Dear Rachelle investigation: Police find murder suspect in alleged mid-rape

The main suspect in a decades-long unsolved murder was allegedly caught by police in the middle of sexually assaulting another woman.

A police officer has told of the moment he arrested the chief suspect in Rachelle Childs’ murder for a separate offence – with his “pants down”, allegedly mid-rape.

Wayne Neilson told the Dear Rachelle investigation he is still shocked by Kevin Steven Correll telling him the alleged victim “deserved it”, as she was a “moll’.

Mr Correll went on to beat the charge – one of four sexual assaults he was accused of in the 80s – but the incident has stayed with Mr Neilson as it was rare to have “arrested them basically in the act.”

Retired NSW police officer Wayne Neilson reflects on an arrest he made of Kevin Steven Correll in the 1980s. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Person of interest in the murder of Rachelle Childs, Kevin Steven Correll, seen here during Mingles Singles events in Sydney.

The then NSW police officer was on night shift patrol in Liverpool, south-west Sydney, in May 1983 when he heard “very loud screaming” coming from a parked car.

He and his patrol colleague jumped out of their car and were confronted by a young woman running up the road in distress, holding her dress against her body because the straps had fallen down.

“She was saying the guy’s got a gun and he threatened to kill her,” Mr Neilson recalled.

“Immediately we drew our revolvers and moved towards a vehicle … and told him to get out of the vehicle with his hands up so that we could see he wasn’t armed.”

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When the alleged rapist exited the vehicle, his pants fell down. That same man identified himself to police as Kevin Cornwall, who later changed his name to Kevin Correll and became a suspect in the 2001 death of 23-year-old Rachelle, his former employee.

He has always denied any involvement in Rachelle’s case – and has never been charged with her murder.

Mr Correll, who was 27 at the time of the alleged assault, met the woman earlier in the evening at Liverpool RSL, and later at a nightclub called Scaramouche before offering her a lift.

Person of interest in the murder of Rachelle Childs, Kevin Steven Correll. Picture: Julian Andrews

Mr Neilson recalled Mr Correll saying “something in relation to she deserved it or something like that – she was only a moll,” he recalled.

He said it was extremely uncommon to catch someone in the middle of an alleged offence, “break and enters you do, but certainly not sexual assaults”.

“I can’t think of any other [arrests] … when we actually arrested them basically in the act,” he said.

Former NSW police officer Wayne Neilson recalls being on was on night shift patrol south-west Sydney in May 1983 when he heard “very loud screaming” coming from a parked car.

Former police officer Wayne Neilson in the 1980s.

According to court documents presented at his trial, Mr Correll told the arresting officers that he did engage in sexual conduct with the woman, and “got a bit carried away”.

Detective Senior Constable Lester Clarkson told the court that Mr Correll didn’t want a record of interview as “it was a fair go”.

“I’m not sure of her name (the alleged victim) but I picked this moll up at Scara’s, we drove round for a while and then I pulled up near Woodward Park,” Mr Correll told the court.

“We talked for a little while [and] I felt like a bit, so I pulled my duds down, she didn’t seem to mind, so I grabbed her – not actually grabbed – but brought her head down … she struggled a bit, then took her head away”.

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When asked whether he forced her to have oral sex, he replied: “she’s only a moll, she’s fair go for anybody.”

As for the claim he threatened to “blow her head off” (with a gun) if she refused his request, he replied: “that is utter bullshit sergeant, I did not threaten or hurt her, I got a bit carried away.” He went on to tell the officer he did not ejaculate.

The woman was cross-examined about what she was wearing, the way she was dancing at the club, and the way she introduced herself to Mr Correll that night, and was accused of “making the story up as you go along”.

Aside from evidence given by police, the case was her word against Mr Correll’s. There was no evidence of force or injury to back up her allegations.

A jury delivered a not-guilty verdict in 1985.

Former Detective Sergeant Damian Loone thinks Rachelle Childs’ case is solvable.

Former homicide detective Damian Loone, who cracked The Teacher’s Pet case and is now working on the Dear Rachelle investigation, said the evidence was a “smoking gun brief”.

“He’s been accused of a sexual and motivated attack against a young, intoxicated woman, and he gets out of the car and the cops pull him out of the car at gunpoint and his pants fall down around his ankles. You know, you couldn’t get better evidence,” he said.

“Police had enough evidence to charge him. They would have obtained a statement from the victim, and it would have gone up to the District Court for trial. And yet again, as I say, this is the course of justice that he was acquitted on that.”

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 [e-mail].

You can also join our Dear Rachelle podcast Facebook group.

Originally published as Dear Rachelle investigation: Police find murder suspect in alleged mid-rape