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Mr Cruel
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Main page "Mr Cruel" is an Australian serial paedophile rapist who attacked three girls in the northern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria in the late 1980s and
Mr Cruel
Contents early 1990s, and is the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of a fourth girl, Karmein Chan. A subsequent newspaper headline referred to the perpetrator
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as "Mr Cruel," a name adopted by the rest of the media.[2]
Current events
Random article He has never been identified and his three confirmed attacks and suspected murder remain unsolved cold cases. There is a reward of $200,000 for the two
Donate to Wikipedia abductions. In April 2016, 25 years after the 1991 abduction and murder of Chan, Victoria Police increased the reward for information that leads to Mr Cruel's
Wikipedia store arrest and conviction from $100,000 to $1,000,000.[3][4][5]
Interaction Police describe him as highly intelligent. He meticulously planned each attack, conducting surveillance on the victim and family, ensured he left no forensic
Help traces, protected his identity by covering his face at all times, and left red herrings to divert family and/or police attention.[6] He was soft-spoken, and his
About Wikipedia behaviour was unhurried, as he took a break during an attack in a victim's house to eat a meal.[7] He threatened to kill his victims with a large hunting knife or a
Community portal
handgun.
Recent changes Tailored balaclava worn in Nicola Lynas attack
Contact page Contents [hide] sketch by Victoria Police.[1]

1 Crimes Years active 1987–1990 (3 attacks)

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1.1 Suspected Known for Planning
What links here
2 Investigation Absence of forensic evidence
Related changes
Protecting identity
Upload file 3 Earlier crimes
Special pages 4 References Criminal Home invasion, abduction,
Permanent link charge rape, and murder
5 External links
Page information Reward $1,200,000
Wikidata item amount
Cite this page Capture Not captured
Crimes [ edit ] status
Print/export On 22 August 1987 in Lower Plenty, a man broke into a family home at 4 a.m. armed with a knife and a gun. He tied the hands and feet of both parents and Wanted since 1987
Download as PDF locked them in a wardrobe. The son was tied to a bed and the 11-year-old daughter was attacked. He cut the phone lines.[8] Details
Printable version Victims 1 suspected abduction and
On 27 December 1988 in Ringwood, he broke into the back door of a house at 5.30 a.m., armed with a knife and a small handgun.[6] He bound and gagged
murder
Languages the parents, and demanded money. He grabbed their 10-year-old daughter, Sharon Wills, put tape over her eyes, a ball gag in her mouth and abducted her.
Date 1991
Azərbaycanca She was released eighteen hours later on the grounds of Bayswater High School.[8]
Weapon Firearm and knife
Español On 3 July 1990 in Canterbury, he broke into a house at 11.30 p.m. and tied and gagged 13-year-old Nicola Lynas. He placed tape over her eyes, disabled
Русский the phones and searched for money. He then drove her to another house and molested her for fifty hours before releasing her at a power sub-station in the
Edit links
suburb of Kew.[8]

Suspected [ edit ]

On 13 April 1991 in Templestowe, a male assailant armed with a knife abducted 13-year-old Karmein Chan (who went to the same school as Lynas).[9] Her body, with three gunshot wounds to the head,
was found a year later. It has been reported that a few detectives had doubts whether this crime was by Mr Cruel.[10] Detective Chris O'Connor answered a journalist's question in 2013 about whether
Mr Cruel was responsible: "we just don't know if it was Mr Cruel who murdered Karmein ... we just can't be sure because there isn't enough evidence to make a value judgement about whether it was or
wasn't him in the Karmein case."[11]

Investigation [ edit ]

Mr Cruel is believed to have videotaped or perhaps taken still photographs of his attacks. Detectives believe that if he is still alive, he will have kept the tapes and/or
photos and will still collect, and possibly swap, child pornography. They say he almost certainly continues to collect pornography through the internet and may
communicate with children using chat lines.[13] He plans his crimes – for example, in one case he abducted a girl and told her he would release her in exactly 50 hours,
and he did.[14] He bathed his victims carefully, with one victim describing the act as "like a mother washing a baby".[13] In one case, he took a second set of clothes from
the girl's home to dress her before she was freed. In another, he dumped the girl dressed in garbage bags so police could not test her original clothes. The modus
operandi was the same in the home invasions/abductions in the three attacks and victim statements provided confirmation to police it was the same offender.[11]

Two of his victims were able to provide police with details of the house where they were kept. Both were shackled to a bed with a rough neck brace. One told detectives
she heard planes landing, leading police to believe the house was on one of the flight paths to Melbourne Airport.[14] Police checked houses in Keilor East, Niddrie,
Airport West, Keilor Park and Essendon North.

On 14 December 2010 Victoria Police announced that a new taskforce had been established about eight months earlier following substantial new intelligence.[15] The
new taskforce has been reviewing both the Spectrum Taskforce investigation and some new leads that have come in the last year or so.[16]

Police have searched 30,000 homes and interviewed 27,000 suspects over the attacks, at a cost of $4 million.[17] There is a $300,000 reward for information leading to
Reward poster for abductions
distributed in 1991 to all Victorian the arrest of Mr Cruel.[18] Police have admitted that some evidence retrieved from the crime scenes at the time has gone missing. One missing item is the tape used to
homes, in certain South bind one of the victims, which could have provided DNA samples of Mr Cruel using new forensic technologies.[19]
Australian and New South Wales
areas. Huge posters were placed In April 2016, in the lead up to the 25th anniversary of Karmein's murder, Victoria Police released a 1994 dossier (nicknamed the "Sierra files") to the Herald Sun
in public places.[12] newspaper containing intimate details of the case that had previously not been released to the public.[20] The dossier, which had been prepared with the assistance of
the FBI, contained information about seven possible suspects.[21] The newspaper stated that they had obtained the names of these suspects and also attempted to
contact them for information, to varying degrees of success. Victoria Police subsequently increased the reward for information to $1 million.[22]

