Leonard John Fraser

She Was Just About To Come Across

Long Bay Jail complex

At 10 o'clock on the morning of July 11, 1974, just three weeks after he was released from Long Bay, Fraser approached a young married woman as she walked along a road in the Sydney outer western suburb of St Mary's and attacked her from behind. Using what would become his "calling card," Fraser twisted the woman's arm up behind her back and forced her down an embankment where he raped her. Under the delusion that the woman had enjoyed him sexually assaulting her, Fraser then walked his victim hand-in-hand back up onto the roadway before taking off.

Six days later at 9 p.m. on July 17, Fraser assaulted a 20-year-old woman who was working alone in a nearby Mt. Druitt dry cleaning shop. Fraser followed her behind the counter when she went to look for his dry cleaning and with her hand held up behind her back, he was about to rape her when he was interrupted and fled when other customers entered the shop.

Three days later at Rooty Hill, again in the same proximity, Fraser spoke briefly to a woman as she walked along a quiet road before he punched her in the face and forced her arm up her back. As the couple struggled toward a small creek, the woman remained calm and talked to her attacker and convinced him that she was indeed in the mood for sex and that she would gladly submit and suggested that they go back to Fraser's house and do it in his bed.

Fraser walked the woman hand-in-hand back up onto the road and as soon as she saw her chance she broke free and fled to the nearest house and raised the alarm. Fraser wasn't hard to find. He had left his wallet with his birth certificate in it at the scene of the last attack and was quickly located and taken into custody.

Fraser readily confessed to one rape and the two attempted rapes. He denied that he would have had to force the woman in the dry cleaning shop to have sex with him if they had not been disturbed. "I would not have had to force her," he told investigators. "She was just about to come across."

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1. The Bad Seed
2. She Was Just About To Come Across
3. Rape of the French Tourist
4. No Conscience at All
5. Two Months for Aggravated Assault
6. Lenny the Loon
7. Sex with the Landlady's Dog
8. Murder of Keyra Steinhardt
9. Eye Witness to Rape
10. A Predator of the Worst Kind
11. Four More Victims?
12. Grim Discovery
13. Bled Her like an Animal
14. A Sensational Turn
15. Jailhouse Boasts
16. Caught on Tape
17. Mr. Squeaky
18. Press Release Trick Backfires