David and Catherine Birnie
On the afternoon of Monday 10th November 1986, customers in a
supermarket in Fremantle, Western Australia, were startled when a half-naked
seventeen year old girl burst in, sobbing that she had been raped.
Taken to the police station, she described being held captive since the previous
evening, when a man and a woman had dragged her into a car as she was walking in
the affluent Perth suburb of Nedlands.
She had been taken to a small bungalow, chained to a bed, then raped twice by
the man. The following morning, the man had gone off to work, leaving the woman
to guard their victim. It was when the woman left her unchained, and went into
another room, that the girl escaped through an open window.
Within minutes of raising the alarm, she was being questioned by police. One
officer was later to say that he had been deeply impressed by the 'very alert,
intelligent and brave female'. The girl had kept her wits about her and seized
the opportunity to escape as soon as it became possible,
When the girl was recounting her story, police were already on their way to a
white-brick house in Moorhouse Street in nearby Willagee. The door was answered
by Catherine Birnie, a small, hard faced woman with high cheekbones and a tight
mouth. Within a short time, she and her common law husband, David, were being
questioned.
David Birnie was an unlikely looking rapist; slightly built, dark hair, with a
gaunt face and prominent nose. He looked too weak to subdue a desperate,
struggling woman.
Catherine Birnie is escorted by a police officer to Perth's Supreme Court in
March 1987 to hear her sentence. She appeared in the dock together with David
Birnie. She had admitted involvement in four murders
Taken to the police station, it was obvious that neither had much fight left in
them, Within a short time, they had confessed to four rape-murders, committed
over a period of four weeks.
Before evening, the Birnies were taking members of Perth's Major Crimes Squad to
the graves of their victims. Three girls had been buried in remote Glen Eagle
State Forest, almost 50km (31 miles) southeast of Perth; another in a pine
plantation near Wanneroo, some 30km (19 miles) north of central Perth. The three
Glen Eagle victims had been strangled to death. The fourth girl had been stabbed
and struck with an axe.
David Birnie - bearing plasters from a fall - is led from the Supreme Court in
Perth after being sentenced. Like many killers, he showed self possession even
when certain he would never know freedom again.
It soon became apparent that Catherine Birnie had played an active part in the
murders. She had even taken photographs of her husband in the act of raping the
victims. As the two described their brief career of homicide, police found
themselves listening to a narrative that was beyond their experience - the story
of a woman who had apparently enjoyed helping her husband to violate other
women.
David and Catherine Birnie had, apparently, known each other since childhood.
They were both 35 years old, and had become lovers in their teens, when they had
also teamed up on a spree of burglaries. They then went their separate ways.
David Birnie married and Catherine became a domestic help. She eventually
married the son of the house and bore him five children. Meanwhile, Birnie's
marriage had foundered. When he and Catherine met again, they resumed their
affair. Catherine left her husband and children to live with Birnie.
In spite of his small stature and mild appearance, Birnie was sexually
insatiable. He wanted intercourse six times a day. Interviewed by the press, his
twenty one year old brother James, who had himself been in prison for sexual
offences, told how, when David and Catherine Birnie had temporarily broken up in
1984, his brother had insisted on having sexual relations with him, climbing
into his bed after he was asleep.
James Birnie, Brother
On his 21st Birthday, James had been allowed to go to bed with Catherine Birnie
as a birthday present.
The twenty two year old student was murdered after going to buy tyres from
Birnie. She was awarded a posthumous degree in psychology from the University of
Australia.
In 1985, David and Catherine Birnie had discussed the idea of abducting and
raping girls. But their first murder, that of a twenty two year old student
named Mary Neilson, was apparently unplanned.
She came to their house on 6th October 1986 to buy tyres, which Birnie obtained
through his work in a car-wreckers yard. Unable to resist the temptation, he had
forced her into the bedroom at knifepoint. Catherine Birnie had watched while he
raped her.
The girl was then taken to the Glen Eagle State Forest, where she was raped
again. She was begging for her life as Birnie strangled her with a nylon cord.
He and Catherine mutilated the body and buried it in a shallow grave.
The detectives listening to the confessions began to understand that Catherine
Birnie, this hard-faced, defiant woman, had had nothing to gain from the murders
except by playing her part in fulfilling David Birnie's deranged lust.
The simplicity with which the Birnies had abducted and murdered Mary Neilson
encouraged them to lure more victims to their home, but this time using a more
devious method. They inserted an advertisement in a local newspaper that read:
'URGENT. Looking for a lonely young person. Prefer female 18 to 24 years, share
single room flat.
