Leonard John Fraser

Press Release Trick Backfires

One admission was that Beverly Leggo was strangled with her black panties and a bra. The admission was made three days before forensic scientists revealed that that was indeed how she had died.

Mr. Squeaky also said that where Julie Turner had been murdered near a Police Boys Club, he had abandoned a pair of her sandals near an electrical box. A subsequent search found a sandal and Julie Turner's bra.

In the press release Mr. Squeaky also admitted to committing many other crimes in the Rockhampton district including many rapes that had never been reported to the police.

The prosecution pointed out that all Mr. Squeaky's confession did was incriminate Fraser further.

On May 9, 2003, after a little more than a day's deliberation, the jury convicted Fraser of the murders of Sylvia Benedetti and Beverly Doreen Leggo and the manslaughter of Julie Dawn Turner.

The verdict of manslaughter meant that the jury believed that Fraser did not intend to kill Julie Turner. Fraser stood silent and red-faced in the dock and then yawned and stretched his hands behind his head as the verdicts were handed down.

Leonard John Fraser

On May 28, 2003, Fraser lodged an appeal against his conviction for the killings.

On June 13, 2003, Justice Brian Ambrose sentenced Leonard John Fraser to three indefinite jail terms for the two murders and one manslaughter and described Fraser as an "untreatable psychopath" with a brutal desire for middle-aged women down to children.

Justice Ambrose said that Fraser was motivated to kill because of his "unusual sexual desire." He said that Fraser would not be eligible for parole, which was all but impossible anyway, until he was 81. Even then, should he live that long, the most likely scenario was that he would die in jail.

On December 31, 2006, Leonard John Fraser, 55, died in his sleep in the secure unit at Princess Alexandra Hospital. He had been in the hospital since Boxing Day, December 26,2006, when he suffered cardiac arrest.