Victoria Police and FBI dossier on shocking Mr Cruel child attacks
NEW evidence about the crimes of murdering child abductor Mr Cruel has emerged 25 years after he kidnapped his last known victim.
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A FORMER Melbourne University lecturer has admitted he is the prime suspect in the unsolved Mr Cruel child abduction and murder cases.
The convicted sex offender is one of seven suspects the Victoria Police Spectrum taskforce was unable to rule out as being Mr Cruel.
A sophisticated secret profile of the seven men — prepared with the help of FBI experts — revealed each of them had the capacity and willingness to commit the horrendous attacks attributed to Mr Cruel.
The Herald Sun has been given the names of all seven Mr Cruel suspects, and previously confidential details about them.
But it has agreed to a formal request by Victoria Police not to identify them.
The former lecturer who admits he is the prime Mr Cruel suspect, who the Herald Sun is calling Bill, claims police have wrongly accused him of murdering Karmein Chan, abducting Sharon Wills and Nicola Lynas and committing offences against other children more than 25 years ago.
Bill, 75, last week told the Herald Sun he knows former Spectrum taskforce head David Sprague considers him more likely to be Mr Cruel than any other suspect.
RELATED: RETIRING DETECTIVE SAYS MR CRUEL CASE STILL HAUNTS HIM
He revealed Spectrum detectives grilled him for 12 hours about the Mr Cruel crimes.
The Victoria Police Spectrum taskforce was formed a few weeks after the abduction of Karmein, 13, in April 1991 and spent almost three years chasing Mr Cruel.
When it was disbanded — without Mr Cruel having being charged — it produced dossiers on the seven suspects it couldn’t eliminate, known as the Sierra Files.
Instructions were issued to Victoria Police detectives in 1994 that if another child was abducted then the seven men named in the Sierra Files were to be immediately arrested and questioned.
The Herald Sun recently tracked down and spoke to three of the men identified as Mr Cruel suspects in the Sierra Files, including Bill.
A fourth suspect died in 2015, another married a Canadian woman and moved to Canada in 2014 and neighbours of a sixth suspect said he rarely visited his Harcourt home as he spent a lot of time in Melbourne, but that he was still alive.
SEVEN SUSPECTS: MR CRUEL INTERACTIVE MAP
No trace could be found of the seventh Mr Cruel suspect, who lived in Glen Iris at the time of the murder of Karmein 25 years ago. He would now be 67 if he is alive.
Bill, as well as admitting he was aware he remains the prime Mr Cruel suspect, last week also told the Herald Sun his Thornbury home was raided by police following the disappearance of Siriyakorn “Bung” Siriboon, 13, in 2011.
She was last seen in her uniform heading to school from her home in Elsie St, Boronia, on the morning of June 2 that year.
Bill said he was questioned over the Boronia disappearance, but was able to convince police he wasn’t involved.
He also denied being responsible for any of the crimes attributed to Mr Cruel.
“I’m not sure why they got onto me in the way they did,” Bill said last week.
“The police have called several times when there’s been a sex crime of some kind and they go through their list of previous offenders.
“They throw the net out when something happens. I’ve had interviews and all of them have been fine.
“That little girl that disappeared up in Boronia, they sort of came to see me.
“Luckily I was giving a seminar in Melbourne at the time and gave them all the minutes of the meeting to show where I was.”
Bill claimed he was at his brother’s wedding at the time of one of the Mr Cruel attacks, but told the Herald Sun he couldn’t remember which attack.
He was jailed for 10 years in the 1970s after pleading guilty to attacks at knifepoint on six girls and young women in their homes over a 25-month period from April 1972.
Bill was a senior lecturer in Melbourne University’s arts faculty at the time and was married with three children.
His lawyer told the Victorian County Court that all of his client’s victims were tied up, threatened with a knife and assaulted.
He said one — a 15-year-old girl — had her clothes cut off with scissors before she was indecently assaulted.
Bill’s barrister said a Melbourne University arts student, 18, was raped by Bill after he entered her home “by subterfuge” and bound and gagged her.
The County Court was told Bill, then of Hampton, had a sexual fantasy about tying up women and raping them.
One of the incidents police believe may have been one of the first Mr Cruel attacks involved a 14-year-old girl who was abducted from her Hampton home in 1985.
She was tied, gagged and blindfolded before being driven to a vacant building site and assaulted.
The scared and scarred schoolgirl was dumped at the nearby Moorabbin Bowl on Nepean Highway at 2.10am, nearly five hours after being kidnapped.
Another unsolved attack in Hampton, Bill’s stamping ground at the time, bore many of the hallmarks of a Mr Cruel attack — except it was on a 14-year-old boy.
Experts say with such offenders it is often more about control and power over victims, rather than the sex of the victim.
The schoolboy was abducted from his Hampton home about 8.25pm on July 1985, five months after the abduction of the 14-year-old Hampton schoolgirl.
He was held captive and assaulted in unknown premises for just over three hours before being released in Caulfield South about 11.45pm.
A psychiatrist who spoke to Bill after his arrest over the series of attacks in the 1970s said Bill admitted having disturbing sexual fantasies.
“He has had this sexual fantasy about tying up women and raping them since his late teens, but only in the last couple of years has he carried them out,” the psychiatrist told the court.
Bill pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault, one of common assault, one of assault with intent to rape and one of rape.
He last week told the Herald Sun he had rehabilitated himself since getting out of jail.
“I did my time and I have recovered my life pretty well. I’ve got a new family,” Bill said.
“I’ve rejuvenated myself as a writer and a construction designer and ran a business I’ve just retired from.”
THE SIERRA FILES: SEVEN SUSPECTS WHO CAN’T BE ELIMINATED
VICTORIA Police formed the Spectrum taskforce four weeks after the April 13, 1991, abduction of Karmein Chan.
They did so because they believed the Chan case was the latest in a series of attacks committed by an unidentified man who the media dubbed Mr Cruel.
The 40-strong taskforce spent almost three years and $3.8 million chasing him.
It was disbanded in January 1994, without Mr Cruel being charged over what is still a shocking series of unsolved child abductions.
