Peter Dupas

Peter Norris Dupas (born 6 July 1953) is an Australian convicted serial killer, currently serving three life sentences without parole for murder and primarily for being a serious habitual offender.

He has a very significant criminal history involving serious sexual and violent offences, with his violent criminal history spanning more than three decades, and with every release from prison has been known to commit further crimes against women with increasing levels of violence.

His criminal signature is to remove the breasts of his female victims.

On 3 October 1968, at the age of 15, Dupas visited his next-door neighbour, requesting to borrow a knife for the purpose of peeling vegetables.

Dupas was apprehended after he stabbed the woman in the face, neck, and hand as she attempted to fight off his attack.

He later told police he could not help himself and did not know why he began to attack the woman.

He was placed on 18 months' probation and admitted to the Larundel Psychiatric Hospital for evaluation; he was released after two weeks and treated as an outpatient.

In October 1969, a mortuary located at the Austin Hospital was broken into.

The bodies of two elderly women were mutilated using a pathologist's knife.

One body contained a strange wound inflicted with a knife to the area of the thigh.

Police believe Dupas was involved in the break-in as the wounds inflicted matched that of a later murder victim, Nicole Patterson.

Senior Detective Ian Armstrong, who interviewed Dupas on 30 November 1973, at the Nunawading Police Station, described Dupas as "weak and compliant" when confronted by authority.

He stood out.

To me the guy was just pure evil ... His attacks were all carefully planned and he showed no remorse.

We could see where he was going.

I remember thinking, 'This guy could go all the way'.

He is an unmitigated liar ... he is a very dangerous young person who will continue to offend where females are concerned and will possibly cause the death of one of his victims if he is not straightened out.

On 25 July 1974, Dupas was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment with a minimum period of five years for an attack on a woman in her own home.

Dupas broke into the victim's house and threatened her with a knife before tying her up with cord and raping her.

He threatened to harm her baby when she resisted his attack.

The sentencing judge described the offence as "one of the worst rapes that could be imagined".

After Dupas was sentenced, prison psychiatrist Dr. Allen Bartholomew noted Dupas was in constant denial of his criminal activity, remarking that: "I am reasonably certain that this youth has a serious psychosexual problem, that he is using the technique of denial as a coping device and that he is to be seen as potentially dangerous. The denial technique makes for huge difficulty in treatment."

In 1979, approximately two months after his release from prison, Dupas again molested women in four separate attacks over a ten-day period.

On 28 February 1980, Dupas received a five-year minimum prison sentence for three charges of assault with intent to rape, malicious wounding, assault with intent to rob, and indecent assault.

A 1980 report on Dupas stated that: "There is little that can be said in Dupas's favour. He remains an extremely disturbed, immature, and dangerous man. His release on parole was a mistake."

Dupas was again released from prison in February 1985.

Approximately one month later, he raped a 21-year-old woman on a beach at Blairgowrie, Victoria.

After alighting from his car, Dupas followed the woman and attacked her, holding her to the ground at knifepoint before raping her.

He later told police: "I'm sorry for what happened. Everyone was telling me I'm OK now. I never thought it was going to happen again. I only wanted to live a normal life."

On 28 June 1985, Dupas was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for the Blairgowrie rape and released in 1992 after serving seven years of his sentence.

Less than two years after his release from prison, Dupas was arrested on charges of false imprisonment over an incident at Lake Eppalock in January 1994.

Wearing a hood and armed with a knife, insulation tape, and handcuffs, Dupas followed a woman who was picnicking and held her at knifepoint in a toilet block but was chased off by her friends.

As he was leaving the scene, he crashed his car and was apprehended.

On 18 August 1994, after entering a guilty plea to one count of false imprisonment in the County Court in Bendigo, Dupas was sentenced to three years and nine months' imprisonment, with a minimum period of two years and nine months.

In September 1996, Dupas was again released from prison and moved into a house in the Melbourne suburb of Pascoe Vale.

As of 2007, Dupas has been convicted of three murders and is a prime suspect in at least three other murders committed in the vicinity of the Melbourne area during the 1980s and 1990s.

Peter Dupas was the youngest of three children, born into what has been described as "a fairly normal family."

Born in Sydney, New South Wales, his family moved to Melbourne, Victoria while he was still a toddler.

With both siblings considerably older, his elderly parents treated him much like an only child.

Dupas left high school upon completing Grade 10 and later obtained his Higher School Certificate.