Mr Cruel is the moniker for a serial rapist, and most probably murderer, who terrorised Melbourne in the late 80s and early 90s. He was never caught and punished for his crimes. There continues to be some debate as to exactly which crimes were his, but it seems that most detectives who worked on the Mr Cruel case agree that he was responsible for at least four attacks in the eastern suburbs on girls aged between 10 and 13 between 1987 and 1991. The first attack involved a rape of an 11 or 12 year old girl, while the second and third attacks involved abductions and assaults. The last attack ended in the infamous murder of Karmein Chan.
However, more attacks have been attributed to him during investigations over the years, with a total of ten attacks having been attributed to him by journalists who have interviewed detectives about the case. These ten attacks stretch back to 1985 and involve home invasions and rapes of adults and children from the age of 14 and up.
This overview will first look at the 4 cases that are considered the canonical Mr Cruel attacks, which, it seems, most detectives agree were the work of Mr Cruel, before then looking at the lesser known attacks that have at some point been attributed to Mr Cruel in the media.
The Canonical Attacks
The first case of the canonical Mr Cruel attacks was that which occurred on 22 August 1987 in Lower Plenty. In this case the perpetrator wearing an open-faced balaclava and armed with a handgun, a knife and carrying a rape kit, broke into a house at an unknown address and tied up the parents in the household and their 6 or 7 year old son (sources differ on the ages here), before raping the 11 or 12 year old daughter over a period of 2 hours. The location of this house has never been revealed publicly, nor has the identity of the family in question. (1) (2)
The second canonical attack occurred in the early hours of 27 December 1988. This time the attack occurred in the home of the Wills family at 11 Hillcrest Avenue, Ringwood. The perpetrator broke into the house and tied up the parents before abducting a 10-year-old girl – Sharon Wills – from her bedroom and taking her to a waiting vehicle. He drove Sharon to his lair at an unidentified location where she was assaulted. He then dumped her 18 hours later at Bayswater High School, Bayswater.
The third of the canonical attacks occurred on 3 July 1990, when Mr Cruel broke into the expensive rented home of the Lynas family, at 10 Monomeath Avenue, Canterbury. This time the parents were not home, but Nicola Lynas (13) and her sister Fiona (15) were sleeping in their bedrooms. Mr Cruel woke them up before tying Fiona to her bed and abducting Nicola. He took the family’s rented car keys and stole their car before driving Nicola to Chaucer Avenue, just a few streets away. From here he bundled Nicola into his own car and drove her back to his lair. Here he assaulted her, and held her captive for a period of 50 hours, before dumping her in the early hours of her 14th birthday at an electricity substation in Kew.
Do you enjoy this content? Would you like to see more of it? Please help me reach my goal of publishing a book on Mr Cruel by making a one-time donation to help me cover the many costs I have incurred in carrying out this research. These costs have included subscription costs to a host of research tools and databases and costs associated with running this website and the associated podcast.
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Do you enjoy this content? Would you like to see more of it? Please help me reach my goal of publishing a book on Mr Cruel by making a monthly donation to help me cover the many costs I have incurred in carrying out this research. These costs have included subscription costs to a host of research tools and databases and costs associated with running this website and the associated podcast.
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Do you enjoy this content? Would you like to see more of it? Please help me reach my goal of publishing a book on Mr Cruel by making a yearly donation to help me cover the many costs I have incurred in carrying out this research. These costs have included subscription costs to a host of research tools and databases and costs associated with running this website and the associated podcast.
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Lastly, the fourth of the canonical attacks. This time the attack occurred on 13 April 1991 in the wealthy suburb of Templestowe at 111 Serpells Road where Karmein Chan (13) and her two sisters, Karly (9) and Karen (7) were at home alone watching television. A masked man broke into the house before bundling Karly and Karen into a wardrobe and pushing a bed up against it to block their exit. He then abducted Karmein and she was never seen alive again.
Almost one year to the day later, a man was walking his dogs along Edgars Creek in Thomastown when his dogs were attracted to something protruding from the earth in a landfill site at that location. It was a human skull, that of a young female. Police were confident it was Karmein’s and lab tests later confirmed that it was indeed hers.
