True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

This is one of those cases where I had to take a few breaks in my research because it was beyond disturbing, beyond horrific but I was determined to see it through. As I have stated at the beginning of this post, the details in this article will be quite difficult to read and I will try and make it as easy as possible, but as easy as I can try to make it, there's no getting away from the actual horror of it all. 

In this case we focus again on the beautiful country of Australia and in particular the area of Frankston, a suburb in Melbourne. In the early 1990's a series of very disturbing events occurred involving the stalking and harassment of women as well as sickening animal killings connected to the stalking victims. In 1993 the perpetrator of all of these disturbing crimes progressed further into a full blown Serial Killer which resulted in the horrific murders of three young women. This case both shocked and horrified the people of Australia to the point that now, decades later, it's still very difficult to talk about. The fear and the anger that put Australia on edge back in the early 90's has never been forgotten.

The monster behind the sickening crimes was a man named Paul Charles Denyer otherwise known as 'Paula' or The Frankston Serial Killer. As always I like to delve briefly into the background of the perpetrators that I write about to give you more of an idea of where they came from, their upbringing, their dark path to evil etc. So, Paul's parents were originally from the UK but they moved to Australia in 1965. Maureen (his mother) and father (Anthony) were married and went on to have six children, Paul was born in Campbelltown, Australia on the 14th of April 1972. Due to Anthony's work commitments the family ended up moving to Victoria.

Paul was 9 years old when the family moved and there was later theory that this change in the family circumstances may have caused him some sort of trauma but it's highly unlikely that the move could have been responsible for what he was to become. Up to this point there was reportedly no red flags but as soon as he turned 10, his behaviour was very disturbing. Despite his young age, Paul had an obsession with knives and murder, he wanted to cut things, he also enjoyed to frightening people, especially girls. In a vile act he took his sister's favourite Care Bear and took a knife and cut the bear's throat in front of his sister just so he could cause her distress. Even worse was to come when this escalated to him targeting the family cat. The poor animal was subjected to horrendous abuse at the heartless hands of Paul. He cut the cat's throat and hung the body from a tree. 

At this point you would think that Maureen and Anthony would have had Paul committed to a psychiatric ward and sought professional help but Paul's horrendous path was allowed to continue. His life at school was what you may expect, he was a loner and had struggles with trying to fit in. For some reason Paul was never happy with himself and despite the kindness  and advice of others he continued to spiral out of control. He was addicted to extreme forms of behaviour and beside the sickening taste for harming animals, he got a thrill out of stealing. At first it would be little thefts here and there but then he decided to steal a car but basically got a slap on the wrist for this, with the adults in his life declaring that it was all just a phase and he would grow out of it. 

As he grew into his teens the disturbing thirst for crime turned sexual. He sexually assaulted a fellow student and this was reported to the police who arrested him, but again, no serious action was taken. It was clear that from the age of 10 to 15, Paul was in serious trouble, there was something very evil about him and actions should have been taken to have helped prevent some of what was to become later. 

Paul later said that he had been fantasizing about killing women since he was 14 but he was already acting out cruelty towards animals at the age of 10 and doing role-plays where he would use his sisters teddy bears as his pretend victims. His parent's marriage came to an end for various reasons, one of them being the constant arguments over Paul's behaviour and the stress that it caused. It was clear that Paul had been causing so many problems for his own family and in a way, harassing and abusing them with his actions (ie: tormenting his sisters and the sickening murder of the family's cat). Paul was a fantasist in the extreme, not just sick, violent fantasies but those of wanting to be in a professional position of what he saw was power. Despite not having the self motivation, qualifications and maturity, he went ahead and applied for a job in the police force, this was rejected. He had delusions of grandeur and thought that he could apply for positions without any proper effort or skill, he believed himself to be more capable of doing what people were saying he wasn't qualified for. 