The advert was found in the house after their arrest, although it is not known
if it brought any applicants. But two weeks after abducting Mary Neilson, the
Birnies picked up a fifteen year old hitch hiker named Susannah Candy. She was
held prisoner for several days and repeatedly raped. During this time, Birnie
made her write two letters to her parents, to allay any worries they might have
about her whereabouts. In the letters, she was to explain that she was safe and
well, and wanted time to sort out her problems.
Catherine Birnie may have grown jealous of her husband's enthusiasm for Susannah
Candy. She strangled her, and the body was buried close to that of Mary Neilson.
The third victim, a thirty one year old airline hostess named Noelene Patterson,
was already acquainted with the Birnies, according to one of his workmates. The
couple had helped her to wallpaper her home. When the Birnies saw her having
problems with her car - it had run out of petrol - they helped her push it to a
service station. Noelene was then forced into their car at knifepoint and taken
back to their Willagee home.
Victims: Denise Brown and Mary Neilson
For three days, she endured rape. Birnie showed so much interest in her that
Catherine became increasingly jealous, demanding that she be killed. Birnie
finally agreed. He gave Noelene a large dose of sleeping tablets, then strangled
her while she was unconscious. When Catherine led the police to Noelene's grave,
she spat on it.
Aged twenty one, a part time computer operator who lived with her parents in the
Perth suburb of Nedlands. She was returning from a friend's home when she was
abducted.
Denise Brown, a twenty one year old computer operator, was abducted by the
killers at knifepoint on 4th November 1986, taken to the house in Willagee, and
made to suffer rape by Birnie for two days.
She was taken to a pine plantation near Wanneroo, where Birnie raped her again,
stabbing her twice while doing so. But he failed to kill her, and Catherine
Birnie handed him a bigger knife, with which he stabbed Denise in the neck.
Only three days later, they abducted their final victim, the seventeen year old
girl whose escape brought their month long murder rampage to an end.
After his arrest, Birnie claimed to be contrite, saying that he deeply regretted
the suffering he had caused. Whether this was genuine, or a bid for leniency, is
unclear. His crimes certainly inspired horror throughout Australia, and he was
so violently attacked by other inmates while he was in prison that he had to be
treated in hospital.
The Birnies decided to plead guilty to the charges. David Birnie claimed that
his motive for admitting the charges was to spare his victims' families the
ordeal of having their fates described at length in court. The case came to
trial on 3rd March 1987 in the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth, and
lasted just thirty minutes. Catherine Birnie's lawyer, Brian Singleton, QC, said
that she had signed a detailed statement, admitting direct involvement in all
four murders.
Clearly, he said, she had nothing to gain from them. She had taken part because
of her 'total dedication to Birnie', feeling a desperate need to satisfy his
sexual desires.
The chief prosecutor, Graeme Scott, said that, in Mary Neilson's case, it seemed
that Catherine Birnie 'was interested in find out out if the girl was able to
make the male prisoner excited.'
Birnie's counsel, Terry Walso, said his client understood that what he was doing
was wrong, and would present no claims of insanity to the court. The belated
expression of regret cut little ice with anyone, however, and did nothing to
help David Birnie's case.
Disturbed sexual behaviour in the Birnie family drew David's younger brother
James into the web. After his brother's arrest, James Birnie confirmed that he
himself had served a prison sentence for molesting a six year old niece.
James Birnie said that his brother 'needed to have sex every night' and that,
three days after David and Catherine split up in 1984, he had agreed to David's
demands to have incestuous sex with him. James Birnie said this could not have
been reported to the police as his brother 'would have killed me'.
On his 21st Birthday in August 1986, James had been 'allowed to have sex with
Cathy' as a present. Catherine Birnie had agreed to the idea. 'I was led,' he
said.
The Birnies were each sentenced to life imprisonment. This meant a minimum of
twenty years in prison before they were eligible for parole. But after the
crimes had been read to the courtroom, the trial judge, Mr Justice Wallace, said
that 'Each of these horrible crimes were premeditated, planned and carried out
cruelly and relentlessly over a comparatively short period', and that David
Birnie ' should not be let out of prison - ever'.
The Birnies did not appeal. Catherine Birnie was confined in Bandyup prison,
Northern Perth, while her husband David has been
involved in violent incidents inside Fremantle prison. Neither is eligible for a
parole hearing until the year 2007.
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