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Jane Rimmer, Ciara Glennon and Sarah Spiers all went lacking from a preferred nightlife space within the Western Australia metropolis of Perth within the Nineties. For almost 25 years, their unsolved deaths continued to loom giant within the minds of residents.
In September this yr, following a seven-month judge-only trial, Bradley Robert Edwards, 52, was discovered responsible of murdering childcare employee Rimmer, 23, in 1996 and lawyer Glennon, 27, in 1997.
He was discovered not responsible of murdering Spiers, 18, a secretary whose physique has by no means been discovered, as there was inadequate proof.
On Wednesday, Edwards was sentenced to a minimal of 40 years in jail earlier than he shall be eligible to use for parole, the Supreme Court docket of Western Australia confirmed to CNN.
As he handed down the sentence, Western Australia Supreme Court docket Justice Stephen Corridor advised Edwards that he was a “harmful predator who sought out weak younger ladies.”
“Your actions have been pre-meditated, executed with pitiless dedication and have been remorseless in your disregard for the ache and struggling that you simply prompted,” Corridor stated in his sentencing remarks.
Corridor stated there was a “excessive chance” Edwards would die in jail.
What occurred
The ladies’s disappearance sparked widespread worry amongst locals in Perth.
All three have been final seen within the early hours of the morning after spending an evening out within the prosperous suburb of Claremont, an space beforehand perceived as protected.
“The truth that three younger ladies disappeared from the streets of Claremont created what was described as an enigma of the darkish,” Corridor stated in his judgment in September when Edwards was discovered responsible. “That’s to say that there was a thriller as to who had taken the three victims.”
Inside weeks of their disappearance, the our bodies of Rimmer and Glennon have been present in bushland. Each had been killed by a sharp-force damage to the neck, Corridor stated in his September judgment.
Spiers was final seen within the early hours of January 27, 1996. Her physique has by no means been discovered, however there may be nothing to point that she remains to be alive, Corridor stated.
“She will need to have been kidnapped or killed, however the circumstances during which she was taken and the way she died are unknown,” he added.
For many years, the disappearances went unsolved. Then, in 2016, police had a breakthrough.
That yr, Edwards was jailed for 2 rapes, and emerged as a suspect within the Claremont killings as a consequence of his DNA.
Police matched his DNA to samples taken from beneath the nails of Glennon’s left hand. The prosecution argued the DNA probably acquired beneath her nails throughout a violent wrestle earlier than her dying.
Additionally they stated fibers discovered on the our bodies of Rimmer and Glennon matched these taken from Edwards’ firm automobile, which indicated that he had kidnapped each ladies in that automobile.
CNN’s Samantha Beech and Angus Watson contributed reporting.
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