BRADLEY Robert Edwards, the man accused of murdering Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon in the 1990s, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Mr Edwards (49) pleaded not guilty to nine charges in the Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court this morning, where he appeared via video link from Hakea Prison.
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He pleaded not guilty to three counts of wilful murder.
He also pleaded not guilty to charges relating to two earlier incidents, one in 1988 and the other in 1995.
These were two charges of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, two counts of deprivation of liberty, one of indecent assault and one of breaking and entering.
The disappearance of Sarah Spiers from the streets of Claremont early in 1996, followed by Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, caused long-running fear and suspicion across Perth in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Ms Spiers disappeared when she phoned a taxi at the Stirling Road-Stirling Highway intersection at 2am on January 27, 1996.
When the taxi arrived she was not there.
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Ms Rimmer went missing from Claremont after a night out on June 9, 1996. Her body was found in bushland in Wellard, south of Perth, two months later.
Ms Glennon disappeared on March 14, 1997. Her body was found in bushland in Eglinton, north of Perth, a month later.
On December 23 2016, Mr Edwards was charged with the murders of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon as well as two other attacks on young women – a 17-year-old in Claremont in 1995, and an 18-year-old in Huntingdale in 1988.
He was charged in February this year with the murder of Ms Spiers.
He will next face court on September 17.
A trial date has not been set, but was mooted for May next year.
The trial is expected to last several months.
At the last court date, in February this year, more time was requested by lawyers to collate 1.5 million pages of information and documentation into a searchable format.