Paul Steven Haigh (born 5 September 1957) is an Australian convicted serial killer currently serving six sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the murder of six people in the late 1970s. He also murdered a fellow inmate in 1991, bringing his total number of victims to seven.
Background
Haigh was born on 5 September 1957 in Australia. Prior to his murders, he had been convicted of armed robbery and was paroled shortly before the killings began.
The Killings
In 1978, within weeks of being paroled for armed robbery, Haigh committed two murders during separate armed robberies. He robbed and fatally shot 58-year-old Tattslotto agency worker Evelyn Abraham (also reported as Evelyn Adams). He later robbed and killed 45-year-old pizza shop owner Bruno Cingolani.
In 1979, Haigh began killing people he believed knew too much about his crimes. He shot and killed his associate Wayne Keith Smith, aged 27. He then shot and killed Smith's former girlfriend, Sheryle Gardner, aged 31, as she sat in her car. Discovering that Gardner's 10-year-old son Danny Mitchell was also in the car, Haigh shot and killed the child to prevent him from identifying his mother's killer.
Haigh's most brutal attack was committed against his girlfriend, Lisa Brearley, aged 19. Haigh stabbed her 157 times after allowing another man to rape her at knifepoint. The staging of the crime was intended to make it appear as a sex-related killing rather than an execution.
In 1991, while incarcerated at Pentridge Prison, Haigh murdered sex offender Donald George Hatherley. Haigh claimed he had "assisted" Hatherley to commit suicide by placing a noose around his neck, kicking a cupboard out from under him, and pushing down on Hatherley's shoulders. A jury found Haigh guilty of Hatherley's murder.
Legal Proceedings and Appeals
Haigh was apprehended in 1979. He provided a detailed written confession in 1986, which was Australia's first filmed confession. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Haigh has claimed that he suffers from borderline personality disorder and argued that this should entitle him to a lighter sentence, but this claim has been described as unsubstantiated. On 19 April 2011, Haigh won the right to have his sentence reviewed to determine whether he should be entitled to parole. However, the appeal was rejected on 13 December 2012.
