Vic: Dupas's life sentence confirmed

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2001
Vic: Dupas's life sentence confirmed

By Stuart Walsh

MELBOURNE, Aug 3 AAP - Sadistic killer Peter Norris Dupas was today virtually condemned
to die in jail for the mutilation murder of Melbourne psychotherapist Nicole Patterson.

The Victorian Court of Appeal refused to fix a non-parole term on a life sentence imposed
for the "brutal and callous" murder of Ms Patterson at her Northcote home on April 18,
1999.

Dupas, 48, was not in court when the court president Justice John Winneke handed down
the judgment, rejecting appeals against conviction and sentence.

His only other option is to apply for special leave to appeal to the High Court.

The court heard Dupas, who has an appalling record of sexual violence against women
over 30 years, had for weeks stalked 28-year-old Ms Patterson before savagely killing
her.

Posing as a client needing help for depression, Dupas stabbed her 27 times after he
was let into the front room of her Harper Street house, where she saw clients in private
consultations.

In sentencing last August, Supreme Court judge Justice Frank Vincent said Ms Patterson
was mutilated, probably, but not necessarily, after death in "a depraved act of contempt".

The court was told Dupas, who has been linked with the murders of two other Melbourne
women, had served more than 20 years in jail for 16 offences, including three separate
rapes.

Justice Vincent said Dupas had a deeply entrenched desire to engage in violent sexual
behaviour against women and he needed to be removed permanently from society.

He told Dupas he should remain in jail "for the rest of your natural life".

Today, Justice Winneke said he could find no error in Justice Vincent's sentencing.

In describing the murder as one of "gross inhumanity", Justice Winneke said: "It suffices
to say that this was a brutal and callous crime committed against a carefully selected
target in the sanctuary of her own home.

"The mutilation of the victim's body, and the manner in which it was accomplished,
demonstrated the applicant's (Dupas) utter contempt for his victim and for those who loved
her and cherished her memory."

Justice Winneke said the danger Dupas presented to the community was due in part to
his "innate intelligence and his capacity to pass himself off to female members of the
community as a decent man".

It was, he said, a murder of the worst category.

The trial jury, by its verdict accepted the Crown's argument that although the case
was a circumstantial one, a trail of clues led conclusively to Dupas's guilt.

Those clues proved that Dupas had arranged an appointment with his victim.

But a major breakthrough came with the police discovery of a jacket found at Dupas's
Pascoe Vale home, tucked away in the bottom of a cupboard in his shed.

The jacket yielded blood stains that, according to DNA testing, proved to be the dead woman's.

In evidence at his trial, Dupas said police had sprinkled the blood on his jacket.

However, this point was not raised in the appeal.

Dupas's barrister, Michael Croucher, submitted to the appeal hearing his client's conviction
was unsafe and unsatisfactory and Justice Vincent had erred in his directions to the jury
regarding evidence given by Dupas.

Outside the court, Ms Patterson's mother, Pam O'Donnell, said she believed Dupas was
an evil man whom she could never forgive.

"He's taken too much from me and my family," she told reporters.

"There's just pain every day. There's an emptiness that we just can't describe. How
could you forgive the man? I mean, he still lives."

AAP sew/jlw/apm/sb

KEYWORD: DUPAS NIGHTLEAD

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