THE HORROR AND EVIL THAT IS FARDON

IN hindsight there are several horrifying consistent storylines about the victims of Robert Fardon. Interviewing these women during the past decade as Fardon faced potential release from a supervised compound, it became very clear first about their vulnerability. They were either young and unable to defend a themselves, or suffering from disability where they did not realise an older stronger man would take advantage of them. Sharon Tomlinson was only 12, at Redcliffe in 1978, as she continued to fight after being almost choked and having a gun put to her head. Her 15-year-old sister had her head split after being clubbed with the rifle butt. She later moved to the Gold Coast, founded the support group Serendipity Falls Inc, and was a strong public supporter of the Newman Government’s push for tougher laws to keep repeat sexual offenders like Fardon behind bars. Ms Tomlinson is a survivor, strong enough even to front up at Fardon’s court hearings, close enough to be “within spitting distance”. “He knows who I am. It is frightening. Every part of me wants to jump out there and strangle him, as an adult. Then he there is that part of me that has damaged . . . the child in me. It’s a mixed bag of emotions,” she said. Fardon committed his last rape at Palm Beach in 2008. On release from the Wacol prison at the time, the Murwillumbah-born serial offender would travel south to the Coast each day. He visited a disabled woman he had known as a teenager. He later sodomised the woman who saw a doctor and made a complaint to police which led to his arrest. She still fears for her life. A safety plan was drawn up for her by staff at the Gold Coast Centre Against Sexual Violence. The fear of Fardon remains with them along with an unwavering certainty about his future behaviour. “I’m very frightened of what will happen to me. I’m having nightmares. I know he will reoffend,” the woman, who asked not be identified, said. Ms Tomlinson considers the beard and the longer hair of Yet the older man in the court. in she still sees that same evil Fardon’s eyes. She still believes he will reoffend. “The way he looks (except for the beard and hair) is the same as he did in 1978,’’ she said. “I can see a worse threat in him, to be honest. He has nothing to lose. I think he will murder ... he will kill.’’