Revealed: Thrill killer Charles Ian King’s secret past

FOR six weeks, Charles Ian King had been wondering “what it would be like to kill a chick”. Nine days after his 18th birthday, he got his chance.

1971. Charles King, a criminal. Picture: Photo File

CHARLES Ian King’s prison file was marked “never to be released”.

He was too dangerous, evil, sadistic, to ever be free again.

He was just a teen when he was sentenced to hang for the savage murder of 15-year-old Rosalyn Nolte.

She didn’t know King, and he didn’t know her.

But she was a young, pretty girl, and for six weeks he had been wondering “what it would be like to kill a chick”.

POLICE CHECKS FAILED: Thrill killer worked in care homes

He’d first discussed the idea over a beer with his mate Christopher Lowery.

It was Christmas 1970 and they were looking for some fun.

Just nine days after his 18th birthday King got his chance.

It was the last day of January 1971 and he was crusing down the main street of Hamilton with Lowery.

After spotting Rosalyn, Lowery pulled over and somehow they enticed her to jump into the back of his Holden panel van.

Convicted murderer Christopher Russell Lowery in 1996.

Rosalyn, an only child, had been walking her prized corgi, Jodie, and was on the way home.

She’d been out for almost two hours when King and Lowery preyed upon her.

She would never be seen alive again.

They drove her about 15km out of town to a lonely bush track at nearby Mt Napier.

It was there they subjected her to a humiliating and evil death.

She begged to be saved. They ignored her desperate pleas. They laughed in her face.

Many of the gruesome details of her death are too graphic for publication.

But as she was strangled and eventually killed, she threw her arms around them and begged for mercy.

They laughed and sneered.

It was a slow, cruel, and evil act.

Just who was the ringleader in the callous plot has never been revealed.

Both men were later found to have weak and psychopathic personalities.

But most medical experts agreed it was the sadistic Lowery who led the charge.

For his part, King was intensely impulsive and prone to manipulation, particularly by dominant and aggressive men.

After getting their kicks watching Rosalyn suffer they fled the scene.

They dumped her corgi, Jodie, in bushland on the way out and headed to a drive-in movie with with Lowery’s wife and other friends.

Rosalyn Nolte with her corgi, Jodie.

ROSALYN was missing for three days before her beloved corgi led authorities to her body.

Days later, confessing to police, the killers pointed the finger at each other.

They concocted false alibis and tried to blame drugs.

But they admitted they had wanted to “kill a chick”, just for the thrill of it.

It was reportedly the first “thrill-kill” of its kind.

They pleaded not guilty to murder during a 12-day Supreme Court trial, but it took less than two hours for the jury to disagree.

The men were sentenced to death. They were the last Victorians to receive the penalty.

Two years after the killing, then Governor of Victoria Sir Rohan Delacombe commuted the death penalty.

He had King’s papers marked: “Imprisonment for 60 years. Not to be released or paroled for at least 50 years”

Ministers at the time vowed he would die behind bars.

But, despite widespread outrage, both King and Lowery were freed in August 1992 after new minimum terms of 20 years were set by the Supreme Court.

Lowery, who died in 2007, lived out his days as a petty thief.

King, on the other hand, married and is believed to have had kids and a relatively normal life since his release.

He remains on parole until the 50-year minimum period expires in 2021.

Behind bars prison officers, described him as a model prisoner.

The front page of the Herald Sun on August 22, 1992.

The front page of The Sun, June 24, 1971.

He fought against institutionalisation, completed his HSC and later attained an Arts degree.

He directed plays, was vice-president of the debating team, and raised money for charity.

His behaviour saw him progressively downgraded from high-security prisons to the state’s lowest security lock-ups.

He was eventually allowed day release, sparking a national outcry.

In 1992 he told of his “deep remorse and disgust” for the horrific murder.

“I can do nothing to make amends for the past and I shall carry the public vilification and memory through my life,” he said.

“The punishment will not end with the expiry of my prison term.”

Granting him parole, Justice John Coldrey said King, and Lowery, had accepted responsibility for their crime.

“I am satisfied they have both undergone a procee of rehabilitation and pose no threat to this society,” he said.

“Indeed, both would appear to have the capacity in the future to make a worthwhile contribution to the community.”

Those that worked alongside King at Greenvale’s Corpus Christi Community hospice agreed.

On his resignation, one remarked they were sorry to see him go.

He had been a hard, honest and loyal worker.

His then-fiancee, Kate, told The Sun newspaper in 1988 King had done everything possible to justify society giving him another chance.

“If prison rehabilitation means anything then Charles King is not an animal to be kept in captivity forever. No amount of time served can undo what has been done.”

In a letter to The Sun, King himself said he was a changed man.

“Charlie King is an individual and all I’ve ever expected is to be treated as an individual on my own merits - of which there are many. I’m not perfect, I never have been and I never will be.

“But I can hold my head up and tell you that this greying, 35-year-old is a good and kind man.

“Furthermore, I challenge anyone who really knows me to show otherwise.”