Artist Leonard ‘Lennie’ Lawson’s bushland rape case enthralled Sydney

THE public gallery at Central Criminal Court was packed in 1954 to hear evidence against comic book artist Leonard Lawson.

Successful comic book artist Leonard Keith Lawson was convicted of rape in murder in 1954. Now his crimes are being revisited in Portrait Of The Artist As A Murderer, a new play at The Rocks Discovery Museum.

THE public gallery at Sydney’s Central Criminal Court was packed for three days in June 1954 as Justice John Clancy heard sensational evidence against successful comic book artist Leonard Keith Lawson.

Lawson, 26, who earned £70 a week from his Lone Avenger and Hooded Rider comic books, was living at Cliff St, Manly, with wife Betty and three children when three young models accused him of rape.

Lawson’s crimes are revisited in Portrait Of The Artist As A Murderer, a new play by Robert Armstrong for the true crime production, Deadhouse: Tales Of Sydney Morgue, playing at The Rocks Discovery Museum until April 28 and from May 8-12. Lawson later also appeared before the Coroners Court, charged with two murders in late 1961.

Producer and historian Stephen Carnell used cases associated with the old Sydney Morgue and Coroners Court, housed at George St in The Rocks from 1854 until 1971 in the Deadhouse series.

In bizarre evidence at Lawson’s first case, he was accused of picking up five young models from the June Dally Watkins modelling academy in the city and driving them to Terrey Hills bushland. He took several swimsuit photographs which he explained would be used in a calendar, then produced a sawn-off shotgun, bound and gagged all five women, sexually assaulted them, and raped three, including a 15-year-old.

Rapist and murderer Leonard ‘Lennie’ Keith Lawson in 1954.

The first model to give evidence was then married and had worked with Lawson and three other models once before. She told the court Lawson used an agency to engage her for the job on May 7, 1954. After taking photographs, Lawson told them he had cancer of the kidneys and intended to commit suicide before the pain became too great. He then took a loaded sawn-off rifle from his briefcase and pointed it at them.

“The girls were all frightened and one of the girls was shaking and became hysterical,” she said. Lawson threatened them, saying “I am going to kill myself and I don’t care if I take some of you with me.”

He made the models lie on their stomachs on the ground, took rope from his briefcase and tied the girls’ wrists and ankles. Lawson then took scissors and sticking plaster, cut six-inch lengths and taped their mouths “to stop them screaming”, the model said. Then Lawson pulled them to their feet, saying if they moved “he would put a bullet through our heads”.

Next day a 15-year-old model told the court that after binding them, Lawson had intercourse with her and another girl. She said Lawson told the other two he would not touch them, after one told him she was four months pregnant and the other pleaded with him. The girl said Lawson then had intercourse with her again.

A model poses in the bush at Terrey Hills for a photograph taken by Leonard “Lennie” Lawson.

A model poses in the bush at Terrey Hills for a photograph taken by Leonard “Lennie” Lawson.

The other 15-year-old said Lawson interfered with her but did not rape her, adding she saw Lawson have intercourse with three models, including her sister. A police doctor said he examined the girls shortly after midnight on May 8, when all had reddened marks around their wrists and ankles consistent with being tightly tied with rope.

In a statement after he was accused, Lawson admitted he had taken the girls to bushland to rape them. But in court he pleaded not guilty, arguing his accusers had consented. He said three months earlier he had taken two of the girls and two other models to the same place and photographed them. He said one of the two girls he was alleged to have assaulted had then told him she thought it would be exciting to be raped. The second girl had said she liked the caveman type, and that if a strange man attacked her she would want him to tie her up and gag her. Lawson said that at Terrey Hills, the models had sat around in a friendly manner, discussing sex. He said to one of them, “You remember what we were talking about before? I have brought a rope and a gun, and I am all prepared.” He showed his gun, then told them to lie down so he could tie them up.

Rapist and murderer Leonard Keith Lawson (front) with detectives at Moss Vale on December 14, 1916.

Lawson in 1973.

“The girls lay on the ground. I put the gun down on the rock, where it remained for the rest of the time,” he said. “The girls were giggling all the time and appeared to be enjoying the show as much as I was.”

Lawson said he told one girl he was going to have intercourse with her and she did not object, and denied he had intercourse with any other girls.

When a jury found Lawson guilty, Justice Clancy passed the death sentence, adding he saw no reason why it should not be carried out, although Lawson would be the first man executed for rape in NSW for 57 years.

Only 17 men had hanged for rape, described as criminal assault, since 1788. The last man executed for the offence was Charles Hines, on May 21, 1898. Lawson was spared, sentenced instead to 14 years jail when NSW Labor premier Joe Cahill abolished the death penalty in October 1954.

Released in May 1961, six months later Lawson murdered Manly girl Jane Bower, 16, and Wendy Luscombe, 15, who was shot dead when Lawson attacked girls at the Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School at Moss Vale. Convicted of both murders, Lawson died in 2003, aged 76, in Grafton jail.

Originally published as Artist Leonard ‘Lennie’ Lawson’s bushland rape case enthralled Sydney