Alleged Claremont serial killer had 'fetish for women's underwear from age 13'
The man accused of the Claremont serial killings lied to police when he denied any association with the area, the West Australian Supreme Court has heard.
At a directions hearing disputing what can be led against Bradley Robert Edwards at trial on Monday, it emerged the former Telstra technician worked at the Superdrome in neighbouring Mount Claremont in the 1990s.
Jane Rimmer, 23, Ciara Glennon, 27, and 18-year-old Sarah Spiers were murdered in 1996 and 1997, and last seen in Claremont.
Edwards told police he only worked at the complex, now known as HBF Stadium, after 2009.
But colleagues claimed he worked there for the World Aquatics Championships in 1991, and over the summer of 1997 and 1998.
"He has an admitted association with the area," prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said.
However, records could not confirm this, she said.
The court also heard suggestions Edwards - who is accused of attacking a woman while she slept and leaving behind a kimono stolen from a clothesline in 1988 - had a fetish for women's undergarments dating back to age 13 or 14.
Mr Barbagallo said a woman had provided a statement that she found him in her bedroom, near her wardrobe, during a visit in 1982.
When she asked him what he was doing, he replied: "I'm just having a look around."
She later found the straps of a black, lacy bra hanging out of a drawer, which was not the way she had left it.
"It's a piece of evidence that shows his interest, we say, in women's underclothing," Ms Barbagallo said.
Defence counsel Paul Yovich objected, saying it did not reveal any propensity or tendency.
When Edwards was arrested and charged in 2016, police searched his home and found a box containing women's undergarments with holes cut in them where the genitals would be and his DNA on them.
His interest in the clothing "persisted", Ms Barbagallo said.
She has previously told the court Edwards could not explain his DNA being on the kimono and a 17-year-old girl after she was sexually assaulted at Karrakatta cemetery in 1995, for which he is also charged.
The 50-year-old, who has a conviction for assaulting a woman in 1990, also can't explain why his DNA was found on Ms Glennon.
Ms Barbagallo argues the allegations against Edwards show an escalation in his offending and the murders coincided with a major relationship breakdown, which ended with him being betrayed.
He showed no emotion when he saw his ex kissing another man, but his best friend at the time stated Edwards was drinking heavily and spoke about thinking of ending his life, Ms Barbagallo said.
Mr Yovich said the state's "emotional upset" evidence was purely speculative.
"Your honour is being asked to be amateur psychologist," he said.
"It is an exercise in guesswork."
Ms Barbagallo also said a woman who dated the accused claimed he once drove her to a bush location "for no apparent reason", which was a "curious thing to do".
The prosecutor noted the bodies of Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer were found in bushland.
Mr Yovich questioned how taking a girl somewhere "and doing nothing" proved anything.
The body of Sarah Spiers, 18, has never been found.
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