Spectrum detectives interviewed more than 27,000 people and examined 30,000 houses suspected of being used by Mr Cruel to hide his victims.
They ended up with seven Mr Cruel suspects they were unable to eliminate.
The Spectrum detectives created dossiers on each of the seven men, calling them the Sierra Files.
A small number of senior police in elite squads were then given access to the Sierra Files, with the instruction that if another child was abducted all seven should be arrested and questioned.
One of the seven was the prime suspect.
He was the man Spectrum detectives considered to be more likely than the others to be Mr Cruel — although their research suggested any of the seven could be Mr Cruel and all of them had the sick traits necessary to commit the type of horrendous crimes Mr Cruel was responsible for.
No details were ever made public about the seven Mr Cruel suspects — until today.
The Herald Sun recently obtained their names.
While, at the request of Victoria Police, it is not identifying them, it is revealing previously secret information about all seven.
A Victoria Police document written after the Spectrum taskforce was disbanded in 1994 carried details of the Sierra Files and instructions to a select few members of elite squads on what to do if another child was abducted.
Following the scrapping of Spectrum, those squads had taken responsibility for investigating Mr Cruel’s previous unsolved crimes as well as any future attacks bearing his trademarks.
“During the term of Operation Spectrum, a number of suspects were identified and subsequently interviewed in regards to that investigation,” the 1994 document said.
“Some of those suspects, for a myriad of reasons, could not be totally eliminated from the inquiry.
“Those suspects, after profiling, are deemed to have the propensity to commit similar type offences.
“The Spectrum taskforce compiled dossiers on each of these people and codenamed them ‘Sierra Files’.
“There are seven such files in existence.”
The document listed who should do what in the event of a Mr Cruel-type attack occurring at any time in the future.
It said each of the seven Mr Cruel suspects named in the Sierra Files should be arrested as soon as possible to enable them to be questioned about the latest incident.
“Each Sierra File elimination crew will consist of four crime squad detectives,” the document said.
“These members are to be armed, wearing police tabards and are to communicate situation reports to the officer in charge of the Special Response Squad for the information of the field commander hourly.”
NEW EVIDENCE BRINGS MR CRUEL CASE TO THE FOREFRONT
NEW evidence about the crimes of murdering child abductor Mr Cruel has emerged 25 years after he kidnapped his last known victim.
The Herald Sun is today revealing previously secret information about Mr Cruel’s sickening attacks.
It has been provided with fresh details about his assaults on an 11-year-old girl in 1987, Sharon Wills, 10, in 1988 and Nicola Lynas, 13, in 1990.
Those details are from what the three girls and their family members told police in their witness statements when being interviewed after the attacks.
Police know less about what he did to his last known victim, Karmein Chan, because her being murdered meant they never got to speak to her.
The Herald Sun has pieced together the new and previously released information to paint the most accurate and comprehensive picture yet of Mr Cruel and his crimes — which ended with the abduction of Karmein, 13, on April 13, 1991, and her subsequent murder.
Some details have been left out at the request of Victoria Police.
Mr Cruel is suspected of at least 12 attacks on children over a 10-year-period.
The four which police are most convinced were the work of Mr Cruel are the attacks on the 11-year-old girl in 1987, Sharon Wills in 1988, Nicola Lynas in 1990 and Karmein Chan in 1991.
Some police privately express the view that it is possible Karmein Chan wasn’t a Mr Cruel victim.
That view is largely based on the fact she was murdered whereas the other schoolgirls were all released alive.
Victoria Police still officially classifies the Karmein killing as the work of Mr Cruel and it was investigated as a Mr Cruel case by the force’s Spectrum taskforce, which was set up four weeks after Karmein disappeared, as were the attacks on the 11-year-old girl, Sharon Wills and Nicola Lynas.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ATTACK ON THE 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL
Mr Cruel removed a window pane in the lounge room of a Lower Plenty home about 4am on August 22, 1987, to gain entry.
The 11-year-old girl, who we will call Jill (not her real name), was asleep in her bedroom. Her eight-year-old brother was asleep in another bedroom and her parents were asleep in their bedroom.
Mr Cruel was wearing a balaclava, was armed with a handgun, kitchen knife, handcuffs and nylon cord and was carrying a small bag.
He went to the main bedroom first, forced the parents onto their stomachs and handcuffed their hands and ankles.
Mr Cruel then went to the children’s rooms, woke them up and took them to the parents’ bedroom.
He told them he was going to rob them.
The parents were uncuffed and then restrained around the hands and ankles with nylon cord, which Mr Cruel expertly tied using knots commonly used by sailors and those familiar with using rope to secure loads.
Jill’s brother was tied to the bed and Jill’s hands were tied with the cord.
All the victims were then gagged with electrical tape and the children were blindfolded with surgical tape.
Mr Cruel asked Jill her name, was told it, but later wrongly and repeatedly referred to her as Kate (not her real name).
He also asked the father’s clothes size, saying he was about the same size.
He demanded cash and a first aid kit and said he needed some clothes, a shower, some food and wanted to shave.
Mr Cruel then removed various items from the wardrobe and forced both parents inside it and put a bed blanket over them.
He used the bedroom phone, but did not make a connection.
Mr Cruel then went to other rooms in the house before returning to the main bedroom.
He then made another call, this time connecting, and made threats into the phone. The word “bozo” was used.
Mr Cruel then shut the wardrobe door and locked it.
He left the room and returned soon after with a radio and turned it to 3KZ loudly to drown out the sounds of him assaulting Jill in the bathroom.
He made Jill clean her teeth and bathe.
Mr Cruel led Jill into the kitchen, where he ate some cold lamb, biscuits, milk and orange juice.
With his hunger satisfied, Mr Cruel then led Jill to the lounge room, where he assaulted her again before dumping her in a lounge chair.
He left the room for about 10 minutes, during which he checked on the welfare of the parents and Jill’s brother.
Mr Cruel returned to the lounge and led the terrified Jill to a seat in the spare room. He left her there for a short time before returning and tying her ankles together with nylon cord.
