Suspected rapist Kevin Correll seen drinking at pole dancing club with a lover before shock death

A pole dancer has unveiled more details about a chief suspect in an Australian woman’s murder, revealing his movements in a red light district with his lover before he died. SEE THE VIDEO.

Exclusive: A suspected rapist accused of killing Rachelle Childs had an intimate relationship with a bartender at a pole dancing club before his fatal heart attack, which began while he was swilling beer while watching throngs of scantily-clad women.

Kevin Steven Correll, 69, regularly flew between Sydney and Phuket to see his 31-year-old bartender girlfriend who worked at Richy Bar - a club filled with young, half-naked women in the heart of the red light district at Patong Beach.

Kevin Steven Correll regularly flew between Sydney and Phuket to see his 31-year-old bartender girlfriend. Picture: Julian Andrews

Mayom, a pole dancer, has been friends with Mr Correll’s girlfriend since their romantic relationship began in April this year. Picture Jeff Darmanin

Mayom, a pole dancer, has been friends with Mr Correll’s girlfriend since their romantic relationship began in April this year. She told this masthead, via a translator, that Mr Correll often travelled between Sydney and Phuket and was a regular at Richy Bar.

“He bought the girls drinks, danced and laughed with them,” she said. “He was respectful and never tried to have physical contact with anyone – they all felt safe with him.”

When Mr Correll entered the bar on July 16, just three days after he arrived in Thailand, Mayom said he didn’t seem like himself.

Listen to the Dear Rachelle podcast below:

“Kevin came to the bar at about 10pm and stayed for a couple of hours, but he wasn’t really talking, he was being introverted, and sat by himself with a beer – like he was in a daydream, he wasn’t there, it was like he’d left his body,” she said.

“He went into the toilet and he was gone for too long, and when he left the restroom I went to Kevin and asked if he was OK, and I saw the veins in his face.”

Kevin Correll was often drinking at Richy Bar. Picture Jeff Darmanin

Mayom and the girlfriend started walking Mr Correll back to The Expat Hotel, when he told them he felt burning in his chest and pain in his back.

When he grabbed his chest and said “I feel dizzy all the time”, Mayom knew something was very wrong. He stopped by the pool, just outside his hotel room, and she asked if he would go to hospital.

Mr Correll wouldn’t go. He said, “No, don’t make it a big deal, I’m good”. He went into his room, removed most of his clothing and apparently tried to relieve the pain by draping a damp towel over his back and chest.

He collapsed while cleaning his dentures.

The following day, his girlfriend hadn’t received any texts from him.

She went back to the hotel and asked reception whether they had seen Mr Correll, handing them a photo. They told her that he had not been seen that day, so she asked them to keep an eye out.

NSW Police reopened Rachelle Childs’ case in January this year.

On Friday, July 18, Mayom went back to the hotel on the girlfriend’s behalf to ask staff to check his room.

A cleaner unlocked the door and found him dead on the floor, his face swollen purple with loose limbs. By that stage, he had been dead for more than 24 hours.

An autopsy revealed Mr Correll died from a heart attack, likely due to an enlarged heart and arrhythmia.

Mr Correll is the prime suspect in the 2001 murder of 23-year-old Rachelle Childs, which was the subject of the Dear Rachelle podcast investigation. NSW Police reopened her case in January this year and continues to be investigated under Strike Force Telap.

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 Suspected rapist Kevin Correll seen drinking at pole dancing club with a lover before shock death