{{Short description|Australian serial killer}}{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}} {{Infobox criminal | name = Derek Percy | birth_name = Derek Ernest Percy | birth_place = Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia | birth_date = 15 September 1948 | death_place = St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | death_date = 23 July 2013 (aged 64) | occupation = Electrical mechanic in the Australian Navy | conviction = Murder | charge = Murder | locations = Victoria | penalty = Life imprisonment | criminal_status = Deceased | parents = Ernest Percy (father), Elaine Percy (mother) | spouse = }}
'''Derek Ernest Percy''' (15 September 1948 – 23 July 2013) was an Australian serial killer and convicted child killer who was also a person of interest linked to the mysterious deaths and disappearances of multiple children in the 1960s, including the Beaumont disappearances and the Wanda Beach murders.<ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-24/derek-percy-linked-to-deaths-of-9-children/4840556|title=Child killer Derek Percy was linked to deaths of nine children|date=30 October 2014|access-date=19 October 2016|publisher=ABC}}</ref>
== Early life == Derek Percy was born on 15 September 1948 in Strathfield, New South Wales, the eldest of four sons of parents Ernest and Elaine Percy. Percy's father, a sailing enthusiast, had been a New South Wales railway electrician before deciding to take a job with the State Electricity Commission in Victoria, and moving to Chelsea in 1954, then to Warrnambool in 1957, and to Mount Beauty, near Bright, in 1961.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/one-man-so-many-faces-of-evil/2007/04/21/1176697147754.html|title=One man, so many faces of evil|author=John Silvester|date=22 April 2007|publisher=The Age|access-date=19 October 2016}}</ref>
Percy began to attract the attention of authorities in late 1964, when he started stealing and wearing female underwear and dresses and mutilating dolls with knives and razor blades.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/derek-percy8217s-mother-elaine-admits-she-8216got-rid-of-things8217-as-cops-investigated-child-serial-killings/story-fni0ffnk-1226684583337?nk=c56412051067071ac3f0cef188fa89ce-1476903929|title=Derek Percy's mother Elaine admits she 'got rid of things' as cops investigated child serial killings|author=Elissa Hunt|date=24 July 2013|publisher=Herald Sun|access-date=19 October 2016}}</ref> In 1965, the family relocated to Khancoban in New South Wales (their sixth move in twelve years) where Percy began writing down bizarre and violent sexual fantasies.<ref name=":1" /> In 1966, he repeated year 11, then tried year 12 in school, but dropped out and joined the Australian Navy as a naval rating in electrical mechanics in November 1967. He was posted to the aircraft carrier HMAS ''Melbourne'' in March 1968, the troop ship HMAS ''Sydney'' on 1 July 1968, and HMAS ''Cerberus'' naval base in April 1969.<ref name=":1" />
== Criminal investigation == Percy was arrested at ''Cerberus'', adjacent to Crib Point on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, for the murder of 12-year-old Yvonne Tuohy at Ski Beach, near Warneet on Westernport Bay, on 27 July 1969. At the time he abducted Tuohy at knife-point, he also tried to abduct her friend, Shane Spiller, age 11, who only escaped by threatening Percy with his tomahawk.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/a-man-called-percy-beast-without-mercy-20130726-2qpm2.html|title=A man called Percy, beast without mercy|author=John Silvester|date=27 July 2013|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=19 October 2016}}</ref> Spiller, however, was able to describe to police the abductor and his vehicle, an orange Datsun station wagon with a navy sticker on the back window and bumper.<ref name=":2" /> Police, accompanied by Spiller, then went to ''Cerberus'' and discovered Percy machine-washing blood off his clothes.<ref name=":4" /> When questioned, Percy denied involvement, but eventually led police to Tuohy's mutilated body in a paddock on Fisheries Road at Devon Meadows, some {{convert|8|km|0}} from the abduction scene.<ref name=":4" /> Police also found Percy's journals describing and illustrating his bizarre sexual fetishes (including coprophilia, urophilia, and cannibalism).<ref>{{Cite web|title=True Blue Crime: Derek Percy on Apple Podcasts|url=https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/derek-percy/id1453311982?i=1000440960481|access-date=2021-04-05|website=Apple Podcasts|language=en-au}}</ref> In 1970, he was found not guilty, by reason of insanity, of the murder and remanded indefinitely.
