Claremont killer’s early assault victim urges survivors to speak out

One of the three women who survived attacks from Claremont serial killer Bradley Edwards wants to encourage others to speak up and “make a fuss” if they have been a victim of violence.

Former social worker Wendy Davis was attacked by Edwards as she sat at her desk in Hollywood Hospital writing a report one afternoon in 1990.

Wendy Davis has written a book detailing her involvement in the Claremont Serial Killer case.

Edwards, then aged 21, grabbed her from behind, shoved a cloth into her mouth, and began dragging her towards an isolated toilet block.

In Davis’ new book, Don’t Make a Fuss: It’s Only the Claremont Serial Killer, she recalls how she was struggling with the then-Telecom apprentice, who had been working at the hospital, when he suddenly released her.

“He began to move slowly towards me, repeatedly mumbling, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’” she said.

“In deep shock, but sensing I was still at risk, I scrambled through the door to the ward and ran towards the nurses’ station.”

Edwards was held by security guards and later charged with the minor offence of common assault. He kept his job despite Davis’ concerns about the act of random violence levelled against her.

A Telstra representative at the time referred to Edwards as “young Bradley” and the attack as an ‘out-of-character incident’ because he was having relationship troubles.

Six years later, Edwards would abduct and murder two women using his Telstra work vehicle.

Davis, now living in Hobart, found out she was involved in the most expensive and longest running murder investigation in Australian history a few days before Christmas in 2016, when she received a phone call from a WA Police officer named Katy.

“Katy went on to say that her team was investigating some possible links between a number of old crimes, and asked if I remembered any details about the assault that had happened to me some 25 years earlier,” she wrote.

“I was taken aback. I had not consciously thought about the attack for many years.”

Davis said being thrust into the case dredged up suppressed trauma and she began suffering constant flashbacks to the attack as the arrest of Edwards emerged in the media.

She initially began to write about her involvement as a form of therapy, but soon realised she had an important message to share with other women.

“As I was writing I gradually started to see that I was part of a much bigger picture,” she said.

“Women and children in Australia are facing assaults all the time and I felt that my story was from the perspective of a survivor of crime. I felt like I was speaking out for the victims.

“I realised I wanted people to know just what can happen if the signs of escalating violence are ignored, if no one listens to the victims of abuse. I thought my story, what happened to me, demonstrates that perfectly. If escalating violence is ignored, if women are not listened to, then men can go on to commit terrible crimes.”

Davis believes if Telstra or WA Police had taken her attack more seriously, Edwards would have lost his job, and would likely have appeared on the radar of homicide detectives much sooner.

Instead, police trawled the records of convicted sex offenders, along with 18,000 suspects – but Edwards went under the radar until 2016 when a cold case review cracked the case.

He committed two sex attacks, one rape and murdered Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. A Supreme Court judge also found it was likely he had murdered Sarah Spiers, but there was insufficient evidence to convict him.

Davis said giving evidence during Edwards’ trial, and writing the book, had helped give her closure.

“I feel as though I am actually handing it over, I feel as though I have now told my story, there’s no more to tell, and I feel like people are actually listening,” she said.

“At the time I don’t think anybody really understood what happened and I felt I’d lost my voice, I felt powerless, I felt disregarded. I felt like nobody was listening.

“Not making a fuss was the very strong message that women of my generation received in regards to speaking out, and I know that that’s changing and I am very, very happy to see that. But the upshot of it for me is that I want women to know not only is it OK to make a fuss, but sometimes it’s actually very, very necessary.”

After Edwards was convicted in 2020, Telstra issued a public apology to Davis about how her case was managed.

Davis’ book will be released on June 1 by Fremantle Press.