True Crime: The Merrimac Rapist

THE police had witnesses, they had CCTV of the getaway car — yet they couldn’t solve the crime. Until an iconic Aussie item led to the arrest of the Merrimac Rapist.

Richard Quincy Williams, the Merrimac Rapist. Picture: File

SHE was only 500 metres from home.

A supremely-fit elite triathlete, she had already run 20km, a route she had covered dozens of times along Gooding Drive at Merrimac in the heart of Gold Coast suburbia.

The sun had already set on the cool autumn day of May 23, 2010, and as she pounded the pavement towards home and a hot shower she noticed a man walking towards her, head down with his hands in his pockets.

Seconds later, her life changed forever.

As she jogged past, Richard Quincy Williams crash-tackled her rugby-style in to the bushes on the side of the road, a busy thoroughfare leading out to the M1 motorway.

A passing taxi driver saw Williams grab her and called the police, but by the time they arrived it was all over.

When she struggled on the side of the road, her attacker threatened to punch her and forced her in to longer grass.

How the story was reported in 2010.

There, he called her “darling” and “sweetheart” as he raped her.

Williams fled from the scene just moments before police arrived.

The crime shocked the Gold Coast.

If a young, fit woman could be raped by a total stranger on the side of a busy road, no one was safe.

Dozens of women came forward with tales of their own brushes with would-be rapists who ambushed them on walkways from one end of the Gold Coast to the other.

Police have never been able to link any of the attacks, but focused their efforts on catching the man quickly dubbed the Merrimac Rapist.

At first, police were confident of catching their man. There was substantial DNA found at the crime scene, witnesses had seen the jogger dragged from the road and the getaway car showed up on CCTV from a service station across the road.

But the trail went cold.

Detectives asked 400 known sex offenders to provide DNA.

All but one complied and were ruled out as the offender.

Even the one who refused was ruled out as a suspect, seemingly leaving police at a dead end.

The reason police couldn’t find Williams’ DNA on their database was simple. It wasn’t there.

He had never been arrested over serious crimes and had never had to provide DNA samples.

An ice addict at the time, Williams eventually cleaned up his act and moved to Melbourne for a fresh start.

Richard Quincy Williams was found guilty of raping a woman he attacked at Merrimac. Picture: File

He found work and a wife, and as the years went by it began to look more and more likely that he was going to get away with his heinous crime.

Then, after a fight with his partner, it all came crashing down.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Procter, the officer in charge at Coomera Criminal Investigation Branch, was working late one night in 2013 when he received a phone call that would lead to a breakthrough in the case.

“For whatever reason, he (Williams) had told her things that made her do some digging of her own and she went on Google and found my name linked to a few news articles about it so she gave me a call,” he recalled.

“She didn’t say in as many words that he did it, just more that maybe we should look in to him.”

She later tried to back away from giving any further co-operation to police, but it was enough.

As officers looked in to, Williams he emerged as a suspect.

They were able to link him to the getaway car, a grey Toyota Surf 4WD, and his physical appearance bore similarities to the comfit police sketches of the offender.

When officers extracted DNA from his toothbrush and a pair of old thongs, they knew they had their man.

Williams eventually pleaded guilty to one count each of rape, deprivation of liberty and assault with intent to commit rape in the Southport District Court in April 2014.

He was sentenced to eight years’ jail for an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

His parole eligibility date of September 2016 also caused outrage as it meant he would spend less than three years in jail.

Former Newman government Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie lodged an appeal, declaring the sentence was “manifestly inadequate”.

The Court of Appeal agreed, imposing a new eight-year sentence with no parole eligibility date.

Senior Sergeant Procter said it was one of the most rewarding arrests he had ever been involved in.

“Originally it seemed like such a solvable case,” he said.

“We had witnesses, we had CCTV, yet we couldn’t solve it.

“He had started a new life in Melbourne and if it had not been for DNA we would never have solved it.

“Thanks to his toothbrush and a pair of thongs.”

He continues to keep in touch with the victim, who he described as “one tough young lady”.

“She’s a lovely young girl,” he said.

“She decided that this was not going to beat her.

“To go through something so traumatic and to come out the other side, it just speaks volumes for her.”

Williams remains in the Wolston Correctional Centre near Wacol and will stay there until well in to the next decade.

Originally published as True Crime: The Merrimac Rapist