Leonard John Fraser

Rape of the French Tourist

And then, much to the surprise of police, Fraser confessed to the rape in the Botanical Gardens in the heart of Sydney in broad daylight almost two years earlier. The victim was a 37-year-old tourist, who, along with her husband and their two infant daughters, was visiting Sydney to attend the husband's accountants' convention at the Hordern Pavilion.

Sydney Botanical Gardens

The attack took place as the woman was walking through the Sydney Botanical Gardens at 10 a.m. to take some pictures of the Conservatorium of Music while on the way to meet her husband and daughters. As she passed by some banana trees a man emerged from the shadows, put his arm around her neck from behind, punched her in the face many times with his other hand, dragged her into the undergrowth around the banana trees and raped her.

When interrupted by passersby, the rapist took off with her handbag leaving his semi-conscious victim in a serious condition with multiple fractures to the face and severe shock.

Fraser told investigators that he was glad to have the crime off his chest at last. "I don't know what came over me... I have always regretted it," he said. He told police that he had had an argument with his flatmate at their King's Cross residence and he went to the Botanical Gardens where he wandered around for a while until he targeted the French woman and attacked her.

When interviewed by a psychiatrist in Long Bay Jail, Fraser said that at the time of the rape of the French tourist he was living off the proceeds of several prostitutes who worked the streets of Kings Cross and he supposedly handed the bulk of the proceeds over to a "minder." Fraser claimed to have been involved in numerous homosexual relationships and was not involved sexually with any of his alleged "workers."