The Karmein Chan murder was the last crime that has been attributed to Mr Cruel. However, some people believe there is not enough evidence to link the Karmein Chan case to the first three canonical attacks because, unlike in the first three canonical attacks, police could not interview her about her attacker. Adding to this confusion, police maintain that Mr Cruel was almost certainly responsible for a number of other attacks besides the four canonical ones, but have kept their lips tight about these cases. Nevertheless, a scouring of the contemporary newspaper articles reveals a number of other attacks which were attributed to Mr Cruel in the late 1980s. On top of this, research by other journalists has revealed information about some of the other attacks some detectives believe to be the work of Mr Cruel.
Other attacks attributed to Mr Cruel
The first of these occurred on an unknown date in February 1985, when, at 9pm at night, a man abducted a 14 year old girl from her Hampton home at an unknown address. He then drove the girl to a vacant building site and sexually assaulted her, before dumping her at Moorabbin Bowl, a ten-pin bowling business on Nepean Highway.
Then, on an unknown date in July 1985, a 14 year old boy was abducted from his Hampton home at an unknown address at 8:25pm. He was taken to an unknown residence and imprisoned for just over 3 hours and was sexually assaulted. He was then released in Caulfield South at 11:45pm.
Both of these Hampton attacks were revealed by Keith Moor in an article (3) he wrote for the Herald Sun in 2016 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Karmein Chan abduction. It is not clear why detectives believe these attacks may be the work of Mr Cruel other than that they seem to have borne many of the same hallmarks that the canonical attacks featured.
Other attacks that have been attributed to Mr Cruel are three attacks that occurred in December of 1985. The first of these occurred on 4 December, when a 30 year old woman was raped in her home in Warrandyte at an unknown address by a man wearing a balaclava and armed with a sawn off shotgun. Then, on 6 December, a 30 or 35 year old woman (depending on source) was raped in her home in Donvale at an unknown address by a man armed with a rusty revolver or a long-barrelled handgun (depending on source). Finally, on 7 December, a 34 year old woman was asleep in bed with her 6 year old daughter at her Bulleen home at an unknown address when she was awoken by a man at about 11:30pm and raped. (4) He was armed with a silver pistol or sawn off shotgun. In all three of these cases the attacker wore a balaclava or hood, and blindfolded, bound and gagged his victims, (2) which is a very similar modus operandi to the later attacks.
The last attack that has been attributed to Mr Cruel in the media is the Moonee Ponds rape of a 48 year-old woman which occurred on 11 November 1988. The attacker entered the woman’s home before binding, gagging raping her. He then left her bound up, stole the woman’s ATM card and drove to a bank before stealing $300 from her bank account. He then returned to her house and raped her again. (2) (I discovered in June 2021 that the Ascot Vale Rapist Christopher Clarence Hall was found to have been responsible for the Moonee Ponds attack in 1994. That same year he was jailed for 29 years for this and other attacks).
In November 1987, the Warrandyte-Donvale-Bulleen attacks of December 1985 were linked with the Lower Plenty attack and the Moonee Ponds attack. A taskforce was then set up to try to establish any connection between them. By May 1988 the taskforce were convinced the Donvale, Lower Plenty and Moonee Ponds attacks were linked whereas at least 17 other attacks were deemed to be possibly linked, but it is unknown which attacks were being referred to here. It is unknown if the Warrandyte, Donvale and Bulleen attacks were ever ruled out as being the work of Mr Cruel. (5)
So, this has been an overview of the case. In the future I will be giving an in-depth analysis of each of the canonical cases and then I will write some posts about some possible theories I have in this case.
In the meantime here is a detailed map I made of the case which helps you navigate the important locations. Zoom in on the eastern suburbs of Melbourne to see the tagged areas where the important events in this case occurred. Each tag is clickable and contains more information on each event.
Here is a Youtube video that explains how to use the map.
Melbourne Marvels 26/01/2020
Sources:
- Burchall, Greg Police warn that armed rapist might strike again, The Age, 29 August 1987.
- Tennison, Jim Police hunt for Mr ‘Cruel’, The Sun News Pictorial, 19 November 1987.
- Moor, Keith Victoira Police and FBI Dossier on shocking Mr Cruel child attacks, The Herald Sun, 8 April 2016 (paywalled).