Earlier crimes [ edit ]

There had been varying reports by the media of suspected earlier attacks prior to 1987.[23][24][25][26][27] The police have never released specific details of suspected attacks. Detective Stephen Fontana
answered a journalist question in 2001 on earlier attacks "that there just wasn't enough known about him and he didn't want to speculate".[10] In a 2019 television documentary, retired Detective Chris
O'Connor said that there was "broadly speaking perhaps up to a dozen" victims for the investigation. The first documented victim was in 1985. During her assault the attacker told her that "My liberty, my
freedom, is more important than your life".[28]

References [ edit ]

1. ^ Moor, Keith (4 May 2016). "Mr Cruel: Unsolved child abduction 10. ^ a b Moor, Keith (2 April 2001). "A cruel time on manhunt". Herald 19. ^ Moor, Keith (10 April 2012). "Mr Cruel was a meticulous,
and murder case" . The Courier Mail. Retrieved 13 March 2017. Sun. intelligent predator, say police" . Herald Sun. Retrieved

2. ^ "Police hunt for Mr. "Cruel" ". The Sun. 19 November 1987. 11. ^ a b Moor, Keith (7 November 2013). "Retiring veteran detective 29 October 2017.

3. ^ Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana media briefing Chris O'Connor says the unsolved Mr Cruel case still haunts 20. ^ Moor, Keith (8 April 2016). "Victoria Police and FBI dossier on
Karmein Chan reward . Victoria Police Media Unit (Television him" . Herald Sun. Retrieved 12 April 2016. shocking Mr Cruel child attacks" . Herald Sun. Retrieved
production). Victoria Police. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2019. 12. ^ Moor, Keith (4 August 2003). "Monster's trail of fear". Herald 29 October 2017.

4. ^ "$1 MILLION REWARD ANNOUNCED ON 25TH Sun. 21. ^ Moore, Keith (9 April 2016). "Victoria Police unable to eliminate

ANNIVERSARY OF ABDUCTION AND MURDER OF KARMEIN 13. ^ a b Silvester, John (8 April 2006). " 'Mr Cruel' filmed his victims, seven Mr Cruel suspects" . Herald-Sun. Retrieved 9 April 2016.

CHAN" . Victoria Police. 13 April 2016. Archived from the say police" . The Age. Retrieved 17 January 2008. 22. ^ "Delayed $1m Mr Cruel reward regretted" . Special
original on 16 April 2016. 14. ^ a b Silvester, John (15 December 2010). "The hunt for Mr Broadcasting Service. 9 April 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
5. ^ Koubaridis, Andrew (13 April 2016). "Child abducting murderer Cruel" . The Age. Retrieved 29 October 2017. 23. ^ Moor, Keith (11 April 2012). "Mr Cruel suspected of at least a
Mr Cruel could still 'be alive' " . News.com.au. Retrieved 22 July 15. ^ "Police reopen Mr Cruel investigation" . PM. 14 December dozen attacks on children" . Herald Sun. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
2018. 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2017. 24. ^ "The killing of Karmein". The Age. 1 April 2001.
6. ^ a b "Case 41: Mr Cruel - Casefile: True Crime Podcast" . 16. ^ Greg Roberts; Edwina Scott (14 December 2010). "New clues in 25. ^ Daley, Paul; Wilson, Caroline (17 May 1992). "Child porn
Casefile: True Crime Podcast. 8 January 2017. Retrieved police hunt for 'Mr Cruel' " . The Sydney Morning Herald. AAP. network linked to Mr Cruel" . The Sunday Age. p. 1. Retrieved
28 February 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2010. 26 October 2019.
7. ^ "Mr Cruel stalked his victims" . Retrieved 20 December 2016. 17. ^ "Karmein Chan" . Victoria Police. Archived from the original 26. ^ "Unmasking Mr Cruel". Herald Sun. 6 February 1993.
8. ^ a b c O'Donnell, Philippa (14 December 2010). "New suspect in on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2017. 27. ^ "Mr Cruel Alert". Herald Sun. 30 August 1991.
decades old Mr Cruel investigation" . ABC Radio Melbourne. 18. ^ Moor, Keith; Hunt, Elissa (10 April 2012). " 'Unlikely Mr Cruel 28. ^ Adam Shand (Presenter); The Full Box (Production company)
Retrieved 29 October 2017. took Bung,' say police 20 years after child predator's last known (14 April 2019). Mr Cruel . Australian Crime Stories (Television
9. ^ Daley, Paul; Catalano, Antony (21 April 1991). "A man in dark attack" . Herald Sun. Retrieved 29 October 2017. production). Nine Network Australia. Series 3 Episode 7.
shatters a happy family" . The Sunday Age. p. 5. Retrieved
22 July 2018 – via Newspapers.com.

External links [ edit ]

Casefile True Crime Podcast - Case 41: Mr Cruel - 7 January 2017

Categories: Australian rapists Murder in Melbourne History of Victoria (Australia) Australian murderers of children 1980s in Australia 1990s in Australia Australian kidnappers
Criminals from Melbourne Unidentified criminals Unidentified rapists Unsolved crimes in Australia 1980s in Melbourne 1980s murders in Australia 1990s murders in Australia

This page was last edited on 28 November 2019, at 14:37 (UTC).

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