The fight to keep serial killer Reginald Kenneth Arthurell behind bars

Paul Quinn knows first-hand how violent Reginald Kenneth Arthurell can be after he found his sister murdered and now he is fighting against the serial killer’s release when he is up for parole in March.

Paul Quinn knows first-hand how violent Reginald Kenneth Arthurell can be after he found his sister murdered by the serial killer.

At the time, Arthurell was on parole for beating two men to death and was a major suspect in the murders of at least four other people.

“This man should not have been out of prison when he killed my sister Venet and he should never be let out again,’’ Quinn told the Saturday Telegraph.

Reginald Arthurell (R) murdered Venet Raylee Mulhall (L) in her home at Coonabarabran.

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Arthurell, a drifter who called himself Tex and wandered the country hanging out at rodeos pretending to be a cowboy, is again up for a parole in March but thanks to Mr Quinn’s efforts the state parole board have already indicated it will be rejected.

“He was eligible for parole in 2015 and 2017 and both times I pleaded that he never be released but now he is being groomed to be freed and has been let out on day release on four occasions,’’ Quinn said from his western suburbs home.

Tragically it was while on day release in 1990 that Quinn’s sister formed a relationship with Arthurell, writing to him in jail for a number of years. The next year he was freed on the proviso he reside with her.

Reginald Arthurell is led from court in Dubbo.

“Venet was deeply religious and vulnerable. She honestly believed he had changed and was a different person. When he was given day release just two years into an 11-year sentence not only was I stunned at the leniency but I went to the prison and pleaded with them saying it was wrong and if anything happened to Venet they would be responsible,’’ he said recalling how his pleas fell on deaf ears.

In a desperate attempt to make sure authorities don’t make the same mistake again, the retired supervisor has written a book In The Hands Of Evil which not only details the crimes of Arthurell but how the justice system let his sister and the whole community down.

“When I get it published, even if I have to print and pay for it myself, I am going to give a copy to every member of the parole board, the Attorney-General and the Premier so they will have the full story of what type of man they will be letting back into society.’’

Police believe Arthurell probably killed for the first time when he bashed to death 82-year-old Catherine Page at her Coonamble home in 1971.

Three years later, Thomas Thornton was bashed to death in Guildford after running into his stepson who was visiting Sydney.

It would be more than a decade later, while in prison for the manslaughter of a teenager in the Northern Territory, that he would admit to killing Thornton, but only to manslaughter saying he was provoked.

Reginald Arthurell (right) arrives at the Alice Springs Magistrates Court in 1981 where he faced murder charges for the murder of Ross Browning.

In between police say he is suspected of the triple slaying of Karen Edwards (23), Gordon Twaddle (21) and Timothy Thompson (31), shot to death in 1978 at Mt Isa. They were last seen at a local rodeo.

In 1981, the now 71-year-old was arrested and pleaded guilty to bashing 19-year-old Ross Browning to death in the Northern Territory.

In May 1988, he was released having served just six years of a 12-year sentence. He was immediately extradited to Sydney where he pleaded guilty to killing his stepfather and sentenced to 11 years jail with a non-parole period of four years and six months.

At the time the judge commented he had made a “remarkable transformation” after he had been baptised in jail in Darwin.

By this time, despite her family’s protests, Venet Mulhall was writing to Arthurell and would start jail visits when he was transferred to Sydney.

“Only weeks after Arthurell’s release, Venet told us that they planned to move to the country and get married and nothing I said would change her mind. By September 1991 Venet had sold her Kingswood house, paid off the mortgage, bought a house in Coonabarabran and moved there with him,’’ Quinn said, adding she was leaving behind her family in Sydney.

They kept in contact by phone and when she said how unhappy she was and that Arthurell had disappeared, breaking his parole conditions, and they urged her to come back home.

Murder victim Gordon Twaddle.

Murder victim Karen Edwards.

By 1995 she was planning to go back to Sydney and a warrant had been issued for Arthurell’s arrest for breaching parole but he was nowhere to be found.

Then in February 1995 Mr Quinn knew something was up when his sister was not answering anyone’s calls and he decided to drive to Coonabarabran to check on her but the house was locked and their seemed no sign of life.

“Armed with a screwdriver, I bent the metal frame on the ends of each glass pane and was able to extract four louvres, without breaking a single one.

“As I climbed through the window, I knew from the foul smell, that I was entering a horrendous situation, and that I was looking for a decomposing body,’’ he wrote in his book, sparing no detail of the gruesome sight he was confronted with.

“Still struggling to stomach the smell and my eyes slowly adjusting to the low light, I walked across the bedroom to the door that opened it to the hallway.

“The door had been left ajar, it opened into the room back towards me from right to left and I slowly opened it. As the edge of the door passed through my gaze, I could see what I at first thought was a black plastic garbage bag, propped up against the door jam.

“There was hair protruding out of the blackness, so I leaned over and began to look closely at what was before me. I was confronted with a sight that I could not reconcile as to what it was at first,’’ he wrote.

It was obvious to him he had found his beloved sister who had been all too trusting and he knew who had killed her.

“My wife, daughter and I sat on the gutter at the front of Venet’s house and waited for the police to arrive. While we waited we all shed a few tears.’’

Arthurell was now on the run and Paul Quinn was not about to let his sister’s murderer get away. He started a relentless campaign getting reward posters made up and giving media interviews wherever he could. eventually a $100,000 reward was offered.

It was through his hard work and leads he provided to police that on August 23, 1995, Arthurell was arrested in outback Queensland and brought back to NSW to face trial for the murder of Venet Mulhall.

On October 3, 1997, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter again and was sentenced to a maximum 24 years in jail, which expires on May 24, 2021.

“We as a community have a real problem with our judicial system in this state, when a murderer is not given a life sentence after a third conviction of homicide,” Quinn said back in 1997.

“And I still believe that. It’s incredible a person can admit to killing three people and has probably murdered god knows how many more and we are going to release him back into society. I know that when he gets out of jail he will come after me but I will never stop campaigning to have him kept locked up.

“The government does have the power to declare him too dangerous to be released and I hope they do or else someone will die at his hands.’’