.
But despite exhaustive work by police, no forensic evidence was ever found definitively linking him to the crimes.Mr Glennon did not attend court when distressing details of the post-mortem examination conducted on his daughter were recounted in great detail by pathologists and mortuary staff last month.
But he remained in court today for the duration after Justice Hall warned that the photograph was about to be shown.

Father remains in court for graphic evidence
A photograph of Ms Glennon's bra was also shown to the court today, showing significant dark-coloured staining to almost the entire garment.
Before the photograph was shown, state prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC told Justice Stephen Hall Ms Glennon's father Denis was present in the public gallery, and he and other members of the public ought to be given the opportunity to leave the court before it was shown if they wished to do so.
Mr Glennon did not attend court when distressing details of the post-mortem examination conducted on his daughter were recounted in great detail by pathologists and mortuary staff last month.
But he remained in court today for the duration after Justice Hall warned that the photograph was about to be shown.

Asked by Justice Hall what the relevance was to the trial of the hairs found on Ms Glennon's bra, Mr Yovich said one hair in particular had relevance which pertained to "a mitochondrial DNA finding".
But he did not elaborate and the relevance did not become apparent in his cross-examination of Mr Blooms.

Watch not examined, email says
Mr Blooms told the court he had also been involved in the examination of Ms Rimmer's watch, which was found lying on an unsealed road in Wellard on the day she vanished, just metres from where her body lay.
No discernible DNA was recovered from the watch, Mr Blooms said.
Yesterday Mr Blooms was at pains to point out all relevant procedures had been followed in the laboratory in order to appropriately label items and keep them free of contamination.
Today he was shown an email he wrote in 2003 to police in which he admitted that a sonication test he had earlier told police had been conducted on Ms Rimmer's watch had not in fact been done.

Mr Yovich then asked him if he remembered police asking him to be removed from the Claremont case in 2003, shortly after the email was sent.
Mr Blooms said he did not.
Ms Barbagallo objected to Mr Yovich having raised the opinion of police that Mr Blooms be removed from the case, asking whether it was simply "muckraking" to mention it.
Mr Yovich said it was relevant to whether Mr Blooms "did things accurately and correctly" and followed procedures.
Justice Hall said it was only fair that Mr Blooms be given the opportunity to respond to the suggestion, or he "might feel his integrity has been impugned in circumstances where he has no opportunity to meet allegations about his professionalism".
"I think that's a fair concern," he said.
Mr Yovich said he made no assertions about Mr Blooms's honesty or integrity.
Mr Blooms was released from the witness stand, but Justice Hall said he would not excuse him from giving further evidence in case the matter was raised in the testimony of later witnesses.
The trial continues.

VIDEO: A timeline of the Claremont serial killings (ABC News)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-17/a-timeline-of-the-claremont-serial-killings/11701542
A timeline of the Claremont serial killings
Posted 16 Nov 2019, 7:08pm
Three women disappeared from Claremont in the 1990s. Now 20 years later, a man faces court charged with their murders.
Source: ABC News | Duration: 3min 59sec
Topics: crime, murder-and-manslaughter, claremont-6010

VIDEO: Police at Wellard, where Jane Rimmer's body was found
ABC News

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/police-at-wellard,-where-jane-rimmers-body-was/9067570
Police at Wellard, where Jane Rimmer's body was found
13 Aug 2019, 12:16am
Police comb bushland at Wellard, where the body of Jane Rimmer was found. Jane was a victim of the Claremont serial killer.
Source: ABC News | Duration: 12sec

Edwards has admitted raping a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 after abducting her as she walked home from Claremont at night. (ABC: Emma Wynne)

When Ms Glennon’s left middle fingernail was initially tested, only her DNA came up - not Edwards’.
Claremont serial killings: Samples from two victims tested two weeks apart
AAP
Monday, 3 February 2020 
https://7news.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-samples-tested-two-weeks-apart-c-678783

The epic WA Supreme Court trial last week heard when Ms Glennon’s left middle fingernail was initially tested, only her DNA came up - not Edwards’. But in a combined sample with Ms Glennon’s torn left thumbnail in 2008, Edwards’ DNA was detected by UK scientists.

On Monday, the court heard there were three possible explanations -
(a) the clipping never contained Edwards’ DNA,
(b) it was always there but not detected by the technology used at the time, or
(c) it was present but not in the extracts initially analysed.

Asked under cross-examination whether it was ever communicated to her that police were under pressure for results in the case, Ms Ashley replied: “I can’t recall that being communicated to me.”

Ms Ashley said improvements were later made to reduce the chance of contamination in labs, including masks in 2000, hair nets in 2004 and double gloves in 2016.

There was a two-week gap between lab testing on a murder victim’s fingernail sample and a swab from a rape victim, the Claremont serial killings trial has heard, as the defence seeks to establish possible contamination.

Bradley Robert Edwards, 51, admits raping a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 and attacking an 18-year-old woman in Huntingdale in 1988, but denies murdering Sarah Spiers, 18, and Jane Rimmer, 23, in 1996, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1997.
The epic WA Supreme Court trial last week heard when Ms Glennon’s left middle fingernail was initially tested, only her DNA came up - not Edwards’.
But in a combined sample with Ms Glennon’s torn left thumbnail in 2008, Edwards’ DNA was detected by UK scientists.

Three explanations
On Monday, the court heard there were three possible explanations - the clipping never contained Edwards’ DNA, it was always there but not detected by the technology used at the time, or it was present but not in the extracts initially analysed.
There were several tests conducted on various samples and sub-samples in WA over the years.
Pathwest scientist Anna-Marie Ashley testified the rape exhibits were not tested on the same day as Ms Glennon’s nail samples.

In fact, Ms Glennon’s samples were tested two weeks earlier in May 1997, Ms Ashley said.
The defence claims the rape swabs contaminated Ms Glennon’s fingernail exhibits via secondary transfer in the lab.
Asked under cross-examination whether it was ever communicated to her that police were under pressure for results in the case, Ms Ashley replied: “I can’t recall that being communicated to me.”

Ms Ashley said improvements were later made to reduce the chance of contamination in labs, including masks in 2000, hair nets in 2004 and double gloves in 2016.

A map showing Ciara Glennon's last known movements in Claremont before her disappearance in 1997.

Click here to view a video on  a TV information program showing how it looked like outside the Claremont Hotel in 1997

https://gfycat.com/arcticperiodicamericangoldfinch

​Barry Eldon Matthews
Western Australian Police Commissioner: from 21 June 1999 till 20 June 2004

Understood to be well-respected Freemason and a member od a Freemason Red Lodge
Barry Matthews was a career police officer from New Zealand who, after 30 years of service, rose to the rank of Deputy Commissioner. He obtained high academic qualifications and eventually became a Bachelor of Laws. Despite this, he remained with the police after being admitted as a barrister and solicitor. Barry Matthews was the first West Australian Chief of Police to be appointed directly from overseas since 1867.​
During his time in office in WA, Mr Matthews continued with a steady and more deliberate process of reform implementation. As has often been the case in the past, there were differences of opinion with the political wing of Government over the independence of his office. Robust discussion over the issues attracted considerable media attention. The most important event of the Matthews stewardship was a Police Royal Commission that delivered its findings in early 2004. While past abuses of position and trust were identified in some areas, especially in crime detection, the findings where not as damaging as might have been expected. Many serving officers are of the opinion that the reform programme had already resolved some key problems.

https://www.police.wa.gov.au/About-Us/Our-History/WA-Police-Commissioners​

Club Bay View in Claremont was visited by Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer before they disappeared.

(Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)

Claremont serial killing trial told how crucial DNA evidence from Ciara Glennon was processed
By Andrea Mayes

3rd February 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-03/claremont-serial-killings-trial-dna-evidence-scrutiny-continues/11923086
Who were the Claremont victims?
Sarah Spiers. Jane Rimmer. Ciara Glennon. Three women whose names were etched into Perth's consciousness more than 20 years ago.

PHOTO: Edwards has admitted raping a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 after abducting her as she walked home from Claremont at night. (ABC: Emma Wynne)
PHOTO: Defence lawyer Paul Yovich is closely scrutinizing the DNA evidence. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
RELATED STORY: How a eureka moment in the Claremont investigation led police to Bradley Edwards
RELATED STORY: Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon died while trying to defend themselves, Claremont trial hears
RELATED STORY: No evidence of sex attack on Jane Rimmer, Claremont trial told

 Bradley Edwards has pleaded guilty to raping a teen girl in a cemetery and attacking an 18-year-old woman in her home.
Key points:
Samples of Edwards's DNA was found under Ciara Glennon's fingernails
His DNA was also found on a teenager he raped near Claremont in 1995
The samples are crucial to the prosecution case linking him to the murders
 
