Was it Mr Cruel or were police too fast to name a suspect?
13-year-old Karmein Chan disappeared from her family’s home on April 13, 1991.
On a cool Melbourne evening, a D24 call went over the police radio about a possible kidnapping. When no one answered, Sergeant Rod Phillips decided to go to Templestowe’s house to have a look. “I didn’t know it would be the crime of the century,” he said.
“During the call, it was said that the incident happened 10 minutes ago and a child was kidnapped.”
Before Karmein’s abduction, police were investigating a series of similar sexual assaults that may have been committed by a criminal nicknamed “Mr. Cruel”. There was 10-year-old Sharon Wills in 1988 and 13-year-old Nicola Lynas in 1990.
Now Karmein was missing and the police believed their suspect was Mr. Cruel.
Phillips, the first police officer on the scene, couldn’t understand why.
In this special two parts Naked City In the episode about the notorious child thief who terrorized the streets of Melbourne, John Silvester speaks to former sergeant Phillips, who was at the scene of Karmein’s abduction.
Phillips still wonders whether the detectives were so quick to believe that Karmein had been kidnapped by Mr. Cruel and that they should have looked in another direction, much closer to home.
John Silvester He is a columnist for Age. He has covered Melbourne’s crime-fighting and justice system since the 1970s and won numerous awards, including three Walkley Awards and six Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards. Between them he has written or co-authored more than 30 books. umbilical cord sherry, It was turned into a television series.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive the Naked City newsletter every Thursday.
