Catherine Birnie
Bandyup Women’s Prison
Middle Swan Road
Middle Swan 6056
P.O. Box 100
Guildford Australia, VA 02
Death toll 4+
She had admitted involvement in four rape-murders, committed over a period of four weeks. Then the Birnies took members of Perth’s Major Crimes Squad to the graves of their victims. Three of the victims had been strangled to death. The fourth girl had been stabbed and struck with an axe.
It soon became apparent that Catherine Birnie had played an active part in the murders. She had even taken photographs of her husband David Birnie in the act of raping the victims. As the two described their brief career of homicide, police found themselves listening to a narrative that was beyond their experience, the story of a woman who had apparently enjoyed helping her husband to violate other women.