He told Jill he was leaving and that she should count to 100 before freeing herself and her family.
Jill later told police she heard the front door close and she then released herself and then freed her parents and brother.
It is possible Mr Cruel chose Jill as his victim after seeing her photograph in a local newspaper which carried an article about her and her family.
Jill was attacked just a few days after the article was published.
THINGS MR CRUEL SAID DURING THE LOWER PLENTY ATTACK
To Jill’s parents: “Be quiet and don’t move or I’ll hurt someone.”
And: “Get into the wardrobe and sit down. Get into the closet and kneel down.”
And: “All I want is money, food and clothes. How much money is in the house?”
To Jill: “What’s your name? How old are you?”
And: “Clean your teeth.”
And: “I’m going out now so count to 100 slowly then you can free your parents.”
A COMPOSITE DESCRIPTION OF MR CRUEL FROM INFORMATION PROVIDED BY JILL AND HER FAMILY
Australian. 178cm to 183cm tall, of slim to medium build with brown, greyish/white hair with white spots in it. He possibly had dandruff and his hair was protruding from beneath his balaclava.
Greyish/white bushy eyebrows.
Aged in his mid 20s.
Had a gruff voice, deepish/nervous/uneducated.
Suffered from bad breath (musty smell).
Was unshaven, with a couple of days growth.
Oval face, soft hands, possibly right handed.
Wearing blue denim jeans, good condition, close fitting, a brown tweed sports jacket, possibly rust coloured, a blue nylon waterproofed zip up jacket, blue runners with white flashes down the side, white soles in good condition and white cotton socks.
His balaclava was navy blue with an open face and some type of material covering the eye area.
His gloves were light in colour, possibly yellow and were of the dishwashing or surgical type.
ITEMS TAKEN BY MR CRUEL DURING THE ATTACK ON JILL
A tartan shirt, men’s size in red, black and yellow. $250 cash.
A gold engagement ring of 18 carat yellow gold with a single white diamond. The diamond was on a gold mounting with four claws and had the number 4132 stamped inside and was worth $2500 in 1987.
A gent’s dark blue cotton parka with a fake black fur collar. It was slightly padded with a distinctive zip in the left arm. The parka was made in Ecuador and was branded Ecuadorean Shirt Company.
A pair of men’s trousers, 82cm-85cm, possibly Roger David brand. Light blue/grey with a small check and of straight leg design.
A Gillette safety razor in a blue plastic box with a clear lid.
A dark brown vinyl bag.
WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT USED DURING THE ATTACK ON JILL
Small black handgun, pistol type.
Knife, kitchen, black handle, silver blade about 20cm long.
At least four sets of handcuffs.
Nylon coated cord, white and red/white.
Electrical tape, adhesive, roll of red, roll of green and roll of blue.
Elastoplast.
Material bag, dark bluish/grey or light grey colour, similar to school library bag.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ATTACK ON SHARON WILLS, 10
It’s possible, that, like the 11-year-old Lower Plenty victim, Mr Cruel selected Sharon as his victim after seeing her photograph in a local newspaper. Sharon’s photograph was published in the paper a few months before she was abducted.
On Monday, December 26, 1988, John Wills and his wife Julie and their four daughters were away from their Ringwood home from about 6pm to 10pm.
When they returned home the children were fed and went to bed about 10.45pm.
All four girls slept in the same bedroom on two sets of bunk beds, with Sharon, the oldest of the four sisters, being in one of the top bunks.
John and Julie Wills went to bed about 1am.
John couldn’t sleep so he got up and started doing a jigsaw puzzle. He completed the jigsaw about 4.50am and turned out the lights and went to bed.
It is likely Mr Cruel was watching the house and was waiting for all the lights to go out and for all the occupants to fall asleep.
Mr Cruel gained entry to the Wills’ family home about 30 minutes after John Wills turned off the lights.
The key had been left in the inside of the lock. Mr Cruel pushed the key from the lock and onto a piece of newspaper that was then pulled from beneath the door.
Once inside, he noisily burst open the door of John and Julie Wills’ bedroom and turned the light on. He was wearing a balaclava and was armed with a handgun.
Julie Wills started to scream.
Mr Cruel then held the gun against John Wills’ head and told her to stop.
Mr Cruel forced John and Julie at gunpoint to lie on their stomachs. He then tied their feet and hands with copper electrical wire.
As he bound them he demanded money.
He went through John’s wallet and then demanded to know where Julie’s purse was and where the telephone was.
Mr Cruel then left the bedroom and cut the telephone cord.
Sharon woke up when she heard her mother screaming and heard a man’s voice. She lay in bed then heard her bedroom door open.
She opened her eyes and saw the shadow of a man with a torch. Scared, she pretended to be asleep.
Mr Cruel rolled Sharon over and shone the torch in her face and asked her if she was awake.
Sharon continued to pretend she was asleep. Mr Cruel then left Sharon’s bedroom and closed the door behind him.
He returned a short time later and started to wake Sharon up; she decided she could no longer pretend to be asleep.
Mr Cruel helped Sharon get down from the top bunk and started going through her wardrobe, choosing items of clothing.
He led Sharon through the house into the lounge room.
As he passed the coat and hat stand in the hallway he took John Wills’ jacket and told Sharon to put it on over her nightie.
While in the lounge room, Mr Cruel searched through a basket of clothes and selected a shirt. He used the shirt to wrap the other clothing he had taken from Sharon’s wardrobe.
Mr Cruel then picked Sharon up and carried her outside to the back porch, where he put her down.
Sharon started to scream so Mr Cruel shoved a red rubber ball in her mouth. He removed the ball after Sharon agreed not to scream again.
Mr Cruel then blindfolded Sharon by placing material over her head that was either tied or stuck together.
In what was probably a tactic to confuse Sharon, he carried Sharon out of the driveway and after a short distance he put her down, then lifted her up again and changed direction and took her to a car.
As he carried her to the car he reassured her that he wasn’t going to hurt her and stated he was going to give her parents a ransom note and that he would return her in the morning when the banks opened and he got his ransom money.