A forensic scientist has told the Claremont serial killings trial that two pieces of crucial DNA evidence linked to Bradley Edwards from two different investigations were never processed at the same time, as scrutiny continues over handling of forensic exhibits.
Edwards, 51, is on trial for the murders of 27-year-old Ciara Glennon, 18-year-old Sarah Spiers and 23-year-old Jane Rimmer, who all vanished from the Claremont entertainment precinct, in Perth's western suburbs, late at night in 1996 and 1997.
Ms Spiers's body has never been found and the bodies of Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer were found in separate areas of bushland some weeks after they disappeared.
PathWest forensic scientist Anna-Marie Ashley continued her evidence for the third day, providing more detail on how samples relating to Ms Glennon and a 17-year-old girl violently raped by Edwards at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 were processed by the state pathology laboratory.
For every test and extraction performed, Ms Ashley was asked whether any samples relating to the Karrakatta rape were processed at the same time, or recorded on the same sheet, as the Glennon exhibits.
Each time she answered, "No".
The closest the exhibits from the two separate crimes got to being processed together was a two-week period in 1997.
Samples from Ms Glennon were subjected to two days of advanced DNA testing on May 5 and 6, 1997, while a similar process was undertaken on the rape victim's samples on May 19 and 20.
The prosecution has been trying to head off any suggestion by the defence that the samples could somehow have got mixed up in the PathWest laboratory.
This scenario could explain how Edwards's DNA came to be found on Ms Glennon's fingernail samples, a possibility hinted at by defence counsel Paul Yovich SC in his opening address.
Mr Yovich said at the time there were four occasions when DNA from PathWest scientists were found on exhibits relating to Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer, suggesting the processes were not adequately followed in the lab.
"The process of collection, storage, handling and examination of exhibits will be live in the trial, especially when we say there are large gaps in the chain of continuity of important exhibits and also where exhibit handling, recording and forensic processing protocols were not always satisfactory," Mr Yovich said.
Contamination would be noted, pathologist says
Under cross-examination from Mr Yovich, Ms Ashley said she did not recall any pressure from police to deal with exhibits from the Claremont case quickly.
"We would deal with the exhibits and requests for results in as timely manner as we could with the resources we had," she said.
"I can't recall I needed to do anything differently in this case."
She said awareness of secondary transfer of DNA in the mid 1990s was not as advanced as it is today and scientists at PathWest at the time did not routinely wear hair nets and masks or use disposable instruments when dealing with exhibits.
She said she was always careful to follow accepted procedures when dealing with samples.
"I have performed these procedures numerous times and I don't have any recollection of not performing them as expected," she said.
Asked by Ms Barbagallo about possible contamination of intimate samples in the Karrakatta case that contained Edwards's DNA, Ms ;;;;Ashley said it would have been documented if it had occurred.
"If I had personally contaminated an exhibit in a case, there would be notations of that in the case file," she said.
Asked specifically whether there was any documentation relating to contamination of samples in either the rape case or Ms Glennon's fingernail samples, Ms Ashley said "not that I'm aware of".
WA Police Commissioner attends court
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson made a surprise appearance at the trial this morning, sitting with officers in the public gallery during the first part of the hearing.
He also spoke with Ms Glennon's father, Denis, briefly when the court broke for morning tea.
Outside court, Commissioner Dawson said he would not be commenting on the trial.
"The purpose of me visiting today is just to encourage the prosecution and the police teams who are working very, very hard on a very difficult and challenging trial," he said.
The trial , before Justice Hall, is continuing.

Bradley Robert Edwards is on trial for abduction and murder of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon with the main evidence the prosecution is relying on is DNA Evidence that was under the control and supervision of sacked now senior DNA analyst Laurance Webb who was "the man" at state-run pathology centre PathWest for several years before he was sacked in mid-2016.

Defence counsel Paul Yovich (left) has denied engaging in muckraking. Credit: AAP

Ciara Glennon had recently returned to Perth from a European holiday.(Fairfax Media)

Ciara Glennon's father, Denis Glennon, has been a fixture at court. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)

Bradley Edwards also faces two charges of sexually assaulting two other young women in the 1990s.

Claremont Killer Trial Podcast: the most crucial piece of evidence the prosecution has to try and prove Bradley Edwards’ guilt
PerthNow
January 31, 2020
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-killer-trial-podcast-the-most-crucial-piece-of-evidence-the-prosecution-has-to-try-and-prove-bradley-edwards-guilt-ng-b881449701z

Claremont Killer Trial Podcast:: The Trial
Literally Hanging on by a Fingernail - 00:00/ 34:57 

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-court-hears-only-ciara-glennons-dna-initially-found-ng-b881449656z

It’s seen as probably the most crucial piece of evidence the prosecution have to try and prove Bradley Edwards as being the Claremont Serial Killer - Ciara Glennon’s fingernail clippings.
Anna-Marie Ashley, the forensic scientist who extracted the DNA from those fingernails spent her second day on the stand, detailing how the DNA was extracted, and whose DNA they found.
Just as crucially, she was also asked about how the evidence was stored, and as Tim Clarke and Alison Fan explain, these are the type of details the defence will try and draw out, to try and show if there was any moment during this mammoth investigation the samples from the Karrakatta rape victim and Ciara Glennon’s fingernails could have been cross contaminated.
When one of Ciara’s fingernail clippings taken from the middle finger on her left hand - which were labelled AJM42 - were tested, initially they only showed her DNA.
It wasn’t until the fingernail clippings, along with the Karrakatta rape victim’s samples were sent to the UK for further testing that a male DNA profile was found.
That was later found to be the DNA of Bradley Edwards, after police retested other exhibits from then-unrelated cases which brought up his fingerprints, then tailed him and tested a sprite bottle he left behind after a trip to the movies in 2016.
Join Tim Clarke, Alison Fan and Natalie Bonjolo as they discuss week eight of Western Australia’s trial of the century.
For more on the Claremont serial killings trial, head to thewest.com.au, and if you have any questions about the trial for the podcast team or any of their guests, send in your questions to claremontpodcast@wanew.com.au

​DNA doubt after state's leading forensic expert sacked for breaching protocol

Attorney General John Quigley told Mornings with Gareth Parker on Radio 6PR on Friday the sacking and breaches against Mr Webb were "unprecedented in Western Australia's criminal justice history".

DNA doubt after state's leading forensic expert sacked for breaching protocol
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/dna-doubt-after-states-leading-forensic-expert-sacked-for-breaching-protocol-20170331-gvar0i.html
By Heather McNeill
 March 31, 2017 

A WA man was wrongly convicted after a DNA analysis error.

CREDIT:PHIL CARRICK

Some of the state's highest profile murder cases and others based heavily on DNA evidence have been thrown into doubt after it was revealed one of the state's top DNA scientists was sacked for "cutting corners" during testing.

Prominent Perth criminal lawyer Tom Percy said senior DNA analyst Laurance Webb was "the man" at state-run pathology centre PathWest for several years before he was sacked in mid-2016.

Mr Webb was reportedly involved in analysing DNA samples for dozens of major cases including the 2012 unsuccessful prosecution of Lloyd Rayney and the conviction of Cameron Mansell in 2011 over the murder of Perth businessman Craig Puddy.
Attorney General John Quigley told Mornings with Gareth Parker on Radio 6PR on Friday the sacking and breaches against Mr Webb were "unprecedented in Western Australia's criminal justice history".
"A letter arrived at [the Department of Public Prosecution's] office [on Christmas Eve] advising that PathWest had found the senior DNA analyst to be guilty of four serious charges in unethical behaviours, in failing to have DNA results verified by their required protocols," he said.
"To have his results independently verified by his peers, that's a protocol that's required by PathWest before certificates of analysis are taken to court or before he gives evidence."

After learning of the breaches, the DPP conducted a review and isolated 27 cases between 2008 and 2014 that Mr Webb had been involved in.
On Wednesday it advised prisoners or their lawyers of the breaches, as well as Perth's criminal law bodies, despite threats of legal action from PathWest, Mr Quigley claimed.
"The DPP advised PathWest that they would make the disclosures - PathWest on more than one occasion urged them not to tell anyone, not to make the disclosures," he said.
"The DPP acted most properly... I could not commend them enough."

Mr Quigley said he had been advised the agency had audited Mr Webb's work after the investigation and detected no errors in his findings.
Mr Percy said it was his understanding the breaches related to Mr Webb "cutting a few corners".
"This chap in question has been there for a very, very long time. He was the man down there, I think he oversaw most of the investigations in one way or another," Mr Percy said.
"He certainly was the person who gave evidence in many, many cases over the years.
"You feel a little bit nervous if the person in question wasn't doing everything by the book.
"Where a case has turned exclusively or fundamentally on DNA evidence, I think there's a lot of people that are going to have a look.
"I imagine there would be a few people who are in prison at the moment who might be thinking of having their cases reviewed."

PathWest in a statement on Friday afternoon said it conducted a review into Mr Webb's 15-year stint with the pathology centre in 2015.
"The review revealed the issuance of non-peer reviewed verbal or emailed individual results did not compromise the validity of the final court report that is used as evidence, thereby no incorrect results were ever communicated to the Police or the ODPP," it said.
"If at any stage of the review and investigation process errors were found, PathWest would have immediately advised the relevant authorities including ODPP."

Comment and questions from the NYT CSK Investigation Team

1. People who knew the power brokers running Western Australia from 1985 to 1994, which is during the time Brian Bull was the Police Commissioner of Western Australia, have stated that there is no possibility of the Claremont Serial Killings could have happened and no one arrested for these horrendous crimes over 20 years under Brian Bulls Reign ..

one witness has stated ..." ...once the Sarah Spiers disappeared in 1996 there would have a shakedown in Perth with no limits, with enough police resources including undercover policemen and cars combing the streets of Claremont every night from 8 pm onwards to make sure there were no girls having to walk alone with no way of being able to get home and thus be vulnerable to a possible abduction, rape and/or murder. So the question is ... Why did this all happen under Freemason Police Commissioner's Watch?

2. Commissioner Chris Dawson as the Deputy Western Australian Police Commissioner under Commissioner Dr Karl Joseph O'Callaghan for around 19 years and a police officer for 38 years ....in June 2008, demanded that the Macro Task Force search police records to find anyone who had previous criminal form involving some sort of criminal sexual assault ...and to pursue testing of the forensic evidence overseas ,,,, a search of police records would have immediately flagged up the name of Bradley Robert Edwards as a person that should have been at immediate interest for the Claremont Serial Killings, .. they knew his sexual assault criminal record and would have matched his fingerprints on the Police Data Base with 1988 Huntingdale break-in and sexual assault and would have been able to obtain his DNA from the Kimono that was found near the scene of the crime.... if the police in 2008/2009 suspected or knew that Bradley Robert Edwards was responsible for the 1995 Karrakatta Rape .... they could have easily moved much quicker to further investigate and place a 24-hour undercover team to tail  Bradley Robert Edwards 24 hours a day .... just like they did with the pub;lic Servant Lance Williams .... and moved a lot quicker for the arrest of Bradley Robert Edwards ... however ... if the police were just looking for a person to frame for the abductions and possible murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon .. then the Western Australian Police had the perfect person in Bradley Robert Edwards, who had a history of sexual and attempted sexual assault and who the police had enough reason and evidence to accuse him of the 1995 Karrakatta Cemetry Rape... plus why wasn't Bradley Robert Edwards immediately flagged up as a person of interest as son as Sarah Spiers disappeared in 1996 ... if Bradley Robert Edwards is the one solely responsible for the alleged abductions and murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Spiers ... then the lives of Sarah Spiers. and/or Jane Rimmer and/or Ciara Spiers could have been saved if the Western Australian Police has done their job efficiently enough by immediately flagging up Bradley Robert Edwards as a person of interest as soon as the Karrakatta Rape happened in 1995, and again when  Sarah Spiers disappeared in 1996, because of his sexual assault criminal history in the 1990 Hollywood serious assault where the victim stated she feared for her life during this most serious assault... 