He tried his hand at various jobs but managed to get fired from every single one of them for his lack of motivation, he was lazy and expected everything to just come to him or be done for him. There was a sense of entitlement from him and that very much played out through his life, even up to the present day. 

Paul spent most of his time unemployed with not much going on in his life so this left him with plenty of time for his sick mind to continue to spiral out of control. His sick fantasies from his youth had never gone away and had just grown stronger with time. He came to a point where he wanted to carry out these fantasies that he had on women. He began stalking various women, making prank phone calls, leaving sinister messages at people's homes. He enjoyed the feeling of having women frightened of him, he had an intense hatred of women despite the fact that, although not particularly attractive and overweight, he managed to get himself a girlfriend. You would think that the incel-type behaviour that he was expressing would have calmed down somewhat but he was even worse than before. His sickness was a different kind of terrifying because with someone like him, there is no cure, no way to satisfy him, he wanted to kill because in his own words ''He just felt like it''.

As horrible as everything had been up to 1993, this particular year was when things went into overdrive for 21 year old Paul. He was ready to take things to an even more sickening level. He began stalking a woman who lived with her husband. The happy couple had just had their first child together and were enjoying the early days of parenthood but they were beginning to get stressed out by all of these strange phone calls at all hours of the day and night. The lady was nervous at the thought of being home alone with their young child just incase this sicko who was making the calls would show up at the house. Her husband agreed to take them to work with him as he was a pizza delivery driver, he didn't mind them coming along because he himself was concerned. Unfortunately their paranoia, concern and worry about this nuisance caller was to be proven right because when they returned home that night, someone had broken into their home. The scene was horrific, the place was a mess and even more disturbing and sick, was that the cat had been slaughtered, there was blood everywhere and a pornographic picture had been placed on the cat's remains. There was two dead kittens left in the bathroom and in the crib that belonged to their newborn baby was another pornographic picture. There was pornographic pictures that Paul had placed around the house and a message was left for the terrified woman ''DONNA YOU ARE DEAD''. 

The terrified couple called the police and left that very night, vowing never to return. One can't imagine what must have been going through their minds, if Donna (the lady who was the target for all of this) and the baby had decided just to stay at home that night whilst her husband had gone to work, they would have been there when that monster turned up at the house. 

On June 11th 1993 just months after this horrible event, an 18 year old girl had been reported missing, her name was Elizabeth Stevens. Elizabeth was a bright young woman who was very mature for her age, outgoing and was focused on a career in the Army. Paul Denyer pounced on Elizabeth as she was on her way home. He approached her with a gun and told her not to move or he would ''Blow your f***ing head off''. 

Elizabeth did as she was told and followed instructions. The monster had strangled her, cut her throat, it was a brutal murder with blood everywhere, he had even slashed at her body after her death with symbols that looked like knots and crosses. Elizabeth's body was found the next day in a park near Frankston. Although her clothing was in disarray (bra and top pushed up to expose breasts)  there was no obvious sign of sexual assault or any semen found at the scene. 

The second known murder by Paul Denyer was that of a 22 year old young mother who had just given birth 12 days earlier. Debbie Fream had left her newborn baby with her trusted friend as she nipped out to the grocery store for 10 minutes to pick up some essentials, what ended up happening was heartbreaking. Paul watched Debbie run into the grocery store and so she left the car unlocked, he saw the opportunity to get into the car where he lay in wait. As soon as she got into the car, he threatened her. Sadly, Debbie was murdered by Paul. He went into a frenzy whilst committing this heartless murder, he stabbed her neck, head, arms and chest. There was no evidence that Debbie had been sexually assaulted but they did find that she had been stabbed a total of 24 times, many of the wounds had occurred after her death. Paul had this sickening desire to stab women and cut women even after he had strangled them, it was as if he was trying to destroy their bodies, scar and mark them. Debbie's body was found four days after her murder. 