Percy repeatedly stated that he could not remember whether or not he had committed any further crimes.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Detectives then started trying to piece together his movements around Australia at the time of the murders.<ref name=":1" /> They were aware the Percy family often took caravan holidays during yachting regattas near beaches (where most of the crimes took place), that his transfers within the navy brought him close to many of the crime scenes, and they knew that he was harbouring paedophilic and psychopathic fantasies towards children.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /> In 2007, a cache of 35 boxes<ref name=":3" /> of Percy's diaries, drawings, maps, and newspaper clippings was found in a storage unit in South Melbourne, casting further suspicion on him.<ref name=":0" />
=== Related cases === Due to the nature of the Tuohy attack, and based on documents in his possession, Percy became a suspect in a number of other unsolved crimes involving children:<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11830363|title=Derek Percy believed to be Australia's worst child serial killer|date=2017-04-01|work=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=2020-03-01|language=en-NZ|issn=1170-0777}}</ref>
* Wanda Beach case (11 January 1965) – Percy was known to be visiting his friend's grandparents in Ryde at the time,<ref name=":4" /> at a house near to the homes of the victims.<ref name="CIA">{{cite episode|title=The Wanda Beach Murders/Beaumont Children Mystery|series=Crime Investigation Australia|series-link=Crime Investigation Australia|network=Crime & Investigation Network|date=2007|season=|series-no=1|number=11}}</ref> Based on identikits, witnesses recalled seeing a young man resembling Percy talking with the two girls on a train and at Wanda Beach, and he was considered a leading suspect for the murders by the police.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=http://www.news.com.au/national/crime/how-a-secret-cache-in-a-storage-facility-led-police-to-unsolved-murders-of-child-mutilator-derek-percy/news-story/8944b666ca4fcbcfdbc31c7c8af5dbe5|title=The unsolved murders of child mutilator Derek Percy|work=NewsComAu|access-date=2018-01-13}}</ref><ref name="Morri">{{cite news|url=http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/dna-clue-could-solve-47-year-old-wanda-beach-murders/news-story/b4b0ca2c1ccfb8ce9d1692ef7825b9fb|title=DNA clue could solve 47 year-old Wanda Beach murders|last=Morri|first=Mark|date=27 February 2012|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=1 January 2017}}</ref> * Beaumont case (26 January 1966) – Percy admitted to being at Glenelg Beach in Adelaide on a family trip on the day of the Beaumont children's disappearance, but denied any involvement.<ref name=":4" /> * Allen Redston case (28 September 1966) – Canberra police issued a description of a fair, thin-faced teenager that they wanted to interview, and also released an identikit image that closely resembled Percy. Percy later told police he had been in the capital, but that he was unable to remember any details.<ref name=":4" /> * Simon Brook case (18 May 1968) – Percy had been stationed at the Cockatoo Dry Dock on Sydney Harbour at the time, and an Identikit of the suspect who killed and mutilated the 3-year-old was similar to the Redston suspect.<ref name=":4" /> A new inquest was held in 2005 with Percy as the prime suspect, but stalled due to lack of evidence. * Linda Stilwell case (10 August 1968) – In October 2014, a year after his death, Percy was formally ruled to have abducted and killed the 7-year-old,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/30/derek-percy-abducted-and-killed-linda-stilwell-in-1968-says-coroner|title=Derek Percy abducted and killed Linda Stilwell in 1968, says coroner|date=30 October 2014|access-date=19 October 2016|work=The Guardian }}</ref> who disappeared while playing at the St Kilda foreshore in Melbourne. At the time, Percy had been transferred to Sydney, was on leave,<ref name=":1" /> and admitted to driving in the area. * 12-year-old girl (1 April 1969) – attempted abduction while riding her bicycle near the ''Cerberus'' base. Victim identified Percy after the Tuohy incident.<ref name=":4" />
== Death == Percy died from lung cancer in St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, on 23 July 2013, aged 64, without admitting to any further crimes. At the time, he was the longest serving prison inmate in Australia, some 44 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/child-killer-stays-silent-on-death-bed-20130724-2qiwq.html|title=Child killer stays silent on death bed|date=24 July 2013|access-date=19 October 2016|author=Rachel Olding|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref>
== Media == * Alan Whiticker (2008) ''Derek Percy: Australian Psycho'' * Debi Marshall (2013) ''Lambs to the Slaughter'' *''Crimes That Shook Australia'' (2014) Derek Percy<ref>{{Citation|title=Crimes That Shook Australia - Derek Percy|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4qINx5Fcio|language=en|access-date=2020-03-01}}</ref> *Radford University - Derek Ernest Percy ''“The Ghost, Spook, Phantom”'' ([http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Percy,%20Derek.pdf PDF])
== See also == *List of serial killers by country
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Percy, Derek}} Category:1948 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Australian murderers of children Category:Crime in Oceania Category:Suspected serial killers