Sharon was placed on the front passenger seat and told to get down on the floor.
She later told police it sounded like an old car.
After travelling for a short time, Mr Cruel stopped the car and asked Sharon if she could see. She admitted she could.
He then used adhesive tape to stick the blindfold to her head and put a blanket over her.
After again travelling for some time the car stopped in a driveway and Mr Cruel carried Sharon into a house and placed her on a bed.
He then changed Sharon’s blindfold, using some type of eye pads secured to her head with adhesive tape.
Sharon told police she could hear a radio going in the bedroom she was in and also that she heard a bath being run.
She was carried to the bathroom and made to clean her teeth and bathe.
Mr Cruel then carried Sharon back to the bedroom; she heard the 7am news and identified the radio station as 3TT.
She later told police she heard two planes flying over the premises.
After assaulting Sharon he offered her food and gave her a glass of milk and a stale vegemite sandwich.
Mr Cruel told Sharon he was going out. He then leashed Sharon to the bed with some type of harness around her neck.
While she was on her own the radio was left on.
It was during this period that she was able to bravely lift her blindfold slightly and see some of the room she was in.
Disturbingly, one of the things she saw was a wooden tripod set up for filming near the end of the double bed she was in.
When Mr Cruel returned he removed the leash from around Sharon’s neck and carried her back to the bathroom, forcing her to bathe again before taking her to another room to assault her and then making her bathe yet again.
He then carried her back to the bedroom and reattached the leash to her neck.
She was left leashed to the bed for quite some time, during which Mr Cruel checked on her often and asked how she was.
On some occasions he carried her to the toilet and on other occasions he gave her a sandwich and drinks.
Mr Cruel then told Sharon she needed to take a shower instead of a bath. He made her wash her hair and body really well.
After Sharon had washed and dried herself she was told to step into a garbage bag.
Mr Cruel got the shirt he had taken from the clothes basket in the Wills’ home and put it on Sharon.
He then pulled the garbage bag up to Sharon’s neck and secured it with tape over her shoulders. He put another garbage bag over Sharon’s head, which went down to her waist, and secured it to her with tape.
Mr Cruel made a hole in the garbage bag so Sharon could breathe and then carried her to a vehicle and put her on the floor in front of the front passenger seat.
He had trouble starting the car, telling Sharon that stolen vehicles do not always start properly.
Sharon told police she sensed Mr Cruel was reversing out of the driveway. He drove for what she described as a long time, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. He eventually stopped and got out.
Mr Cruel lifted the garbage bag-clad Sharon out of the car and carried her for a distance, stopping now and then to put her down while he rested.
Sharon said he was jogging while carrying her.
He eventually put her down and told her how to get to a nearby Food Plus store.
Mr Cruel then removed the garbage bags and blindfold and warned Sharon not to look at him as he left.
By the time Sharon was released at the Bayswater High School, six kilometres from her home, she had been Mr Cruel’s prisoner for 18 hours.
A woman found Sharon standing on a street corner just after midnight.
In a remarkably calm voice, Sharon told the woman: “My name’s Sharon Wills and I was taken from home early this morning. A man left me here and told me to go and ring home.”
The woman said Sharon was incredibly brave.
“She was rather bright really. I was quite surprised,” she said.
“I thought she would have been a bit worse for wear, but she was really good.
“I just brought her home and gave her a drink and she was quite happy.”
The woman rang police and Sharon was quickly reunited with her distraught parents.
THINGS MR CRUEL SAID DURING THE WILLS ATTACK
To John Wills while holding a gun to his head: “You’re not going to be a hero are you?”
To Sharon: “Wake up, get up.”
And: “You’re going to have a shower. You have to wash yourself really good.”
And: “Brush your teeth.”
A COMPOSITE DESCRIPTION OF MR CRUEL FROM INFORMATION PROVIDED BY SHARON AND HER PARENTS
Australian. 173cm to 180cms tall of thin to medium build.
No accent, well spoken, fluent English.
Had either a moustache or whiskers, possibly an early beard growth.
Aged mid 20s to 30s. Right handed. Hairy chest.
He was wearing a dark coloured boiler suit, gloves and a dark coloured ski mask or balaclava which had eye and mouth holes and white stitching around the eye and mouth holes, possibly with red stitching as well.
Carrying a bag and a torch.
ITEMS TAKEN BY MR CRUEL DURING THE ATTACK ON SHARON
$35 cash.
A gent’s brown and black checked waist length lumber jacket with lambs wool lining and a metal zipper funning up the middle of the jacket. The lining in both jacket pockets was torn.
A pair of girl’s cream coloured panties with an amber motif on the left side, motif was either of an apple or an umbrella.
A girl’s cotton knee length nightie with a mauve and blue pattern, cap sleeves and a ribbon to tie the neckline.
A pair of children’s blue thongs with plastic straps and white beading.
A girl’s red tartan skirt with pleats around the waistband.
A Bonds brand white singlet, size 8.
WEAPON USED DURING THE ATTACK ON SHARON
A dark coloured hand gun with a square grip, a squarish barrel with a silver bit at the end, possibly a pistol.
DESCRIPTION OF THE VEHICLE MR CRUEL USED TO ABDUCT SHARON
It had bucket seats. It sounded quiet when it started but did not sound like a new vehicle.
It had a low glove box and a hump in the middle of the floor. The floor was carpeted.
The gear lever was in the middle of the hump.
The floor carpet, front door and arm rest of the vehicle were all cream coloured. The press down lock on the door was also cream and pointing upwards with a circle on top.
Possibly carpet fitted on the door, either along the top or bottom of the door. Clean looking door and clean smelling vehicle.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ATTACK ON NICOLA LYNAS, 13
Brian Lynas and his wife Rosemary were preparing to move back to England with their daughters Fiona, 15, and Nicola, 13, after a three year stint in Melbourne.
They had arranged to move out of their rented home in Monomeath Ave, Canterbury, into a rented apartment in the city on July 4, 1990, until their planned flight out of Australia on August 4.
Mr Cruel scuppered those plans.
