Paula Denyer
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Paula Denyer (born Paul Charles Denyer, April 14 1972) is an Australian serial killer convicted of murdering three women in 1993. Denyer has been described as a sadist with a hatred of women and girls.
Biography edit
Paul Charles Denyer was born in a suburb of Sydney in 1972 to a family of British immigrants. The family relocated to Melbourne in 1981. Denyer is reported to have shown signs of being a future serial killer, stabbing and hanging the family cat at age 11. Denyer was repeatedly arrested in her teens for car theft and assault, and following her education was sacked from seven different jobs.
In February 1993, Denyer made multiple threatening phone calls to her neighbor Donna Vane before breaking into her home, killing her cats, writing "Donna you're dead" on the wall and leaving female pornography there. Several of Denyer's other neigbors also suffered similar attacks.
On June 11, 1993, 18-year-old Elizabeth Stevens was kidnapped from a bus stop in Melbourne by Denyer. Denyer strangled, stabbed and mutilated Stevens before slashing her throat and leaving her dead body in Lloyd Park Reserve.
On July 8, Denyer murdered 22-year-old Deborah Fream and left her body in the suburb of Carrum Downs. Fream's body had suffered similar injuries to those sustained by Stevens. The same night as the murder, Denyer attacked Rosza Toth and pressed a fake gun to her head, but Toth escaped with only minor injuries. With Toth's description of the man suspected of the murders and the earlier break-in at the Vane home, police drew up a profile of Denyer as an unemployed male aged 18 to 24 (Denyer was 21 at the time and identified as male).
On July 30, a teenaged schoolgirl named Natalie Russell was murdered in Frankston. She had been dragged from the path through a large hole in a wire fence into adjacent scrub, and then killed in the same way as the other two victims. Russell had put up a fight and so police were able to get Denyer's DNA.
A witness to Russell's abduction had observed Denyer's pickup truck and noted the registration number, which police traced to Denyer. Denyer was arrested and voluntarily submitted a DNA sample. Realising that the police had a DNA sample, Denyer later confessed to all three murders and the break-ins. She also stated that she had been stalking people in the area for years and was motivated by a hatred of women. Denyer pleaded guilty to murder and abduction and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
While in prison, Denyer stated in 2003 that she was a transgender woman and began answering to the name "Paula" rather than Paul, claiming that this was connected to her murder spree. However, she was refused permission to have a sex change, and there is dispute about whether she legitimately has gender dysphoria.