We have a corrupt and/or incompetent head of Pathwest, Laurie Webb, who is instructed to take Ciara Glennon's DNA Samples, which had previously shown to have no other person's DNA with her DNA, and the Karakatta Rape DNA Samples, and more than likely DNA samples of Bradley Robert Edwards to the UK... and very conveniently came back with the UK finding that allegedly Ciara Glennon's DNA Samples showed the DNA of Bradley Robert Edwards ....  On the evidence provided by the prosecution and the police, there is ample reasonable doubt that the alleged DNA Evidence allegedly links Bradley Robert Edwards to the murder of Ciara Glennon appeared with Ciara Glennon's DNA during a time that Bradley Robert Edwards was allegedly violently murdering Ciara Glennon ... then there is the other issue that there was no evidence of any sexual assault committed on Jane Rimmer and/or Ciara Glennon .. which takes away the motive for Bradley Robert Edwards to abduct Jane Rimmer and/or Ciara Glennon ... which is the prosecutions claim .... that the only reason for Bradley Robert Edwards allegedly abducting and allegedly murdering Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon was to relieve his sexual frustrations and desires ...as he did in 1990 in Hollywood and 1995 in Karrakatta Cemetry assaults and rapes ...  then why and how would Bradley Robert Edwards remove the Hyoid Bone from the neck of Jane Rimmer, using a small Telstra Pocket knife? ... removing the Hyoid Bone sounds like and expert surgical operation that would have to be carried out by a doctor or at least someone highly medically trained.... why would he want to remove the Hyoid Bone from ane Rimmer.. it makes mot logical sense... there are many other large holes in the prosecution's case ...... along with the police and prosecution deliberately withhold material evidence and witnesses from the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards which is costing over $100 million to the people of Western Australia...... all rather strange and bizzare ?????

​https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-21/accused-claremont-serial-killer-bradley-edwards-guilty-rape/11622382

"Bradley Edwards pleaded guilty to attacks on two women, including the rape of a teenage girl. The incidents include an attack on a woman in the Perth suburb of Huntingdale in 1988 and a rape of a teenager at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995."

"In June 2008 then-deputy police commissioner Chris Dawson ordered a review of potential lines of inquiry, asking his team to pursue testing of the forensic evidence overseas, where more advanced techniques were being used. Police forensic expert Sergeant George Paton, together with Laurie Webb, a senior scientist at PathWest, the state's pathology laboratory, were tasked with taking key samples that had been retrieved from Ms Glennon's body to the UK for testing." ​​

VIDEO: CCTV vision of Jane Rimmer's final moments
(ABC News)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/cctv-vision-of-sarah-spiers/9067568
CCTV vision of Jane Rimmer's final moments
13 Aug 2019, 12:14am
CCTV vision of Jane Rimmer outside the Continental Hotel in Claremont on then night she disappeared in June 1996.
Source: ABC News | Duration: 11sec
Topics: crime, murder-and-manslaughter, missing-person, claremont-6010

Defence lawyer Paul Yovich is closely scrutinising the DNA evidence.

Perth had come of age by the 1990s. (Richard Woldendorp: State Library of WA)

Some comments on the above by the NYT CSK Investigation Team​

1. It is completely unbelievable that Western Australian Police, the ABC News and all the other main stream newspaper, magazine and TV media outlets in Western Australia and Australia wide ..... as deliberately falsley  claimed in the above ABC News Article ..... that the last know siting of Jane Rimmer was on the video footage at around 11.50 pm 8th June, 1996 ...... talking to the Mystery Man s Jane Rimmer was leaving the Claremont Hotel ... when they ll would know about and have access to the Nedlands Chronicle Newspaper article which stated that four university students saw Jane Rimmer at around 12.30 am June 9th, 1996 in a drunken state hitchhiking on Stirling Highway, near the corner of Loch Street, Claremont .... walking in the direction of the City of Perth ....... the four university students correctly described the cloths the girl they saw , as being the clothes that Jane Rimmer had been wearing that night ..... they made their statement to the newspaper and the police before the police had publiclly announced what Jane Rimmer was wearing on the 8th June 1996 ...

2.  It is completely unbelievable that Western Australian Police, the ABC News and all the other main stream newspaper, magazine and TV media outlets in Western Australia and Australia wide ..... and the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australian have competely ignore the bricklayer's evidence, which is supported by his wife ... that at around 4am the early morning that Ciara Glennon disappeared .... that he was driving near where the body of Ciara Glennon was found .... on the way to a building site to start work , ... when her saw a Fa;con Taxi without it's lights on ..... with a person sitting in the back of the taxi and another person driving the taxi .... this is one of the most material pieces of evidence in the whole Bradley Roberts Edwards Trial ...who has been charged as allegedly being the the sole person responsible for the abduction and murder of Ciara Glennon, along with other charges .....  there can be very little doubt that the taxi that the bricklayer saw at around 4 am was connected to the abduction murder of Ciara Glennon and that CIaria Glennon would have been in that Taxi ..... when the bricklayer saw the taxi at around 4 am in aythe morning ... back then in 1997  the area was mainly bush and very little residential housing and development ..... and as the bricklayer stated in his statment tha it was highly unusual to see a taxi driving down that buck road at 4 am without it's light' on......... 

3. By the police and the prosecution not calling the taxi driver, and his wife as well as eh four university students as witnesses at the Bradley Edwards Trial is a serious breach of their duties as police and prosecutors and is a serious contempt of court not to put all the material evidence and witnesses before the court to try and get to  the truth as to what were the last movements and sightings of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and CIara Glennon ...​

Bradley Edwards and Ciara Glennon

Western Australia Police  Commissioner Chris Dawson who Appointed in 2017 as the Commissioner of Police for Western Australia,

​replacing Karl Joseph O'Callaghan, who served as the Commissioner of Police for Western Australia from 2004 to 2017.

It is understood that both Commissioner Chris Dawson and Commissioner Karl Joseph O'Callaghan are well respected senior Freemason and members of a Freeman Red Lodge. It is customary in the Western Australian Police Service and the Western Australian Government for the Police Commissioner Baton to be handed from Freemason to Freemason.   A Freemason Police Officer has stated that since the start of the Western Australian Police when the first Western Australian Police Commissioner John Augustus Conroy was appointed in 1853 and served until 1856, there has only been one Western Australian Police Commissioner who was not a Freemason.

​It is understood from information provided by a Western Australian Police  Freemason that Brian Bull, who was the Western Australian Police Commissioner from 1985–1994, has been the only non-Freemason Police Commissioner appointed  to the Western Australian Police since John Augustus Conroy was appointed  ​1853 as the first Western Australian Police Commissioner 

Western Australian Police Commissioners

​1853–1856 John Augustus Conroy - Freemason
1856–1857 Frederick Palgrave Barlee - Freemason
1857 William Hogan - Freemason
1857–1858 Alfred Hawes Stone- Freemason
1858 Charles Symmons - Freemason
1858–1860 Alexander Thomas Cockburn-Campbell - Freemason
1861–1866 William Hogan - Freemason
1866–1867 Robert Henry Crampton - Freemason
1867–1871 Gustavus Edward Cockburn Hare - Freemason
1871 William Henry Timperley - Freemason
1871–1887 Matthew Skinner Smith - Freemason
1887–1900 George Braithwaite Phillips - Freemason
1900 William Chipper Lawrence - Freemason
1900–1912 Frederick Arthur Hare - Freemason
1912–1933 Robert Connell - Freemason
1933–1934 William Archibald Douglas - Freemason
1934–1945 David Hunter - Freemason
1945–1951 John Doyle - Freemason
1951–1958 Thomas Hermann Andersen - Freemason
1958–1965 James Murray O'Brien- Freemason
1965–1971 Richard Thomas Napier- Freemason
1971–1975 Athol Logan Moore Wedd- Freemason
1975–1981 George Owen Arthur Leitch- Freemason
1981–1985 John Henry Porter- Freemason
1985–1994 Brian Bull _ Not a Freemason,

Brian Bull was arranged to be appointed by the Western Australian Catholic Mafia,

through the influence of the very powerful Catholic Mafia Godfather, Samuel Franchina,

who also helped premiers  Brian Burke and Ray OConnor become appointed as Catholic Mafia Premiers of Western Australia
1994–1999 Robert Falconer [20]
1999–2004 Barry Eldon Matthews
2004–2017 Karl Joseph O'Callaghan
2017– Chris Dawson

Claremont serial killings victim Jane Rimmer disappeared in June 1996. (ABC News)

Three women who disappeared from Claremont, Perth, between 1996 and 1997 from left to right: Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon, and Jane Rimmer.
The Claremont serial killings
Three young Perth women disappeared in the mid-1990s. Two decades later, a man faces court.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/how-the-claremont-serial-killings-shocked-perth-to-its-core/9490836

The Continental Hotel in Claremont has long been a popular drinking spot.- Continental Hotel in Claremont at night in 1997
Continental Hotel in Claremont at night in 1997
Posted 16 Oct 2017, 8:27am
The Continental Hotel in Claremont has long been a popular drinking spot.
ABC News

Bradley Edwards was last week also charged with the murder of Sarah Spiers.

Chapter One
A city on the move
Perth in the 1990s was beginning to grow up.
No longer a sleepy backwater — that image was buried a decade earlier when the spectacle of the Americas Cup threw a global spotlight on the city — Perth was consolidating its place in the world.

By the mid-1990s WA had its first female premier in Carmen Lawrence, its resources industry was expanding into a national powerhouse and two teams had been successfully launched in the AFL.
The corporate excesses of the 1980s were a thing of the past, with the imprisonment of Brian Burke following the WA Inc Royal Commission and the bankruptcy of Alan Bond.
Few could have predicted this burgeoning metropolis would be harbouring a serial killer in its suburbs.
Claremont was a popular nightspot in the 1990s, and not just for those from the affluent western suburbs.
Students from the nearby University of Western Australia and surfers wanting to party after a day at Cottesloe beach mixed with locals who flocked after-hours to Claremont, which enjoyed a reputation as a party mecca.
Then suddenly, everything changed.

