Louise Bell murder trial: Accused Dieter Pfennig pictured with bound, gagged high school student
SMILING while pulling along a bound and gagged high school student, this disturbing image of Louise Bell’s alleged killer, Dieter Pfennig, can be revealed for the first time.
THE teenage boy has been bound with a thick length of rope that loops over his neck, around his body several times and secures his hands in front of him.
He looks at the camera over the top of a gag as an adult male leads him through the Upper Sturt scrub, half-smiling at the photographer.
It was meant to be a harmless, if somewhat tasteless, memento of Mitchell Park High School’s 1987 “Rough It Camp” — but the man holding the rope is a convicted child killer.
Dieter Pfennig posed for the disturbing photograph just two years before he murdered Michael Black and four years after he allegedly abducted and murdered Louise Bell.
Pfennig’s time as a teacher at Mitchell Park has come under scrutiny during his Supreme Court trial, which has been adjourned until January.
His former students have alleged in court he falsely claimed Louise was friends with his daughter, and spoke of her disappearance in a “quite cool and almost menacing” tone of voice.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, had alleged Louise’s discarded pyjama top is torn in a manner suggesting the little girl’s hands had been bound.
The yearbook photo, obtained by The Advertiser, is one of several taken of Pfennig during the 1980s that have surfaced during the trial.
Another, tendered as evidence, shows him on a family trip to Swan Reach wearing a similar tracksuit to the 1987 photo.
A third, taken during the same Swan Reach holiday, shows Pfennig and his family dressed in period costume at a local tourist attraction.
The yearbook photo is accompanied by a student write-up about the “Rough It Camp”, recounting swimming in the lake, milking cows and making damper.
Pfennig also appears in a group photo with other students and teachers.
Pfennig, 67, has pleaded not guilty to having abducted Louise, 10, from her Hackham West home on January 4, 1983 and murdering her sometime before March 1 that year.
Prosecutors have alleged a police re-enactment of the abduction proves Louise could have been taken from her bedroom in just 30 seconds.
Louise’s body has never been found, but her pyjama top was located by a neighbour who also received a phone call from the abductor, claiming the girl was “happy with them”.
Pfennig is already serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of Michael Black, 10 — prosecutors claim he has said Michael and Louise are buried together.
A former prisoner has claimed Pfennig confessed to the murder while “stoned and sobbing” during an inmate drug and alcohol binge on Christmas Day 2004.
Another prisoner, cultist Stephen Akpata, said Pfennig admitted his guilt both verbally and through a bizarre story — but later adopted a “cocky, self-defending” stance.
His trial will resume on January 11 next year.
That date was set after he failed to have the trial postponed for six months so he could mount a $250,000 challenge to key DNA evidence.