Court hears Australian man who killed Irish woman 22 years ago was 'depraved individual'

An Australian man accused of murdering an Irishwoman near the city of Perth 22 years ago has been described as a depraved individual with a fetish for wearing women's clothes.

At a pre-trial hearing in Perth which ended today, prosecutors outlined evidence against Bradley Robert Edwards for the abduction and murder of 27-year-old Ciara Glennon and two young Australian women in the 1990s.

The prosecution alleged that in 1997, Edwards abducted Ms Glennon from the Perth suburb of Claremont and murdered her, before dumping her body, according to a report by ABC News.

Ms Glennon, whose family are from Westport, Co Mayo, disappeared on March 14, 1997, after a night out celebrating St Patrick's Day in Claremont. Her body, which was identified by her parents, was discovered 18 days later in the suburb of Eglington. A post-mortem revealed that her neck had been cut.

Police allegedly found Edward's DNA under Ms Glennon’s fingernails. The court was also told that fibres found in her hair matched those from a car Edwards had access to at the time of her disappearance.

When Edwards was arrested in 2016, police said they discovered “extreme pornography” at his home. The hearing before the Supreme Court of Western Australia began on Monday after a last-minute adjournment when he was hospitalised with self-inflicted stab wounds obtained in prison just hours before he was due to appear.

Edwards has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges, including the murders of Ciara Glennon, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Sarah Spiers, 18, who were abducted from Claremont’s entertainment district in 1996 and 1997.

He is also accused of the sexual assaults of two teenage girls in 1988 and 1995.

State Prosecutor Carmen Barbagallo began proceedings by detailing the alleged attacks carried out by Edwards, which she dubbed the “Huntingdale prowler series”. The court heard he had an obsessive interest in abduction and rape.

Ms Barbagallo told the court that the accused stole women’s underwear from clotheslines, including a silk kimono that he wore while sexually assaulting an 18-year-old girl in her home in 1988.

It is alleged that Edwards, who was 19 at the time, straddled the teenager while trying to shove a piece of fabric into her mouth.

Ms Barbagallo argued that Edwards was "an introverted, socially awkward man… who had a long-standing tendency for the collection and wearing of women's underwear".

She said that pornography and "violent and erotic stories" seized after his arrest, showed he had an "obsessive sexual interest in the abduction, imprisonment and forcible rape of women in degrading and violent circumstances".

Edwards is due to face a non-jury trial on July 22, which is expected to run for nine months.