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Derek Percy

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Australian serial killer
Derek Percy
BornDerek Ernest Percy
15 September 1948
Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia
Died23 July 2013 (aged 64)
St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
OccupationElectrical Mechanic in the Australian Navy
Criminal statusDeceased
Parent(s)Ernest Percy (father), Elaine Percy (mother)
Conviction(s)Murder
Criminal chargeMurder
PenaltyLife imprisonment
Details
Location(s)Victoria

Derek Ernest Percy (15 September 1948 – 23 July 2013) was an Australian serial killer and convicted child killer who was also a person of interest linked to the mysterious deaths and disappearances of multiple children in the 1960s, including the Beaumont disappearances and the Wanda Beach murders.

Early life

Derek Percy was born on 15 September 1948 in Strathfield, New South Wales, the eldest of three sons of parents Ernest and Elaine Percy. Percy's father, a sailing enthusiast, had been a New South Wales railway electrician before deciding to take a job with the State Electricity Commission in Victoria, and moving to Chelsea in 1954, then to Warrnambool in 1957, and to Mount Beauty, near Bright, in 1961.

Percy began to attract the attention of authorities in late 1964, when he started stealing and wearing female underwear and dresses and mutilating dolls with knives and razor blades. In 1965, the family relocated to Khancoban in New South Wales (their sixth move in twelve years) where Percy began writing down bizarre and violent sexual fantasies. In 1966, he repeated year 11, then tried year 12 in school, but dropped out and joined the Australian Navy as a naval rating in electrical mechanics in November 1967. He was posted to the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne in March 1968, the troop ship HMAS Sydney on 1 July 1968, and HMAS Cerberus naval base in April 1969.

Criminal investigation

Percy was arrested at Cerberus, adjacent to Crib Point on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, for the murder of 12-year-old Yvonne Tuohy at Ski Beach, near Warneet on Westernport Bay, on 27 July 1969. At the time he abducted Tuohy at knife-point, he also tried to abduct her friend, Shane Spiller, age 11, who only escaped by threatening Percy with his tomahawk. Spiller, however, was able to describe to police the abductor and his vehicle, an orange Datsun station wagon with a navy sticker on the back window and bumper. Police, accompanied by Spiller, then went to Cerberus and discovered Percy machine-washing blood off his clothes. When questioned, Percy denied involvement, but eventually led police to Tuohy's mutilated body in a paddock on Fisheries Road at Devon Meadows, some 8 kilometres (5 mi) from the abduction scene. Police also found Percy's journals describing and illustrating his bizarre sexual fetishes (including coprophilia, urophilia, and cannibalism). In 1970, he was found not guilty, by reason of insanity, of the murder and remanded indefinitely.

Percy repeatedly stated that he could not remember whether or not he had committed any further crimes. Detectives then started trying to piece together his movements around Australia at the time of the murders. They were aware the Percy family often took caravan holidays during yachting regattas near beaches (where most of the crimes took place), that his transfers within the navy brought him close to many of the crime scenes, and they knew that he was harbouring paedophilic and psychopathic fantasies towards children. In 2007, a cache of 35 boxes of Percy's diaries, drawings, maps, and newspaper clippings was found in a storage unit in South Melbourne, casting further suspicion on him.

Related cases

Due to the nature of the Tuohy attack, and based on documents in his possession, Percy became a suspect in a number of other unsolved crimes involving children:

  • Wanda Beach case (11 January 1965) – Percy was known to be visiting his friend's grandparents in Ryde at the time, at a house near to the homes of the victims. Based on identikits, witnesses recalled seeing a young man resembling Percy talking with the two girls on a train and at Wanda Beach, and he was considered a leading suspect for the murders by the police.
  • Beaumont case (26 January 1966) – Percy admitted to being at Glenelg Beach in Adelaide on a family trip on the day of the Beaumont children's disappearance, but denied any involvement.
  • Allen Redston case (28 September 1966) – Canberra police issued a description of a fair, thin-faced teenager that they wanted to interview, and also released an identikit image that closely resembled Percy. Percy later told police he had been in the capital, but that he was unable to remember any details.
  • Simon Brook case (18 May 1968) – Percy had been stationed at the Cockatoo Dry Dock on Sydney Harbour at the time, and an Identikit of the suspect who killed and mutilated the 3-year-old was similar to the Redston suspect. A new inquest was held in 2005 with Percy as the prime suspect, but stalled due to lack of evidence.
  • Linda Stilwell case (10 August 1968) – In October 2014, a year after his death, Percy was formally ruled to have abducted and killed the 7-year-old, who disappeared while playing at the St Kilda foreshore in Melbourne. At the time, Percy had been transferred to Sydney, was on leave, and admitted to driving in the area.
  • 12-year-old girl (1 April 1969) - attempted abduction while riding her bicycle near the Cerberus base. Victim identified Percy after the Tuohy incident.

Death

Percy died from lung cancer in St Vincents Hospital, Melbourne on 23 July 2013, aged 64, without admitting to any further crimes. At the time, he was the longest serving prison inmate in Australia, some 44 years.

Media

  • Alan Whiticker (2008) Derek Percy: Australian Psycho
  • Debi Marshall (2013) Lambs to the Slaughter
  • Crimes That Shook Australia (2014) Derek Percy
  • Radford University - Derek Ernest Percy “The Ghost, Spook, Phantom” (PDF)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Child killer Derek Percy was linked to deaths of nine children". ABC. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  2. ^ John Silvester (22 April 2007). "One man, so many faces of evil". The Age. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  3. ^ Elissa Hunt (24 July 2013). "Derek Percy's mother Elaine admits she 'got rid of things' as cops investigated child serial killings". Herald Sun. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  4. ^ John Silvester (27 July 2013). "A man called Percy, beast without mercy". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  5. ^ "The unsolved murders of child mutilator Derek Percy". NewsComAu. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  6. "True Blue Crime: Derek Percy on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  7. "Derek Percy believed to be Australia's worst child serial killer". NZ Herald. 1 April 2017. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  8. "The Wanda Beach Murders/Beaumont Children Mystery". Crime Investigation Australia. Series 1. Episode 11. 2007. Crime & Investigation Network.
  9. Morri, Mark (27 February 2012). "DNA clue could solve 47 year-old Wanda Beach murders". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  10. "Derek Percy abducted and killed Linda Stilwell in 1968, says coroner". The Guardian. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  11. Rachel Olding (24 July 2013). "Child killer stays silent on death bed". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  12. Crimes That Shook Australia - Derek Percy, retrieved 1 March 2020
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