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Paul
Steven HAIGH
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Robberies -
Disputes
Number of victims: 7
Date of murder:
1978 - 1979 / 1991
Date of birth: September 5, 1957
Victim profile:
Evelyn Adams, 58 / Bruno Cingolani, 45 / Wayne Keith Smith, 27
/ Sheryle Gardner, 31 / Danny Mitchell, 10 / Lisa Brearley, 19 /
Donald George Hatherley, 36 (inmate)
Method of murder:
Shooting - Stabbing with knife
Location: Victoria,
Australia
Status:
Sentenced to
six sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole
Paul Steven Haigh is an Australian serial
killer currently serving six sentences of life imprisonment without
the possibility of parole for the murder of seven people in the late
1970s.
The crimes
1978
In 1978, in the first two weeks after being paroled
for a string of armed holdups, in separate armed robberies Haigh shot
dead TattsLotto agency worker Evelyn Adams, aged 58, and 45-year-old
pizza shop operator, and father of two, Bruno Cingolani.
1979
In 1979, Haigh began killing people he believed
knew too much about his crimes. Haigh shot dead his associate Wayne
Keith Smith, aged 27, and his associate’s former girlfriend Sheryle
Gardner, 31. Haigh also shot dead Gardner's son Danny Mitchell, 10,
who was sitting beside his mother in their car, to stop him
identifying his mother's killer. Haigh's most brutal attack was
committed against his girlfriend, Lisa Brearley, aged 19, whom Haigh
stabbed 157 times after allowing another man to rape her at
knifepoint.
1991
Haigh's last victim was sex offender Donald George
Hatherley whom Haigh murdered in a jail cell at Pentridge Prison in
1991. Haigh claimed he "assisted" Hatherley to commit suicide by
placing a noose around his neck, kicking a cupboard out from under him
then pushing down on Hatherley's shoulders. A jury found Haigh guilty
of Hatherley's murder.
Won right to appeal
On 19 April 2011, at a hearing before Victorian
Court of Appeal justices Peter Buchanan, Geoffrey Nettle and Emilios
Kyrou, Haigh won the right to have his sentence reviewed to determine
whether he should be entitled to parole, after he appealed a 2009
Victorian Supreme Court (Trial Division) decision to deny his request
to be given a minimum term. Haigh argued that the 2009 decision by
Justice Betty King was flawed because it had been based on a 2005
pre-sentence report that was later withdrawn by the Victorian Parole
Board and replaced in 2007.
The appeal was rejected on 13 December 2012.
Wikipedia.org
Serial killer's parole bid refused
By Andrea Petrie - TheAge.com.au
December 13, 2012
Serial killer Paul Steven Haigh has lost his bid
for a minimum term on his life-without-parole sentence for the murders
of six people, including a 10-year-old boy.
Haigh, now 55, had argued he deserved a mitigated
sentence because, among other reasons, he was the "victim" of
borderline personality disorder when he committed the murders in the
1970s.
But his application was dismissed by Justice David
Beach in the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday.
The judge described the murders as "unjustifiable
and merited condign punishment".
Haigh fatally shot TattsLotto agency worker Evelyn
Adams, 58, and 45-year-old pizza shop operator and father-of-two Bruno
Cingolani in 1978, in separate armed robberies, two weeks after being
paroled for a string of armed hold-ups.
Then in 1979, he killed people he believed knew too
much about his crimes, including his associate Wayne Keith Smith, 27,
and his associate's former girlfriend Sheryle Gardner, 31.
He also shot dead Ms Gardner's son Danny Mitchell,
10, who was a witness to his mother's death, sitting beside her in her
car when she was shot.
Haigh killed his girlfriend Lisa Brearley, 19, by
stabbing her 157 times after allowing another man to rape and sodomise
her at knifepoint, because he believed she was sleeping with other
men.
The court heard that after Ms Brearley's murder,
Haigh said: "I only intended to do 20 [stab wounds], but I lost count
so then I started counting out another 20. I kept making sure she was
dead."
In 1991 he killed sex offender Donald George
Hatherley in a jail cell at Pentridge Prison and was convicted by a
jury of Hatherley's murder.
He received a life sentence with a minimum for
Hatherley's murder.
In contesting the application, prosecutor Peter
Rose, SC, told the court Haigh should never be released. He said
Haigh's past history and conduct, as well as several prior
convictions, meant the public must be protected from him, therefore
the court should ensure he remain in custody.
Mr Rose also described his crimes as among the
worst combination of murders ever committed in Victoria.
In his reasons for dismissing Haigh's application,
Justice Beach said the six murders that were the subject of Haigh's
application were "dreadful crimes".
He said while he accepted that Haigh's conduct in
prison over the past several years had been considerably better than
it was in the early years of his sentences, "the applicant's continued
willingness to attribute blame to others; his continued use of illicit
drugs in prison; the murder of Donald Hatherley; his lack of any
remorse in respect of the murder of Donald Hatherley; the significant
episodes of bad behaviour in prison up until the last several years
and the future risk of him committing further offences of violence (as
disclosed in the evidence) are matters that do not tell in favour of
the granting of a non-parole period.