A Sarah Spiers missing poster held up by a detective during a press conference at police headquarters in East Perth (ABC News)
Sarah Spiers missing poster held up by detective

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/sarah-spiers-missing-poster-held-up-by-detective/9489474
Posted 27 Feb 2018, 6:41pm
A Sarah Spiers missing poster held up by a detective during a press conference at police headquarters in East Perth.
ABC News

The gruesome discovery was made by a woman out picking wildflowers with her young child.
Sarah Spiers's family, meanwhile, were no closer to knowing what happened to their daughter.
Large billboard posters featuring her image were plastered around the city and flyers were handed out, but there was no breakthrough in the case.

The Prosecution Case against Bradley Robert Edwards will very much rely on whether there is reasonable doubt that the DNA tests and samples could have been contaminated, the reliability of Low Copy Number (LCN) DNA, and whether the alleged Low Copy Number (LCN) DNA, of Bradley Robert Edwards was deliberately planted with the sample of Ciara Glennon's DNA to frame Bradley Robert Edwards for the abductions and murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, being crimes the WA Government, the WA Police Service and the Public Prosecutions for Western Australia for so many different reasons had to bring to a close., and could not afford to not in a conviction against Bradley Robert Edwards for at least one of the murder charges.

"..Although used for a number of years we do not yet have any reliable measure of the success rate of LTDNA analysis and this need to be corrected....".....APRIL 2008, B, Caddy, G,R. Taylor, A.T.M. Linacre.

Bradley Robert Edwards would have been the easiest person to frame for the murders Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, because of his involvement in previous rapes and attempted sexual assaults.... and the fact that they had his DNA on the 1995 Karrakatta Rape Victim ..... the question that has to be decided is whether Bradley Robert Edwards is:

(a) just a serial rapist 

or  

(b) a serial rapist and killer ... 

The Director of Public Prosecutions has not gone anywhere near proving their case against Bradley Robert Edwards prior to any DNA evidence being presented to the court .. and in fact have fairly proven that it was unlikely that it was Bradley Robert Edwards that was the sole person responsible for the abduction Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon .... the motive that the prosecution say that Bradley Robert Edwards had to abduct these three girls was to relieve his sexual frustrations and desires ... yet the prosecution has not provided any evidence that either Jane Rimmer or Ciara Glennon were raped ... and brutally murdered ..... in strange ways which included the removal of the Hyoid Bone from the neck of Jane Rimmer ... also why were the bodies left in places they would easily be found and not drop in the sea, the river or buried..... it was as though the bodies were left where they would easily be found so some could be eventually set up on false and/or unreliable DNA Evidence ...

A lot of known material evidence, information and witnesses have been deliberately withheld from being presented by the prosecution a the trial ..Why was that .... the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards can be easily compared to the Donald Trump Impeachment Trial .... in that those in control of what material evidence, information, and witnesses are presented at the trial do not want the full truth to be publicly known ..... 

“The facts will come out in all of their horrors, they will come out,” Adam B. Schiff of California, the lead House manager said. “The witnesses the president is concealing will tell their stories,” he added. “And we will be asked why we didn’t want to hear that information when we had the chance. What answer shall we give if we do not pursue the truth now?”

Lance Williams was considered by police for many years to be the prime suspect in the Claremont serial killings. (ABC News)

​Chapter IV
Death returns to Claremont
Like Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer before her, 27-year-old Ciara Glennon had been drinking in Claremont before her disappearance.
The young lawyer had recently returned from a year-long European holiday and was back home in Perth for her sister's wedding in March 1997, where she was to be a bridesmaid.
She had returned to her old job as a solicitor and was enjoying after-work drinks with colleagues at the Continental Hotel on the night of Friday, March 14 — a night that was documented in a police re-enactment of her final moments.

Just before midnight Ciara told her workmates she was heading home, and walked down Bay View Terrace to Stirling Highway.
A man sitting at a bus stop called out to her that she was "crazy" for hitchhiking, but Ciara dismissed him with a wave.
On Stirling Highway, Ciara walked past the Claremont Baptist Church and was seen talking with the occupant of a light-coloured car near the traffic lights at the intersection with Stirling Street.
The man at the bus stop described her leaning over to talk to whoever was in the car.
But when he turned to look back, both Ciara and the car were gone.

Ms Rimmer's watch was found the same day she disappeared, not far from where her body lay. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)

Ciara Glennon, 27, disappeared on March 15, 1997. (Fairfax Media)

Bradley Robert Edwards is on trial for abduction and murder of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon with the main evidence the prosecution is relying on is DNA Evidence that was under the control and supervision of sacked now senior DNA analyst Laurance Webb who was "the man" at state-run pathology centre PathWest for several years before he was sacked in mid-2016.

DNA extractions from Ciara Glennon's fingernails have come under scrutiny at Bradley Edwards' trial. Credit: AAP

​The epic WA Supreme Court trial last week heard when Ms Glennon’s left middle fingernail was initially tested, only her DNA came up - not Edwards’

 But in a combined sample with Ms Glennon’s torn left thumbnail in 2008, Edwards’ DNA was detected by UK scientists.
On Monday, the court heard there were three possible explanations -
(a) the clipping never contained Edwards’ DNA,
(b) it was always there but not detected by the technology used at the time, or
(c) it was present but not in the extracts initially analysed.

Sarah Spiers's father Don Spiers (right) with WA Attorney-General John Quigley.
(ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)
“It's hard not to wonder what Sarah's life, and ours, could have been had she not been taken from us.”

 Claremont serial killings: Trial drills down into crucial DNA evidence
AAP
Friday, 31 January 2020 

https://7news.com.au/news/crime/only-claremont-victim-dna-initially-found-c-674893

Scientists in the Claremont serial killings case initially only identified a victim’s DNA on a critical exhibit, WA’s so-called trial of the century has heard.

Bradley Robert Edwards, 51, has pleaded guilty to abducting a 17-year-old girl and twice raping her at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995, as well as another attack on a sleeping 18-year-old woman at her Huntingdale home in 1988.
But he denies murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, in 1996, and solicitor Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1997.
Prosecutors say there is fibre evidence against Edwards, and his DNA was allegedly found under Ms Glennon’s left thumbnail and left middle fingernail, as well as on swabs taken from the rape victim.

But his defence team claims contamination is an issue.
Scientist Anna-Marie Ashley, from forensic laboratory Pathwest, continued her testimony in the WA Supreme Court trial for a second day on Friday, describing in detail how she performed DNA extractions on Ms Glennon’s fingernails.
Ms Ashley said the usual practice was to securely store fingernail exhibits at room temperature.
The clippings went to the DNA lab and some were tested, including AJM42, which is Ms Glennon’s left middle fingernail.

Only Ms Glennon’s DNA was detected on the sample at that time, the court heard.
Ms Glennon’s left thumbnail, item AJM40, was not tested at the time.
The two exhibits are central to the case because when they were tested together years later they allegedly showed Edwards’ DNA.
Ms Ashley also testified on Thursday about how she tested exhibits in the rape case.

She will resume giving evidence on Monday.

Bradley Edwards was last week also charged with the murder of Sarah Spiers.

VIDEO: Police Commissioner announces breakthrough in Sarah Spiers case
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-22/wa-police-commissioner-announces-breakthrough-in/9475546
Police Commissioner announces breakthrough in Sarah Spiers case
13 Aug 2019, 12:25am
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson has announced 49-year-old Bradley Robert Edwards has been charged with the wilful murder of Sarah Spiers, a victim of the so-called Claremont serial killings in the 1990s.
Source: ABC News | Duration: 3min 3sec
Topics: crime, murder-and-manslaughter, police, claremont-6010, perth-6000

WA man was wrongly convicted after a DNA analysis error. CREDIT-PHIL CARRICK

The men accused of the Claremont killings
A number of men were in the frame for the shocking crimes, including one who was relentlessly pursued as the prime suspect.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-17/claremont-serial-killer-trial-the-wrong-suspects/11147118

Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer. Left to right--Credit- Supplied

The Claremont serial killings
Three young Perth women disappeared in the mid-1990s. Two decades later, a man faces court.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-17/claremont-serial-killer-trial-the-wrong-suspects/11147118

A man matching Bradley Edwards's description was recorded on CCTV vision at the BP Rose Garden near Claremont.

(Supplied- Google Street View)

When Ciara supposedly went missing, we had two cars in the block for the half-hour when she was last seen," said Claremont station's acting sergeant Mike Starkey". ... "why wasn't acting sergeant Mike Starkey.  and the police officers driving the two police car in the block when Ciara Glennon was last seen put on the witness stand at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ... why didn't one of the unmarked commodore police cars pick up Ciara Glennon ? or ... Did one of an unmarked police car or an unmarked car driven by an off duty police officer and his girlfriend' car pick up Ciara Glennon? ... the POST Newspaper article March 22-23, 1997 stated ..... 'Sergeant Starkey said there was no substitute for police patrols. "We're there to catch this man. On a local level we are doing everything possible."     Sergeant Starkey  said. There were unconfirmed reports on Friday that police were looking for a man and a woman or two men with one of them dressed as a woman." .... Noel Geoffrey Coward who was interviewed by the Special Crime Squad in December 18 2014 at Curtin House, urged police to look closely at a former taxi driver from Fremantle known as ''Taxi Tony' and a girl called 'Michelle' being involved in the Claremont Serial Killings which included information the girls went missing to make snuff movies sold for large money overseas,. ....... why wasn't there from 11pm onwards on the night Ciara Glennon went missing at least ten unmarked police cars driving up and down and around Stirling Highway, Bay View Terrace, Stirling Road, St Quentin Avenue, Gugeri Street, Church Lane, O'Beirne Street, Avion Way, Claremont after the abduction of Julie Cutler, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer had been abducted from the area ..... with it then looking like there was a serial killer and/or killers combing the area for drunk defenseless females just trying to get home after a big night out... NYT  CSK Investigation Team

​Noel Geoffrey Coward who was interviewed by the Special Crime Squad in December 18 2014 at Curtin House.  For many years Noel Geoffrey Coward has been urging police to look closely at a former taxi driver from Fremantle known as ''Taxi Tony' and a girl called 'Michelle' being involved in the Claremont Serial Killings  which included information the girls went missing to make snuff movies sold for large money overseas, who  he brought to the police's attention after the abduction and murder of Ciara Glennon in 1997.. “Primarily I don’t trust them,” he said. “... because they had not, in my opinion, investigated the original evidence I supplied...".. stated Noel Geoffrey Coward ...it seems that the police did not want to arrest anyone for the Claremont Serial Killings until Sarah Anne McMahon and Noel Geoffrey Coward  died or disappeared  ...it is noted the girl Andrew Mallard stayed within Mosman Park was called Michelle... who lived in a flat near where the screams were heard the night Sarah Spiers disappeared ... who needs to be interviewed by the police  in regards to her whereabouts on the night Sarah Glennon disappeared and whether Michelle also heard the screams, as Michelle lived in Monument Street, Mosman Park near where the screams were heard from ... Noel Geoffrey Coward stated that every time one of the girls disappeared Michelle travelled to Eastern States for a while ...

