Psychopath Mark Richard Lawrence takes his freedom bid to High Court

A PSYCHOPATHIC sexual sadist who has been in custody for 34 years for a string of violent crimes is taking his bid for freedom to the High Court.

Mark Richard Lawrence Rapist applying to get out of Jail.

A PSYCHOPATHIC sexual sadist who has been in custody for 34 years for a string of violent crimes is taking his bid for freedom to the High Court.

Mark Richard Lawrence, 54, stalked and brutally killed 29-year-old Julie Ann Muirhead in Brisbane on Boxing Day in 1983.

Lawrence killed the psychiatric patient by strangling her with a tea towel then cutting her throat when she continued screaming after he and his co-offender grabbed her from Wolston Park Hospital in Wacol, dragged her down to a river bank and choked her.

Lawrence was an involuntary patient at the prison-linked psychiatric hospital at the time of the attack.

He was there because he was convicted of assaulting three young children.

He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years’ jail, telling authorities the killing was the fulfilment of a long-term rape and murder fantasy and he “couldn’t remember” whether he had sex with her. “I think she was definitely dead before one of us set her alight,” he told police.

Lawrence will make his latest bid for freedom in a special leave application to the High Court on April 17. Even if the High Court bid fails he will have another chance to apply for freedom in the Supreme Court within months.

He was due to be released from jail on February 7, 2008, after serving a further seven-year sentence for the rape of a prisoner in 1999.

His sentence has been extended under laws keeping dangerous sex offenders behind bars until it is shown the community can be protected. It will be the second time he has asked the High Court to hear his case and overturn detention orders made by Queensland’s highest court.

Forensic psychiatrists are worried he may not control his deviant fantasies and stalk, rape and kill another woman.