Infamous killer and rapist willing to take medication to aid bid for freedom

AN INFAMOUS killer and rapist who has spent more than 30 years in jail wants freedom so much he is willing to take medication that has some alarming side effects.

Convicted rapist and murderer Mark Richard Lawrence is applying to get out of jail.

AN INFAMOUS killer and rapist who has spent more than 30 years in jail wants freedom so much he is willing to take medication that could cause him to grow breasts.

One of the state’s most notorious prisoners, Mark Richard Lawrence, and a fellow psychiatric patient killed patient Julie Ann Muirhead at Wacol on Boxing Day 1983 – in what was described as an “enactment” of his rape and murder fantasies.

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He was convicted of ­manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility and sentenced to 15 years.

Lawrence, who has convictions from the 1970s for assaulting children, later raped a fellow prisoner in 1999.

Julie Muirhead was raped and murdered by Mark Richard Lawrence

During a review of his continued detention yesterday, Lawrence testified he would be willing to again undergo testosterone-lowering treatment to reduce the intensity of sexual impulses.

The Brisbane Supreme Court heard that Lawrence began treatment in 1991, but stopped 12 months later because he was “starting to grow breasts”.

“I was turning into a ­female,” he said from the ­witness stand yesterday. “If it’s got to make us, everyone, safe … I’m happy to take these medications and abide by the law.”

After hearing psychiatric evidence that Lawrence should begin treatment while still in custody, his barrister Bruce Mumford withdrew an objection to an order for his continuing detention.

The case will be reviewed within 12 months.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Andrew Aboud outside court.

The court heard Lawrence told psychiatrists his sick sexual fantasies “disappeared” three to four years ago and he also had his testosterone levels tested in June 2015, which were found to be “within normal range”.

But consultant psychiatrist Dr Andrew Aboud said he was not confident Lawrence could be “safely managed” in the community without taking the anti-libido medication as well.

“It’s implausible these ­sexual fantasies could have just disappeared at a certain point in time … they were so long-standing and formed at an early stage of his life,” he told the court.

Dr Aboud said he believed treatment should begin while Lawrence was behind bars.

The court heard this would involve Lawrence being assessed on his suitability for the medication, including undergoing tests for cholesterol, bone density and testosterone.

He would then be monitored for side effects and ­reductions in his testosterone levels.