He forced his way into the Lynas family home through the parents’ bedroom wind out window about 11.30pm on Tuesday July 3, 1990 — the night before the family was due to vacate the premises.
Mr Cruel had almost certainly been stalking Nicola and was aware the family was preparing to leave Monomeath Ave — one of the most exclusive streets in Melbourne.
He would also have been aware Mr and Mrs Lynas were attending regular farewell functions with different work and social groups.
On these occasions the two Lynas sisters either heated up food left for them by their parents or ordered take away.
On the night Nicola was abducted, Mr and Mrs Lynas left home at 7.50pm to have dinner with friends. Those friends picked them up from Monomeath Ave so the Lynas family Holden Berlina was left parked in the driveway.
The girls ordered a pizza, which was delivered at 10.05pm.
Normally, the sisters slept in separate bedrooms, but on this night, wanting company as her parents were out, Nicola dragged her mattress into Fiona’s room and slept there.
Fiona went to bed at 10.45pm and Nicola about 11pm.
Mr Cruel woke Nicola up about 11.20pm by tapping her on the head with a knife.
He was wearing a balaclava, gloves and dark clothes and was armed with a handgun and a knife.
He made demands for cash and lead Nicola and Fiona to their parents’ bedroom, telling them he was looking for money.
Once in the main bedroom he rifled through Mr Lynas’ wallet. He didn’t take anything, despite there being $4000 in traveller’s cheques in it.
Both girls were forced to lie on their parent’s bed on their stomachs. Fiona was hogtied with galvanised wire, identical to clothes line wire.
Mr Cruel then took Nicola to the kitchen, where he went through Mrs Lynas’ purse.
He cut the telephone cord and took the car keys to the Lynas family car from their hook in the kitchen.
Mr Cruel then led Nicola to her bedroom.
He went through her cupboards and drawers and took several items of clothing before telling Nicola to get dressed.
She kept her turquoise pyjama bottoms on, put on a white T-shirt with two rugby emblems on each side of the front, one was a rooster and the other a kangaroo, and slipped into her Presbyterian Ladies College school blazer.
While she was dressing, Mr Cruel put the clothes he was stealing into Nicola’s Ken Done bag.
He then led Nicola back to her parents’ bedroom, where Fiona was tied up on the bed.
Mr Cruel asked Nicola and Fiona questions about Mr Lynas’ employment and his employer and told Fiona he was going to kidnap Nicola and that he wanted a ransom of $25,000.
He said he would telephone her father the following morning about his ransom demand. He never followed through with his threatened ransom demand and didn’t make contact with the Lynas family.
As Mr Cruel left the room with Nicola, Fiona looked at the bedside clock and saw it was 11.47pm.
Mr and Mrs Lynas arrived home less than 15 minutes later to find Fiona tied up and discover Nicola was missing.
Mr Cruel took Nicola outside and put her in the front seat of the Lynas family car. He told her to kneel down under the dashboard and keep her head down.
He then pulled her Melbourne football club supporter’s cap down over her eyes.
Mr Cruel drove off in the Lynas family car for a short distance, Nicola thought he drove north out of the driveway and west along Mont Albert Rd.
He then stopped the car and put thick adhesive tape over Nicola’s eyes and then put a balaclava over her head before driving the car to Chaucer Ave, Canterbury, stopping and getting Nicola out.
He walked with Nicola to a nearby location and put her inside another car. She was again instructed to get under the dashboard.
Mr Cruel drove her to an unknown location.
Nicola was led from the car into the premises where Mr Cruel ended up keeping her for the next 50 hours.
Nicola entered four rooms in the premises. A bedroom, a room Mr Cruel referred to as “the kitchen”, a toilet and a separate bathroom.
She was taken straight to the bedroom after entering the premises. A radio was playing in the room.
Mr Cruel took the tape from her eyes and replaced it with surgical-type cotton eye pads.
He then took her to the bathroom and made her clean her teeth and take a bath, telling her it was necessary as he didn’t want to leave any forensic evidence which could identify him.
He called her Nicky during the time he held her captive.
Mr Cruel took Nicola back to the bedroom, assaulted her and then leashed her to the bed with some type of harness around her neck before falling asleep next to her.
Nicola later told police she hadn’t slept that night.
The radio had been turned off and she heard no noises during the evening.
At some time early on the Wednesday morning, she heard the loud sound of between seven and nine jet planes landing.
Mr Cruel woke at 10am and turned the radio back on. The plane noises were heard prior to that.
The still leashed Nicola used the radio to calculate the time, telling police Mr Cruel assaulted her again about 11am and then fell asleep next to her.
He unleashed Nicola between 12.30pm and 2pm, carried her to the bathroom and assaulted her again.
Mr Cruel told Nicola he had followed her home from school and that he had a schoolgirl fantasy.
He took her to the kitchen then made her dress in her school dress and assaulted her.
After the assault in the kitchen, Mr Cruel gave Nicola a glass of water, returned her to the bedroom and re-leashed her to the bed.
He told her he was going to dress her in her tennis skirt the following day and then he went to sleep.
Exhausted, Nicola also fell asleep for a while. She woke early on the Thursday morning to the sound of more planes flying overhead.
She told police Mr Cruel woke at 10am and turned the radio back on. She heard the planes prior to that.
Mr Cruel made Nicola have another bath about noon before taking her to the kitchen, dressing her in her tennis dress and assaulting her again.
He called Nicola “Missy” during the fantasy games he played with her.
Nicola was taken back to the bedroom about 2pm, re-leashed to the bed and told she wasn’t going to be assaulted again.
Her legs were tied together with wire during some of the times she was left alone.
Between then and 4pm he came into the room to check on her and to give her bread and water.
About 5pm he told Nicola that he and a friend had been looking for areas suitable to drop her off. He had a newspaper with him and told her it was the Sun.
Nicola was able to keep track of the time while she was leashed to the bed as Mr Cruel left the radio on.
She told police Mr Cruel checked on her again at 10pm and asked if she wanted any food as he was about to pack it away.