- Reid, Michael, New silver gun terror in rapes, The Sun News Pictorial, 9 December 1985.
- Willox, Innes, Police ask public for help in tracking rapist linked to 20 attacks, The Age, 11 November 1988.
Do you enjoy this content? Would you like to see more of it? Please help me reach my goal of publishing a book on Mr Cruel by making a one-time donation to help me cover the many costs I have incurred in carrying out this research. These costs have included subscription costs to a host of research tools and databases and costs associated with running this website and the associated podcast.
Make a one-time donation
Do you enjoy this content? Would you like to see more of it? Please help me reach my goal of publishing a book on Mr Cruel by making a monthly donation to help me cover the many costs I have incurred in carrying out this research. These costs have included subscription costs to a host of research tools and databases and costs associated with running this website and the associated podcast.
Make a monthly donation
Do you enjoy this content? Would you like to see more of it? Please help me reach my goal of publishing a book on Mr Cruel by making a yearly donation to help me cover the many costs I have incurred in carrying out this research. These costs have included subscription costs to a host of research tools and databases and costs associated with running this website and the associated podcast.
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is greatly appreciated appreciated.
Melbourne Marvels
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Melbourne Marvels
Informative, well presented initial overview. Looking forward to the next installment.
SM
Thanks for your comment. I’ve been doing a lot of research into this case at the State Library over the last few months. There is a lot of confusion and contraidctory information out there in what has been published about Mr Cruel in the past. So, I’m planning on a proper deep dive into it to try to resolve it.
I don’t understand understand why the police have not solved this crime they know where the house is in Thomastown, all they need to do is get a warrant to get the equipment that is behind the garage yet they choose not to do any of this which is disappointing because there are still families that deserve closure and answers
Really? Send me an email on melbinmarvels@gmail.com and tell me more.
Where in thomastown?
I’m from thomastown and I’m curious to know where this location is?
A well-researched article, best of all none of the mistakes the media keep making. Glad to see you didn’t publish the FBI profile letter error of 24/4/1991 that stated all 4 linked Mr Cruel crimes took place during school holidays. This is simply an error of fact as shown by the following …
1/ N/N Lower Plenty 22 August 1987 Sat. Mid term 3
2/ Sharon Wills Ringwood 27 December 1988 Tues. Christmas-New Year break
3/ Nicola Lynas Canterbury 3 July 1990 Tues. Last week of term 2
4/ Karmein Chan Templestowe 13 April 1991 Sat. 1st weekend of school hols.
Only 2 of these dates are technically school holidays, but the other two are not convincing arguments to suggest as the FBI covering letter does, that there is a high probability that the offender was connected to a school. The reason? Most people were on holidays at these “school holiday” times. As a clue the “school holidays” angle is a complete dud … but sadly the media keep using it.
Penguin Vic
Hi Chris. Thank you for your comment. I myself have not researched the dates of school holidays in the years mentioned. I had planned to do that as this blog progress and I look at some of those theories in more detail. A guy I have met through the Reddit r/MrCruel forum has though. He has stated that all of the 4 canonical attacks were on school holidays. I think he mentioned that Victoria switched from a 3 term year in ’86 to a 4 term year in ’87. I’ll link to his post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MrCruel/comments/kx3xhn/school_holiday_dates/
Just doing a quick look now and according to this source it looks like 3 July 1990 was the second day of the first week of winter holidays in 1990. Although, 22 August 1987 definitely seems to be during term 3: https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/education/termdates
A clarification: Kidnap victim Nicola Lynas was attending college when taken late on Tuesday night 3/7/1990. The girls at Her college sang “happy birthday” for her on the Friday morning assembly on hearing the news of her release. This was reported in the Saturday morning papers both in The Sun and The Age 7/7/1990. The school term dates for term 2, 1990, were 30 April to 6 July as printed in the Education Gazette And Teachers’ Aid. The college, PLC, faithfully followed the State school term dates because a number of there scholarship holders were from families who had other children at state schools. The only exception, from memory, was Melbourne Cup day – a normal school day – presumably because good Presbyterians shouldn’t gamble. For 1987 the Lower Plenty home invasion was mid term 3, according to The Age of 2 Feb 1987 the term ran from 13 July to 18 September in what was a 4 term year.