"While the applicant's behaviour now (and in the
last several years) is significantly different from his behaviour when
he was a younger man, a consideration of all of the material in this
case suggests to me that he remains a person who will say and do
whatever he thinks will suit the course he is currently pursuing," the
judge said.
"I accept the evidence that, notwithstanding the
elapse of time and significant changes in behaviour, the applicant
remains (and will remain) a moderate to high risk of committing
further offences of violence."
Justice Beach said after carefully considered the
application, in which Haigh was self-represented, "None of it leads me
to the conclusion that it is appropriate to fix a non-parole period.
"On all of the material, I am of the view that it
is, in fact, inappropriate to fix a non-parole period," he said.
"The application for the fixing of a non-parole
period in respect of the life sentences imposed upon him for the
murders of Evelyn Abraham, Bruno Cingolani, Wayne Keith Smith, Sheryle
Ann Gardner, Danny William Mitchell and Lisa Maude Brearley is
refused."
Serial killer Paul Steven Haigh responsible for
worst combination of murders, Supreme Court hears
By Paul Anderson - Herald Sun
December 5, 2012
In his final submissions during Haigh’s application
for a minimum term for six horrific murders he committed in the late
1970s, prosecutor Peter Rose, SC, described the shocking string of
murders as pre-meditated, cold-blooded and vile.
He said they had been committed by a remorseless
man who to this day blames his victims and abuses drugs in jail.
Mr Rose said Haigh’s murders were not only planned
but some involved “particularly degrading acts”.
“These are just so horrible, that life without
parole is the appropriate sentence,” Mr Rose told Justice David Beach.
Haigh was convicted of murdering his girlfriend of
three weeks Lisa Brearley, 19, after allowing another man to rape her.
Reciting from descriptions written by the killer
himself, Mr Rose said Haigh allowed the other man to rape Ms Brearley
so his DNA would be connected to the crime and therefore ensure his
silence about the murder.
Haigh, who also had sexual contact with Ms Brearley
knowing he was soon to kill her for fear she would talk to police
about certain weapons, stabbed the young woman 157 times, later
writing that “I only intended to do twenty but I lost count”.
“Lisa became a loose end,” Haigh wrote.
Haigh shot dead Tattslotto agency worker Evelyn
Abrahams.
Mr Rose said Haigh blamed Ms Abrahams for the
shooting because she provoked him and was “disobedient” by resisting,
instead of allowing his armed robbery to “go its ugly way”.
Haigh killed pizza shop owner Bruno Cingolani by
shooting him with a sawn-off shotgun at point blank range.
Mr Rose said the motive for that planned robbery
was to help finance a prisoner’s escape, and that Mr Cingolani was
killed because he tried to protect his takings for his family’s sake.
Haigh shot dead mother Sheryle Gardner to keep her
quiet, along with her ten-year-old son Danny Mitchell who was with her
at the time.
Haigh wrote that while it was against the criminal
code to shoot children, Ms Gardner was a bad mother for putting the
boy in the “terrible situation” of being a witness.
“Danny being present complicated matters greatly,”
Haigh wrote.
Haigh said he “consoled” the sobbing boy before
shooting him three times in the back of the head.
Haigh also shot associate Wayne Smith so that, in
his words, he “wouldn’t look weak” in the eyes of accomplices
During today’s hearing, psychiatrist Dr Yvonne
Skinner said Haigh did not have the capacity to feel empathy on an
emotional level and would be a “moderate to high” risk of re-offending
if he was ever released.
Dr Skinner said she believed Haigh, now 54, did not
have a mental illness but suffered from a personality disorder “with
multiple different features”.
When asked by Mr Rose if Haigh shunned
responsibility for his crimes, Dr Skinner said: “I think he deals with
it by laying the blame on other people or factors.”
The court heard Haigh, said to have an addictive
behaviour, has been regularly using illicit drugs in jail – but had
tried to seek help.
Under cross examination by Haigh, Dr Skinner said
impulsive tendencies were not a major characteristic of his
personality and that his actions were planned and carefully
considered.
Haigh will make his final submissions in court
tomorrow morning.
Brutal killer to appeal life term
By James Campbell - Sunday Herald Sun
April 10, 2011
ONE of Victoria's most brutal killers will make a last-ditch bid for
freedom tomorrow when he fronts the Court of Appeal to say why he
should not die in prison.
Paul Steven Haigh murdered six people - including a
mother and her 10-year-old son - in a year-long crime spree that
shocked Melbourne in the late 1970s.
He was later convicted of murder for helping his
cellmate hang himself in Pentridge Prison, a killing he later
described as a "growth experience".