Commissioner, Chris Dawson
Commissioner: from 16 August 2017 to present

It is understood that Commissioner Chris Dawson is well respected senior Fred Lodge Freemason
Chris Dawson returned to the newly named Western Australia Police Force as Commissioner, after three years as the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. He had previously served ten years as Deputy Commissioner, with responsibility for specialist portfolios of serious and organised crime, counter terrorism and state protection. In 2011 Mr Dawson headed up the biggest security operation in the history of WA Police, as State Commander for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
During his extensive law enforcement career Mr Dawson has served in country and metropolitan positions. As a superintendent, he was the inaugural principal of the Joondalup Police Academy. In 2002 Mr Dawson was awarded the Australian Police Medal for distinguished service.

https://www.themandarin.com.au/82143-new-wa-police-commissioner-leaves-a-lasting-legacy-in-canberra/

​Chis Dawson was a WA police officer for about 38 years, across both regional and metropolitan areas, and spent 10 as deputy commissioner in charge of responses to terrorism and serious organised crime. He was the inaugural principal of the state’s police academy at Joondalup in Perth’s northern suburbs, and was responsible for the state police force’s biggest ever security operation, around the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
“Police alone cannot prevent crime and harm, so jointly building and maintaining trust with the community and alliances with our partner agencies will be central to my approach as commissioner of police,” Dawson said in a press conference this week.

Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo. File image. Credit: AAP

Was the DNA of Bradley Robert Edwards planted or accidentally contaminated with the DNA of Ciara Glennon by Axed PathWest scientist Laurie Webb who instructed the mortuary technician who clipped Ciara Glennon's fingernails during her post-mortem and/or Forensic Science Service in London?​ https://www.principalforensicservices.com/jonathan-whitaker-dna/
http://forensicfirearmsconsultancy.com  

Dr Jonathan Whitaker is a dedicated, highly experienced, leading DNA profiling exper
16 Upper Woburn Place, London, WC1H 0BS​, Dr Johnathan Whitaker Head of Forensic Science Service in London​ Email: enquiries@forensicfirearmsconsultancy.com, Mark Mastaglio : +44 7919 217 848 - Angela Shaw : +44 7919 392 397
​Sacked PathWest technician Laurie Webb present during Ciara Glennon’s post mortem
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-sacked-pathwest-technician-laurie-webb-present-during-ciara-glennons-post-mortem-ng-b881436443z 

 Shannon Hampton

The West Australian Friday, 17 January 2020 

Brian Bull (Born 1933)
Western Australian Commissioner: 1 March 1985 to 19 June 1994

Is understood that Brian Bull was a well respected Catholic Mafia appointed Police Commissioner and has been the only non-Freemason Western Australian Commissioner
Brian Bull was WA born and bred; he became a police cadet in 1949. He served in the metropolitan area in his early years and moved to the CIB in the 1960. Mr Bull was in charge of the Fraud Squad when promoted to Inspector in 1984. In the same year, he was successively promoted to Chief Superintendent and Assistant Commissioner and then became Commissioner on March 1, 1985. He obtained Tertiary qualifications before gaining commissioned rank. As Commissioner, he responded to the changed circumstances of the day by instituting a range of community policing initiatives, introducing merit-based promotion and expanding training and education for police officers.
During his term as Commissioner, the Police Force grew rapidly and the number of specialised branches and sections created to deal with ever-changing and more complex patterns of criminal behaviour increased. Before retirement, Brian Bull put in place mechanisms for truly large-scale reforms.

https://www.police.wa.gov.au/About-Us/Our-History/WA-Police-Commissioners​

 Chapter V
A stain across a suburb
Claremont, for a while at least, stopped being Perth's premier place to party.

It remained the home of Perth's monied elite, who continued to send their sons and daughters to the suburb's prestigious Christ Church Grammar and Methodist Ladies College, but a pall had been cast over the area.
For a time, young people in Perth were not only wary about catching taxis, they were nervous about going out at all.
But as the years and then the decades went by, the case grew cold.
There were several reviews of the investigation and police openly targeted a number of suspects, who were later ruled out.
But the people of Perth never forgot the shocking nature of what happened.
While the blithe optimism of youth overcame fear and revellers returned to their favourite nightspots, the events remained scarred in people's minds over the subsequent decades. As Sarah Spiers's family eloquently put it on the 20th anniversary of her disappearance.

 
Perth is a vastly different place in 2018 to what it was in the mid-1990s.
The city looks markedly altered, thanks to a building frenzy funded by a mining boom, there are a multitude of new cool nightspots dotted with small bars.But the horror of the Claremont serial killings never went away.
Every time a body was found for the ensuing two decades, it brought hopes that it would be Sarah Spiers.
But there was a growing resignation that the case may never be solved.

The serial killings that shocked a city to its core
The disappearance of three young women from the upmarket suburb of Claremont in the mid-1990s changed the face of Perth. Two decades later, a man faces court charged with their murders.
By Andrea Mayes -  28 Feb 2018
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/how-the-claremont-serial-killings-shocked-perth-to-its-core/9490836

It's a horrifying mystery that has haunted Perth for decades and become a dark stain on the city's psyche. How three young women in the prime of their lives could disappear from a popular nightspot in Perth's wealthy western suburbs seemed beyond belief.
The fact that the crimes have remained unsolved for more than two decades added an element of grim fascination, fuelling endless speculation over water coolers and barbeques. This is a case that has gripped the city like no other. Their names are forever etched in our minds — Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.

Sarah, the youngest victim and the only one whose body has never been found, was still a teenager when she disappeared. Just 18, she was just one of countless people celebrating Australia Day with mates on the night of January 26, 1996, when she vanished.

Jane Rimmer, a 23-year-old childcare worker, went missing six months later. Like Sarah, she had enjoyed drinks with friends at the same two popular pubs in the affluent suburbs of Cottesloe and Claremont.

When young lawyer Ciara Glennon also disappeared from Claremont nine months later, it was clear something was very amiss in Perth.

Chapter VI
After 20 years, a breakthrough
In December 2016, out of the blue, police raided an unassuming home in the eastern Perth suburb of Kewdale.

​Finally, more than 24 hours later, police announced they had charged Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards, 48, with murdering both Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer.

​Now well into middle age, Mr Edwards would have been the same age as Ciara when she disappeared, and not too much older than Jane.

PHOTO: Bradley Edwards was last week also charged with the murder of Sarah Spiers.
He was also charged over sexual attacks on two other young women, including the alleged rape of a 17-year-old at Karrakatta cemetery in Shenton Park in 1995.
Police say the teen was snatched as she walked through a park in Claremont and sexually assaulted at the nearby cemetery.

Several years beforehand, in 1988, Mr Edwards was also alleged to have entered the bedroom of an 18-year-old girl in the southern Perth suburb of Huntingdale — the other side of the city and a world away from Claremont — and attacked her while she slept.
He has made several court appearances since his arrest, but is yet to enter a plea to the charges.

​Then police announced Mr Edwards had also been charged with Sarah Spiers's murder.

Coming just days before Mr Edwards was set to face court to enter a plea, it threw a glaring national spotlight back on the case.

For the victims' families — and the city of Perth — this tragic story still has a way to run.
Credits
Reporting: Andrea Mayes
Research and video: Tracey Stewart
Production: Andrea Mayes and Liam Phillips
Editor: Liam Phillips
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, crime, law-crime-and-justice, claremont-6010, cottesloe-6011, perth-6000, kewdale-6105, wellard-6170, eglinton-6034
First posted 27 Feb 2018, 6:41pm

AAP
Wednesday, 5 February 202
https://7news.com.au/politics/law-and-order/claremont-defence-lawyer-denies-muckraking-c-682733

Defence counsel Paul Yovich (left) has denied engaging in muckraking.

The prosecutor in the Claremont serial killings trial has jumped to the aid of a forensic scientist, accusing Bradley Robert Edwards’ lawyer of “general muckraking.”
The accusation came after Edwards’ defence team suggested police wanted former Pathwest scientist Martin Blooms pulled from the case.

On Wednesday, the retired forensic scientist was grilled about his work for the second day in a row.
Mr Blooms was cross-examined about a detective’s request to package hair slides for collection in 2003 so they could be tested by Australian Federal Police.

Three-week delay
However, the items weren’t handed over until almost three weeks later, despite the scientist saying he was aware they were a high priority.

“Is it possible these delays ... were because they were not properly labelled in the first place? Or because they were not properly stored?” defence counsel Paul Yovich asked.
“I can’t imagine that to be the case,” Mr Blooms replied.
He was also asked about Ms Rimmer’s watch, which was found on a dirt track metres from where her body had been dumped, hours after the crime was committed.
Initial testing yielded a mixed DNA profile that excluded Lance Williams, a public servant who was the prime suspect for many years, was cleared in 2008 and died from cancer in 2018, aged 61.
Mr Yovich said emails showed Mr Blooms told police several times over six months that sonication - removing material from a surface using sound waves - had been performed on the watch.
Yet he then advised it hadn’t, adding that was good news as it meant more DNA may be retrieved.

Mr Yovich asked Mr Blooms if he recalled police then requested he be taken off the case and he replied no, testifying that he continued to work on it.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo asked if Mr Yovich was engaging in “general muckraking” after cross-examination finished.
“It simply was not muckraking - I don’t engage in that,” Mr Yovich said
‘It simply was not muckraking - I don’t engage in that.’