He took Nicola to the bathroom at 11.45pm. She was told to stand on a sheet that was placed on the floor.
Mr Cruel told Nicola the purpose of the sheet was that he didn’t want to leave any evidence. She was made to have a shower.
Mr Cruel said something in front of Nicola to the friend he supposedly had with him.
Nicola later told police there were no other indications that any other person was present during the 50 hours Mr Cruel held her prisoner.
After she showered, Mr Cruel took Nicola back to the bedroom to get dressed. He removed her eye patches and replaced them with adhesive tape.
Nicola told police he then led her through the kitchen and outside to the driveway.
She said Mr Cruel seemed nervous and hurried her along the five to seven steps down the driveway to the car.
Mr Cruel wrapped her in a sheet and put her into the passenger’s side of the car, on the floor under the dashboard.
His nervousness was increased when the car wouldn’t start.
As he was repeatedly trying to start it, he told Nicola the car had been stolen by his friend.
The engine eventually responded and Mr Cruel drove off.
Nicola thinks he stopped for petrol before stopping a second time and getting her out of the car at an unknown location.
She told police Mr Cruel took the sheet off her and walked her for about five minutes on footpaths until they stopped at another location.
Mr Cruel removed Nicola’s eye tape and gave her a change of clothes to put on, telling her he was going to leave her there.
He walked about five metres away, returned and told Nicola the location was no good.
Mr Cruel then took Nicola for a further three minute walk.
As he left her for the final time he told her to count for a while and then find a person and ring police.
Nicola was dumped in bushes in front of an SEC substation in Tennyson St, Kew, about 5km from her home, just before 2am on the Friday morning — which was the day of her 14th birthday.
She knocked on a nearby door and a man inside let her ring her father to give him the news the Lynas family had been praying for — her safe return.
The Lynas family left Australia and returned to live in England six days after Nicola was released.
THINGS MR CRUEL SAID DURING THE LYNAS ATTACK
To Nicola and Fiona: “See this here, this is a really sharp knife.”
And: “This is a real gun. It shoots real bullets.”
And: “ Blow your heads off.”
To Nicola: “If you try to see it will be very dangerous for you.”
And: “Keep your eyes shut if you want to stay alive.”
And: “Crouch down on the floor. Get down low. Get your head right down.”
And: “You’ve got to clean yourself thoroughly.”
And: “Clean your teeth thoroughly.”
And: I’m just going to tie your feet up now.”
And: “Think you’re worth $25,000?”
And: “You will get home. You will be home by late Thursday evening, early Friday morning.” And: “I’ll drop you off at a place and change of clothes and you have to wait for 10 minutes and then you can walk to a police station. I’ll give you directions to the police station.”
And: “When you get back the police will ask you a lot of questions.”
NICOLA AND HER SISTER FIONA BOTH PROVIDED POLICE WITH A DESCRIPTION OF MR CRUEL
They differed in relation to Mr Cruel’s height, with Fiona saying he was about 182cm to 185cm tall whereas Nicola told police he was just under 170cm tall.
Police believe Nicola’s height estimate is probably more accurate as she spent more time with Mr Cruel and also walked alongside him.
Both girls said he was well built, with Nicola saying he had a slightly big stomach, like a beer belly.
Both girls said he had a deep or gruff Australian voice.
Fiona said he used “you’s” at the end of phrases, including telling she and Nicola to “lay down on the bed you’s” and “get the cash you’s”.
Fiona and Nicola both told police they hadn’t seen Mr Cruel’s face because he was wearing a balaclava.
Both said at some times he was wearing a handgun tucked into either his trousers or his belt on his left side and at other times Fiona said he carried the gun in his right hand and a serrated carving knife in his left hand, whereas Nicola said he had the gun in his right hand.
Fiona described the gun as having a dull silver barrel with a brown wooden handle. Nicola described the gun as shiny silver.
Nicola said he didn’t smell of body odour, alcohol or cigarettes; that his hands felt sort of hairy with rough skin and shortish fingernails; that his arms were quite solid and stocky with fine hair; that he had fine hair on his chest and no hair on his back; that he swore a lot, but only at the Lynas house, in the car and about his friend and that he sounded “not really educated”.
Fiona said, based on his speech, actions and build, that she thought he was aged in his 30s.
ITEMS TAKEN BY MR CRUEL DURING THE ATTACK ON NICOLA
A handmade pink and white striped sundress with a drop waist and gathered, which belonged to Fiona.
A Presbyterian Ladies College summer uniform, size 12 or 14, belonging to Fiona.
A pair of blue tracksuit pants of the brand endorsed by PLC, may have had Fiona Lynas label inside or F Lynas written in biro on the inside label.
Three pairs of white Marks and Spencer label girl’s underpants and one or two pairs of blue Dobson brand girl’s underpants.
Four pairs of white cotton Marks and Spencer brand socks.
A Marks and Spencer brand green and white fine horizontally striped T-shirt, size small or 8.
A Melbourne football club hat.
A white tennis skirt, size 8. Pleated with velcro and slip catch on the front. Very fine knife pleats with red and blue ribbon around the bottom.
PLC school jumper, size not known.
A large Ken Done beach bag with green fish design and a string draw opening.
A pair of blue and green knee high stockings, bought in England.
A maroon ladies wallet.
A Victorian driver’s licence in the name of Rosemary Lynas with the address of 16 Margaret St, Canterbury on it.
A Medicare card in the names of Brian, Rosemary, Fiona and Nicola Lynas.
An ANZ visa card in the name of Rosemary Lynas.
DESCRIPTION OF THE VEHICLE MR CRUEL USED TO ABDUCT NICOLA
Nicola told police she thought it was a four door vehicle with bucket seats; that it had a floor gear shift, probably manual; that the radio was tuned to KZFM; there were no odours in the car; that is sounded oldish and had carpet on the floor.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ATTACK ON KARMEIN CHAN, 13
Mr Cruel’s modus operandi changed dramatically with his next and last known attack on April 13, 1991 — which ended in the death of Presbyterian Ladies College student Karmein Chan.
