Hermit rode his bicycle from NSW to Melbourne in abortion clinic mass murder plot

Reclusive anti-abortionist Peter James Knight gathered an Armageddon-style arsenal at his bush humpy then rode his bicycle from deep inside a NSW forest all the way to Melbourne, ready to kill as many as possible to deliver his chilling message.

Armed with his gun, ammunition and litres of kerosene, pro-lifer Peter James Knight stormed an abortion clinic with one thing on his mind — a mass murder spree.

On a deluded personal crusade, Knight was hoping to send the clinic and everyone inside it straight to hell, bringing his hatred to Melbourne’s inner-city suburbs all the way from his remote humpy home in a New South Wales forest. And he did it on his bicycle.

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A reclusive hermit, the 47-year-old was prepared to kill as many innocent people as needed to spread his anti-abortion message.

Carrying homemade door jambs and mouth gags as part of his kill kit, Knight did not see himself as the unlawful one.

Blinded by his zealous beliefs he believed the doctors performing the abortions and the patients undergoing the procedures needed to die.

Kill plotter’s hermit life

Born on January 1, 1954 at the Bathurst Base Hospital in NSW, Knight was one of six siblings raised on a family property outside of Bathurst.

He attended a local primary school and finished high school at year 10 in Orange.

Knight being questioned shortly after fatally shooting a security guard.

Knight worked with the Ford motor company until he had a disagreement with the Australian Taxation Office about donations he was making to charities.

He then became a nomad, and travelled Australia like a swagman.

“He was not working during this period and refused to accept social security benefits,” the police document says.

“In order to survive, he would scrounge items from tips and collect steel cans and other items.”

It was in 1990 when Knight began living a hermit-like existence in the Gumble State Forest in Molong, about 30km west of Orange.

He cleared the land with basic tools and dug out his own dam.

With gathered materials he built three basic “humpy-style” dwellings, and planted fruit trees and vegetables.

The humpy in NSW bushland.

Knight’s bush home.

While it is not known exactly when Knight’s anti-abortion affliction struck him, he made his first pilgrimage to Victoria in 2001.

“He was known to travel extensive distances on his pushbike,” a police document states.

He rode to Melbourne and went to the Right To Life office in Brunswick.

Through a locked wire security door he spoke with then president Margaret Tighe.

He was articulate but looked scruffy.

Knight complained about pregnancy termination clinic ads appearing in the Yellow Pages.

“He had an idea about phone books and that we should start a boycott of Telstra,” Ms Tighe said in her police statement.

“He didn’t speak with violence and wasn’t aggressive, but he didn’t like taking no for an answer. He was fixated on the issue.

“To get rid of him I said I would have to put his proposal to our committee.”

Knight then travelled to the Fertility Control Clinic in Wellington Parade, East Melbourne, and spoke to some of the regular protesters there.

“He was very intense and always spoke very close to our face,” one of the protesters told police.

Knight made his next public stand on March 12.

He made a nuisance of himself by holding up anti-abortion placards outside radio station 2UE in Sydney.

Police were called to move him on.

The plan to target East Melbourne

Knight rode back to his forest-based camp, where he plotted his mission to lay siege to the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic.

Knight scavenged twine and tools and metal brackets and, in Justice Teague’s words, “fashioned implements in preparation for the massacre”.

The anti-abortion crusader stole a Winchester .30/30 calibre lever-action rifle and ammunition from a gun shop in Parkes, about 80km from his camp.

He left a note of apology for the break-in and theft.

The note Peter Knight left apologising for the break-in and theft from a gun shop. Image: Victoria Police

Police removing evidence from the scene after the 2001 shooting. Picture: Peter Ward.

A call for information by Victoria Police as they worked to try and identify the gunman. Picture: Victoria Police.

With his Armageddon-style arsenal, Knight rode back to Melbourne in June and set up a hidden campsite in Templestowe’s Candlebark Park, about 20km northeast of Melbourne.

He crafted mouth gags and metal door jambs at that site.

Knight wrapped rags around pieces of wood to use as fire torches to help burn the clinic.

