Gayle Woodford killing: Dudley Davey pleads guilty to rape, murder of outback nurse in remote northern South Australia
A MAN has pleaded guilty to raping and murdering popular outback nurse Gayle Woodford in Far North South Australia. For the first time, The Advertiser can reveal his troubling past and how it led to the death of an innocent woman who devoted her life to helping Aboriginals in remote communities.
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GAYLE Woodford was an angel to those she healed and helped as an Outback nurse — but her life was brutally snatched in an act of evil by a stranger, who can now be unmasked as a serial sex predator.
Ms Woodford’s grieving family members sat stoically in Port Augusta Magistrates Court on Thursday as Dudley David Davey pleaded guilty to her abduction, rape and murder at Fregon in the APY Lands, days before Easter last year.
Davey’s guilty pleas allow The Advertiser to reveal his extensive and escalating history of violence and sexually motivated attacks against women, dating back to his teenage years.
Only six months before the murder, Davey had completed a parole period for a brazen and public indecent assault on a woman on a busy Adelaide street in 2012.
After yesterday’s brief hearing, Ms Woodford’s husband Keith was overcome by emotion as he left the courthouse, flanked by loved ones.
Mr Woodford said he was not yet ready to speak publicly about the murder and thanked the media for respecting his and his family’s privacy throughout their terrible ordeal.
Davey — once described by his own lawyer as “an absolute menace” when drunk — lured the 56-year old from her Fregon home late on the night of March 23 2016, as Mr Woodford slept in their bed, tragically oblivious to the unfolding horror outside.
His wife had been bundled into her own ambulance and driven to her death in scrubland on the outskirts of Fregon. Mr Woodford believed she had left home to attend a common late-night medical emergency.
It was not until the next morning that colleagues raised the alarm, when Ms Woodford did not arrive at work and the ambulance was noticed missing.
Appearing via videolink from Yatala Labour Prison yesterday, Davey quietly said “guilty” in answer to charges of murder, engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse without consent and the theft of the ambulance.
Davey has been in custody since he was arrested in Coober Pedy, after driving the ambulance from Fregon through the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, to Marla and south along the Stuart Hwy.
The court is yet to hear what prompted Davey to carry out the heinous attack, in which he drove the terrified nurse to scrubland on the tiny town’s outskirts before raping and killing her, and burying her body in a crudely dug grave.
Ms Woodford’s body was eventually found using GPS coordinates from the stolen ambulance after a heartbreaking search involving police, emergency volunteers and residents, who later spoke of their devastation and anger at Davey’s unprovoked and vicious crime.
The murder occurred six months after Davey had been released from parole conditions. He had been in prison over a violent indecent assault upon a passed-out woman, in front of shocked witnesses on North Tce in the city in September, 2012.
Davey has been repeatedly jailed for crimes against women — including assault with intent to rape, attacking a woman who feared he would snap her neck, and grabbing a 12-year old schoolgirl in Alice Springs 17 years ago.
Davey returned to the APY Lands after serving 20 months of a three-year prison term for the September 2012 indecent assault of a woman who fell asleep outside a North Tce convenience store.
Shocked bystanders found a severely drunk Davey making “thrusting motions” over his victim, who woke in hospital with a chipped tooth and scratches on her face.
During sentencing submissions for that attack, Davey’s own lawyer described him as “an absolute menace” when drunk.
Davey’s lawyer told Adelaide Magistrate Bob Harrap his client wanted to return to he dry zone of the APY Lands and quit drinking.
Imposing a three-year sentence with a 20-month non-parole period, Mr Harrap gave Davey a prophetic warning that drinking would land him back in jail.
“Alcohol has been his demon for a number of years … clearly it is a problem with which he needs to continue to wrestle,” Mr Harrap said.
“Otherwise, I suspect Mr Davey will simply continue to commit the cycle of offending he’s been involved in over the years.”
Six months after the conditions of his parole lapsed — meaning he was under no supervision or restrictions on his movements or activities — he murdered Ms Woodford.
The court has not yet heard if Davey was intoxicated when he murdered Ms Woodford, but after his arrest, residents described him as quiet and reserved when sober but dangerous when drunk.
Davey’s lawyer also described him as “two people” — quiet and reserved when sober, but an “absolute menace” when drinking.
The 2012 indecent assault occurred soon after Davey had been released from prison after completing a sentence for other offences, without any form of supervision or parole.
In Alice Springs in 2000, Davey committed a spate of offences including thefts and break-ins, approaching and grabbing a 12-year-old girl and a violent attack on a woman in the carpark of the local hospital.
That woman said Davey, then still a teenager, had crept up to her as she walked from the hospital and recalled being shocked by the ferocity of his attack.
“During the attack, I believed the offender was trying to kill or paralyse me by breaking my neck, as he could not keep me still and completely restrained,” she said in a victim impact statement.
“I believed throughout the attack that his intention was to sexually assault me.”
Davey pleaded guilty to charges of assault — but not indecent assault — over the Alice Springs incidents, but then continued his violent and unpredictable behaviour after skipping the Northern Territory and coming to South Australia.
In February 2001, Davey attacked an SA woman and was convicted of assault with intent to rape.
He received a sentence of two years and six months, which he completed before being transferred back to the NT to serve his two-year sentence for the prior Alice Springs offences.
After Major Crime detectives arrested and charged Davey with murder, Aboriginal community members told The Advertiser they wanted him to face tribal law, saying he deserved to have his hands cut off as retribution.
The murder also sparked a national campaign for better protection of Outback care workers, including ensuring they were never forced to attend dangerous situations alone.
More than 100,000 people signed an online petition backing the proposed changes, however, the South Australian government is yet to follow the lead of the Northern Territory by amending legislation.
Under SA law, Davey is now subject to a mandatory head sentence of life in prison, with a non-parole period of at least 20 years — unless a judge finds special reasons warranting a lower minimum term.
Davey remains in Yatala Prison ahead of sentencing submissions in the Supreme Court in Adelaide in the coming months.
Davey will be confronted with victim impact statements from Ms Woodford’s family and wide network of friends and colleagues, as well as the APY Lands community she devoted so much of her life to.
More than 1000 people mourned and celebrated Ms Woodford’s life in an emotional
funeral on Yorke Peninsula in April.