The most likely reason for the change from kidnapper to killer is that Karmein somehow managed to see Mr Cruel — something he assiduously avoided with other victims through the use of masks and blindfolds.
He told an earlier victim not to try to look at him, warning the 14-year-old girl in 1987: “My freedom is more important than your life.”
Karmein’s mother Phyllis told police her 13-year-old daughter was not the sort of girl to accept captivity without a fight.
Phyllis Chan believes Karmein may have ripped off her blindfold and confronted Mr Cruel — in effect, signing her death warrant as if he released her after that she could identify him.
Mr Cruel wore a brown balaclava when he broke into the Chan’s luxury Serpells Rd home in prestigious Templestowe about 8.40pm on Saturday, April 13, 1991.
Karmein was babysitting her sisters Karly, 9, and Karen, 7, as her parents John and Phyllis were working in one of the family’s three Chinese restaurants.
Police believe Mr Cruel kept his victims under surveillance for weeks before striking.
He would have known the Chans left Karmein and her sisters home alone while they tended to customers at their popular Ming’s Restaurant in the nearby suburb of Eltham.
The girls were watching TV in Karmein’s room when, during an ad break, Karmein and Karly headed to the kitchen for something to eat.
They were confronted by the knife-wielding Mr Cruel, who grabbed them and forced them back into the bedroom.
Karen, the youngest, had heard the commotion and was hiding behind the door when Mr Cruel entered with her older sisters.
He quickly spotted Karen and made her get into a cupboard with Karly, telling them: “You two little ones get in the cupboard”.
Holding Karmein by the hair, he said she would come back and get them. They never saw her alive again.
Mr Cruel pushed a bed against the cupboard to trap Karly and Karen inside.
They called out to their sister — who was barefoot and wearing only a white, short sleeved, knee-length nightie — as she was dragged from the bedroom.
Sniffer dogs later picked up her scent and followed it to nearby Church Rd, where police believe Mr Cruel had parked his car.
It took Karly and Karen about 10 minutes to free themselves from the cupboard. They phoned their father at the restaurant and told him a man had stolen Karmein.
Mr Cruel left police a red herring at the Chan home in the hope it would lead the investigation away from him.
He spray-painted Mrs Chan’s late model Toyota Camry with the words “More, and more to come” along the driver’s side and “Pay back, Asian Drug Dealer” on the bonnet and front windscreen.
Police spent months sifting through every aspect of Mr Chan’s life to see if the abduction was drug or business-related, rather than the work of Mr Cruel.
They found that Mr Chan was squeaky clean and that the slogans were Mr Cruel’s way of sending police on another wild goose chase.
The then Detective Inspector David Sprague had recently transferred to the rape squad to review the Nicola Lynas kidnapping.
He was the logical person to rouse late on the Saturday night Karmein was taken as there were many similarities between the Lynas and Chan cases — including that both girls were students at the prestigious Presbyterian Ladies College in Burwood, although they didn’t know each other.
Det-Insp Sprague — who rose to the rank of Commander before retiring from Victoria Police — was not impressed by what he found on arriving at the Chan home within hours of the abduction.
“The crime scene was not preserved as it should have been,” he told the Herald Sun in 2003.
“We had a lot of problems with it. Unfortunately, the initial police member in charge had set up the command post inside the house. It was a disaster, with people stomping around all over the place. They didn’t seal the crime scene off as they should have.”
His concern was that evidence that could help identify Mr Cruel might have been destroyed in those first few vital hours.
Det-Insp Sprague, who was appointed to head the Operation Spectrum taskforce set up to catch Mr Cruel, later discovered it was not the first time a chance to identify the notorious kidnapper had been lost.
The taskforce established that Mr Cruel was almost certainly responsible for an earlier series of attacks in Melbourne’s southern suburbs in the early to mid-1980s.
Spectrum detectives wanted to review all the evidence from those cases. They were bitterly disappointed to find some of the evidence had been lost.
Of particular concern was the fact that tape Mr Cruel had used to bind one of his victims was missing.
There have been vast improvements in forensic technology since those attacks in the 1980s, enabling scientists to extract identifying characteristics from the smallest of samples left by an offender.
Mr Cruel’s DNA may well have been on that tape as it is likely he was not as careful during those early attacks as he was with his later victims.
“But we will never know as the exhibit just isn’t there anymore,” the then Commander Sprague told the Herald Sun in 2003.
“In those days police didn’t have the supervision that they do now. With things like exhibits, people would sometimes leave them in their lockers.
“By the time we identified these additional attacks, years after they had taken place, some of those exhibits had been lost and others had simply been thrown out.
“They had never been examined. One exhibit that was lost was tape that one of the victims had been tied up in.
“There were other examples of exhibits that might have been vital to us in identifying the offender not being able to be located when we asked for them.
“There were times when we would go looking for the old criminal record sheets, which would record things like the modus operandi of the offender, for incidents we felt might be connected to the man we were after, only to discover those records were missing.
“These things were big hindrances to Operation Spectrum. We were playing catch up all the time.”
The abduction of Sharon Wills in December 1988 was big news. The kidnapping of Nicola Lynas in July 1990 made Mr Cruel a household name. The taking of Karmein Chan in April 1991 received massive coverage.
There is evidence that Mr Cruel closely followed news reports, discussing them with his captives.
So he would have seen the haunting television footage of Phyllis Chan weeping over the loss of her daughter and pleading with Mr Cruel during a press conference for him to return Karmein alive.
Knowing Mr Cruel had released Sharon Wills after 18 hours and Nicola Lynas after 50, the Chans hoped and prayed their daughter would be soon be home.
But those deadlines passed with no sign of Karmein and no word from Mr Cruel.
Phyllis Chan wrote a letter to Mr Cruel, which was published in the media when Karmein had been missing for nearly 70 hours.
She pleaded with him to return Karmein, saying “in the past you have released the others”.
She said Karly and Karen had started sleepwalking and were calling out for Karmein as they did so.
“The sisters wake up often and peep through the window to see if the man has sent Karmein back,” she wrote in her open letter to Mr Cruel.