He punched holes through plastic bottle tops so he could spread his 16 litres of kerosene around the building more easily.

He wore gloves so he didn’t leave fingerprints on any of the items.

“You mulled over the activities of the clinic,” Justice Teague would say.

IT was about 10.10am on July 16, 2001, when Knight stormed the clinic — after hiding his bicycle in a nearby laneway.

He was wearing cotton gloves, sunglasses and a balaclava rolled up to look like a beanie.

Knight brandished his rifle, and carried an Office Works bag containing his implements.

The gun was wrapped in a hessian bag, sewn around the firearm.

What happened inside the clinic

There were 15 staff members and 26 visitors inside when Knight went in.

Chubb security guard Steven Rogers was employed to keep the peace at the clinic.

A guard without a gun, he helped usher visitors inside past the front-gate protest group.

“Steven made quite a few friends there,” his mother, Shirley Rogers, says in a police statement.

“He said everybody had their own right to do whatever they wanted to do with their body. Steven wasn’t a believer or a non-believer in abortion. He didn’t preach on the subject.

Steven Rogers with son Shannon.

Mr Rogers was killed just doing his job.

“He was independent.”

Rogers asked the scruffy-looking bearded man what he was doing inside the clinic.

“I’ve got a gun … Yeah man, it’s for real,” Knight replied.

Knight dropped his Office Works bag and levelled the rifle at the security man.

He shot Rogers, 44, in the chest.

“I looked up immediately and saw a lot of smoke,” the clinic receptionist told police.

“I saw Steve lying on the floor. He had blood on his chest and was holding his chest.

“(The gunman) appeared to be trying to reload the gun. I was terrified and thought I was going to be next. I ran to one of the counselling rooms and locked myself in there.”

As some fled out a rear door, Knight pointed the reloaded rifle at a woman.

More precisely, at her stomach.

That woman’s boyfriend recalls: “I firmly believe he had decided he was going to shoot (my girlfriend).

“I immediately lunged at him. I grabbed hold of the firearm’s barrel with both hands.”

The heroic young man pushed the barrel towards the roof.

Knight fired a second round.

People screamed as they fled. Others barricaded themselves in consulting rooms.

“I forced my foot up against the door,” one visitor told police.

“I was very frightened. The Port Arthur (gun massacre) incident came rushing into my head. I thought it was the same situation happening to me.”

Several men wrested the rifle from Knight’s hands as medical staff tried to save Rogers.

Their efforts proved fruitless.

Rogers, a loving father, died in a pool of his own blood.

Police took Knight into custody.

He told an arresting constable: “You’re in a bad position there. I could turn and grab your gun and that would be the end of it.”

But who was this man?

Knight had no identification on him, and refused to divulge his identity.

His fingerprints were later checked and failed to hit a match on the database.

It was the same story with his DNA.

He was listed on the police charge sheets as “person unknown”.

The media dubbed him “Mister X”.

Victorian homicide squad detectives sent a memo to all law enforcement agencies around Australia, asking for assistance to identify the mystery gunman.

His identity was finally revealed when the officers who’d checked Knight’s details at radio station 2UE back in March matched him to the memo.

Shirley Rogers, the mother of Steven Rogers, after Knight’s hearing. Picture: David Crosling.

Knight pleaded not guilty to murder and went to trial.

“He was very passionate about abortion — very much opposed,” prosecutor Bill Morgan-Payler, QC, told the jury.

“His position went past opposition to obsession.

“But for the bravery of those men who intervened, there would have been a tragedy of dreadful proportions.”

Knight, who represented himself, claimed Rogers was shot because the rifle accidentally discharged.

Mr Morgan-Payler said: “ (Knwhateight) went there with murder on his mind.”

The jury found Knight guilty.

In November 2002, Justice Teague sentenced Knight to life with a 23-year minimum term.

“You went to the clinic with a plan for a massacre,” the judge said.

“You made Steven Rogers pay the supreme sacrifice because he got in the way.”

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Originally published as Hermit rode his bicycle from NSW to Melbourne in abortion clinic mass murder plot