He said the question went to whether Mr Bloom’s practices were accurate or in accordance with procedure, and a request to take him off the case would be put to other relevant witnesses.
If that occurred, Mr Blooms needed to have the opportunity to testify further, Ms Barbagallo said.
“It can’t just be the general vibe. It needs to be put to him,” she said.
Justice Stephen Hall agreed, saying Mr Blooms might feel his integrity had been impugned.

It also emerged preliminary examination of hairs found on Ms Glennon’s shirt and skirt were considered possible matches for Mr Williams, who had provided samples, but that was only based on a morphological assessment of characteristics such as colour and curl.

Mr Yovich also signalled mitochondrial DNA in a hair taken from Ms Glennon’s bra may form part of the defence case.

Edwards, 51, denies murdering Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997 after abducting or luring them into his work car.

Claremont serial killings trial: Day 37 of Bradley Robert Edwards’ trial
Emily Moulton West Australian
Monday, 3 February 2020
https://www.pilbaranews.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-day-37-of-bradley-robert-edwards-trial-ng-b881450940z
www.pilbaranews.com.au › news › claremo...
Claremont serial killings trial: Day 37 of Bradley Robert ...
- Defence lawyers for Bradley Robert Edwards have cast doubt on the collection of crucial ... staffing pressures and procedures during the Claremont serial killings trial. ... 
7news.com.au › news › claremont-serial-kill...
Claremont Serial Killings | 7NEWS.com.au

Karl Joseph O'Callaghan
Commissioner: from 21 June 2004 till 15 August 2017
Dr O'Callaghan was the youngest person to hold the position since Robert Connell and the first since Richard Napier who had never worked as detective. He became a police cadet in 1973 and graduated as Dux of the academy in January 1976, later gaining the highest academic qualifications ever held by a Police Commissioner in WA – the degrees of Bachelor of Education and Doctor of Philosophy. His 13 years as Commissioner were second only to Connell as the longest stint in the top job.
Dr O’Callaghan’s early years as Commissioner were marked by a renewed emphasis on the basic role of police as crime prevention and crime detection officers. This was reflected in the introduction of a 'Frontline First' policy and an organisational name change to Western Australia Police. In his final years he implemented the Frontline 2020 reform program, restructuring the agency to meet rising demand for policing services against a background of limited resources.

Claremont serial killings trial: Court hears only Ciara Glennon’s DNA initially found
PerthNow
January 31, 2020
A Lesson in DNA - 00:00 / 30:52

Scientists in the Claremont serial killings case initially only identified a victim’s DNA on a critical exhibit, WA’s so-called trial of the century has heard.

Bradley Robert Edwards, 51, has pleaded guilty to abducting a 17-year-old girl and twice raping her at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995, as well as another attack on a sleeping 18-year-old woman at her Huntingdale home in 1988.

But he denies murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, in 1996, and solicitor Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1997.
Prosectors say there is fibre evidence against Edwards, and his DNA was allegedly found under Ms Glennon’s left thumbnail and left middle fingernail, as well as on swabs taken from the rape victim.
But his defence team claims contamination is an issue.
Scientist Anna-Marie Ashley, from forensic laboratory Pathwest, continued her testimony in the WA Supreme Court trial for a second day on Friday, describing in detail how she performed DNA extractions on Ms Glennon’s fingernails.
Ms Ashley said the usual practice was to securely store fingernail exhibits at room temperature.
The clippings went to the DNA lab and some were tested, including AJM42, which is Ms Glennon’s left middle fingernail.

Only Ms Glennon’s DNA was detected on the sample at that time, the court heard.
Ms Glennon’s left thumbnail, item AJM40, was not tested at the time.

The two exhibits are central to the case because when they were tested together years later they allegedly showed Edwards’ DNA.
Ms Ashley also testified on Thursday about how she tested exhibits in the rape case.
She will resume giving evidence on Monday.
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-court-hears-only-ciara-glennons-dna-initially-found-ng-b881449656z

The Continental Hotel in Claremont where Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were last seen. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)

​​Robert Falconer, Western Australian Commissioner: 20 June 1994 to 20 June 1999

It is understood that Commissioner Robert Falconer is well respected senior Fred Lodge Freemason

On the 27 November 2008 in the Legislative Assembly the member for Mindarie, Mr J R Quigley, stated the following: “In 1998-99 that peanut Falconer, that little turnip from Victoria, who had been given the job as Commissioner of Police, together with Caporn said “He’s the man.”
Robert Falconer was of Scottish birth and joined the Victorian police in 1963. He had gained very varied experience in practical policing work and was Deputy Commissioner in charge of operations when he was appointed to the WA position. Robert Falconer was the first person without any West Australian career background to be gain the office since Matthew Smith in 1871. There is little doubt that from day one Mr Falconer had a mandate for sweeping institutional change.
He instituted the Delta Reform program, which may be likened to a third managerial revolution in the history of WA policing. Some traditional branches were rationalised or even abolished, with widely differing outcomes. The Police Force was renamed the Western Australia Police Service. Opinion among police officers of the time was divided in terms of the success of the changes; few would have denied that radical reforms were necessary.

https://www.police.wa.gov.au/About-Us/Our-History/WA-Police-Commissioners​

RESPONSE BY MR ROBERT (BOB) FALCONER AGREED TO BY MR ROBERT (BOB) FALCONER AND THE PROCEDURE AND PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE PURSUANT TO STANDING ORDER 114.  It has come to my attention that on 27 November 2008 in the Legislative Assembly the member for Mindarie, Mr J R Quigley, made an untrue assertion in relation to actions he attributed to me in the role of WA Police Commissioner. My objection is to the following statement as reported in Hansard: “In 1998-99 that peanut Falconer, that little turnip from Victoria, who had been given the job as Commissioner of Police, together with Caporn said “He’s the man.” 

I assure you and your fellow members of Parliament and indeed anyone else who may have read that comment that at no stage did I determine who would or would not be the subject of the ‘Macro’ investigation. I would appreciate this correction being read into the Parliamentary record in the interests of accuracy and fairness please.       https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/(Report+Lookup+by+Com+ID)/85C4A499D0DF490D48257831003E97A3/$file/Report%20No%202%202008%20Person%20Adversely%20Referred%20Falconer.pdf 

The Legislative Assembly member for Mindarie, Mr J R Quigley, used to be the main solicitor that represented police officers in court, however,was the solicitor that accused former police deputy police commissioner David John Caporn of conspiring with senior DPP prosecutor, Kenneth Bates to present false and/or misleading evidence to the Supreme Court that caused a wrongful murder conviction against Andrew Mallard. Mr J R Quigley,  MLA convinced the High Court of Australia to quash the murder conviction against Andrew Mallard, who eventually received $3.25 million compensation from the Western Australian Government for spending 12 years wrongly in prison for a murder he did not commit.  Mr J R Quigley,  MLA then became the Attorney General for Western Australia when the Labor Party won the Western Australian State Election held Saturday 11 March 2017. 

It is noted that there has been other un objected to public claims of corruption against Robert Falconer when he was in the Victorian Drug Squad and the Police Commissioner of Western Australia.Robert Falconer  has chosen to go silent in regards to these public claims of corruption.

​see: Victoria Police and the problem of corruption and serious misconduct

https://www.ibac.vic.gov.au/docs/default-source/reports/opi-report/past-patterns-future-directions---feb-2007.pdf?sfvrsn=dc586175_8

Corruption and serious misconduct in Victoria Police has a long pedigree and the circumstances which have triggered it have been remarkably persistent. The patterns of misconduct and corruption depicted in the Report are confirmed by our current investigations and will remain a source for the focus of our work. 

​https://www.smuggled.com/BloWhi1.htm - CHAPTER 45 - FROM THE BOOK

VICTORIA-  POLICE CORRUPTION – 2.

 The mainstream Australian media is perhaps more tightly controlled now, compared to the 1970's and 1980's.. than was the media in the former Eastern Bloc countries. The means by which this occurs is just slightly different. The mere fact we are told that we have a free press, does not mean we have one.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/13/victorian-police-sold-illegal-drugs-corruption-report-finds

Victorian police sold illegal drugs, corruption report finds. Commission finds police used ice, cocaine and ecstasy, met with traffickers and joked about their own drug use.Victorian police sent each other joking texts about their drug use, while one was building a “sophisticated drug syndicate”, the state’s anti-corruption investigation has found. Police partying on ice, cocaine and ecstasy would meet up with known traffickers, peddle drugs themselves and return positive tests, the report by the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission said. The report takes in three investigations into claims of drug possession, trafficking and use by police and says allegations against eight officers have been substantiated.
Operation Apsley revealed a group of police were using drugs regularly in their social lives, including one who used cocaine “most days” for four months last year. The officer, known as Senior Constable A, and a friend, Senior Constable B, used and trafficked drugs and were “cavalier about the safety risks”, the report says. Another senior constable messaged a civilian associate about putting MDMA powder into capsules and got the reply: “Now that you run a sophisticated drug syndicate you will be ... essstremely bizzy.”
Two other Ibac operations also exposed regular drug use. One that focused on a constable led to that officer’s brother being arrested by federal and interstate police on alleged drug offences. Two other Ibac operations also exposed regular drug use. One that focused on a constable led to that officer’s brother being arrested by federal and interstate police on alleged drug offences.
Ibac said the substantiated allegations against eight officers were likely to be just “snapshots of a more widespread and serious problem for Victoria police”.
Of those eight officers, two were charged with giving false evidence, misleading or attempting to mislead Ibac and inciting a witness to mislead Ibac, and one was charged with criminal drug offences. One has been dismissed, three have resigned, three are suspended and one returned to work after an admonishment notice.
Ibac concluded there were systemic deficiencies in Victoria police’s illicit drug prevention and detection.
“Police officers cannot be selective in choosing which criminal laws they will obey,” Ibac commissioner Stephen O’Bryan QC said. “While most of the police officers investigated were aware they were engaging in illegal conduct, they rationalised their off-duty criminality as being separate to their obligations as police officers.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-10-06/police-corruption-book-pulled-from-shelves/2287918

Police corruption book pulled from shelves - Hamish Fitzsimmons- 6 Oct 2010,- A book that claims police corruption in Victoria has been ignored for years is being withdrawn from sale in that state. The author, Andrew Fraser, has never been shy of controversy. Snouts In The Trough is the story of Malcolm Rosenes, a former drug squad detective who in 2003 was himself convicted of drug dealing and served three years in jail. In it, Mr Fraser alleges police involved in serious corruption remain in the force and that the state government, the police Ethical Standards Department and the Office of Police Integrity (OPI) have long known about it in the form of a debrief from Mr Rosenes. "It's some thousands of pages, two or 3,000, so I've read nearly all of it and that was given to Ethical Standards, which then went to the OPI and therefore is in the government domain and that was in 2001," Mr Fraser said.
He says "absolutely nothing" has been done with the information.
The book also claims corrupt police habitually planted false evidence to get convictions, stole and sold the drugs they were meant to be taking off the streets and even murdered.