The third and final victim was a 17 year old girl by the name of Natalie Russell who had been travelling home from school. Paul Denyer was waiting for any female to come walking past so that he could abduct and kill them. He did his usual routine of sneaking up to unsuspecting women and attacking them. Natalie had been strangled and stabbed before and after death, the scene was horrific. 

Within hours Natalie's body had been found and Paul had already been spotted by a witness in the very same area before Natalie's murder. A police officer had also made note of Paul's car after someone called the police to report someone acting suspicious around that area before Natalie was murdered. The police went to his home where his girlfriend also was and he was arrested and questioned. He was asked to show his hands and they were full of scratches and dried blood under the fingernails. 

At first Paul denied having anything to do with the murders but as soon as Detectives told him that they had evidence that he had been at the locations of all of the murders prior to the women being discovered, he confessed in his words ''I did all three.''

He then went on to describe without a shred of remorse and in a very matter-of-fact way, how he murdered each victim. He said he just wanted to kill them. 

Paul Denyer was found guilty of all three murders and sentenced to three life sentences. He later put in an appeal and this was accepted and it was to enable him to apply for parole after 30 years. This opportunity came recently but thank goodness he was not released. It has now been decided that again, due to his lack of remorse and the public outcry, that he will be spending his life behind bars. 

As usual with Paul, he continued to live in a world of fantasies and out of the blue he announced that he wished to be called 'Paula', despite never mentioning about feeling like a trans-woman before. All he ever said about women was how much he hated them and unfortunately his horrific and evil actions spoke a lot louder than words. This monster hated women, harassed, stalked, murdered, mutilated them and all of a sudden he wants to be a woman? He was a danger and is a danger to women and it was terrifying that he was aiming to be moved to a women's prison. 

If that's not enough, he was demanding that the government change his name from Paul to Paula, he wanted to be moved to a female prison and have gender transition surgery. He was so delusional that he had declared in letters to people outside of the prison that the police who originally worked on the case would support him because he was a changed person. 

His demands and requests were rejected, he was not allowed to change his name to Paula, he was not being moved to a female prison and he was not allowed to have gender transition surgery. He was furious but strangely enough, for a guy who was hell-bent on becoming a woman as soon as he found out he wasn't going to get what he wanted, he suddenly changed his mind and insisted on being called 'Paul' again. He said 'Paula' was dead and that he was back to living full-time as a man. 

I have covered a few cases from Australia over the years and I do respect their approach with their laws, they take a hard line with criminals and don't bow to pressure or political correctness. If this had been the UK, no doubt Paul would have gotten everything he wanted, maybe a red carpet and an en-suit bathroom too (and I say all of that with a straight face. My current opinion of the UK justice system and government is not very high).

Paul Denyer is currently 53 years old and those who have had the unfortunate opportunity to be in his presence say that he has not changed a bit. Never has there been a shred of remorse or regret about what he has done to his female victims that he brutally murdered, the women he harassed and stalked, the families he left heartbroken, the beautiful animals he tortured and murdered, not one single bit of sadness for anyone, he is truly a monster. 

As recently as 2023, Paul Denyer had the opportunity to apply for parole and he took it, the relatives of the victims, survivors and basically all of Australia (and anyone who was familiar with the case) were beside themselves with worry that this evil murderer could be back on the streets once more. He may have been an older man in his 50s but for someone who was displaying and carrying out evil acts from such a young age and getting more and more extreme as time went on, it was terrifying to think that he could get out to carry on his horrible behavior. Luckily, with the bravery of everyone involved in the case, Paul Denyer was denied parole and has to stay behind bars where he belongs.

RIP to Elizabeth, Debbie, Natalie and to the beautiful animals. Prayers and well wishes for the families of the victims and the survivors. 

- Paul Denyer: Article | AU News

I know this was another one of those cases that was difficult to get through with so much horrendous details but I appreciate it if you have made it this far. I hope you will join me in the next post and in the meantime I hope to see you on my socials

Take care & I'll see you in the next post...x