Loner, white, abused: portrait of a serial killer

HE IS white, young and a loner, with a history of cruelty to animals, sexual abuse as a child, and perhaps bedwetting. Unlike other killers, he tends to pick on vulnerable women. And half the time he knows his victims.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has drawn a portrait of the Australian serial killer by examining 52 victims, 11 serial murder histories and 13 known killers, including the backpacker murderer Ivan Milat; John Glover, known as the granny killer; Kathleen Folbigg, convicted of the murder or manslaughter of her four children; and Leonard John Fraser, whose crimes included the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl.

The study found similarities between the typical victim and many people on the missing persons list. It called for more research to test whether some missing persons may have been victims of serial killers.

A serial murderer kills three or more times. The international profile is of a white man in his mid-20s who premeditates his crime, was neglected as a child and has a pattern of bedwetting, arson or sexual offences.

He often picks on the vulnerable and easily led: young people, Caucasian women, or the elderly.

Men tend to target prostitutes, women or young boys or girls, usually strangers. Female serial killers usually target people they know; more than 70 per cent choose family members or people dependent on them.

The Australian serial killer has a few exceptions to this profile, the research found. Internationally, most kill with their hands. Here, most kill with a knife. Unlike overseas, where most victims were strangers, half knew their attacker. General homicides are most likely to involve a male aged in his 30s killing a male friend with a knife at a house, but the institute's study, released last week, showed most victims of serial killers in Australia were female.

Six of the 11 series of serial killings involved a sexual element. Five of the 13 serial killers had a history of sexual offences, and one offender was described by a judge as a "sexual predator of the worst kind".

Three of the killers had a history of cruelty to animals, and three had experienced childhood sexual abuse. The mother of the only female serial killer - Folbigg - was murdered by her father when she was two years old. The Australian serial killings fell almost equally into the categories of mission, hedonism and power-control. But there was some overlap, the study - by two homicide experts, Jenny Mouzos and David West - found.

One killing, in which the offenders saw it as their duty to eliminate homosexuals and pedophiles, was about both mission and power. Two of the serial killers hated women. One told police: "I just hate 'em."

More research could help police investigations in other areas, such as missing persons.

In at least two serial murder cases, the victims were reported missing. Many of the missing fitted the criteria of being female, young and easily influenced.

"It is worthwhile to compare the characteristics of serial murder victims with those persons reported missing," the study said. "This may enable the level of risk of missing persons becoming a victim of serial murder to be gauged."