The letter also contained a secret code which only Karmein would be able to break.
Mrs Chan said breaking the code would reveal the number of a Post Office box where she was prepared to leave ransom money.
Mrs Chan swore to Mr Cruel that police knew nothing about her attempt to pay to get her daughter back alive. She was telling the truth.
Karly and Karen also wrote letters to Karmein and Mr Cruel, with Karly saying: “Whoever has my sister, I would like her back because then she can help me with my homework and also take good care of my little sister and me.”
But their tormentor ignored these emotive pleas and as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, the climate of fear which had struck Melbourne slowly dissipated as news of Mr Cruel dried up.
That all changed on April 9, 1992 — just four days short of the first anniversary of Karmein’s abduction — when a man walking his dog along Edgars Creek in Thomastown spotted what looked like a human skull in a landfill area.
Bulldozers had recently been at work in the area at the rear of an electricity substation on the intersection of Mahoneys Rd and High St.
The man wasn’t sure it was a skull so he walked over and touched it before going to his nearby home. He told his mother then called Thomastown police.
The site was sealed off and the painstaking task of exhuming the human remains began.
It took 24 hours to recover what was left of the badly decomposed body. It was taken to the Coroner’s Court for forensic testing to establish identity.
DNA and dental records confirmed what police and the Chans feared — it was Karmein.
Examination of the skull revealed she had been shot at least three times in the back of the head.
Operation Spectrum detectives, already working long hours, were swamped with information from a shocked public after news of Karmein’s murder broke.
But none of it helped identify Mr Cruel.
Spectrum detective Steve Fontana, who is now a Victoria Police assistant commissioner, told the Herald Sun in 2001 Mr Cruel’s crimes were very much premeditated.
“He wore a balaclava, always wore gloves, he always made sure the girls were blindfolded the whole time,” he said.
“I won’t go into other things that he did, but there were certain things, like with Sharon Wills, she was wrapped in plastic garbage bags before she was dropped off. I think it gives you an indication that this person was really thinking about not leaving any traces behind.”
Mr Fontana, who was deputy head of Operation Spectrum from the start and later took over from Det-Insp Sprague as chief after he accepted promotion to become officer-in-charge of detective training in Victoria, said it was very difficult to commit such despicable crimes without leaving physical evidence — yet Mr Cruel managed it.
“You have to give it a lot of thought. He’s gone to great lengths to conceal his identity and that has been maintained for the duration of those girls being held captive,” Mr Fontana told the Herald Sun in 2001.
Sharon Wills and Nicola Lynas, and almost certainly Karmein Chan, were kept in a dwelling under the Tullamarine flight paths, probably in an area close to the airport such as Coburg, Strathmore, Keilor, Plenty, McLeod or Watsonia.
While police were never able to question Karmein, Sharon and Nicola were able to describe where they had been held prisoner.
Both girls said the house, unit or flat had a drive on its right-hand side. Nicola said it had one step from the drive up into the premises.
The girls were occasionally able to bravely sneak a look inside the premises, despite warnings not to remove their blindfolds.
Sharon described the bedroom she was kept in as being the second room from the front door, on the right hand side; having a beige or cream carpet; peachy coloured full-length curtains; double bed with a peachy/orange bedhead; a white doona with patterns; peachy/orange lamp base; lemon lampshade with thin white vertical stripes; light coloured walls; brown/black chest of drawers beside the bed; large window to the right of the bed and a second chest of drawers to the right of the bed; wooden tripod set up near the end of the bed, probably to film his captives; radio on the left side of the bed; a metallic type weight near the left side of the bed and a dark blanket covering a bookcase or cabinet at the opposite end of the room from the bed, possibly to hide identifiable possessions.
The bathroom had a bath, a glass sliding door to the shower and a wall-mounted or pedestal type washbasin adjacent to the shower door.
Nicola said the bath didn’t appear to be a full sized one and that the separate shower was between the bath and the washbasin.
Both girls said the toilet was in a separate room, next to the bathroom. Nicola said it had a tile or lino floor.
Both girls said the toilet was dual flush and low to the ground. Nicola said the toilet roll holder was on the right when seated on the toilet and that the door to the toilet opened right to left from the outside.
A profile of Mr Cruel, prepared by Spectrum detectives after many hours interviewing victims and consulting police experts, including some from the FBI, suggested Mr Cruel was probably in steady employment, possibly in a management job or self-employed, with freedom of movement.
It said those who know him would not regard him as a monster.
He would probably be considered a good neighbour and might be involved in community projects.
He would have an obsessive, compulsive character — the type who would immediately wipe his hands if soiled.
The profile said Mr Cruel would have taken a great deal of interest in media coverage, though he probably tried to disguise it.
It said he would go for unexplained drives or walks. He would have expressed sexual fantasies or shown sexually dysfunctional behaviour.
His sexual arousal and gratification would probably be dependent on his partner playing specific roles, such as dressing like a schoolgirl in uniform.
He used terms like “bozo” “worry wart” and “missy” when speaking to some of his victims.
He could be married or living with a woman who goes away around school holidays, when some of the attacks occurred.
The profile suggested Mr Cruel would be intelligent and well-organised. He would seem genuinely interested in and dedicated to children.
He would have displayed behavioural changes about the time of the offences and on anniversaries or when publicity was renewed.
Those changes would include such things as sleeping disorders, reluctance to go to work, distraction or different eating and drinking habits.
He would disguise his stress with abnormally rigid behaviour.
Serial predators like Mr Cruel don’t usually stop offending until they are caught or die.
Yet there is no evidence that Mr Cruel has stepped out of line since he killed Karmein Chan in 1991.
The then Commander Sprague told the Herald Sun in 2003 that he believed the reason Mr Cruel didn’t strike again after murdering Karmein was because he was one of the thousands of men interviewed by Operation Spectrum.
“I honestly think we got very, very close and scared the crap out of him. So close that he stopped,” he said.
Anybody with information about Mr Cruel, or any of the crimes attributed to him, should callCrime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or provide information online through www.crimestoppersvic.com.au — a $300,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Mr Cruel is still available.