‘Now I wish I had killed him’

Surviving victim horrified to learn coward prowler was ‘monster’

A WOMAN who fought off the Claremont serial killer has told for the first time how she survived — and that she wishes she had killed the “coward”.

Liz Kirkby said she was a young, single mother of two who had just moved into her Perth house in 1988 when she was attacked by vile sex murderer Bradley Edwards.

She said she discovered her attacker’s identity only years after the incident, adding she wished she had been spared that traumatic revelation because “ignorance would have been bliss”.

Ms Kirkby, formerly known as Liz Mead, tells her story this week in an explosive Sky News documentary, Catching The Claremont Killer: The Untold Story, which goes deep into the case.

Edwards, 52, was sentenced to life in the WA Supreme Court just before Christmas for the murders of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, in 1996 and 1997, plus two earlier sex attacks.

He is suspected of being behind many more prowler-style underwear thefts and assaults on women in the 1980s.

In Catching The Claremont Killer, Ms Kirkby said one night in 1988 she had just got out of the shower at her Huntingdale home when she was confronted by a disguised intruder in her bathroom.

“He had a woman’s nightie and what I think were undies over his head, but his eyes were exposed,” she said.

“At first, I thought it was a joke. Your mind doesn’t quite catch up for a second, but he pushed me against the wall.”

Convinced she was going to be raped, Ms Kirkby fought hard, despite her assailant’s

brutal hail of punches.

“I did fight. He got off me when I kneed him in the groin and then he ran through the back door, jumped the back fence and was gone.

“I rang the police; well, I went to the door with a knife, actually, because by that stage I thoughtif he comes back, I’m

going to kill him. And in hindsight, I wish I had. “But he didn’t come back, obviously, because he’s a coward. And then I called the police.”

Ms Kirkby told Sky reporter Steve Pennells she always thought her masked attacker was a “weird” Telstra employee who had recently fitted her new phone line.

“I remember saying to my Dad that the Telstra guy was weird and that he was asking me questions and I didn’t feel comfortable with him being in the house.”

Catching The Claremont Killer: The Untold Story airs on Sky News at 5pm and 8pm on Thursday.