The book came about when Mr Fraser's business partner was approached by Mr Rosenes, who wanted to tell the story of his jail experience and get Mr Fraser to write it - the end result is very different.
It tells how a young policeman slides into corruption, which began with free food and other discounts and ended in the betrayal of the badge.
"One, he's worried about what's going on, but at the same time he's behaving in a seriously corrupt matter; the matters that brought about his arrest and downfall are serious, serious drug trafficking charges - there's no doubt about that," Mr Fraser said.
"But for some reason he's also got this half-baked idea [of] thought that he might be doing some right, but at the same time he's making some dough on the side and a lot of it, but he never seems to meld the two together."
Mr Fraser says the book should not be interpreted as an attack on Victoria Police.
"I'm not saying all the coppers are corrupt, but what I'm saying is there is an element that needs to be rooted out and there is a continual refusal by successive governments to even remotely address the issue," he said.
Mr Rosenes was unavailable for comment.
Lateline also asked the State Government Solicitor and the Attorney-General for comment but has had no response.
Victoria Police declined to comment.​

http://www.smuggled.com/vrb1.htm

​The Hoser Files is relatively unusual in that it doesn't open by detailing high-level corruption. Instead the book starts with the 'low-level' stuff and works it's way up the ladder showing that the Victorian Police force is rotten from the bottom to the top. For those outside the Victoria Police the consequences of trying to fix the entrenched corrupt culture are usually far worse. They include the risks of being robbed, bashed, set-up and falsely charged with fictitious offences. All this and more has happened the author of The Hoser Files (Raymond Hoser) and this is where this book begins.

Perth has grown into a bustling modern city following the mining boom.

DR Karl Joseph O'Callaghan Western Australian Police Commissioner from  2004 to 2017,

who it is understood to be a senior well respected Freemason and a member of a Freemason Red Lodge

 GIF: Perth police voice Claremont killer fears
https://gfycat.com/denseaptindianglas

A second victim
Five months later, in the early hours of June 9, 1996, 23-year-old childcare worker Jane Rimmer vanished from the same area.
Like Sarah Spiers before her, Jane had begun her evening with friends at the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe.
The group stayed there for about an hour before jumping in a taxi to travel the 3.5 kilometres to Claremont, arriving around 9:30pm at their destination — the Continental Hotel.
Sitting on the corner of Bayview Terrace and Gugeri Street, the historic Continental Hotel — known simply as "the Conti" to a generation of young people — was good times central during the 1990s.

After a couple of hours enjoying themselves at the pub, Jane and her mates headed to Club Bayview — the same place Sarah Spiers left her friends before disappearing.
But they changed their minds when they saw the long queue outside, deciding instead to head back to the suburbs to party at a friend's house.
As they reached the taxi rank outside the Continental, Jane suddenly decided she'd rather stay out, telling her mates she was going back to the pub.

More than a decade later, police would release chilling CCTV footage of Jane standing outside the Continental shortly after midnight.
The grainy vision shows an unidentified man approaching the young blonde woman, whose face lights up when she sees him.
They appear to converse before the camera pans to another part of the pub. When the recording returns to where she has been standing, both she and the mystery man have disappeared.

​A map showing Jane Rimmer's last known movements in Claremont before her disappearance in 1996.

Immediately concerns were raised the cases were linked — sending shockwaves through the community.
Jane's family had reported her missing when she failed to turn up work on Monday morning, having also been a no-show at the family's weekly Sunday roast lunch, and police were quick to act.
The Macro Taskforce was set up to investigate and would go on to become the longest-running and most expensive police probe in the state's history, involving hundreds of officers and thousands of suspects.
Hundreds of people who were identified as being in Claremont at the time were interviewed as police scrutinised CCTV footage in minute detail. DNA swabs were taken from all of Perth's taxi drivers.
As fear grew in Claremont and the wider Perth community, police appealed for help from the public.
Young women were repeatedly warned not to walk alone at night and people became fearful to take taxis.
Six weeks after she disappeared, Jane Rimmer's body was found in bushland in Wellard, 40km south of the CBD.

Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon

​The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the ... The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers (18) on 27 January 1996 ... In the early hours of Sunday 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer (23) from Shenton ... in the early hours of Saturday 15 March 1997, Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old ..

Laurie Webb who was sacked by PathWest

The sacking and breaches against Mr Webb were "unprecedented in Western Australia's criminal justice history"...Attorney General John Quigley told Mornings with Gareth Parker on Radio 6PR on Friday 

Claremont serial killings: Sacked PathWest technician Laurie Webb present during Ciara Glennon’s post mortem
https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-sacked-pathwest-technician-laurie-webb-present-during-ciara-glennons-post-mortem-ng-b881436443z - Shannon HamptonThe West Australian -Friday, 17 January 2020

DNA extractions from Ciara Glennon's fingernails have come under scrutiny at Bradley Edwards' trial. Credit: AAP
​The epic WA Supreme Court trial last week heard when Ms Glennon’s left middle fingernail was initially tested, only her DNA came up - not Edwards’
 But in a combined sample with Ms Glennon’s torn left thumbnail in 2008, Edwards’ DNA was detected by UK scientists.
On Monday, the court heard there were three possible explanations -
(a) the clipping never contained Edwards’ DNA,
(b) it was always there but not detected by the technology used at the time, or
(c) it was present but not in the extracts initially analysed.

Claremont serial killings:
Laurie Webb Sacked PathWest technician ..
Sacked scientist at Claremont post mortem
Rebecca Le May
https://www.southernhighlandnews.com.au/story/6584732/sacked-scientist-at-claremont-post-mortem/?cs=9397
JANUARY 17 2020 

Video excerpts from Ciara Glennon's post-mortem have been played at Bradley Robert Edwards' trial.

A mortuary technician had difficulty removing one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the Claremont serial killings case from Ciara Glennon's body and did it in the presence of a now discredited forensic biologist, the WA Supreme Court has heard.
Video excerpts from the 27-year-old solicitor's post-mortem were played at Bradley Robert Edwards' trial on Friday but the sensitive material was obscured from the public gallery, where Ms Glennon's father and sister were seated.

Retired mortuary manager Robert Macdermid, who was present at the examinations of Ms Glennon and Jane Rimmer's bodies, said he had no independent memory of them, estimating he had been involved in more than 10,000 post-mortems.

He gave grim testimony about how they were usually conducted, as the handling of evidence in the case continues to be meticulously scrutinised.

Mr Macdermid then confirmed Laurance Webb, a former senior forensic biologist who was sacked from PathWest in 2016 for breaching testing protocols, was present at Ms Glennon's post-mortem.

Mr Macdermid could be heard in the video saying "too hard Laurie" and "I can't get them, Laurie", and explained to the court the scissors he was using to remove the nail from her left thumb were too big.
"But then I went back and had another go of it after that," he told prosecutor Bradley Hollingsworth.
"I think the scissor was too big.
"The nail was cracked."
He confirmed Mr Webb instructed him what sections of the nails he wanted cut and would have taken them later.

Mr Macdermid was asked whether the smaller pair of scissors were clean and replied: "Yes, I wouldn't put dirty scissors away".
Prosecutors say DNA found on a 17-year-old girl whom Edwards raped at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 and on a kimono left behind at a Huntingdale home where he attacked an 18-year-old woman as she slept in 1988 matches DNA found under Ms Glennon's nails.

In her opening address, prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said forensic scientists had concluded the DNA was 80-100 million times more likely to have come from Edwards than an unknown man unrelated to him.
Ms Glennon fought for her life as she was attacked, almost tearing the nail off her left thumb in the process, and Edwards' DNA was there and also under her middle left fingernail "because he murdered her", Ms Barbagallo said.

On the suggestion of contamination with the DNA sample recovered from the rape victim, she said if that had occurred, it would be expected the woman's DNA would also be present but it was not.
The extract from the rape victim had never come near the samples taken from Ms Glennon's nails "both in time and place within the laboratory", she said.
Edwards, a former Telstra technician and Little Athletics coach, denies murdering Ms Glennon, Ms Rimmer, who was a 23-year-old childcare worker, and 18-year-old secretary Sarah Spiers in 1996 and 1997.

He will be sentenced for the rape and the Huntingdale attack after the trial concludes.
Australian Associated Press

Chapter II
A woman goes missing

On January 27, 1996, 18-year-old Sarah Spiers disappeared after a night out in the wealthy enclave.

The fun-loving teenager had been celebrating Australia Day with a group of girlfriends, beginning their evening at the popular Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe.
Sarah's older sister, Amanda, picked up the group at midnight from the "Obie", as it's colloquially known, and dropped them in Claremont, where they headed to Club Bayview to continue the fun.
The nightclub — which continues to operate today — was in its heyday from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. It was affectionately known as "Clubba" or "Club Bayspew" to its alcohol-fuelled 18- to 25-year-old clientele, who partied up a storm on its shaky dancefloor and sticky carpet.
It had been a big day for Sarah, who'd been socialising for many hours by this time and was beginning to get tired. She told her girlfriends she'd catch a taxi home.
She stopped to have a brief chat outside the club with the security guards, one of whom she knew quite well, then walked down to the phone box on Stirling Road, near the intersection of Stirling Highway, where she called a cab.
A couple of young men driving past would later report to police they'd seen the young secretary standing at the corner of Stirling Highway and Stirling Street, apparently waiting for the taxi.

But when the taxi arrived, just three minutes after she called for it, Sarah could not be found.
She was never seen again.

