NSW Police Force puts historic sex offenders on notice with time no object

A state police force has fired a warning shot at those who might believe they have got away with historical sex offending: don’t be too confident.

Jen Dally, a sexual assault nurse. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

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Police are putting sex offenders who committed decades-old sex crimes on notice, warning them that despite the passage of time, those behind historical cold cases are still in the sight of detectives.

Almost 800 previously untested sexual assault investigation kits (SAIK) – some collected as far back as the 1990s – have been tested and added to the NSW Police Force’s ever-growing DNA register, less than two years after the same technology helped detectives catch one of Australia’s most infamous serial predators – the notorious “Bondi Beast” rapist Keith Simms.

Simms raped 31 women between 1985 and 2001 around Sydney’s eastern suburbs. He was caught in September 2022, seven months after his death in February, thanks to the aid of DNA technology.

The commander of the NSW Police Sex Crime Squad, Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty, said new testing, enabled by a funding boost from the NSW government in October 2022, will put historic sex predators like Simms on notice, warning them time is no object when officers are targeting the decades-old cold cases.

Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty in 2022. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The veteran detective, who has worked for NSW police for more than three decades and was awarded the Australian Police Medal in 2022, said DNA technology advancements over the years have allowed police to develop links from one crime scene to ­another.

“One incident may link to another because we’ve got DNA and new testing has allowed us to look further into that DNA, or more people come on to our offenders database and then their DNA gets detected because they’re on the database,” she said.

“It’s a continual building up of this evidence on the databases so that we can match things.”

Superintendent Doherty said the kits being tested were those of victims who consented to them being examined by police but elected before the examination that an investigation not be pursued, therefore resulting in the kits not being tested.

“One thing we like to re-­emphasise to victims is the journey is theirs, we’ll come along with them but it’s their journey … we try to empower them and let them make the decision as to how far that journey goes,” Superintendent Doherty said.

“When we talk about SAIKs, it’s rather an invasive examination and done at a time where this person has been through a traumatic incident, they’ve been sexually ­violated, and we’ve got a doctor in a sterile area taking these swabs”, she said.

SAIKs, often referred to as “rape kits”, involve a medical and forensic examination of the victim including clothes and belongings. Examiners then collect toxicology samples from an incident up to 48 hours after the alleged assault.

Superintendent Doherty said while not only building up the police database, the testing of the historic kits “pays respect to the trauma that the victim went through to provide that evidence in the first place”.

“We try to encourage victims that six months, a year, five years, 10 years down the track, you can still come back and we will still investigate as far as we can, but preserving evidence in the front end gives us a better chance of getting a good result at the back,” she said.

The ‘Beast of Bondi’, the late Keith Simms. Image: YouTube

A spokeswoman from the Nat­ional Association of Services Against Sexual Violence said their data indicated only 8.3 per cent of women reported sexual violence to police; up to 85 per cent of those sexual violence reports made to police did not progress to charge.

Victim advocate groups and police agree that oftentimes victims want to help one another but are unwilling to go through the courts themselves. SAIKs provide an avenue for these individuals to support and aid others without the burden of a lengthy trial.

Superintendent Doherty said: “Quite often we have a victim of one matter become a witness in another because they’re not the one that their charge relates to.”

This comes as the police and state government aim to tackle the endemic problem of accessing justice faced by many sexual assault survivors.

Superintendent Doherty said the police firmly reiterated that they would always uphold a ­victim-centric approach through all stages of investigation, be it legal, forensic or otherwise while issuing a stern warning to perpetrators that they could no longer hold the belief they’d be safe in the knowledge that the years would wash over their past sins.

“We will never give up. We will reinvestigate no matter how old those matters are and as more and more advances in technology come forward, we’ll rely on them to identify those outstanding offenders,” she said.

1800RESPECT is the national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic, family or sexual violence, you can call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit 1800respect.org.au for online chat and video call services.

Additional reporting: Liam Mendes