David Birnie

The second killing took place a fortnight later when they abducted pretty 15-year-old Susannah Candy as she hitchhiked along the Stirling Highway in Claremont. An out-standing student at the Hollywood High School, Susannah lived at home in Nedlands with her parents, two brothers and a sister.

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Her father is one of the top ophthalmic surgeons in Western Australia. After she went missing the Birnies forced her to send letters to her family to assure them that she was all right. But the family feared for her life.

The Birnies had been cruising for hours looking for a victim when they spotted Susannah. Within seconds of being in the car she had a knife at her throat and her hands were bound. She was taken back to the Willagee house where she was gagged, chained to the bed and raped.

After Birnie had finished raping the girl, Catherine Birnie got into the bed with them. She now knew that this turned her lover on. When they had satiated their lust, Birnie tried to strangle the girl with the nylon cord, but she became hysterical and went berserk. The Birnies forced sleeping pills down her throat to calm her down. Once Susannah was asleep, David put the cord around her neck and told Catherine to prove her undying love for him by murdering the girl.

Catherine obliged willingly. She tightened the cord slowly around the young girl's neck until she stopped breathing. David Birnie stood beside the bed watching. Asked later why she had done it, Catherine Birnie said: "Because I wanted to see how strong I was within my inner self. I didn't feel a thing. It was like I expected. I was prepared to follow him to the end of the earth and do anything to see that his desires were satisfied. She was a female. Females hurt and destroy males."

They buried Susannah Candy near the grave of Mary Neilson in the State Forest.

On 1 November they saw 31-year-old Noelene Patterson standing beside her car on the Canning Highway, East Fremantle. She had run out of petrol while on her way home from her job as bar manager at the Nedlands Golf Club. Noelene lived with her mother in the leafy suburb of Bicton on the shores of the Swan River.

She was an extremely popular lady and club members described her as charming and polite. She had been an airhostess with Ansett airlines for nine years and had worked for corporate tycoon Alan Bond as hostess on his private jet for two years. Noelene had been working at the golf club for about a year when she accepted the Birnies' offer of a lift.

Noelene didn't hesitate to get in the car with the friendly couple. Once inside, she had a knife held to her throat, was tied up and told not to move or she would be stabbed to death. She was taken back to Moorhouse Street where Birnie repeatedly raped her after she was gagged and chained to the bed.

Catherine Birnie hated Noelene Patterson from the minute she set eyes on her. A beautiful, elegant lady Noelene was everything that Catherine wanted to be. What is more, Birnie was entranced by her. They had originally decided to murder Noelene Patterson that same night but when David Birnie kept putting it off, Catherine became infuriated. She could see that she was losing her man. At one stage she held a knife to her own heart and threatened to kill herself unless he chose between them.

Birnie kept Noelene prisoner in the house for three days before Catherine insisted that he kill her. He forced an overdose of sleeping pills down her throat and strangled her, under the watchful eye of Catherine, while she slept. They took her body to the forest and buried it along with the others. Catherine Birnie got great pleasure in throwing sand in the dead woman's face.

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