Claremont serial killings trial CCTV shows last moments of Jane Rimmer, Ciara Glennon and possible link to Bradley Edwards
By Andrea Mayes
11 Dec 2019,
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-11/claremont-serial-killings-trial-cctv-jane-rimmer-ciara-glennon/11784962

RELATED STORY: Claremont trial shocked as teen rape victim gives graphic account of Edwards cemetery attack
RELATED STORY: Face to face with an accused serial killer — victim tells of terrifying Bradley Edwards encounter

​VIDEO: CCTV vision of Jane Rimmer previously released shows her greeting a man outside the Continental Hotel. (ABC News)

CCTV cameras record Jane Rimmer outside the Continental Hotel
Posted 23 Nov 2019, 7:10pm
Claremont serial killer victim Jane Rimmer was recorded on CCTV outside the Continental Hotel in Claremont as a dark-haired man approached her.
Source: ABC News | Duration: 11sec
Topics: crime, murder-and-manslaughter, claremont-6010
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-24/jane-rimmer-on-cctv-outside-the-continental-hotel/11222008

The serial killings that shocked a city to its core
The disappearance of three young women from the upmarket suburb of Claremont in the mid-1990s changed the face of Perth. Two decades later, a man faces court charged with their murders.
By Andrea Mayes -  28 Feb 2018
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/how-the-claremont-serial-killings-shocked-perth-to-its-core/9490836

It's a horrifying mystery that has haunted Perth for decades and become a dark stain on the city's psyche. How three young women in the prime of their lives could disappear from a popular nightspot in Perth's wealthy western suburbs seemed beyond belief.
The fact that the crimes have remained unsolved for more than two decades added an element of grim fascination, fuelling endless speculation over water coolers and barbeques. This is a case that has gripped the city like no other. Their names are forever etched in our minds — Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.

PHOTO: Three women who disappeared from Claremont, Perth, between 1996 and 1997 from left to right: Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon, and Jane Rimmer.
The Claremont serial killings
Three young Perth women disappeared in the mid-1990s. Two decades later, a man faces court.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/how-the-claremont-serial-killings-shocked-perth-to-its-core/9490836

PHOTO: Bradley Edwards has been charged with abducting and murdering three women from Claremont. (Facebook: KLAC
PHOTO: The Continental Hotel in Claremont where Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were last seen. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)

VIDEO: CCTV vision of Jane Rimmer previously released shows her greeting a man outside the Continental Hotel. (ABC News)
VIDEO: Footage supplied by the Rimmer family showing Jane celebrating a wedding (ABC News)

PHOTO: A man matching Bradley Edwards's description was recorded on CCTV vision at the BP Rose Garden near Claremont. (Supplied: Google Street View)
PHOTO: Lynda Donovan was with Jane Rimmer on the night she disappeared. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
PHOTO: Club Bay View in Claremont was visited by Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer before they disappeared. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
PHOTO: Claremont serial killings victim Jane Rimmer disappeared in June 1996. (ABC News)

Key points:
Edwards is accused of killing three women in Claremont in the mid-1990s
All the woman had been enjoying nights out with friends when they vanished
CCTV footage never publicly released has been shown in court of their final moments

The Claremont serial killings trial has been shown video footage of a man resembling Bradley Edwards at a service station near Claremont on the night Ciara Glennon, the third victim, went missing

Edwards, 51, is charged with murdering three women — Ms Glennon, 27, Sarah Spiers, 18 and Jane Rimmer, 23.
The women had all been enjoying nights out in the upmarket Perth entertainment district on the nights they vanished between January 1996 and March 1997.

On Wednesday, The WA Supreme Court was shown vision of a male customer at the BP Rose Gardens service station in the suburb of Nedlands, adjacent to Claremont, on March 14, 1997.
The footage, taken at 7:06pm, showed a tall, dark-haired man dressed in a white business shirt and dark tie interacting with a service station attendant and buying a newspaper.
The vision shows the man behind a wire security screen, making it difficult to clearly make out his features.

Detective Sergeant Justin Geary, who found the footage when he was tasked with reviewing all vision held by police relating to the Claremont case, told the court it was not possible to positively identify Edwards as the customer.
Defence lawyer Paul Yovich SC objected to the vision being tendered to the court since there was no proof it was Edwards.
But Justice Stephen Hall accepted the argument of prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC that Edwards could not be excluded as the person featured in the footage.

New CCTV of Rimmer, Glennon played to court
The vision was taken several hours before Ms Glennon is known to have arrived in Claremont about 11:30pm.
The court was also shown never-before-seen footage of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon enjoying themselves at popular nightspots in Claremont, including the Continental Hotel and Club Bay View, on the nights they disappeared in 1996 and 1997 respectively.
Previously, the only CCTV footage seen of Ms Rimmer outside the Continental had been released by police 12 years after she disappeared on June 8, 1996.
Less than two minutes of vision was provided at the time, initially only to the producers of a Foxtel TV crime show.
The videos shown in the WA Supreme Court this week were far more extensive, showing Ms Rimmer in a number of places in Claremont over a period of more than half an hour.
The videos, in chronological order of the nights the two women disappeared, were compiled by Detective Sergeant Justin Geary after he joined a cold-case homicide review team in 2015 and was tasked with re-examining all footage police had of the evenings in question.
No CCTV footage of the evening Ms Spiers went missing was uncovered, nor was there any vision relating to three attacks Edwards has admitted — a 1988 attack on an 18-year-old woman in her bed at her home in Huntingdale, an unprovoked assault on a social worker at Hollywood Hospital in 1990, and the abduction and rape of a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995, less than a year before Ms Spiers vanished.

Video shows a laughing woman out on the town
The videos show a smiling, laughing Ms Rimmer both inside and outside the Continental Hotel, and on the street outside Club Bay View, with friends including Ben Rundle, Sian Chapman and Lynda Donovan.
In the pub she is captured walking down the internal stairs, using the wall as support as she stumbles but still with a broad smile on her face.
The pub is teeming with young people drinking and enjoying themselves as staff try to weave their way through the crowd, holding aloft wire baskets to collect glasses.
There is also vision of Ms Rimmer on the pavement outside the hotel chatting with her friend Emma Donovan.

Outside nearby Club Bay View, Ms Rimmer is shown walking down a busy St Quentin's Avenue and standing on the pavement in front of the venue with a group of friends, chatting animatedly and pushing her long blonde hair out of her face.
Vision from a few minutes later taken from the Continental Hotel shows her walking towards the hotel behind a young man, then standing on the pavement outside the pub alone and apparently waiting for someone.
The vision alternates between four different cameras on the night, each of which records about 13 seconds before switching to the next one.

As the camera pans to the front of the pub, Ms Rimmer is shown leaning on and next to a verandah post for about seven minutes, at one point seemingly checking her watch.
The last vision of her is at 12:04am. When the camera swings back to where she had been standing, she is not there.
Under cross examination from Mr Yovich, Ms Donovan admitted Ms Rimmer was quite drunk by the end of the night, unsteady on her feet and at times holding onto other people to help her stand up.

Ms Donovan, a friend and work colleague from the Nedlands Child Care Centre who lived in the same Wembley block of flats as Ms Rimmer, said they had met up at the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe about 7:00pm that night.

She admitted to Mr Yovich she had made a statement soon after her friend's disappearance to say that Ms Rimmer and Ms Chapman had argued at the pub with a group of men including someone she had described as a person "with a nasty temper" who worried her.
But she said she could no longer remember the interaction.
Ms Donovan said Ms Rimmer had been "happy" as she and her friends got a taxi to Claremont later that night.
But when she was shown footage of herself and Ms Rimmer outside the Continental Hotel about 10:40pm, Ms Donovan said Ms Rimmer had been upset and describing herself as "fat and ugly".

Edwards missing from other footage
CCTV footage of the night Ciara Glennon vanished was also shown, showing her entering the Continental Hotel with a group of work colleagues.
Sergeant Geary said it was the only footage police had been able to locate of Ms Glennon on the night.

But footage was shown to the court of her friends both inside and outside the hotel, and at Club Bay View, as well as of the three men known as the "burger boys" who were also shown at the two venues.
The men saw a woman matching Ms Glennon's description on Stirling Highway in Claremont apparently hitchhiking, then talking to the driver of a white Holden Commodore station wagon sometime after midnight on March 15, 1997.
Under questioning from the prosecution, Sergeant Geary said police had not been able to identify Edwards in any CCTV footage taken in Claremont on the night either woman disappeared.
In her opening address, Ms Barbagallo said Edwards operated "on the periphery" of Cottesloe and Claremont and away from cameras, describing him as an "enigma of the dark".
The trial continues.

Lynda Donovan was with Jane Rimmer on the night she disappeared. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)

A map showing Jane Rimmer's last known movements in Claremont before her disappearance in 1996.

Bradley Edwards has been charged with abducting and murdering three women from Claremont. (Facebook: KLAC)

Three women who disappeared from Claremont, Perth, between 1996 and 1997 from left to right: Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon, and Jane Rimmer.

Infographic: A map showing Sarah Spiers's last known movements in Claremont before her disappearance in 1996. (ABC News) 

Sarah Spiers called for a taxi from this phone box on the night she disappeared. (ABC News) 

Claremont serial killings trial podcast: ‘A Lesson in DNA’
Kate RyanPerthNow
January 30, 2020
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-podcast-a-lesson-in-dna-ng-b881448608z
Podcast CLAREMONT: The Trial - A Lesson in DNA - 00:00 / 30:52


The forensic scientist who tested the evidence which is crucial to the prosecution’s case today took the stand.
Anna-Marie Ashley from Pathwest, detailed in painfully intricate detail of how she extracted the DNA from the Karrakatta rape victim’s intimate swabs, which revealed DNA which we now know is Bradley Edwards’ - for the first time.
She also tested Ciara Glennon’s fingernail samples - the crucial piece of evidence the prosecution say links the Karrakatta rape, which Bradley Edwards has pleaded guilty to, with the murder of Ciara Glennon.

For full coverage of WA's trial of the century, head to TheWest.com.au
It was an extremely scientific and detail driven day in court, luckily, forensic DNA expert Brendan Chapman joined Natalie and Tim in the studio to help us try to understand the process of DNA extraction.
Brendan’s informative introduction into DNA is a must-listen for those of us following the trial, because we’ve been warned - it’s only going to get more complicated.
Especially when the defence take their turn cross examining the evidence.
If you have a question for the podcast, email us at claremontpodcast@wanews.com.au
For more information on WA's trial of the century, head to TheWest.com.au
The Podcast: The most crucial piece of evidence the prosecution has to try and prove Bradley Edwards’ guilt