Claremont serial killings: ‘Stories of interest’ kept on accused man’s devices

“STORIES of interest” were found on electronic devices in the house of the man accused of the Claremont serial killings, who faces a nine-month trial from mid-2019.

Bradley Robert Edwards, 50, has pleaded not guilty to eight charges against him including the murders of 23-year-old Jane Rimmer, 27-year-old Ciara Glennon and Sarah Spiers, 18, in 1996 and 1997.

Edwards is also accused of attacking an 18-year-old woman in her Huntingdale home in 1988 and raping a 17-year-old girl in Karrakatta in 1995.

The former Little Athletics coach appeared in the West Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday via video link from Hakea prison, where he has been held since his arrest in December 2016.

Justice Stephen Hall ruled Edwards would stand trial from July 22, rather than in May as previously flagged, to allow the legal teams more time to prepare.

Justice Hall will be sitting without a jury and not take a break until it is complete.

“Once started, it would continue until finished,” he said.

“We would just work through.”

Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said many electronic devices were seized from Edwards’ house and contained four or five “stories of interest” he had either authored or downloaded.

Defence counsel Paul Yovich said he needed to know the dates when the stories were said to have been created, downloaded or accessed with as much accuracy as possible.

He indicated he might object to the admissibility of the material.

Mr Yovich is also planning a severance application, which if successful, could see two charges heard separately.

Ms Barbagallo said lengthy records documenting “every aspect of his working existence” with Telstra, including personal leave and the vehicles Edwards used for his job, were being gathered.

His medical records are also being obtained, as are statements from 20 taxi drivers who worked during a certain date range.

Statements of manufacturers’ specifications are even being obtained from Holden as he drove a Commodore.

Reports are being prepared on fibre and hair analyses by expert witnesses, with tens of thousands of pages so far collated.

The bodies of Ms Rimmer, a childcare worker, and Ms Glennon, a lawyer, were discovered in bushland weeks after they were killed, but the body of Ms Spiers, a secretary, has never been found.

AAP