Not bad for a serial killer

2003-07-01 13:29

Australia - A suspect in Australia's worst serial killing spree has defended himself in a catchy jailhouse poem that compared his life to a "Stephen King thriller", a court heard on Tuesday.

Robert Joe Wagner, a confessed killer, is on trial with another man accused in the torture and murder of eight people whose bodies were found in barrels hidden in a disused bank vault in the South Australian hamlet of Snowtown.

In the poem allegedly written to a fellow convict and presented in court on Tuesday, Wagner starts by professing his innocence then launches an attack on paedophiles who prosecutors say were targeted in the Snowtown killings.

"I'm a CFS (Country Fire Service) man - my uniform's swank; And I've never been to a Snowtown bank; Yet bodies in barrels - hey I wonder who's there; Peadophiles (sic) I'm told, so who really cares," read the poem.

"See you know I only provided a service that's needed; For just like your gardens, our street should be weeded," it continued.

A handwriting expert told Tuesday's hearing in the South Australian Supreme Court she believed the two-page poem was written and signed by Wagner.

The poem went on to threaten police and media with the warning: "I know where you live."

It ended: "If my life reads like a Steven King thriller; You know I'm not a bad guy ....... for a serial killer."

Wagner, 31, is on trial after pleading not guilty to eight counts of murder and one of assisting an offender. He pleaded guilty to three other murder charges before the trial started in October.

His co-accused, John Justin Bunting, 36, has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of murder.

The charges relate to eight dismembered bodies found in six plastic barrels in the former Snowtown bank in May 1999.

Two more bodies were found buried in a suburban backyard and two were found in other places.

Allegations against the pair include eating flesh from their victims, although Wagner has denied this.

- AFX