Sadistic Serial Rapist Was Never Questioned By NSW Police In 1986 Death Of Gay Man

A sadistic serial rapist who was a prime suspect in the 1986 death of a gay man in Wollongong CBD was never questioned by NSW Police, a special commission of inquiry into gay hate crime deaths heard on Thursday. 

Trigger Warning: This story discusses sexual assaults and violence, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.

The special commission of inquiry, headed by Justice John Sackar, is investigating the unsolved cases of deaths of gay men and trans women in Sydney and NSW between 1970 and 2010.

On Thursday, the commission heard about the flawed investigation into the death of 35-year-old Scottish national William ‘Bill’ Anthony Rooney in 1986.

On Valentine’s Day in 1986, Rooney, an openly gay man, was found near a nightclub, in Crown Lane, Wollongong, in a semi-conscious state, with serious head injuries. His “pants and underwear were lowered to the start of his pubic hair, and his fly was unzipped” and there was a concrete rock near the body. Rooney died in hospital six days later. 

‘Police Weren’t Interested’

The investigation team brushed off the head injuries as having been caused by a fall and a 1987 inquest concluded the cause of the head injuries could not be determined.

Rooney’s partner Wayne Davis always maintained that he was the victim of an anti-gay hate crime, and campaigned to have the case reinvestigated. Davis had claimed “the police weren’t that interested — it was just another ‘poofta’”. Davis died in 2020, before the commission took up Rooney’s case.

Initially, the police zeroed in on two suspects, the commission heard. Davis told police that before the attack Rooney had spoken to Leslie Harrison aka ‘Radar’, a “well-known poofter basher”. Harrison, who died in 2004, claimed that he was with his then girlfriend on the night of the attack. She disputed his alibi before the inquiry and said the police had never asked her about it. 

Serial Rapist Arrested

In the three years immediately after Rooney’s death, Wollongong witnessed a series of attacks on 12 men, most of them gay men. In 1989, Mark Anthony Scerri was arrested and charged for bashing and sexually assaulting the 12 men. 

Scerri was convicted in three cases, and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment. He was released on parole in 2001, committed a similar offence, and was jailed again till 2011. 

Detective Inspector Brad Ainsworth, who investigated the attacks, believed Rooney was Scerri’s first victim. Ainsworth sought to question Scerri in jail, but he refused. In 1991 and 1993, the detective sought advice on charging Scerri for Rooney’s murder. The Director of Public Prosecutions held there was insufficient evidence to charge Scerri.

Meg O’Brien, one of counsels assisting the inquiry, pointed out that “DI Ainsworth had no doubt in his mind that Scerri was also responsible for assaulting and murdering Rooney.”

“Many of these attacks (including the three of which Scerri was convicted) involved a similar modus operandi, in which victims suffered a blow or blows to the head (or the threat of such a physical assault) prior to being sexually assaulted,” the commission heard. 

Flaws In Investigation

The counsel pointed to shortcomings in the original investigation.  “The police should have followed all lines of inquiry, which would have included thoroughly investigating the possibility both of assault and of sexual assault. The site where Rooney was found should have been immediately secured. A sexual assault examination should have been conducted. Any exhibits of possible forensic value should have been appropriately catalogued and retained,” the counsel submitted. The postmortem conducted on Rooney was “deficient” as well. 

The commission heard that the evidence available to the inquiry was not enough to hold that Rooney’s death was a homicide or an anti-gay hate crime.

“If it were to be assumed that Rooney’s death was a homicide, and that that homicide was committed by Scerri, there would be ample grounds for a conclusion that Rooney’s death was a crime involving LGBTIQ bias. However, in this case, the available evidence does not allow either of those assumptions to be made.” 

“No evidence was sought or obtained at the time as to whether Rooney was sexually assaulted, and it is now not possible to carry out any tests which would shed light on that issue,” the inquiry heard. 

The review into Rooney’s death by Strikeforce Parrabell also came in for criticism. Scerri, who is now 58, was questioned for the first time at a private hearing this month. The evidence will be classified as confidential in the inquiry’s final report.