In 2009, Supreme Court judge Betty King ruled he
must die in prison after a marathon nine-day hearing held over more
than a year.
The seven-time killer will appear in person before
a five-judge bench of the Court of Appeal to argue his case himself
after breaking off with his legal counsel.
Legal sources have told the Sunday Herald SunHaigh's appeal is based largely on his view Justice King
underestimated his remorse.
Justice King ruled that despite having had so many
years in prison to reflect and consider his crimes, Haigh had failed
to do so.
"You are capable of understanding and feeling
remorse, but ... to a very limited degree, and I find that you have no
real empathy with your fellow man," she said.
"You are able to understand the issues
intellectually, but are not capable of feeling true sympathy or
compassion for any person unless they are someone that you love and
care about.
"You remain a callous individual."
Justice King also said that she could not be
satisfied Haigh would not kill again if he were ever released.
Haigh's first two victims, Evelyn Abrahams, 58, and
Bruno Cingolani, 45, were shot dead in two botched armed robberies in
1978.
His next victim, criminal associate Wayne Kevin
Smith, 27, was killed in a dispute over the proceeds of crime.
But it was the three people he killed next that
shocked Victorians.
Haigh had become concerned that another associate,
Sheryle Ann Gardner, 31, had been talking about his crimes. So in
July, 1979, he shot her dead. Haigh then killed her son, Danny
Mitchell, 10, who had witnessed his mother's murder.
In 2008, Haigh told Justice King he didn't like
Danny very much.
Haigh's next victim was Lisa Maude Brearley, 19,
stabbed 157 times, after being forced at knife-point to have sex with
another man. In 2009, Haigh described her as "a loose end that had to
be gotten rid of''.
In prison, Haigh did not lose the taste for
killing. In 1991, he helped convicted rapist Donald George Hatherley,
36, to hang himself.
A court was later told that, at the time, Haigh was
feeling he had "gone down a peg" in the prison hierarchy because
Hoddle St killer Julian Knight had one more victim than him.
"The other deaths I'd been involved in were from a
criminal frame of reference - this was different, his suicide was a
growth experience for me," Haigh later wrote.
The Sentencing Act says judges must set a
non-parole period unless they consider the crimes so serious a minimum
term would be inappropriate.
Cruel killer wants hope
Herald Sun
January 26, 2008
SERIAL killer Paul Steven Haigh
yesterday gave a stunning personal account of his crimes in his court
bid to have a minimum term set.
Haigh, 49, spoke with brutal honesty in the Supreme
Court, saying his crimes were horrendous.
But he admitted he was not revolted when he
murdered a young boy.
The seven-time killer said he wanted to put some
"personality and life into my plea".
Haigh is serving a life term with no parole.
He said of his murders: "They were, in the context
of the criminal world, understandable and appropriate.
"Overall, from a more mature perspective, I see
that a clear-thinking person, a more self-respecting person and
law-abiding person would not go to such a horrendous extreme.
"I was pretty much disturbed and out of control."
Of shooting dead two people in separate hold-ups in
1978, Haigh told the court: "Clearly they threatened my freedom and
the last thought I had before I pulled the trigger was, 'You're not
sending me back to jail'."
His most shocking crime was in 1979 when he killed
Sheryle Gardner, 31, in front of her 10-year-old son. After consoling
the boy for a short time he fired three shots into his head.
Haigh blamed Ms Gardner for her son's death,
claiming she used him as a shield.
"He didn't need to die and were he not there it
wasn't something we would have gone out of our way to do -- it was
just an unforeseen circumstance," he said.
Asked if he was revolted by shooting the child,
Haigh replied: "With Danny, sadly no -- I wasn't. Being self-centred
at the time my desire was to save my miserable life.
"His life came second to my freedom."
The killer then gave a chilling description of the
vicious murder of his girlfriend Lisa Brearley, 19, who he stabbed
more than 150 times.
Haigh said he was obsessive about the number of
times he wanted to stab Ms Brearley, but kept losing count and would
have to start again.
He said when her front was covered in wounds he
turned her over and stabbed her back.
"When I was satisfied of no chance of a miraculous
recovery I stopped," he said.
"The intensity of her fight fazed me -- it wasn't
like in the movies.
"It was the only one I have ever had a nightmare
about."
Haigh said he felt remorseful about all the murders
except that of his seventh victim, Donald Hatherley, who he "assisted"
to suicide in jail in 1991.
"It was all with consent, it was something that was
done with a warmth," he said.
"I have not had a skerrick of remorse about it so
my heart tells me I did no wrong."
Haigh said it was cruel to leave people alive to
suffer.
His psychiatrist last year told the court Haigh had
trouble empathising with victims.
When asked yesterday why he was applying for a
minimum term, Haigh said:
"So I have got the hope of being released.
"It is pretty bleak at the moment and I am running
out of steam. I need a light at the end of the tunnel.
"I do care about my future very much."
The case has been adjourned to a date to be fixed.
