Revealed: Dark past of Kevin Steven Correll, the main suspect in Rachelle Childs’ murder
New photos have emerged of Kevin Steven Correll - the main suspect in Rachelle Childs’ murder - as details about his past have been revealed. Listen to the latest podcast and watch the video.
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EXCLUSIVE: The prime suspect in the unsolved murder of 23-year-old Rachelle Childs was acquitted of multiple violent sexual assaults in Sydney in the 1980s and subsequently changed his name, it can now be revealed.
Kevin Steven Correll was Rachelle’s boss at a Holden dealership in Camden, south of Sydney, where she was last seen before she was killed, set alight and dumped in beachside scrub in Gerroa in June, 2001.
Despite a 2006 inquest, the murder remains unsolved – although new interest in the case generated by this masthead’s Dear Rachelle investigation has given fresh hope that the killer may yet be brought to justice.
While Mr Correll was named as the chief suspect in the murder at the time, this masthead can now reveal:
* He was acquitted of multiple sexual assaults on women in Sydney in the ‘80s – two of them at knifepoint – when he was known as Kevin Steven Cornwall;
* He subsequently changed his name from Cornwall to Correll;
* One of his main alibis has now been questioned, thanks to phone tower records which appear to place him in the area where Rachelle was last known to be alive;
* His brother has a history of sex crimes against children.
Mr Correll’s dark past is one of the biggest revelations yet in the Dear Rachelle multimedia series, which is up to episode five and which has had 375,000 downloads from around the world for the podcast.
Mr Correll, who has always denied any involvement in Rachelle’s death, refused to comment when confronted by this masthead.
LISTEN TO EPISODES 1-5 OF THE PODCAST BELOW:
Back in the 1980s, when he still used his birth surname, Mr Correll was called an “alleged mass rapist” on a national TV current affairs show.
One alleged victim, in Punchbowl in 1980, had placed a newspaper ad for a room for rent; another, in Darlinghurst in 1983, was a model seeking photography work.
Their stories were strikingly similar.
In both cases, they claimed, the man they identified from police mug shots as Mr Cornwall (Mr Correll) first visited their homes without incident.
They both claimed that he then returned, armed, to assault them before ordering them to take a shower. Members of Mr Correll’s family gave corroborative evidence as to his whereabouts at the time of the Punchbowl attack.
After Rachelle died, Mr Correll told police that he had been shopping at Campbelltown Mall, northeast of Picton, at the time of the 6.08pm call.
But his phone connected to the southern side of the phone tower in Picton, which is about 22km in a straight line away, on the other side of steep hills, known as the Razorback.
The town of Bargo, where Rachelle lived, lies 14km south of Picton.
WATCH: VIDEO ON PHONE TOWER PINGS BELOW
Rachelle was last sighted driving south from her workplace in Camden, presumed to be heading home.
The lemon top she wore to work that day was found on her laundry floor, suggesting she had gone home and changed before leaving her home.
Former Detective Inspector Mick Ashwood led a homicide squad review of the investigation from 2002.
The phone tower ping was of great interest to investigators because it appeared to place Mr Correll south of Picton, towards Bargo.
Mr Ashwood recalled that the ping had hit the south side of the tower, which itself was southwest of where Mr Correll said he was at the time.
“He said he was on the north side of the tower,” Mr Ashwood said, but the tower ping showed that was “physically impossible”.
“It’s independent evidence,” he says. “It puts him down there.”
Counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Singleton, examined the phone ping evidence in 2006.
He said that “whilst not conclusive”, the 6.08pm ping “tended to suggest that his alibi was not truthful.”
“You can be pinging on a cell tower far away if it’s all flat in between you and the cell tower … ” he said.
“It’s not conclusive, but as a matter of probability, you generally ping on a cell tower that is close to you and not obscured by a mountain.”
In the Liverpool cases, from 1980 and 1983, Mr Correll was charged with rape and indecent assault.
In one, the alleged victim was 17-years-old.
In the other, police arrested Mr Correll at gunpoint after they heard a woman’s screams.
In the 1983 Liverpool case trial, a police officer said that when Mr Correll stood up from the car, his pants fell to his knees.
In the witness box, Mr Correll repeatedly denied that he had told police that the alleged victim was “only a mole”.
Court documents show that the alleged victim was asked in front of the jury whether she had been wearing a bra or underwear at the time of the alleged attack.
Juries found Mr Correll not guilty of charges including rape, sexual assault, armed robbery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
For more information about our investigation, visit dearachelle.com.au
If you have any tips or confidential information, please contact investigative journalist Ashlea Hansen at dearrachelle@news.com.au.
You can also join our Dear Rachelle podcast Facebook group.
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