Sally’s killer linked to Australia sex attacks
THE murderer of teenage model Sally Anne Bowman has been linked to a number of unsolved crimes in Australia.
Mark Dixie is serving life for killing the 18-year-old near her home in Croydon, south London, in 2005.
But the sex attacker is now believed to have struck several times during six years while living in Australia.
It has also emerged that Dixie was quizzed by police over a sexually motivated assault in Perth, Western Australia, in 1997.
A woman was walking home when a man jumped on her and pinned her to the ground. Her screams for help were heard by passers-by and the attacker fled.
Stabbed
Dixie, then 27, was arrested and held for questioning. But he was released with no charge due to a lack of evidence as the victim could not positively identify her assailant.
The killer has been linked other sex offences in Australia.
In June 1998, a Thai student was stabbed eight times and raped in Perth by a masked man.
A scientific breakthrough has linked Dixie to DNA found at the scene.
Seven months later, he is said to have stripped naked in front of a jogger in the city. Dixie, using the alias Shane Turner, was fined for to
“wilful exposure” and possession of cannabis.
A leading criminologist has now called for a new inquiry to discover the scale of Dixie’s alleged offending in the country.
Dr David Keatley said he believes it is likely Dixie committed other crimes in Australia.
He said: “The police should be setting up a task force to see if he is responsible for other unsolved or unknown crimes.
“Based on the pattern of evidence and cases that I have looked at, it is highly likely that Mark Dixie is responsible for more crimes, almost certainly crimes of a sexual nature.”
Born in Streatham, south London, Dixie travelled to Australia in 1993.
He spent time in Sydney before moving to Perth in 1996. Three years later, he was deported for overstaying his visa.
The former pub chef murdered Sally Anne in September 2005.
Police matched his DNA to the crime nine months later after he was arrested following a pub fight in Crawley in 2006.
Dixie was found guilty at Old Bailey and jailed for life.
It later emerged he had raped a woman in Spain in 2003. The discovery led to the release of a Dutchman who had spent 12 years in jail for the crime.
Dixie finally admitted killing Sally Anne in 2015. He also confessed to a rape in Croydon in 1987 when he was just 16. the