Hope this clears things up.
Penguin Vic
Clarification 2: Mystery of school dates solved re. Nicola Lynas kipnapping.
Thanks for the two internet links re the 1990 Vic school terms. The date these give is 29 June 1990 for term 2 ending. And these are incorrect! The edition of the Education Gazette And Teachers’ Aid 6 Nov 1990 page 426 has the correct date which is 6 July 1990. So where does 29 June come from? Because this was the date originally planned by the Vic Education Department as in the Education Gazette And Teachers’ Aid 7 March 1989 page 106. I remember it well because I almost fell for the same mistake! Why did the Education Department or whomever change their mind? Don’t know … but they did cause some confusion.
I am willing to post hard copies to an address of your own choosing …
Penguin Vic
This is great information Chris. I am going look into it more and get back to you. I do remember reading about Nicola Lynas’ schoolmates singing in the choir about being pleased that she had been found. I will check those articles out too. Thanks again.
It certainly seems you are right Chris. Great research! I have all the Sun and Age articles, and indeed I’m reading one by Andrew Mevissen now from the Sun dated ‘Grief grips schoolmates from 6 July 1990 (Friday). It states that Nicola was due to spend her last day at the College that day before returning to England the following day. When I do my in-depth episode on Nicola Lynas I will definitely mention this and mention that you brought it to my attention. In the meantime, could you send me an email to melbinmarvelsatgmail.com as I ‘d like to contact you as you obviously know a lot about the case and it would be good to discuss it with you.
Thanks for the encouraging feed back. Glad to help out. Tried the email address listed and my server couldn’t get through. Do you have my email address? Or another I could try?
Chris
You have to write it to melbinmarvels@gmail.com yeah?
[…] the first blog post/episode I talked about the four canonical attacks that are considered by most detectives, to be the work of […]
[…] Mr Cruel 1 – Serial Rapist and Probable Child Murderer – Melbourne MarvelsMr Cruel 2 – The Lower Plenty Attack – Melbourne MarvelsMr Cruel – WikipediaKarmein Chan – 29 years on – Online InvestigationsMr Cruel tormented Melbourne for a decade. 31 years on, we still don’t know who he is – MamamiaMr Cruel – Unresolved PodcastWho is Mr Cruel? The story behind Australia’s most terrifying unsolved murder – Now To LoveTwenty-Five Years On, Here’s Everything We Know About the Murder of Karmein Chan – ViceMr Cruel’s victim Sharon Wills wants closure after childhood abduction – Herald SunThe hunt for Mr Cruel – The AgeAustralian Crime Stories Season 3 – Mr Cruel – Channel 9 Australia […]
Have they been able to find DNA of this perpetrator on any evidence left behind?
It has been suggested by a journalist that they have a semen swab from him from when he raped the 14 year old Hampton victim. But, his DNA is not on their criminal database.
I wonder if he felt inclined to murder Karmein because if she were to be released she would be able to identify him meaning its someone she could’ve known, perhaps a frequenter at the family restaurant?
It’s possible that on the day Karmein was kidnapped he first went to the restaurant as per usual, saw both parents present and then went straight to their family home knowing that there was no parent present with them at the time. Given the context of the vandalism left on the family vehicle, he obviously knew that they did indeed own a restaurant, however, not sure if he only learnt about it through the media or if it was prior knowledge. It’s likely that he was a frequenter of Karmein’s area because another one of his victims lived in close approximation to Karmein.
He’s also clearly an opportunistic given how he selected Sharon as a victim after seeing her DailyMail article and learning that she and her sisters sleep alone in the bedroom and was confident that he could enter their bedroom and snatch one of the girls and that no adult would be present in the room. The girls he did release he may have known for sure that they would not be able to identify him as he’s a complete stranger to them (Sharon was targeted after being seen in an article).
When I first came up with this idea I was not aware that “Another commonly cited location for the detention premises is in the area of Eltham near Mings, the Chan family restaurant.” But now it seems likely especially if what I theorize about Karmein’s case is true.
Will there be a Mr. Cruel 5? The Karmein Chan case…
Eventually!
is anyone not slightly disturbed by that anon post re thomastown?!